These songs have deep bones, and though they don't always have an in-your-face immediacy, they're worth revisiting.

Although Common has always been an earnest rapper, his drive to induce meaning on many of these tunes sometimes comes at the expense of catchiness. They're like cauliflower: nutritious, but without much flavor.

The natural energy of his performances keeps his songs appealing, but his catchy anthems sometimes sink into formula that does not take full advantage of his musical prowess.

It's by no means a cheery album, but Narrow Stairs shows Death Cab for Cutie has overcome its major-label jitters and resumed making vital music.

Womack's natural balance of tasteful and evocative shapes each tune it touches, carefully stretching the likes of 'Solitary Thinkin'' to make it sweet-sounding and substantial.

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."

A collection that finds the 49-year-old singer laudably unchanged on tunes that are comfortably quaint and rich with homespun charm.

Built with introductions and interludes as if it were a live performance, the 25-song set is an exercise in community that employs friends and family wisely, enlisting a choir to fill out the jaunty 'Wonderful Friends' and making Seeger's quavering yet impressively vital voice the centerpiece of his again-relevant Vietnam-era protest, 'Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.'

With its poignant beauty and powerful songwriting, Adams' latest is, well, the latest in a string of ever-better sad-bastard records.

It's a glorious tangle of excess.

You could say the closing, piano-and-strings showcase 'Heaven and Alchemy' borrows from some of them. But as a whole. Mantaray proves it's much more the other way 'round.

Though understated compared to their predecessors, these songs are smart and catchy.

No Line on the Horizon is a considered and nuanced work with significant depth beneath the dense, sometimes thorny exterior. Getting there, though, requires some work.

Never has grocery shopping seemed more promising, and if there weren't plenty of other reasons why Working on a Dream is a keeper, that one would be enough.

The Atlanta crack rapper's third album is largely a faithful rehash of his first two platters, which transformed him from unrepentant hustler to unlikely inspirational figure.

A record with stronger songs that somehow manages to sound just as banal as her first.

It's an improvement on the band's impressively dull 2005 album, "X&Y," but Coldplay's latest doesn't recapture the promise of the band's first two albums.

A collection of sleepy, emotionally blunt songs that feel whispered from the wee hours.

With such tight songs and a loose but relatable theme, Shout Out Louds easily avoids a sophomore slump--the new album is, in fact, stronger than the first

The Philadelphia group's fifth full-length release has a musical richness and depth of songwriting that weren't fully present on Dr. Dog's somewhat less-focused earlier music, though there were hints on "Easy Beat" in 2005 and "We All Belong" in 2007.

Whether grasping for resolve in the stoutly punctuated pulse of "Now I'm Gone" or taking a sober angle on the rattling flow of "Shining On," she soul searches with the best of them, even when it sounds like she might be searching one that belongs to someone else.

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 late-album glut of so-so, mid-to-slow-tempo material like the Anthony Hamilton duet 'Losing You' and 'Work It Out' leaves you with a lesser impression than the disc probably deserves.

The Heavy shines best on stage, where the band is an overwhelming force, but Great Vengeance is an entrancing peek at crush-worthy musical raw power.

The best record the Strokes should have released after "Is This It."

They’re subtle, but loaded with the laid-bare emotion she spent so long learning to harness.

Gonzalez's debut disc, 2005's "Veneer," won over fans with its straightforward lack of production, and his sophomore effort, In Our Nature, does not stray far from the path.

The prettiest moments here come on less characteristic musings, such as the shifting perspective of 'Down Here Below.'