With their big choruses and building grandeur, songs like "The Hunted" and "I Can't Fly" feel not only larger, but much more refined than the songs on the group's last album.

Strange Heaven shows that Mrs. Magician have a lot of potential, especially if they keep the biting wordplay and broaden their sonic horizons.

Everybody's Talkin' is what every live album should be: an accurate, exciting reflection of a band at its peak, playing full-throttle and providing plenty of surprises.

Tape hiss has rarely sounded so enjoyable.

Wedded to this warmth is a crisp clean sheen, a sound so bright that it threatens to get goofy when Chesney and crew rock out.

Lucifer, their third and most in-focus full-length yet.

On The National Health, Smith and the rest of the band seem revitalized by the time off, delivering some of their catchiest and widest-ranging songs since their debut, A Certain Trigger.

It is a serious contender for any representative year-end list.

POP ETC's vie for commercial radio appeal ends up feeling like watching your little brother come home from his first year of college trying on an overexcited new style, complete with awkward slang and ill-fitting fashions.

Believe has enough strong material to keep most of the followers satisfied for another year, while elders should feel relieved that nothing is as sickly sweet as "Baby."

These lost recordings represent an amazing mother lode to any Can enthusiast and certainly should hold more than enough interesting moments for even a curious new listener.

Conceptual conceits aside, these are some of the most memorable and rousing songs Corgan has delivered since 1993's Siamese Dream.

Clockwork Angels demonstrates why, after 36 years, Rush's fan base continues to grow. Its musical athleticism and calisthenic discipline are equaled only by its relentless creative drive and its will to express it in a distinct musical language.

Stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments, Fiona Apple remains as rich and compelling as she ever was, perhaps even more so.

Struck by Lightning aren't just going through the motions -- as evidenced by the noticeable injection of clever ideas throughout.

The combination of crypto-goth moodiness--nods to Bauhaus but especially to Will Sergeant's work with Echo & the Bunnymen are omnipresent--and an older kind of drama, reaching back to Phil Spector's productions and Roy Orbison's mini-operas, recombines throughout on a remarkable series of songs.

It's the complementary nature of the bands' sentiments more than their sounds that makes Aureola successful.

This is a keeper if you've already bought into the guitarist's more-is-more approach that has served him well thus far, and he shows no signs of abandoning it now.

Rinse Presents is the sound of somebody who is already at the top of their game.

Turner possesses some mighty charm but it's not enough to turn that one into something listenable and he stumbles into a couple other potholes here too, all created by the desire to turn him into a big cutesy teddy bear.

While Potter's melodies and hooks are solid on The Lion the Beast the Beat, some of her lyric choices are still a bit clunky. However, she and the Nocturnals compensate with passion, execution, and smart production choices and arrangements.

On Falling Off the Sky, the four individuals make strong, intelligent, and well-crafted pop music that's significantly less wiry and more thoughtful and mature (for lack of a better word) than the records they made in the 1980s.

Once fans shift into the proper gear, [Go] really shows that these guys are capable of something more expansive than anything they've done before.

With softer edges, a fuller sound, and some clever detours that don't take them too far away from the Jaill sound, it's a good showing that proves they are too consistent to fall into a sophomore slump.

This is an absorbing and engaging album that shows Howe Gelb's vision to its best advantage.

The album's spottiness becomes just another part of the Guided by Voices experience, and in a strange way it eventually works as a positive attribute.

Metheny and [sax player, Chris] Potter are free to sprint and they do; both dazzle with their lyric invention and knotty, imaginative, nearly boppish solos. The two front-line players are surely at their best in one another's company.

While some of Red Night's songs might still be a little too insular for their own good, the album still finds the Hundred in the Hands coming into their own and expanding their identity at the same time.