The usual, more or less. Musically, it’s her typical mix of pop-classicist balladry and hip-hop-tinged summer jamming, and if Carey doesn't exactly go strutting into new territory, it’s because she knows most people like her right where she is.

In many ways, Coldplay's sharp left turn is also its most listenable album in years, an evocative concoction of sullen phrases, sparse arrangements and powerful themes.

Jackson's music mixed celebration and terror, as if he was unable to find, or maintain, the division between the two. His music offered a place to both explore and escape those tensions. On this album, it does again.

The Black Keys' eighth long player isn't loaded with obvious hits, and that's more than okay--because this is a brave, varied and engaging collection of songs.

I Never Learn is a brave album--it could very well alienate more fans than it brings in. But Li's songwriting is exquisite in its vulnerability; she has never sounded more sure of her aesthetic than she does in her most miserable moment. Like Beyonce's self-titled LP last year, this is a "grown-woman" album, but one focused on the sobering end of youth rather than the blissful beginnings of adulthood.

There are no immediate anthems like whokill's "Bizness" or "Gangsta." But these 13 tracks hum and bounce with contagious enthusiasm, posing a challenge worth rising to.

Some of the experiments on Corazón don't work.... Still, it's fascinating to follow Santana through his Latin journey.

Sheezus is Allen's most uneven record yet, but it's also her most mature.

Food is just as tangy as the concoctions Kelis whips up every week on the Cooking Channel, in spite of the stylistic departure from her R&B albums like "Kaleidoscope" and "Tasty" as well as 2010's dance-focused "Flesh Tone."

Get ready for a set of convincing, honest music, on which the Colombian star often unabashedly professes her love for boyfriend Gerard Pique.

With Supermodel, his goal is not to make you like him, but rather to give you a sense of what it's like to be him. He pulls it off, and he throws in plenty of hooks along the way.

As strong as this album is, it’s hard to pick out a standout track.

Lyrically, Louder is rather one-sided, as she often sings about the perils of relationships, over and over, in ways that we've all heard many times at this point. Still, it's a solid effort that shows she has promise as a bona fide pop artist.

The album is loaded with luscious orchestration, motivational mantras and playful sex metaphors. Its taught 10 tracks bring to mind the record Justin Timberlake could have made last year, if he had dared to leave anything on the cutting room floor.

While Lamar dazzles with precise storytelling, Q conjures attention with brusque physicality. Both MCs are aiming for different marks, and although Q's style is too unkempt to produce an album full of clean shots, his misses on Oxymoron are often just as compelling.

[Morello's] contributions feel inventive, versatile and natural, like an extension of the direction Springsteen was already moving in.... Aniello's production work definitely enhances and does not distract from or obscure the tracks.

Once the initial novelty and shock wears off of Beyoncé's impressive stealth-release feat, the brilliance and creative audacity of the album itself can sink in.

Britney Jean, her first album released in her thirties, is a subtle shift away from frantic bangers and into more forthright songwriting.

Midnight Memories, the third full-length from the "X Factor"-formed quintet, follows up on what worked best on last year's "Take Me Home," and tosses in some proficient new ideas to keep listeners eager for the band's continued evolution.

Coherently channeling R&B, techno, disco and rock music as a pop artist while discussing sex, drugs, lust, God, fame and creativity, Lady Gaga has offered fans her most sonically and lyrically diverse album to date.

For the most part, Lavigne's fifth full-length encapsulates everything worth loving about the 29-year-old's long-running artistry.

Clocking in at an hour and twenty-five minutes, Reflektor drags in parts, though it contains plenty of moments (most often in its uptempo, dynamic first half) that sound ready to breathe life into the middling state of commercial rock in 2013.

With a string of hit singles under her belt, Perry has aspired to create a multi-faceted full-length and has consummately succeeded.

How did they do? Very well, to be honest.

Sometimes, the 20-year-old's vision needs to be adjusted, as on the manic French Montana collaboration "FU" and on "Someone Else," which feels like the album's hundredth dramatic breakup song and plays for nearly five minutes. But more often than not, Cyrus' daring attitude guides her to invention.

September has been a profoundly great month for new female vocalists in popular music, but Lorde is easily the most vocally striking and lyrically thought-provoking. Pure Heroine is honest and addictive.

He makes up for the lack of addictive anthems and playfulness with his impressionable stream of sentiments--our kryptonite, his superpower.

This Is... Icona Pop, like Carly Rae Jepsen's "Kiss," may someday be viewed as a full-length that included one pop masterpiece, but that underscores the delectability of the treats Icona Pop has sprinkled around that triumph.

