Now in his 30s, he doesn't surf the beat so much as box with it, with both brutality and no small degree of grace. That a rapper of this much verbal gymnastic ability is still making Perez Hilton cracks is too bad, but the bigger problem is that Eminem's recipe of gore and gay jokes sounds like the past.

Over the course of 14 cuts, the record gets a tad repetitive, with nary a fiddle or steel break within earshot.

Barenaked Ladies play it straight with mixed results...

It's still a mess, though an ambitious and grandiose one.

While collaborations with the likes of Viktor Duplaix ("Pull Up"), Rahzel ("Out of Breath") and British MC's Darrison ("Time") and Dynamite MC ("No More") provide interesting listens, nothing here is as revolutionary as such Roni Size classics as "New Forms" or Breakbeat Era's "Ultra Obscene."

Though the album is good, for an artist of 50 Cent's caliber, it's not great.

There's an overriding sense of preciousness that permeates "Mr. A-Z," and a few instances ("O. Lover," "The Forecast") where his homages to '70s AM radio sneak over into copies.

Songs like "Do You Remember" and "Wasting My Time" are tolerable but don't require repeated listening.

"Born" loses its focus amid unabashed nods to Burt Bacharach and songs that are just not done yet, despite smart tempo changes and pretty melodies.

Has its moments, but it comes across as a baby step forward.

The extremes offer up a portrait of a man far more complex than what we get from many of Banner's peers, and the inventive beats (by Banner, Cool & Dre, Akon and others) add vital life to his gruff flow. But you have to wonder if some of these tracks simply reflect the rapper's desire to be all things to all consumers.

If Hawthorne Heights stopped trying to please several different audiences and decided whether it wanted to be a pop band or a post-hardcore group, it could make a more definitive musical statement. [4 Mar 2006]

The Memphis five-piece sometimes lacks a definitive sound... Yet the band excels at its straightforward, meat-and-potatoes sound.

Though a floundering economy, bombed-out GOP and a season or two of corporate bailouts have provided them with a fat barrel of fish to shoot, this rap-rock hybrid simmers instead of seethes, never quite mustering the blood-boiling rage of its principals' previous material.

An erratic mix of messy ambition and indifferent sloppiness that sounds like it's falling apart even before it really has a chance to get it together. [11 Feb 2006]

While it's commendable for the trio to try to break out of its teen dream box, it's on songs like 'Before the Storm'--featuring Miley Cyrus--where the brothers prove they're still among the best at putting the fizz in pop culture.

Linkin Park's ambitions are nearly palpable, but songs likely conceived as homages end up sounding too close to their sources. [26 May 2007]

The band's writing stagnates, rendering the majority of the album in a rote midtempo formula that Stipe's increasingly trite lyrics can't always save.

With expectations tempered for Forgiven, the sibling trio from Texas doesn't panic but rather retrenches, returning to the easy-grooving, harmony-laden Carlos Santana-meets-Stevie Ray Vaughan feel of its first album.

An old-school alternative rock album full of oversized riffs and open-hearted hooks.

Mobb Deep often sounds like a guest at its own party.

This album is calm and relaxing almost to a fault. [26 Nov 2005]

"Life in Cartoon Motion" is like Scissor Sisters-lite: Retro disco with heavy doses of rollicking piano and funk. [31 Mar 2007]

Overall, Sugar Ray sticks to what it does best: helping audiences realize that there's no better alternative to a California fun-in-the sun day at the beach.

While superbly recorded and at times a hoot to crank (largely for the shameless rips of Kiss, Joan Jett and Def Leppard), Bitchin' is too light on hooks.

Often falters distressingly.

At 22 tracks, "Damita Jo" has its fair share of hits and misses.

Things hover uneasily somewhere between wholesale reinvention and mere superstar vanity project. [28 Oct 2006]