Like Daft Punk’s soundtrack for Tron: Legacy before it (a film also directed by Joseph Kosinski), Oblivion is symbiotically dependent on the silver screen.

Where once they were on the cusp of the avant, breaking down walls through experimentation and sonic manipulation, with Fool Metal Jack, rather than come off as updated or even retro-fitted, they simply sound dated.

In the end, though, the groans far outweigh the mindless fun.

While positivity is an accessible escape within music, his comeback surfaces nothing new, accumulating few tracks that stand out and many an overkill.

Nothing on the record comes across as natural, and it’s not until the album’s iTunes bonus tracks--“Brightest Morning Star” and “Now That I Found You” in particular--that Spears sounds like she’s singing for herself. But, on the album proper, neither the pop figurehead nor the real woman behind it can be found.

(together) would have made more sense as a second disc in a deluxe version of Burst Apart, where uber-fans who needed variations on the songs would've thought nothing of taking the extra plunge. Unfortunately, as a separate release, it just doesn't have the legs to stand on its own.

Top Ten Hits often sees a band with a highly stylized identity sitting inside of another band with a highly stylized identity. More often than not, these halves clash, one entirely overpowering the other, negating what makes the concept interesting.

Greene's efforts of merging the decidedly low-key sounds of bedroom music and the urban thump of hip-hop represent a good first step in the continued evolution of the genre, but in the end, the resulting efforts feel warped by the confines of Greene's bedroom pop dedication.

There is a lot of flash-in-the-pan potential in the band, but I'm sure there will be some Williamsburg/Soho hipsters that will hang on long enough to give The Death Set a second or third 15 minutes.

This is more exhausting, if anything, making Heavy Blanket only worth seeking out for the Mascis diehards.

In summation, for a band that received little limelight in the beginning, Little Dragon showed immense talent and work ethic to earn their keep in the world. Our question is this: Where were those two items when recording Ritual Union?

Essentially, throughout the course of Mine is Yours, the band trades every characteristic that made them so charismatic for its commercial counterpart.

When Collins' distinctive voice and bass work have been limited to side projects and guest appearances on others' albums for this long, it's disappointing when he seems to be hiding on his own album.

It's a little disappointing that in the two years since her debut EP, Warner couldn't come up with anything more distinguished than Feed Me Diamonds.

Mug Museum lacks any sort of emotional dialogue with the listener.

The beats are so simple that they’re a nonfactor, and there aren’t very many funny lines--which was Wayne’s most redeeming quality in the past.

The Sounds' latest release is another attempt to gain entry into the world of success that eluded them when their contemporaries took off into permanent stardom.

Bridges' voice and guitar playing are also serviceable, but the lack of variety causes the album to fall short of becoming recommendable.

Bitter Rivals could be explained as playing to Sleigh Bells’ strengths, but mostly it gets stuck in the weaker aspects of their previous albums, busying up the mercifully brief tracks with unnecessary filler, and definitively showing the dangers of nostalgia taken too far, with nu metal serving as a warning for pop punk, and freestyle, and whatever else might next resurface.

It’s difficult to latch onto anything in the sound patterns that Takahashi and Weiss are throwing out there.

For all [Nicolas Fromageau's] attempts at darkness, Fromageau can’t shake the pretty effusiveness that bolstered M83′s first few albums to the spotlight.

One Lovely Day listens like an attempt to meet expectations, never attempting to push his abilities or the prevailing tastes of an already devoted fan base.

Mediocre on every count, the resulting set of tracks won’t change anyone’s mind about any of the artists involved (that’s presuming it won’t make you like the Everlys less), but as a fleeting curiosity, it’s precisely what it says it is--with little imagination to spare.

Unfortunately, Kiss the Ring often sounds like it was made just to vault the celebrity-status and net worth of the man on its cover.

Even as singers Jon Russell and Josiah Johnson's voices flow together swimmingly over Charity Thielen's violin, the album never truly succeeds at living up to its name.

For this sort-of-but-not-quite comeback album, move right along.

Express Yourself is not a wholly bad collection of songs; half of them showcase Diplo's characteristic ear for taking disparate pieces and creating a coherent whole... [Yet] the EP derails during its second half.

Unlike Rubble Guts & BB Eye, Yes, It’s True never surprises itself with its own excitement.