Yet another bombshell of an album, blowing the lid off with majestic melodies, muscular pop-metal, and lyrics that detail singer Scott Weiland's battle with life and inner demons.

Once again, Hefner has delivered what is sure to be one of the most original releases of the year.

Time to pull out Dig Your Own Hole while the Bros. claw through this current slump, er, evolutional period.

Brilliantly combining Spanish dialogue and hauntingly serene vocals with conga, timbales, accordion, cheesy organ, and funky guitar, Kinky intertwines it all with coiling bass, mad samples, and sexy synthetic grooves.

B.M.R.C. deliver potent, intelligent, memorable melodies that are both subtle and provocative.

Straight Outta Cashville is simply the same, moderately catchy collection as Beg For Mercy or The Hunger For More, made inferior by the addition of a few tuneless crunk trunk-rattlers.

These dozen songs, which swing with the organic, old-school funk Prince began embracing in the late-’80s, also avoid his ‘90s excesses, combining rock and soul as effortlessly and succinctly as he ever has.

Sure, it's nothing that hasn't been done before.... Still, there's no denying that She's In Control is one helluva bad-ass, booty-shakin', funky-fresh party record.

Over-sentimental country-rock posing, limp rapping, and turgid AOR classic rock are only where this young man gets started.

Underworld's grooves pump with less impact now, but they make them work harder and with more diversity.

Armstrong... gives it a welcome sense of cohesion.

Everything Must Go is another great Steely Dan album, a hardy inclusion to their splendid canon.

Cole is a slick producer, dropping just the right sounds to impress fellow DJs and keep club kids doing the boogie fever.

Daylight ups the electricity and the songs cleverly find their way into your immediate recall.

Disappeared hints at the cathartic spillage of drum 'n' bass, while also dropping beats from Motown, rock, and beyond. But unfortunately the melodies that were once so incisive and pliant soon grow monotonous and alien.

Impossible to pin down to a single genre or slavish style, Echoboy references everyone from David Bowie to Thomas Dolby to Roxy Music to nu electro, yet its sound, at times basking in cathedral drones, other times rent with oddball choirboy humming, is its own.

It all sounds nice, but little sticks.

With harmonies that could have been stolen from Pet Sounds altered by Aphex Twin or Squarepusher, Zoomer is the perfect way to introduce pre-school tots to techno-pop pleasures.

In listening to Sugar Ray, it's easy to forget this band began as heavy guitar funketeers--its sound today is tame by comparison.

This time around, she and her collaborators have also figured out how to blow away the incense without losing her mystique.

While, lyrically, Keith's material aims for the lowest common denominator, even songs like the shameless arena-rock ballad "American Soldier," are a pleasant change from Nashville's typical assembly line product.

Dozens of like-minded female acts have followed the trio into the R&B arena, yet 3D demonstrates how wide a gulf there is between the originals and their imitators.

Albarn is the melodious voice of western pop tradition throughout; at first you might think his are the barmy brains behind this band, but it's just not so. His loose-kneed vocals are like pop tarts in this bumbling hip-hop parade, but it's the bumble that makes the rumble.

Always undervalued as a songwriter, Franti reassembles his familiar building blocks of rock, reggae, and vintage R&B into the funkiest, most inviting neighborhoods he's yet created.

Songs like the stirring "Side," the delicate "Dear Diary," and the glistening "Follow The Light" are among the best and most fully crafted of [Fran Healy's]short but accomplished writing career.

A strong, solidly melodic rock album, gorgeously written, tastefully arranged, and impeccably played.

With years of added wisdom and maturity, Silverchair has learned how to do much more.

It really isn't any different from any of the higher-charged rock albums in his repertoire.