Left to his own devices here, Marr has penned vague lyrics and delivered them in a monotone, coupled with uninspired melodies that only underline the singer's limitations.

Overall, Loose Fur is kinda interesting, especially as a historical document, but it's not much more than that.

This isn't music about angst or ego, hooks or licks, or lyrics we've heard before.

The conversational rawness that drove the previous albums is gone, and the band loses something as a result.

Hate is a beautifully gilded record, thoroughly nice and thoroughly listenable, and a mark higher than a lot of pop music with lofty intentions, but it doesn't move you to extremes.

One Bedroom does tend to lag in parts, perhaps lost in the legacy of the band that created it, but in the end it comes off as an unified organic being, both necessary and pleasant.

One problem: Common is an MC, not a musician. Which makes it difficult for him to achieve his lofty goals. Mostly he fails.

Bobby Gillespie and company come up short here.

With Phrenology, The Roots have finally made an album that lives up to their potential.

What makes Quality worth it is exactly what dragged down Train of Thought -- the slow and syrupy songs.

Sticking to a formula -- a formula that works for them -- the band sounds fiercer than ever on Riot Act.

While these are accomplished musicians distilling their favorite musical influences, they fail to transcend those influences.

Cash might surprise with his choice of covers, but in nearly all of his selections, he locates some personal meaning, or introduces new emotional elements.

Let's face it, no one else today is making music as cool and original as that of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The music here combines the scrappy, psychedelic folk of Hour of Bewilderbeast with the more melodic and sentimental "About a Boy" soundtrack.

Yanqui U.X.O. is the work of a band that has finally become confident in its popularity and influence.

The album coheres; it's a full body of work intended to be heard holistically, not simply as a collection of songs. But it takes some work. You must be an active listener to appreciate it fully.

A solid album, turgid and at times stormy.

In the midst of its 14 tracks, there are a couple that, if taken on their own, would qualify as throwaways. But the way the album should be heard, as a whole, each piece works with the others.

Like a night taxi ride along a broad, lighted, skyscraper-lined city street, Happyness, the band's latest, feels wondrous, daring and slightly dangerous.

Cruelty Without Beauty is the sound of Soft Cell reclaiming the musical territory they staked out in their 1981 hit debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, offering up hooky, dancefloor-oriented synthetic soul, now jacked up into a higher gear for the clublands of the new millennium.

The album's tone and tunes and imagery and such are all still on the same haunted-house/boat-of-the-dead kinda kick they've kicked out on their three previous, numerically-titled jams.

Hot Hot Heat's compelling energy, original hooks and rhythms, and quirky, sometimes indiscernible lyrics combine to make Make Up the Breakdown one of the most energetic and enjoyable listens of the year.

Though it's not quite the folk-pop album that some post-Head Music interviews with Anderson had foreshadowed, the ballads do outweigh the rockers, which puts the lyrics in the spotlight, for better and for worse.

Nextdoorland is one of the rarest of things: a reunion album that captures the spirit of what made the band special in the first place.

Sea Change not only signals a pinnacle in his career but may just be remembered, in an environment fueled by accelerating cycles of disposable culture, as one of this young decade's best records.

The songwriting is self-assured and thoughtful; the album is unified as a pastiche of romantic musings.

His best work since 1997's Built to Spill album, Perfect From Now On.