Younge rarely puts a note wrong in his arrangements; his stripped-down approach echoes the Delfonics’ influence on artists like RZA and El Michels Affair without sounding derivative.

The time away has done the California-spawned group good, as the conversation is familiar--intricate instrumental phrasing, pristine harmonies--but also full of fresh energy that lends everything from the buoyant gospel bluegrass of “21st of May” to the joyously bleary “Rest of My Life” an air of excitement.

Instead of trying to divine the line between earnest and ironic, Weezer fans should just sit back and enjoy what works here. And like every Weezer record, plenty does.

Fueled by exploration and musical experimentation, Carlton’s reinvention finds her a long way from “A Thousand Miles”--and in a better place, artistically.

the bigger question with any record regardless of genre should always be is it good? And The Incredible Machine is very good indeed.

With help from producers Dave Stewart of Eurythmics - who co-wrote seven songs as well - and Glen Ballard, Nicks sings of big loves and losses and sprinkles them with her enchanted glitter of optimism, melancholy, ecstasy, and regret.

This week the Canadian sorta-supergroup releases Together, its fifth album, and provided you're not the kind of fan who requires your heroes to evolve, the disc is delectable.

He delivers deceptively subtle music that retains all of the singer's seductive charms and inimitable style.

The hooks are restrained, yet Mellencamp never loses sight of melodies and his fine song sense. Unsettled and disconsolate, these songs fittingly reflect their time.

Musically, the band mixes its customary blast beat-driven grindcore maelstroms--the punishing one-two assault of “Smash a Single Digit” and “Metaphorically Screw You,” the layered, complex “Cesspits”--with industrial dolor (“Dear Slum Landlord”) and junk-bin clangor (the title track): caustic nods to influential circa-early ’80s noise-mongers like Public Image Ltd. and Swans.

Saadiq, the former leader of Tony! Toni! Toné! and keeper of old-school R&B flame, delivers a deliciously good set of playful yet engaging songs that nods to the past while sounding thoroughly of the moment.

She applies her ever-mesmerizing mix of vocal heat and instrumental chill to images of longing, falling, searching, raging, and despair on her deeply emotional and soul-stirring fourth solo album, Songs of Mass Destruction.

The tracks are impeccably manicured, super-tuneful, and offer lyrics about the various agonies and ecstasies of love that are unremarkable in and of themselves but reach nuclear-threat levels of desperation thanks to Lewis's voice.

Edwards succeeds in stepping out of the Americana territory where her first three records resided.

It's that sprawling sense of humanity that makes Dear Science such a rich listen.

The songs are bigger, the production is bolder, and Hop Along is more confident than ever, expertly weaving fresh, unexpected elements into its sound.

It is a strong, welcome detour in the artist’s recent discography. Or just call it a return to form since the album is her most satisfying effort in a decade and nimbly connects the dots between Madonna’s various eras and guises.

The band has never sounded more relaxed, with a lived-in confidence.

His second album is confident and hooky, spanning funk and reggae and psych.

Terminology aside, it’s a sprawling, star-studded release, and an impressive achievement--one that signals a new level of ambition for Drake.

Overall, this is a satisfying return to Booker T.'s classic instrumental soul and funk.

It’s definitely more expansive sonically than Monroe’s previous work, which doesn’t mean it sounds disjointed; rather, it comes across as presenting different sides of the same artist.

It’s a short, casual release, so much so that it’s easy to miss just how expertly crafted these songs are.

Ingredients from those progressive forays ensure that the new tunes sound fresh even as the album is marked with such Sonic signatures as artful contrasts and angular arrangements.

Ghost Notes unsurprisingly reflects (and reflects on) the band’s maturity, but retains the confidence and playfulness that made it an alt-rock touchstone.

You can feel the giddy fun Parker was clearly having in the studio.

Deftones frontman Cheno Moreno shows up on “Embers,” but sounds tame next to the recharged Blythe.

A pop album that operates on its own terms, partly thanks to the way the white-hot notoriety of the star at its center allowed her to, after all these years, rule her own pop fiefdom.