The Good the Bad and the Funky is the first new album from the Tom Tom Club in eight years, and it's absolutely remarkable. Not only does it stand up to any of their previous releases, it may just be their best, most focused work ever -- and that's a lot to live up to, given the band's history.

While the band's trademarked, reverb-drenched riffs remain, they're now intermingled with lots of skronks, bleeps, and clicks... After a sluggish start, most of what's here works as well as anything in the vast Man or Astro-Man? catalogue.

Hyacinths and Thistles takes a grab-bag approach to whisper-soft pop, though, at times, the lullaby vibe dangerously teeters between being appealingly fey and overly precious.

The country-tinged melodies and beautifully simple arrangements combine with the downcast romanticism of singer Neil Halstead's lyrics in a way that is simultaneously inspired and confident.

Occasionally, Yang's sugary, torchy vocals are too heavy-handed for this ethereal drone pop.

Most of Girl is sprightly and entertaining, despite Josie's fondness for thunderingly obvious, high-school-yearbook-type sentiments...

This isn't just pop-inflected electronica: Gerald's compositions evince a depth and artistic integrity rare in albums of this ilk.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a prettier set of songs about love and disappointment than the ones that grace Teddy Thompson's self-titled debut.

Williams weaves beguiling, thought-provoking melodies, and turns each track into an artfully produced scenario.

Thievery Corporation sets a new standard in the downbeat discography.

He's still slicing and dicing styles like this week's challenger on Iron Chef, but this time he's got some serious guest firepower to back up these cross-cultural forays.

The prickly edged new wave of the band's debut has morphed into keyboard-addled post-punk on The Menace.

The overall package is a slick, Rockwilder-produced old-school styled joint that's still got a foot in the year 2000 -- classic and timely all at once.

The album as a whole leans a little too far toward dissonance and gratuitous noisemaking.

Sadly, [lead vocalist Chris] Shinn's love of drama often overshadows the band's taut and atypical rhythm section, and the somewhat left-of-center construction of Thorn's guitar parts.

A largely useless excuse for a bored millionaire to air out his late-night bedroom recordings at the expense of the kids.

His music remains lively and contemporary even when he reworks traditional songs old enough to have their copyrights lapse into the public domain.

A clever party record, complete with oodles of guest appearances and multiple R&B hooks.

His rhymes often approach the immediacy of raw, street-level reportage, like CNN with a better soundtrack.

Like many a club anthem, Chicane's massive tracks have a formulaic feel.

Unfortunately, a couple of the early tunes are so slick as to lose all feeling, while some of the lyrics are dumber than a doormat, but as party albums go, this will keep you up for a while.

On one hand, Vavoom! has the same can't-sit-still energy and brilliant musicianship of the 17-piece orchestra's previous efforts... But it sometimes seems as if Vavoom! goes a little too far in its attempt to sound experimental and break new ground in updated big band music.

Horrorscope is just like its predecessor, only more so: Better, smarter, faster, and angstier than Eve 6, it's an utterly delightful pop-punk kerfluffle.

Armed with an arsenal of keyboard riffs and Merritt's impassive baritone, the resulting sound is a velvety mix of '80s-era new wave, bossa nova beats, and melancholy pop.

Any hopes of redemption are dashed by the same bland production that plagued his first release.

While convincingly earnest and certainly ambitious, the result is formulaic, and lacks the free-wheelin', soulful magic of the original

On Art and Life, Beenie's lyrical flow is unstoppable. He unleashes some of his sharpest and funniest rhymes over slickly-produced tracks aimed squarely for hip-hop radio airplay.

At the core of these lush power ballads is a lot of empty posturing -- especially when it comes to lyrics.