The Used pushes boundaries with the frenetic lead single 'Blood on My Hands,' whose video features McCracken as a gleeful, blood-soaked vigilante. But the song doesn't so much reinvent the band's sound as amplify it. Other tracks like 'Sold My Soul' and 'The Best of Me' highlight the Used's knack for crafting brutal yet crowd-pleasing anthems.

Moore spends much of his debut album, Up All Night, outlining the pleasures to be had from hot women and cold beverages.

There's a spare but exotic flavor to the 11 tracks on Die Antwoord's new album, $O$, which was first released on the Internet and now comes in a spruced-up major-label version that's noticeably polished but retains the subversive and exotic vibe of the original.

This adjunct to "Animal" is unapologetically escapist and highly programmed fun.

The Auto-Tuned vocals and cluttered background instrumentation on the title track represents a low point of the album. Luckily, the second half of "Permalight" moves away from electronics and finds Rogue Wave returning to its guitar-based, head-nodding roots.

"I Learned the Hard Way" finds an eminent R&B band playing within its comfort zone and Jones continuing to distinguish herself as a multilayered frontwoman.

Although his group has made its mark on the metalcore underground, Tuck spends most of the Welsh quartet's new album spewing venomous tirades at a variety of villains who have done him wrong. But he does it in a polished fashion that makes "Fever" the band's most commercial outing yet.

With its Motown feel, the title track finds singer Elizabeth "Z" Berg crooning about love gone wrong ("I wish you knew I'm not the one for you/You're not the one I need/And I can't stand you") over a harmonized chorus of "ooh's" from her female bandmates, but the vocals don't go down as smoothly as the Supremes. Meanwhile, it's on the standout cut "I Can See It in Your Eyes" where Berg settles into her most comfortable range and the group does its most believable impression of the Animals.

Sheezus is Allen's most uneven record yet, but it's also her most mature.

Although Darker My Love implements a laid-back style on Alive As You Are, the group still engages the listener and delivers a solid set.

While the title of the Peas' newest album, "The Beginning," might suggest a retreat from this everything-to-everyone agenda, it's everything but.

Masterfully bleak and hyper-stylized, He Was King is music for the robot age.

Stuck on Nothing works well as a no-nonsense party album, but Free Energy shows tremendous promise on this debut.

At 36 minutes, the set is quick, generally uptempo and full of the Neptunes' mixtape-ready bangers, yet Williams finds his groove during moments that won't rattle any trunks.

Gucci shifts focus on songs like "Making Love to the Money" and "Dollar Sign"; the songs don't express his love for the illegal lifestyle but rather recount the financial benefits of taking that path. In usual hip-hop fashion, "The Appeal" also offers something for the ladies ("Remember When," featuring Ray J) and the club-goers (the Swizz Beatz-produced "Gucci Time").

While Jourgensen seems re-engaged with his music, he's also more disinterested than ever in the wider pop culture.

The Gift, the second release from famed "Britain's Got Talent" contestant Susan Boyle, is a bit of a tweener: mostly a holiday album and partly a follow-up to last year's massively successful "I Dreamed a Dream."

Animal teems with choruses that stick with the listener for days, from the blissful "Your Love Is My Drug" to the catty "Backstabber." Equally prevalent, however, are heavily processed vocals, which make it hard to tell whether the California cutie can actually sing.

Lovely moments abound, but the overall effect is less intoxicating.

There are certainly smiles to be had as the group grouses its way through some of the most ambitiously arranged and melodically polished tunes it has released to date.

Cuts like the mournful "Forgiveness" and the mello "U Want Me 2" (the latter previously featured on MCLachlan's 2008 hits collection) cook at a decidely lower temperature that long time fans will find plenty hot. However, their quieter pace might leave others a little cold.

For its third album, Expo 86, the band tempers the musical diversity of its predecessors and focuses more on standard rock fare.

It's hard not to see Editors' third album, In This Light and on This Evening, as its New Ordering-a marked shift away from guitars to synthesizers and a cleaner, dance-friendly vibe that still maintains much of the emotional heft. But the transition can seem a bit self-conscious.

Richly uplifting arrangements, dynamic percussion and an attention to vocals (some shared) that's intimately communal mostly make up for some excessive sentimentality and steel drums. But what's missing on the album is an obvious classic.

She continues to hit each note with the precise amount of retro pomp that one would expect, and there are again moments when the '70s soul love affair gets a little carried away.

After the devil-may-care disco of "Blurred Lines," Thicke's career peak, Paula's introspection seems half-baked. It is Thicke's personal love letter for Patton--and comes off as relevant mostly just to the two of them.

Style trumps substance in this particular breath of Air.

Word to Greyson: Hold on to 13 as long as you can.