Its touchy-feely lyrics maintain the brooding undercurrent that runs beneath the bulk of the band's catalogue.

Fans will be happy to find Jakob more upfront, and keyboardist Rami Jaffe utilized, but differently than past straightforward organ parts.

Just as little has changed on the radio front, so has Cake stuck with its market-proven formula on "Comfort Eagle."

Admittedly, he seems to be missing a sparring partner like McCabe and thus, "Alone" often suffers a lack of tension. Still, Ashcroft's unabashed joy is rather contagious.

High on boyish charm and low on moral fiber, Blink's songs have all the lyrical depth of a whoopee cushion.

As always, Kravitz infuses his rock with enough funk to get you moving, and his catchy choruses will echo in your head long after the album ends.

There are hints of the stuttered hooks that snared listeners on the band's '95 debut, yet they're so snarled in manic sound, you're unsure whether you're being grabbed or gagged.

This time around, the Garbage tradition of borrowing from all over the map has produced unfocused and derivative results.

In contrast to the 6ths' blissed-out "Wasps Nests," which included indie credibles Lou Barlow and Georgia Hubley, "Hyacinths" mines cabaret territory.

On its fourth full-length adventure, Glaswegian septet Belle & Sebastian wanders away from their painfully catchy melodies with symphonic '70s-esque feather rock.

Though it's no "Bloodletting," it does make for a satisfying reminder of that masterpiece.

A sweet and sometimes bitter pack of world-weary bubblegum pop.

X.O. Experience is more commercial and polished than the group's previous three efforts.

But, to get right down to it, "Celebrity" is fun, like its predecessors.

Despite his always dead-on guitar playing and decent set of pipes, Setzer pens original material that tends toward repetition. Couple that with a rather pedestrian "Mack The Knife"... and "Vavoom!" comes across as listenable, but ultimately forgettable

The electronics are intact, but rather than rely on monitors and keyboards to produce familiar sounds, Depeche Mode lifts its chin and puts vocals first for some surprisingly taut techno-balladry.... Still, old habits are hard to break, and "Exciter" carries a couple of ill-advised indulgences.

"Strange Little Girls" is not a pretty album, but that's the point: the ugliness of male-female relations, which she exposes bit by bit with each cover, is a fact that is--in both pop music and pop culture--all too often ignored.

While nothing else on "Play" quite matches the slinky intimacy of its Top 10 single, "Jaded," every song has something to root for, whether it's the title track's inventive genre-shuffle, Tyler's spontaneous yodeling or the way "Under My Skin" continues the band's love of gender-bending.

He's ditched dusty folk LPs for guest appearances by stars such as Bootsy Collins and Macy Gray. Gentrification suits him. For all her classic-soul flare, Gray is fond of abrasive nuance. Her singing is the perfect analog counterpart to his techno-philia; those saliva-laden glitches turn her catch phrases into perfect little samples.

Here, the sinfully motivating stew results in a record that goes on and on in its repetitive jive, sucking the listener into the blissfully happy world of Hindi-rock.

Their third release has no apparent monster single like "The Way," but the recording as a whole contains a higher number of strong songs. It rocks harder, and the band's previously overpowering influences--most notably Elvis Costello--are now beautifully integrated into a more developed and identifiable sound.

An infectious record.

Clever rhythms, tricky harmonies and diverse musical reference points -- including the opening riff from Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" -- frequently distract from the lyrical shortcomings.

The album may not break much new ground, but the band's performance is more dynamic than on previous releases.

An unadulterated fey morsel.

Sisqo proves he's more than a flash in the pan.

The disappointing result is mostly a collection of thin-sounding electronic drum beats and trippy effects that, were it not for Farrell's vocal accompaniment, would be altogether forgettable.

It's that menacing air surrounding "Familiar" that makes it worth a listen, and Oasis is, quite simply, loads of rock and roll fun.