She may be changing direction, but that swagger is still intact.

It allows listeners to refamilairize themselves with the Weeknd's aesthetic, which was striking and singular to begin with.

Ariana Grande's debut LP is a surprisingly varied affair for a 20-year-old Nickelodeon star with a devastatingly strong voice.

What follows is Doris, a slow (rarely rising above 70 bpm), introspective album where Earl Sweatshirt combats pressures when returning to a life of stardom after time spent at a Samoa-based boarding school for troubled youths. 


Singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White brought in more instruments, added deeper textures and, in general, upped the intensity of the songwriting for their second effort.

The album finds the 36-year old singer trying to take advantage of his newfound spotlight by striving to become the full-fledged pop star he's never quite been.

What's left, then, is a collection of 11 shinily produced pop songs that find Gomez trying on a series of different personalities with her slight-yet-capable vocals.

Bareilles' new album was the result of unrest, but as its title suggests, she has positively embraced her dissatisfaction and subsequently grown as an artist.

The journey of its latest change has been bumpy, but by blending its storied past with the musical present, Queensrÿche's members prove the band as a whole is indeed greater than any one person.

Those looking for vintage soul sounds or even full-on raps from start to finish will be thrown several curves here. It’s an album with numerous emotional layers as well.

The brothers have tapped into the amorphous joy at the heart of dance music, and have peppered Settle's masterfully executed tracks with that feeling.

It's arguably the most potent lineup since Josh Homme put QOTSA together in 1996, and it's embellished on the band's sixth studio album by guests.

Some of the music occasionally leans toward being overwrought, but mostly Love Lust Faith + Dreams--along with its Leto-directed visuals--invests itself fully and artfully in its own vision.

Just like with the Troubadour release, the songs here touch a few nerves and hit a few more emotional spots than just merely the ups and downs of a male-female relationship.

The National had reached a level of comfort very few indie rock acts achieve. That feeling of comfort permeates every part of their new album, Trouble Will Find Me.

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have made an analog album that's less of a "throwback" and more of a salute to the idols that would now do anything to hop on the duo's full-length.

The singer has a strong grip on her skills as a performer, but is still chiseling away at the formula that works best for her as an artist, and is unwittingly putting that self-discovery on display here.

Vampire Weekend's most cohesive and musically accomplished album to date.

Golden contains several songs that sound custom-made for rolling the window down and turning the volume up.... However, any Lady A disc has to contain at least a couple of heartbreaking ballads, and they don't disappoint here.

Reincarnated stands as an enjoyable pop record laced with an assortment of roots and dancehall reggae references.

It’s a more consistent album than his debut--for better and for worse.

["Entertainment,"] like almost all of the LP, there's heavy pop appeal for those with an ear for glistening production.

Save Rock and Roll contains some head-scratching collaborations, including link-ups with Big Sean and Courtney Love, but even those that fall relatively flat are still positive indicators that Fall Out Boy are back to having fun, stretching their legs and taking risks.

In the rural wasteland of southwestern Texas, producers Dave Sitek (of TV On The Radio fame) and Nick Launay brought life to an album that's challenging and conceptual, yet also playful and raunchy.

Don't let ["Accidental Racist"] dissuade you. Paisley still knows how to have a good time and standout singles "Southern Comfort Zone" and "Beat This Summer" continue to showcase this.

The album, which is loaded with plenty of dramatic lyrics and arrangements, closes with a truly luscious ballad which leaves the listener wanting more.

The new album finds vocalist Dave Gahan and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Martin Gore refining some familiar sounds and trying out some new wrinkles.

If fans felt like they got to know the real Blake on the hit NBC show, they'll get another close look with this batch of songs.

There are an awful lot of ideas swimming through Comedown's 11 tracks--some familiar, others (like Casablancas' new fascination with falsetto) not so familiar.

One of the year's most anticipated pop releases is also one of the genre's weirdest--and most fully realized--efforts in ages.

Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, who helped shaped his sound in the 1970s as well as produce seven T. Rex records, have struck gold in creating a work that is modern and well-connected to the artist's fabled sonic-past.

It's an album that seemingly could have come out in 1996 just as easily as today. Even the song titles feel familiar: "Only Tomorrow," "Is This and Yes," "Nothing Is." Having said that, it's lovely.

Even those who felt lukewarm to Tegan and Sara's past few efforts should fully embrace their dazzling pop rebirth on Heartthrob, one of the best LPs of this young year.

Long.Live.A$AP may not change the game like "good kid, m.A.A.d city," but A$AP Rocky's absorbing debut is more physical in its pleasure--as in, you'll be knocking your head to some of these songs for months.

