Stuck trying to re-create the daring excitement, Handsome Boy Modeling School turn in an album that's half as interesting as their debut, and half as interesting as their guest list.

If it's a relatively minor effort, it still sounds like the work of a major artist, and there's lots of pleasure to be found in it.

Harmonium is confident and somber, a conscious attempt to be serious and mature that nevertheless still sounds adolescent, largely due to her earnest lyrics and overly ambitious music.

Driving music with an edge that you can get lost in.

Underscores that the band still has more vitality and ideas than most other artists associated with that [electroclash] trend ever did.

Unfortunately though, Return to V isn't a back-to-basics record, and there isn't a single landmark to pick out from its 18 tracks.

Emotive falls flat and fails to raise the bar set so high by the quality of their previous two releases.

Lifeblood is a pleasant listen, but once you peel away the keyboards, sensitively strummed guitars and tasteful harmonies and concentrate on Bradfield's nakedly open voice and Wire's terminally collegiate lyrics, it's hard to escape the unintentional pathos that winds up defining the album and, conceivably, the band's latter-day career.

If this is indeed his final offering as a songwriter, it is a fine, decent, and moving way to close this chapter of the book of his life.

This is an example of an innovator sounding only slightly better than his legions of lesser followers.

Pulses with a steady, sweaty energy that's punctuated with arena-sized hooks.

An aesthetic watermark for Cave, a true high point in a long career that is ever looking forward.

A work of intense drama but little importance.

A string of songs that, like Luna, hints at greatness but never seems to choose the fork in the road that might take them there.

While this release shows real growth, one questions if that's what Donnaholics are looking for.

While a little more depth in their songwriting would make them unstoppable, the Futureheads' first full-length is an undeniably exciting debut that just gets better with repeated listens.

The shift to a more dynamically rich sound suits Simple Plan just fine.

Based on pure sound, Von is just as much of a treat as the acclaimed follow-up.

Using only guitars and drums, the Pharmacists whip up a powerful mix of wild abandon and subtlety that is a perfect backing for Leo's vocal dexterity and clanging guitar heroics.

Futures will most likely not be the sensation that Bleed American was -- it is too dark and inwardly focused for that -- but it shows a progression of sound and emotion that fans of the band should embrace.

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

Nothing scrambles the brain like Tomorrow Right Now's "Hot Venom," and no track has lyrics that hit as hard as Now, Soon, Someday's "Win or Lose You Lose," but the album maintains a consistency that neither of those releases can claim.

Welcome to the North finds the Music's ambitious blend of post-grunge and space rock much hungrier and angrier than its predecessor.

While it's likely that From a Basement is cleaner than what Smith... intended, it is much sparer than Figure 8, and it feels at once more adventurous, confident, and warmer than its predecessor.

This sounds like a lost Coral album down to every last detail, which means that it seems silly to venture here unless you've at least bought one Coral album already.

Even with a handful of forgettable songs... the album is easily the best one credited to the Duran Duran name since 1993's Wedding Album.

The astute and eclectic programming makes for a better listen than other attempts that have been made to compile '80s alternative rock.

Crimes keeps a tight lid on the nervous energy that's always defined the group, channeling it into aggressive songs that often suggest the damaged, exciting grooves of vintage Brainiac.