If Showtime isn't the equal artistic success of Boy in da Corner, it's slightly superior, stunning for the facts that it arrives so swiftly after the debut and is far from a retread.

So Jealous is the most satisfying album Tegan and Sara have yet made.

Some of these songs are familiar, but these arrangements are distinctly Weller's own, and it makes for an effective listen -- maybe not a major effort from the Modfather, but an enjoyable one all the same.

Butler sings like Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood used to play, like a lion-tamer whose whip grows shorter with each and every lash. He can barely contain himself, and when he lets loose it's both melodic and primal, like Berlin-era Bowie or British Sea Power.

Even though Wet from Birth occasionally gets tripped up on its own ambitions, it still has its share of enjoyable tracks.

This is a worthy return, qualitatively standing head and shoulders above most everything else in its class.

What I Do feels like one of Jackson's most assured and best albums, proof positive that he's the best mainstream country singer of this decade.

Stealing of a Nation is a slick, calculated record that misses its target on all accounts.

Fast Future Present is a self-assured and often fascinating collection of songs that artfully blend the standard elements of post-rock with unexpectedly melodic pop.

This is the Welsh iconoclast at his most elegant, energetic, and innovative.

It's hard not to walk away with the feeling he's capable of better than this.

The most exciting and best rock & roll record of 2004.

One of his most consistent and accomplished albums, sounding better with each repeated play.

With Getting Away With Murder, Papa Roach offer fans of this sound an appropriately hard punch in the face. But there's a hollow sound as the bones collapse, because all that's supporting it is expensive art direction and a big scaffold of clichés.

LL offers up "you rap for the thugs/I rap for the ladies" on the album, but there's some tough, near-"Mama Said Knock You Out"'s here, and from any hardcore thug's point of view, he's getting better at splitting the difference.

The Libertines is an accurate, sometimes uncomfortable reflection of the band at this point: more scattered and unstable than they were on Up the Bracket, but also more ambitious and more interesting.

Listening to the record makes you feel like it was 1993 again, in a good way. In a melodic, honest and jangly kind of way. In a way that makes you think "nobody makes records like this anymore".

The most challenging work of Björk's career.

What makes it great is excellent producer and guest rapper choices, a tight track list with nearly perfect flow, and the fresh G-Unit meets crunk and Lil Jon sound that dominates the album.

Favourite Colours is lovely and adventurous stuff that proves the Sadies are only getting better with each trip into the studio.

The album flows like sweet maple syrup from beginning to end, Kilgour's intimate croon caressing you like kind words from an old friend.

The whole record is wrong. Predictable, slick, soulless, and worst of all, boring, it meets the expectations of everyone who thought the band was foolish for working with the Matrix.

This may not be Mouse on Mars' most ambitious albums, but it's among the group's most successful -- it's not at all difficult to feel a connection to this truly intelligent dance music.

Radian created a record that listeners have to let envelope them slowly -- and, if patient enough, Juxtaposition will reveal treasures from an aural dig that are a wonderful, satisfying surprise.

Even though Half Smiles of the Decomposed sounds great, the band plays with impressive skill, and it represents one of Pollard's most successful attempts to balance his low-fi musical impulses against the demands of proper record production, it lacks the ineffable fire and energy that has always set their best work apart.

A definitive work of sorts since he's at the top of his game as both a craftsman and conman.

The least necessary Mase album, but half the tracks point to a future that is brighter than ever.

If it was pared down to its best tracks, Winchester Cathedral would make a solid EP. As it stands, it's far from bad, but it's a little boring, which is worse than bad from a band that has sounded so unique in the past.