These largely acoustic songs, occasionally embellished with electronics and other effects, are geared for a quiet evening spent alone. Subtle, touching albums like this should be made more often, preferably by Selway and his associates here.

Maybe broken into a series of singles or a couple of EPs it would have been more palatable, but in this form it's just too samey and underwhelming to make much of an impression

While the experiment with a more edgy, rock-oriented sound worked well for the British duo, singer/songwriters Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian are obviously most at home with their comfortable brand of melodic folk-inflected pop, and that is the sound that makes up most of the tracks on Outbursts.

The album traces a journey through personal hell to salvation, which is not all that different from the story told in other religious music.

Among scads of other bands that specialized in hectoring vocals, droning basslines, battering drums, and scraping guitars, In Camera weren't all that distinctive, but they created quite a racket.

This stuff is pure musical and lyrical inspiration.

Ultimately, it's hard not to feel that this album is little more than a blatant attempt to ape the Postal Service's Give Up.

At a time when labelmates (and, in the minds of the UK music press, rivals) the Coral are seemingly at a bit of a musical crossroads, the Zutons have made the album that delivers on their early promise.

Moments of band interplay showcase their collective ear for the nervously romantic-sounding post-punk that's helped inspire the group's sound.

Whatever Bishop Allen's intention, there is a sort of miasma hovering over Lights Out that supports the "sad party album" claim, adhering these clever pop songs together but deflating some of their energy in the process. It's an odd effect making for a pleasurable yet confusing listen.

Nearly everything else here is loving, sincere, and worthy of hearing by fans of the Beach Boys or Broadway.

Both dreamy and earthy, complex and immediate, and challenging and soothing.... The Sleepy Strange is the band's most cohesive work to date, yet it keeps all of the spontaneous beauty of their previous releases.

A simple, straight-ahead match of excellent MC with great producers.

Orbital is either uninspired or saving up for something better next time.

Like a latter-day Digital Underground, Black Eyed Peas know how to get a party track moving.

Like all the other installments in the series, this one makes a nice addition to a hardcore supporter’s collection.

Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen has flashes of brilliance and moments where they're still figuring out what to do, but overall, it shows them growing into something new as gracefully as they can.

Like good goth, this is painful and exclusive, full of moody anthems and baritone melodies that won't cut through the static until the fifth listen or so.

The Metallica Blacklist is fantastic for cherry-picking tracks from your favorite artists or listening in on the more outlandish interpretations of metal classics, but taken as a whole, it's daunting to the point of making even the highlights difficult to appreciate.

An album that's going to have the purists sighing with relief and have new converts checking out their back catalog for more.

Spinnerette also feels a bit overcooked at times, possibly because of the long time it took to make. At its best, however, Spinnerette shows what Dalle can do outside of the Distillers' context, and suggests that maturity and life after punk rock can actually be fun.

The slow moves of the partnered voices on the extended verse, rising up toward the cool intoning of the title on the final chorus as the melody lines get even more insistent and grand, and similar moments on the instrumental "Geodes," show that EAR PWR have a way with the epic that doesn't feel overbearing--not a bad spot to be in at all.

More often than not, Loyalty to Loyalty takes a disappointing stumble on it.

Ultimately, while Salute retains all of Little Mix's infectious, teen-friendly ingredients, it reveals a new recipe for fans whose palates have matured right along with the band.

The end result is a half-hour of good, giddy fun that leaves you with a slightly strange taste in your mouth, and that's probably just right.

The themes are vague enough that they could be applied to any number of relationships or situations, and far more captivating are the arrangements and dynamic shifts in orchestrations that make up the cyclical nature of the album.

A joyless experience.

The band sounds the most engaged on the early hardcore numbers like "Suicidal Maniac" (Suicidal Tendencies), "Thirsty and Miserable" (Black Flag), and "It's the Limit" (Cro-Mags), while nods to the metal gods such as "Ghosts of War" (Slayer) and "Escape" (Metallica) are blistering and volatile enough to warrant inclusion, but feel a little rote.