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.

Title TK sounds as if nothing happened since Last Splash.

An optimistic-feeling, playful record that recalls the jazzy-edged sunshine and beat pop of the '60s.

Time -- and a bigger production budget -- has lost Creeper Lagoon's fuzzy, scatty edge to a fuller, more cohesive sound.

Her sharpest offering yet, and one of the better live albums in recent memory.

Breach is equal parts likeable, lyrical jamming, and inflated mediocrity. The Wallflowers achieve their most noteworthy moments in their uptempo, instrumentally thick songs, such as the first track, "Letters from the Wasteland," and "Sleepwalker." When the band leans hard on lyrics as the primary stability of a song, the album falters a bit ("Witness," for example, is slow and tedious).

A truly superb and definitive record...

An early study of California hip-hop, Überzone mixes twisted, bubbling Roland bass, big beats, and vocoder effects to make futuristic electro-anthems that manage to pop and lock like robots, but recall the organic '80s breaker heyday and never sound sterile and stiff.

His eighth album again plays out his lonesome blues as the sincere struggle of a lovesick man -- and, as only Isaak can, he gets away with it.

Cake often veers close to the land of Dr. Demento -- but its catchy, quirky music always manages to pull back from the brink of madness by being a bit more substantial than your typical novelty tune.

It's an impressive debut, and one that justifies the hype she's gotten.

A sophomore album that actually lives up to its hype.

Despite its obvious classic-rock feel, what could have felt like a novelty album -- a tired K-Tel collection of long-forgotten hits -- feels like a revelation in places.

A finely wrought chronicle of joy and heartbreak, partying and love, his tuneful, raspy voice the perfect balance of eloquence and muscle.

Daybreaker's more conventional nature puts a greater and more intriguing challenge on Orton's vocal cords to be the album's main instrument; that voice, a breathless cry that falls somewhere between Natalie Merchant and Bjork, is more than equal to the task.

Sonically, this is the most diverse and intriguing work of their careers.... A welcome surprise.

How Sweet It Is shows Osborne's strength as an interpreter far more than her already-established singing talent.

Nellyville is quite calculated, right down the tired skits about bootlegging -- it sort of has to be, given what's at stake, though one would wish otherwise.

In anybody else's hands, a blending of techy aesthetics and near-tender melodies would be a musical oxymoron, but in Squarepusher's, it is delicious.

The rockers here, however, aren't his best work, sounding like the Goo Goo Dolls with steel guitars.

Miller explores his usual subjects -- getting out of places and into relationships -- with more unusual touches.

Oddly, it's the faster songs -- once Pearl Jam's forte -- that detract from Binaural as a whole.

Bloodflowers is a marvel. It has something to say, and it delivers that message with passion.

Though not as stellar as such past Max-era classics as Chaos A.D. or Roots, Nation is another worthy set of brutally dense, hardcore-tinged metal.

The most alluring aspect of The Platform is the array of finely-crafted beats assembled by Evidence and DJ Premier protégé The Alchemist, which are in turn juggled and sliced at will by the hands of DJ Babu, the oft-forgotten man in the hip-hop equation.

Semisonic's newest release, All About Chemistry, hits all the right pop spots, but will likely appeal to a very niche group -- the same group that embraced the easy, witty pop of bands such as Crowded House or Ben Folds Five.

What South demonstrates most effectively is that Nova, who had been awkwardly marketed as an edgy alt-rock chick, is now a performer perfectly poised for adulthood, and the mature listening audience that comes with it.

There are moments on Stillmatic where the old fire is rekindled, the power of his emceeing reborn.