Underwater Cinematographer isn't your quintessential debut album. It's too complex, too inquisitive, and too ambitious.

What they really are is a 21st century version of a good old Southern rock band who know all too well that the hills of North Mississippi are alive with real folk music.

A strong, engaging, cohesive Rolling Stones album that finds everybody in prime form.

Ultimately, Cripple Crow is a roughly stitched tapestry; it is rich, varied, wild, irreverent, simple, and utterly joyous to listen to.

Where You Live is yet another elegant and easy album from Chapman, just the kind her fan base has come to expect.

Fans of both bands will want to get In the Reins because it rates favorably with their best work.

The quiet nature of Chaos and Creation may mean that some listeners will pass it over quickly, since it's a grower, but spend some time with the record and becomes clear that McCartney is far from spent as either a songwriter or record-maker.

Gone are the big washes of sound that Don Was added to her Grammy-winning recordings, and the sound Raitt has chosen for herself is a bit edgier, far more adventurous than Silver Lining.

Takk... is still very much a Sigur Rós album, due in large part to the ever-present, otherworldly vocals, but also because the only real changes are the activeness of some arrangments.

Call it an age thing, but Siberia makes total sense for where Echo and the Bunnymen stands 20 years on as a band.

Similar to 2001's dazzlingly slick Funk Odyssey, Dynamite reveals Kay as a dance floor eclectic, inclined to grab as much from Chic and Parliament as Kajagoogoo, The Police and Terry Callier.

Jacksonville City Nights still ranks as one of Adams' stronger albums, not just because he's returning to his rootsy roots -- after all, this isn't alt-country, this is pure country -- but because it maintains a consistent mood, is tightly edited and well sequenced, and thanks to the Cardinals, has the easy assurance of Cold Roses

If Certified has one problem, it's the overabundance of features that eats up too much time.

While the first half of the album may sound like a watered-down Blazing Arrow, everything picks up when the duo unveil two of the grooviest message tracks since Stevie Wonder's "Livin' for the City" in "The Fall and Rise of Elliot Brown" and "Black Diamonds and Pearls."

The album seems to be one of her most consistent records and one of her best.

Leaders of the Free World is a bit more rock & roll than not, with guts and heart, because Elbow have finally embraced their powerful, surrounding space this time out.

It's a collection of simple but warped electronic pop music, where Kid606 spins a tight hook into five or six minutes of chugging or swinging bliss. No more, no less.

They'll change your life.

On Collisions, the band wipes the sleep out of its eyes and produces a set of songs that is more inspired and vital, even if it's equally embittered and dejected.

There's nothing new or surprising here, but it's a completely satisfying listen thanks to the strong material, sustained mood, and Strait's unhurried, confident performance.

While Wilson's always refreshingly brash as a vocalist, the arrangements are only satisfactory.

Witching Hour is the album that Ladytron always seemed capable of, and its dark, dreamy-yet-catchy spell makes it the band's most sophisticated, and best, work to date.

Despite a few sleepy moments on the album's second half, Strange Geometry has more flair and movement than Violet Hour, and perfects the band's ability to be uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time.

Even though the manic intensity that characterized work like Reveille is missed a little here, The Runners Four is still a far cry from typical indie rock; in fact, it sounds more like one of Deerhoof's older albums played at half-speed than anything else.

This is the Dirty Three as you have never heard them before.

The group sounds freer than ever before, almost as though they've never bothered with rock in their lives, and have only happened upon a bare few LPs before beginning their recording career.

With this outing, Harvey establishes himself not only as a fine composer, but as a songwriter.

One of his more satisfying solo albums.