Most of the dozen songs on Midnight Boom are driven more by looped beats. As a result, the melodies on such tracks as "Getting Down," "Cheap and Cheerful" and the hand-clapping "Sour Cherry" are framed with spare urgency, while "U.R.A. Fever" and "Alphabet Pony" boast an urban, nearly hip-hop ambience.

The My Morning Jacket frontman cackles, croons, wails, wallops and stomps through the band's fifth and latest great album.

The Irish quartet holds up its end with an album of melodically memorable and inventively arranged songs, most clocking in at more than five minutes and massaging listeners with a wash of keyboard and guitar textures.

"Ecstasy" finds 58-year-old rock poet Lou Reed characteristically fixing his gaze on messier thoughts and murkier emotions -- and doing so more artfully than at any time since his 1989 masterpiece, "New York."

This mash-up, Beatles style, is cool stuff indeed, but is even more dazzling live onstage. [25 Nov 2006]

Brighter Than Creation's Dark is one of the meanest, leanest 19-track albums you'll ever spin.

"Sounds" sounds great, alternating between driving, percussive romps like "Love Caught Up To Me," "Free To Go," and "Dreams Of Clay" and moments of sheer country perfection in "Time Spent Missing You," "A Promise You Can't Keep," and the wonderfully hangdog Hank Williams knockoff "The Heartaches Are Free."

Like British counterpart St. Etienne, Ivy deftly merges melancholic tales of the heart with happy-go-lucky beats.

"Sam's Town" is a sophisticated sonic metropolis.

On her confident fifth album, the multiplatinum hitmaker attacks her recent divorce in all styles.

This Texas rock combo returns to form on The Century of Self, with producer Chris Coady stepping in for longtime collaborator Mike McCarthy.

May not be as postcard-perfect as I Am Shelby Lynne, but it comes pretty close.

Right off the bat, you realize this is serious music for serious listeners.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is so gorgeously confident that it fulfills expectations and more.

Her hushed, velvet-smooth vocals evoke a noir yearning and forlornness, her slow-burn delivery enraptures with a torch sentimentality, and her support team shines.

The band's most challenging--and rewarding--album.

Nearly everything here is top 40 or AC radio-ready.

For his second solo studio record, the Quannum Projects godfather veers left from his sample-centric background and into something that should be highly pleasing to anyone who enjoyed hip-hop in 1988.

Throughout, Cookie crackles with intensity, be it of the sexual, political, or religious kind.

We may be more entertained at times by Rock's extramusical affairs, but the "Devil" should still be given his due as a clever and creative musical force.

The album is filled with big guitar noise and mildly incongruous but not unpleasant mixtures of modern riffs ("Rocket"), new wave basslines ("Victory at Monterey") and retro hooks and melodies ("Miss Myrtle").

The sexy, solid set is glued together by danceable beats and Minogue's knack for picking great songs and producers.

The band is now more of a collaborative project than a Jon Auer-and-Ken Stringfellow-with-hired-guns proposition, and it shows in the eloquence of the songs here.

Jason Mraz emerges even bolder than before on an album loaded with strings, horns, formidable grooves and a dozen songs dripping with mantra-like positivity.

Knowle West Boy shows that regardless of era, Tricky does his thing and does it well.

And while it is a bit less corrugated than some of its early work, it packs a bite that's far more venomous than any of the sound-alikes that continue to nip at Plaid's heels.

Lions is indeed a truer expression of the Crowes' potential: adventurous songwriting ensconced in a blues- and funk-inspired swagger.

The only problem with this crackling sampler is that it clocks in at just 34 minutes.