Rockferry splits its time between paying tribute to its source material and knocking it off, but its principal's vocals, and generally pleasing wall-of-sound treatment, make it a good move anyway.

The songs here hit with a full-on assault of crunching guitar riffs, distorted, cracked vocals and walls of disorienting feedback, while lyrically, frontman Ben Gibbard visits the moodier and darker corners of his mind.

Comfortable and confident all the way through, and a highly welcomed return.

Jason Mraz emerges even bolder than before on an album loaded with strings, horns, formidable grooves and a dozen songs dripping with mantra-like positivity.

The breakdowns on songs like "Dee-Ree-Shee" and "You in Color" truly highlight each member's technical and dynamic abilities; the crescendos emphasize their quantum power to make great art as a group.

Songs like 'Calm Like You' and 'Black Plant' positively swing, and despite the presence of a 22-piece orchestra, the lyrical bite and brisk pacing mean things never topple into cheesy pastiche. Moonlighting hasn't been this much fun since Bruce Willis had hair.

This London-based crooner emerged in the early '00s as the face of Britain's 2-step scene, but on his fourth full-length Craig David doesn't sound tethered to any one sound in particular.

Nouns is a more likable and less abrasive version of No Age, with a little something for everyone and a little nothing for no one as well.

On his sophomore album--the follow-up to 2003's slow-building platinum smash "Chariot"--Gavin DeGraw deftly weaves together rock, pop and soul influences without letting the seams show.

While not quite as revealing and rewarding as its 2005 cousin, the new album will certainly please fans of Rubin and Diamond's stark-yet-comfy acoustic direction.

Emo kids will flock to German class when they hear the original version of 'Monsoon,' the band's biggest hit, which closes this strangely fascinating Euro-glam effort.

London-bred singer Estelle's stateside debut, Shine, is heaving with catchy, instantly likable hip-hop/R&B/ pop songs produced by the likes of Will.i.am, Wyclef Jean and Mark Ronson, to list a few, and featuring Kanye West and Cee-Lo, among others.

Pitch-shifting strings punctuate the background like reminders of the cinema of the past, but this Portishead doesn't wink at anything, eschewing style altogether. In our self-referential culture, an album like this is an aberration. Again.

From the cheeky hip-hop of 'Konichiwa Bitches' and the warped bass underpinning her cover of Teddybears' 'Cobra Style' to the Kylie Minogue-esque 'With Every Heartbeat' and sweeping strings carrying 'Be Mine,' the album holds 14 sassy and sweet dance pop gems.

'4 Minutes,' with Timberlake, is already a top three Billboard Hot 100 hit, and harmonious ballad 'Miles Away' might be some of her best work yet. But it feels familiar.

Santogold pours all that experience into a bracingly eclectic set full of fuzzy New Wave synths, sticky avant-soul melodies, busted-laptop beats and sing-song vocal chants inherited from the likes of Neneh Cherry and Björk. If you've managed to avoid her until now, you won't be able to for much longer.

Elsewhere, 'Criminal' and 'I Will Not Apologize' find the group making its most acute, nail-driven points in years.

The band's first new set since 2002 is full of these well-intentioned attempts to recapture some of that '80s pyromania (or in the case of the absurdly large power ballad 'Love,' herculean '70s prog-rock balladry), but without producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, who left for the much more profitable world of country years ago, the results are solid if unspectacular.

Lil Mama shows off some impressive verbal firepower here, like when she challenges her skeptics over a booming trash-can beat in 'One Hit Wonder.'

Nine Lives follows suit with a set whose nine songs display an ensemble sensibility that gives a generous allotment of sonic room to members of Winwood's band.

For his second solo studio record, the Quannum Projects godfather veers left from his sample-centric background and into something that should be highly pleasing to anyone who enjoyed hip-hop in 1988.

Whether you prefer him shouting vitriol on the picket line or whispering sweet nothings in the bedroom, you'll find plenty to enjoy here.

The songs on Elephant Shell are a sensible progression from the Strokes-like hooks of earlier material, showing an increasing sophistication. As with before, the brilliance is in the brevity.

Bittersweet World is a party worth attending, but not much is missed if your invite got lost in the mail.

The lyrics hold their own as comedy poetry, and the album as a whole is stuffed with feel-good laughs.

Even if it's easy to miss the full-tilt pyrotechnics of yore, Reis' new approach allows you to appreciate his wound-tight tunecraft like never before.

Carey's made a pop album with equal parts levity and gravity.

Though nothing quite reaches the heights of past work, there's ambience to spare on "We Own the Night" and the lush "Highway of Endless Dreams."