While few have ever actually accused the singer of using good judgment, Chinese Democracy shows him to be a man who, however divorced from reality, hasn't lost the instincts that once made him great.

This is agitprop the old-fashioned way.

While not all of the songs are so wide-eyed 'Time' is about resigning oneself to a life of domestic boredom--the Strips tend to keep things bouncy and light.

A long swim from the mainstream mainland, Islands has made an album that's slow to unravel and difficult to grasp. It's best enjoyed as it was most likely written: in small pieces.

An album as engrossing as it is sometimes unsettling.

McKay's voice is the real treat as she trips gaily from airy on "Pink Chandelier" to the vocal equivalent of a furrowed brow on "There You Are in Me."

Evolver delivers what it promises: A singer, songwriter and musician pushing himself to grow. This is a good first step.

Like his hero, Bruce Springsteen, he's willing to lay his feelings bare and, in a heartfelt, plainspoken sort of way, invite lovers to ride beside him on life's bumpy path.

Not all the songs work as well... But Adams dials in the sound of vintage Willie on a new version of "Sad Songs and Waltzes," and suddenly the pairing seems positively inspired.

Proof of Youth can be awfully fun and should go over like gangbusters live, but listeners seeking depth or clarity in this hyperactive pastiche will come away disappointed

Although the group's signature speed raps suffer without Bizzy's haunting high harmony, the Thugs' collective ear for a hook remains undiminished.

Starr's songs have an old-friend quality, and their familiarity overshadows their hokier moments.

Though these songs, like 'Feeling Better,' are the album's goofiest, they present the band at its most sincere, celebrating the vitality, if not the emotional immaturity, that precedes one's 20th birthday.

Had the album been inspired by any other play, that ambiguity would be a problem. Given the vagueness of the source material, however, Burnett's interpretation makes perfect sense.

While the overall arc is inspirational, the album takes an unflinchingly dark view of the civil rights struggle.

Planet Earth has its moments--he is Prince, after all--but instead of muscling their way forward, most of these songs seem content to stay where they are: firmly in the middle of the pack.

The songs are pleasant enough, but they ultimately feel a bit over-thought, and Bragg often makes his best points with nothing more than his voice and an acoustic guitar.

The English duo's cheeky moniker implies some kind of inferiority complex, and while Owen is certainly not immune to wallowing, he spends the group's sophomore album examining loneliness and isolation through a number of different lenses.

Doherty's second album with Babyshambles, is a fine effort and marked improvement on his first post-Libertines sally, but its explosiveness is held in check by an unfortunate air of self-awareness.

Oxford Collapse reportedly wrote 30 songs for this record, keeping most of them short and not finishing the lyrics on many until right before they were put to tape. That would explain the more straightforward feel of BITS, and why the band can't quite match the heady, smart-acre highs of "Remember the Night Parties."

The current Who takes what seemed, conceptually speaking, like a really bad idea - that is, recording without Entwistle - and turns it into a triumphant re-emergence after nearly a quarter-century of creative inactivity.

It's a little less immediate than the first album, but also takes Ne-Yo's case where it belongs: to the dance floor.

These new tunes are lovely, thoughtful and gentle, though they don't quite match his best songs.

Carpenter... us[es] image-rich, airy tunes to sweetly embrace positive persistence in the face of adversity.

The star power behind this album--a joint executive co-production between Jay-Z and 50 Cent and featuring Scarface, Rick Ross and Lil' Wayne--leads to the predictable can't-please-everyone mishmash, an appreciable step down from the sampled elegance of the Just Blaze-dominated "Philadelphia Freeway."

Besides his singular style on the mike, it's Busdriver's willingness to challenge orthodoxy that's most refreshing.

Enjoying the Moondoggies, though, hinges on being able to accept a couple of Seattleites in their early 20s digging so earnestly into the '70s.

Off-kilter humor is a trademark of Samberg's, though, and while most of the songs here won't have much staying power, they're funny enough right now.