Hungry Bird is a charming and welcome return to form for Barzelay.

"Sound Loaded" shows Martin walking the tightrope between requisite familiarity and fresh musical ground with remarkable ease.

Fatboy Slim (aka electronica pioneer Norman Cook) succeeds at the daunting task of assembling material that smartly courts pop listeners, while simultaneously maintaining loyalty to the club underground that's nurtured his career.

Oblivion simmers without boiling, and the tension is intoxicating.

It all goes down smooth until Gordon introduces funk ("Radar Blip," "Jaded") and calypso ("Morphing Again") to the mix, with the results sounding stiff or dated. But make no mistake: He's got plenty to be proud of here.

While Light of X seldom soars, it certainly cruises at a pleasant altitude.

[Stone] continues to reinvent soul music, injecting a very classic sound with contemporary sass and verve.

Carey's made a pop album with equal parts levity and gravity.

Ulrich Schnauss returns with more lush, ambient music fitting for any chill-out session or long summer drive with the windows down.

The singer does double duty as a dance diva and brokenhearted balladeer. It's no easy feat, but when Spears shoves aside the tabloid trauma and hooks up with the right producers--on this album it's Guy Sigsworth, Danja, Dr. Luke and Max Martin--she is in a class of her own.

In its entirety the album is a great debut, toe-tapping and catchy with just the right blend of familiarity and individuality, and it should send a message to new bands: Simplicity is key.

Funplex works best when the voices blend into the ass-moving momentum.

For the most part, the producers simply add audio garnishing to Korn's signature sound via loops and Pro Tools trickery. [10 Dec 2005]

A winning result.

The 10 songs are all strong, and placed in an order that creates an emotional arc, like a real--what's that word again?--album.

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 new set goes just far enough beyond the call of duty to warrant repeat listens.

Has less twang but more bang than any of his previous work. [4 Mar 2006]

What's left is a tightly wound core of guitar, bass, drums, and vocal harmonies that naïvely captures the spirit and spunk of early rock icons the Kinks and the Beach Boys.

Continues to straddle the line between street credibility and mainstream success.

Sleeping With Ghosts is glorious; an unrepentant emotional exorcism that cohesively hurdles between the bleak and wounded, the exuberant and defiant.

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

Thematically starved, Seeing Sounds is nonetheless a sonic feast.

A gigantic step backward.

[Franti's] ambitions pay off on this strapping, if sprawling, collection.

There's nothing all that innovative here, but Preparations is warm and familiar enough to keep the brain buzzing.

Perfect Symmetry bursts out of the gate with a suite of giddy, '80s-inflected Brit pop songs that, surprisingly, suit the band well.

Cuomo turns the mic over to the other three members of Weezer for a song each (the best: "Automatic," sung by drummer Pat Wilson), unironically salutes the influence of Nirvana ("Heart Songs") and marries fake crowd noise and piano to the thick power chords of "Greatest Man." Rock on.