Lil Wayne is back with the equally confounding Dedication 4, a messy rehashing of this year's respective rap bangers.

His highly anticipated sophomore album succeeds in mixing its safer stylistic choices with its relatively bold ideas.

Warrior is a pure pop album with rock influences, despite Ke$ha's attempts to make it the inverse.

Her fifth and arguably most consistent album to date.

Rebel Soul brings [that devil (without a cause, of course)-may-care 'tude] back into the mix without sacrificing the lessons Rock learned from working with Rubin and his cadre of top-shelf session hands--only this time he applied them to the live, lived-in feel of his Twisted Brown Trucker band.

Unapologetic is Rihanna's most confident, emotionally resonant work since 2009's "Rated R.

Phillips sounds natural enough within that [Dave Matthews Band] style, more acolyte than imitator, which makes the album one of the more engaging champion debuts in the show's inconsistent history.

18 Months has a certain set of goals in its sights, and Harris (alongside an all-star roster of vocalists and co-producers) resoundingly achieves these goals.

Crystal Castles aren't as cold as they appear to be, but they are calculating--(III) is an expertly produced album that, at just nearly 40 minutes, leaves fans wanting more.

Lotus largely benefits from all the bombast--Aguilera hasn't sounded so fun and energized in years.

Even with so many producers lending a hand, there isn't a dud to be found on the record's thirteen tracks.

Moore spends much of his debut album, Up All Night, outlining the pleasures to be had from hot women and cold beverages.

Red is her most interesting full-length to date, but it probably won't be when all is said and done in her career.

Muse fans will have a hard time being disappointed by "The 2nd Law," and rookies have a new perfect place to jump in.

Until its sequels are released, Green Day's latest should be regarded as a disposable but thoroughly enjoyable return to the band's long-deserted roots. The Cali punks are back, and it's nice to see them.

Fiasco turns Food & Liquor II into one long tirade -- everything sucks and no one's going to fix it.

"Babel" reveals a band happy to remain entirely Mumford - although a larger, smoother Mumford, offering fresh nuances and textures while emboldened by the promise of the initial mission.

Push and Shove is a celebration of No Doubt's love for all things 80s pop and the Southern California ska scene.

The result is an album that comes on a bit strong, but has the pop pedigree to avoid any major missteps.

The Truth About Love is a peerlessly witty, endlessly melodic tour de force.

Its new studio album, Tornado, seems designed to demonstrate that stardom hasn't separated the band from the backwoods roots it famously celebrated in the song "Boondocks."

Restrained, moody and subtle. It has its big footprint moments, of course, and there's an audible ambition that gives the album a crackling if slow-burning energy.

This album is one that begs to be lived with for a long period of time, its quiet details given ample room to germinate.

"Sun" isn't as cuddly as "The Greatest," but it finds Marshall continuing to evolve as an artist in intriguing and unexpected ways.

The problem is that the hints of personality underneath the braggadocio overflowing on "Based on a T.R.U. Story" exist as faint flickers, pointing to a storytelling skill that has yet to be given the spotlight.

An album that required a painstaking process to complete but sounds infinitely effortless in its pop arrangements and flicked-off soul ruminations.

No matter what Ocean's mood is on the album, the songs sound fantastic.... it's one of the best albums of the year.

Living Things" is simply a minor effort in an impressive discography, and one that should translate well to Linkin Park's live show.

The result is an album that was absolutely worth the seven-year wait, not to mention the mountain of hype atop which Apple has sat since her big comeback at SXSW in March.

Overall, Believe sinks its tendrils into the listener's brain by riding the dance music phenomenon and offering some whizz-bang production alongside Bieber's sticky-sweet singing voice.

At its best, a truly next-level soul album. One that has the warm, organic feel of R&B and deep pop hooks, but also the pulsating low-end and shimmering keyboard flourishes of EDM.

The extent of K.R.I.T.'s achievement on his proper debut can be lost in the consistency of his output, but it is a stirring triumph nonetheless.

It's one of Mayer's most diverse and exploratory albums yet, trying on a variety of different styles to accompany a set of particularly reflective and soul-searching tunes.

Trespassing continues the work of the underrated "For Your Entertainment" and allows the singer to keep unveiling his character in broad, colorful strokes.

In an already impressive, multi-platinum career, Blown Away is a landmark achievement.

"Born Villain" finds a seemingly refreshed and clear-minded Manson and his band poring through a diverse set of moods and styles in songs that cut a little deeper than the deliberate provocation of many of his previous works.