"The Cost"... comprises 10 tracks that range from hopeful (but triumphant!) to sorrowful (but triumphant!) to morose (but triumphant!).

Swift makes good on his promise with 10 soulful new songs loaded with heart and smarts.

A pop album that, for all the lightness and joy that come with humming synthesizers, punchy horns and sing-along melodies, requires listeners to do some pretty heavy lifting.

For all its sorrowful beauty, "West" is often excruciating to hear as Williams mourns the death of her mother and a stormy relationship that ended badly.

In the context of such a refreshing, instantly likable album, even the abstract linking tracks work, breaking up the 13 sugary full-length songs and allowing each to be unwrapped and savored individually.

It hits hard without sacrificing any of Lerche's classic pop appeal.

Like Maroon 5... Fall Out Boy has found a middle ground where its raffish charm is edgy enough to engage teens in love with angst, and safe enough for the mass consumption that's sure to follow.

There is occasional resemblance here to the drowsy Memphis vibe on Cat Power's 2006 album, "The Greatest," but Sykes' tour [of] the soul is both grittier and spookier.

She has blossomed into one of contemporary folk's most enchanting voices.

A delightful album designed to sink in over repeated listens.

An incisive and funny introduction to the 21-year-old English singer.

It's worth giving it a second (or third) listen.

Subtlety was a defining characteristic of her first two records, and it carries over onto "Not Too Late," where even the differences are understated and discreet.

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

"Friend Opportunity" is arguably Deerhoof's finest album so far, and it ensures the band remains among contemporary pop's most fascinating and forward-thinking artists.

With haunted, abstract songs that are about as easily grasped as passing specters or gusts of sea mist, the Good, the Bad and the Queen is a dream collaboration that sometimes feels like a nightmare.

It's by far his most personal album, but "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" keeps the self-absorption to a minimum, in favor of vivid descriptions and up-tempo music that's catchy and engaging regardless of whether you're invested in the difficult back story.

"Friend and Foe" might be the first truly great record of 2007.

Hersh returns to her rocking roots, straying from the confessional folk that dominated her post-Muses solo work.

Mellencamp's folk-leaning rock style remains as distinctive as it is uncomplicated.

"Hip Hop Is Dead" feels bloated and a little self-indulgent at 16 songs, not all of which are as essential as the first few, but that doesn't change the legitimacy of the point Nas is trying to make, or the guts he shows in making it.

Even when they're abrasive, though, the songs are fascinating for what they show about the band's creative process.

Almost every dramatic synth swell, exploding snare and multi-tracked "Yeaaahhhh" has been done better elsewhere.

The handful of [balalds] isn't enough, though, and vapid lyrics and cluttered beats on the rest of "The Sweet Escape" makes for musical heavy lifting.

The problem is that the ballads - a key to the crossover longevity Ciara desires - are almost uniformly limp.

The bloody, boastful rhymes are mostly DOA, victims of songs that value attitude over arrangement.

"Hell Hath No Fury" has nearly redefined its genre; it takes the coke trade's dead eyes and empty hearts, found from penthouse to pavement, and turns them into music.

A muddled mess of convoluted textures that is at times, frankly, unlistenable.