When It's Dark Out marks a vast leap forward: His cadences are more agile, his boasts more boastful, his guest list tighter (Too Short, E-40, Kehlani).

One that makes us hope the Queen takes a stab at even bolder covers in the future.

The more expansive arrangements suit McMahon's hyper-expressive singing, especially on a handful of cuts ("My Racing Thoughts," "Platform Fire") with keyboards by veteran session player Patrick Warren. But occasionally they make McMahon's songwriting feel less distinct than it has in the past.

On Yung Rich Nation, the band of brothers shows it’s reliable enough to deliver hits, but ambitious enough to rise to a challenge.

In this age of frivolity, Duran Duran is straight-up thriving.

The singer matches Danger Mouse's inventive sonics with his usual complement of twisty-turny melodies and dense wordplay, though compared with the Shins' relatively high-octane 2007 release, "Wincing the Night Away," such jangly space-folk tunes as "Vaporize" and "Sailing to Nowhere" can seem a little snoozy.

Every ounce of pain and acceptance rings true, not only through his raw vocal virtuosity but also thorough very live, immediate-sounding production that leaves deliberate, closely guarded space in otherwise active arrangements.

The 10-track set, which contains multiple sounds and styles, gives a brief glimpse into both artists' scattered versatility.

When Braxton isn't sulking about heartbreak, she's enjoying being a woman.

A couple of tracks feature liberally processed vocals, but the singing acts less as a melodic agent than as one more source of instrumental texture.

Consider it easing into the topic at hand, which turns out to be the songstress' most intimate and soul-baring set to date.

Last time around, on 2007's In Rainbows, the music was just as interesting as all of the hoopla surrounding the album's impromptu, pay-what-you-will release. The King of Limbs cannot boast the same.

The Remix's 10 songs won't replace Gaga's chart-topping hits, but the tracks offer enough interesting angles to attract Gaga diehards as well as casual dance music fans.

Naledge's rhymes are a complex web of pop culture references and braggadocio. Double-O's pop-soul production serves as a bright, sugary backdrop for Naledge's brag-rap.

A decade and five albums into its career, the rock band certainly sounds as youthful as ever.

The country veteran's first album for Toby Keith's Show Dog label seems well-suited to Keith's manly-man worldview.

Given his role as one of pop's most respected songwriters, Neil Diamond might be expected to fill a covers album with underappreciated obscurities by tunesmiths less highly regarded than he.

Atreyu has resharpened its teeth on its new album, "Congregation of the Damned," which features the return of Varkatzas' deadly scream. But the set still features somber moments.

On their second release No Mas, cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk stake their claim in the world of electronica with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, yielding infectious but often mind-boggling results.

Like the singles "Spotlight" and "Wasted," the songs on the album that jump out most aren't the ones with creepy rhythms, but those with Gucci Mane's witty lyrical delivery.

Nothing on The Wanted's debut U.S. EP comes close to "Glad You Came," but the extended play contains a number of fine-tuned melodies that could succeed the group's latest radio hit

Seven-inch obsessives probably could have seen the debut's tangy intensity coming, but for rock fans unaware of Reatard's history, Watch Me Fall is a welcome surprise.

Blitzen Trapper again channels a variety of sounds from the '60s through the '80s to meld its own genre on its latest release.

The result is a collection rich in fan favorites, but lacking in momentum.

There's nothing here that even the Chems themselves haven't done before, but that doesn't make the sensory thrills any less giddy.

American Tragedy is a tight mash-up between contemporary sonics and old-school aesthetic.

The nearly 68-minute length of Immersion works against it at times, but the aforementioned "The Fountain" and the '80s-referencing "Encoder" make it well worth reaching the end.

Waking Up boasts enough intertwining pop melodies backed with anthemic vocals to show fans of the 2007 Timbaland-remixed track "Apologize" that OneRepublic can deliver more addictive hooks while still maintaining its own graceful and introspective sound.