Jukebox isn’t a misstep, but it does seem like a unnecessary lull towards an album that might build on the promise of Jukebox’s best assets, the most important ones being of Chan’s own, warming design.

This could well have been a much better album than it is. Still, there's enough here to indicate that Nash's obvious natural flair for songwriting will blossom, and that her fearless voice will only get better with experience.

Surprisingly, The Cool works as an album despite its many obvious flaws: the pop tracks are as good as anything from his debut, and his attempts to branch out are at least hit and miss, with exciting tracks like ‘Little Weapon’ and ‘Dumb It Down’ breaking the monotony of his soapbox moments.

I guess once you define hip-hop you can't really go anywhere but down, but unlike of any of the other Wu-Tang Clan albums 8 Diagrams is able to stretch itself out of the shadow of "Enter the Wu-Tang" which in itself makes this an impressive record.

Sigel is too erratic to fully allow his album to mesh well upon itself. But that is why it works so well anyway, The Solution as much Sigel’s fresh step into untested waters as it is a fall back into a well-worn groove.

Despite a few individual disappointments, Alive 2007 is as exciting a collection of music as any released this year.

Once The Black And White Album settles in, and you've figured out which songs to skip, it's as enjoyable as any of their previous albums.

Red Carpet Massacre feels almost like a weird sort of jam session between band and producers, and the quality is about as patchy and uneven as that description implies.

Despite the consistency--the one area in which she's improved--it's almost certainly the weakest and most irrelevant album she's produced.

I can't help but admire the wondrous technicality of the band members, but I wonder if they could have deployed it in a more tasteful way.

When the natural flow of Nas' rap elevates 'Success' to one of American Gangster's best songs, you kind of wish Nas could have just had the same idea and done the album himself. It shadows the finale of the album, even the tight, appropriately grand title-track that finds Jay-Z at his breeziest.

There's enough brewing under the sedated surface to make Hvarf-Heim (and especially Hvarf) a satisfying listen.

It's consistently great stuff--this is among the best hip-hop albums of the year by my reckoning.

The biggest failure of these songs, and the most confusing thing about this album, are the melodies.

Avenged Sevenfold is "City of Evil" minus the cool parts, more of Shadows, a circus, and an occasional female singer that’s supposed to make it all sound innovative.

For better or worse, it's the most predictable album of the year.

Minor complaints aside, pound for pound and song for song, Unbreakable may just be the best pop album of the year so far.

No World For Tomorrow is Coheed doing what they do best; writing an excellent album, where the songs combine for a bigger effect together than they do individually.

Defense of the Genre is the best major label release of the year, and the most surprising album to boot.

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces is nearly all negative space with very little beauty.

Overall, Chase This Light takes the pop rock sound of their latest albums and perfects the style, complemented with Butch Vig’s flawless production skills. Again, the choruses sound bigger and catchier than ever.

As a concept album, it's halfway to becoming an amazing cycle. There are a few flaws and the second half of the collection to worry about, but so far, Thrice has produced another stunner.

The music within the album has many sides to it, and the execution gives each aspect enough emphasis to add to the sound without creating clutter or over saturation.

Of course, nothing on This is Forever is really new territory; the 80’s influenced synthesizers, the electronic drums, the monotone vocalist, it’s all been heard before. It’s all been done so much better.

It stands well alongside any classic Springsteen record you can mention.

As usual, Dashboard puts out an album with a couple of very good songs, and a bunch of passable filler. Recommended for fans, but still has nothing on what Dashboard used to put out.

To try and explain just how bad the "music" is on this disc is about as much of a masochistic exercise as listening to it.