[A] reverent tribute to the late Elliott Smith.

Ironically, it's not their youthful flair but their depth of experience that pulls it off.

The singer's material is tackled competently and faithfully throughout, resulting in a collection of tracks that are pleasant if not particularly earth-shattering (an admittedly tall task for a musical genre that lacks subwoofers).

It’s a sturdy and at times exuberant country album with big production and McEntire’s even bigger voice leading the charge on low-key ballads (“I Keep on Lovin’ You’’), rocking kiss-offs (“Strange’’), and her signature story songs about ordinary lives (“Maggie Creek Road’’).

For a taste of the power of positivity, look no further than Martina McBride's splendid new album, Shine.

You’ll find oblique references [to the departure of producer Chris Walla and frontman Ben Gibbard’s divorce from actress Zooey Deschanel], but it’s just as easy to find yourself in these 11 tracks.

While there's little here that's new, Hemingway's Whiskey is another well-wrought articulation of Chesney's musical world that will doubtless make its presence felt when he returns to selling out stadiums next summer.

The multi-instrumentalists expertly weave the country flavors of their fiddles, dobros, and banjos into a beguiling folk-pop-singer-songwriter sound that could appeal equally to fans of their main gig and of artists such as Indigo Girls or James Taylor.

He continues to deliver enough melodic flair to support his earnest reflections on life’s little epiphanies.

This is bedroom pop through and through, but his sharp pop chops rescue it.

The story line is not for the squeamish, but the music often has an exhilarating power.

If you're going to be tooling down the middle of the road, Learn to Love is perfectly pleasant accompaniment.

The Mountain Will Fall utilizes a wealth of live performances and ingenious programming to create an album that’s funky, futuristic, and thrilling for new fans and old heads alike.

The goodies are hidden in the deeper tracks. The Hit-Boy-produced title track starts with a vocal siren, and the singer struts through her haunting lower octave over a high-octane stomp.

Jonas isn't the most flexible vocalist for this kind of material, but he manages to convince that there's real hunger.

It's been a trying but triumphant past few years for Melissa Etheridge. Her celebratory new album reflects those times with some of her most compelling songwriting in years (particularly 'Map of the Stars') cast in her usual power-rock framework.

'Cold Cold Heaven,' the 15th--and last and best--track on "Mentor Tormentor is the kind of cozy hymnal Earlimart does best: a wash of strings, the major-key wail.

“Sexercize” could be the worst song the singer’s put out in well over a decade. It’s the album’s only genuine misstep, but it’s still perplexing, hearing a Minogue that can do wrong.

There’s plenty here--the sinuous “Drunk Like You,” anthemic “Graffiti,” sly “Ship Faced,” and crunchy “Peace Love & Dixie”--to prove the Cadillac Three’s figurative truck has plenty of gas in the tank, its dog still hunts.

The music is patently dirty and rough, but Pop’s subdued moments sound more solo career than Stooge.

The boys got most of the attention on “American Idol’’ last season, but fourth-place finisher Allison Iraheta has the last laugh with the most consistent debut album thus far.

With Breakout, Cyrus has clearly made a choice to break from the shiny, happy "Hannah Montana" character, but she hasn't scuffed her sound up so much that her fans won't recognize that she's just being Miley.

This set isn’t very revealing, though, as Fabolous alternates typical gun-toting swagger (who knew he called his gun Nadia? Who cared?) with the kind of clever wordplay that should be keeping other MCs up at night. This is a record simply built to make the Brooklyn-born rapper huge.

At least seven of the 10 tracks score immediately.

The sound and the playing are crisp and lean, with sharp lines drawn between the guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums in a way that keeps them distinct. It also sometimes keeps them frustratingly distanced from one another, as the otherwise pleasantly groovy “Red Light Kisses” and “Baby Don’t Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts” echo the coolly dispassionate jazz-funk lite of the ’70s and ’80s.

[An] unsparingly intimate, deeply moving 11-song cycle.

While there is a handful of tracks that will pass airplay muster--the inane but catchy “Truck Yeah,” the breezy Swift and Keith Urban-assisted “Highway Don’t Care”--it’s more interesting when McGraw goes either a little sideways or steps back into contemplative mode.

Anjulie has a distinctive, somewhat thin voice and it takes a few listens to warm up to it. There’s a slight Europop and world feel to both Anjulie’s vocals and songs but there’s nothing radical going on here.