If last year's Under Construction was a little weird, then This Is Not a Test! is barking mad--in the greatest way.

Clever? Yes. Stupid? Possibly. Essential? Absolutely.

[Dylan's] most cohesive work in over a decade...

Minimalist folk rock in its purest form.

It's quite possibly his best album since 1982's Nebraska.

Gorgeous and intimate, the 14 songs on her debut disc ache with romantic maturity and a smart, slow-jam sexiness that belies the fact that, at 22, Jones is hardly older than Britney.

Tak[es] on the state of global affairs in a way that is both surprisingly direct yet somehow reassuringly weird.

Weird, wonderful and, yes, super.

The band's equally impressive second album grooves with both a Detroit hipster sound and some spacey atmosphere.

The duo's collaboration on Van Lear Rose is unexpectedly gripping, a raucous slice of vintage Nashville fuelled by Lynn's down-home wisdom, twangy gee-tars and White's inspired hand at production.

It is the sound of Interpol as reinterpreted by Tom Waits--a breathtaking album with bite.

Instantly engaging, and totally engrossing over time.

An album that is as lovely as it is seductive.

Injecting the album with plenty of soul, gospel and throwbacks to that old-school Motown sound, producers like the Neptunes, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and guests like Eve help round out what's possibly the best R&B album this year.

The band turns each song up to 11 and lets its rabid hometown fans provide thousand-strong backing vocals. It'll make you want to yell "Woooh!" too.

A soaring, orchestral pop masterpiece.

On bluesy new tracks such as "Stubborn Beast" and "Moonshiner," she conjures a sensual, serious confidence that suggests she's ready to depose Cat Power as the queen of indie teardrop ballads.

A funky, soulful flashback to the works of outspoken jazz and R&B greats like Gil-Scott Heron and Miles Davis.

A warm serving of elegant late-night ballads that infuse acoustic and pedal-steel guitars with back-porch rhythms and arrangements.

Just like the architects behind Kid A, they take all these creepy elements and make something totally excellent.

It's stripped down (and we're not just talking about the jumpsuits), simple and the songwriter's best work in ages.

Fundamental is the group's most inspired album in nearly a decade.

It's okay, you can believe all of the fawning reviews you're going to read about this album. Because when still-kicking '60s soul legend Solomon Burke puts his earthy baritone to lyrics written by some of today's most critically acclaimed songwriters, it's simply magical.

Now the melodies are sharper, the scissor kicks are higher and the grooves are, er, groovier.

A dynamic piece of work.

Maxwell's latest finds the steady and seductive soul-provider drawing more from the class of Marvin Gaye than the trash of R. Kelly--with a touch of spirituality thrown in.

Even the geeky ballads will put a smile on your face and a Bic lighter in your hand.

There's nothing quite like the sound of a band at the top of its game.

Following 2002's experimental Phrenology, which featured all manner of drum 'n' bass and techno influences, the real-instrument-playing Philadelphia hip-hop collective ditches the frills on Tipping Point.

As subversive as it is weird.

An emotionally wracked masterpiece, drawing on immaculate influences like the Pixies and Talking Heads while sounding distinctly original.

Even though the production is slicker, The Dirty South is still packed with painful, well-illustrated southern gothic sagas.

Many of these harrowing tunes, like "Lonesome Tears" and "Guess I'm Doing Fine" have the lonely blues feel of Beck's similar-sounding Mutations, and they definitely get better with repeated play.

Not only is Depeche Mode virtually indestructible, the pioneering British synth-pop group also keeps getting better.

Sexsmith's best album yet.

Beck's best when he's tweaking music he has a genuine interest in, giving new humor and affection to his nasty grooves.

Some may call it repetitious, but with songs so beautifully crafted, everyone should agree that X&Y equals A.

Ben Gibbard has a knack for painting scenes of such intimate detail they come off as universal.

Idlewild is a more down-tempo affair than its genre-splitting predecessor, but it wins points with stone-cold psychedelic soul classics such as "Mighty O," "Peaches" and "Hollywood Divorce."

Head-smashing songs like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Invincible" all point to an album that strives to be nothing less than epic. It succeeds.

People will be Takk-ing about this truly amazing album for years to come.

For such a dark and brooding record, Turn on the Bright Lights is also unexpectedly thrilling, coasting on jagged minor-chord guitar melodies and huge emotional swells with a ton of high points along the way.

A slower album than most, Bomb eventually reveals itself as a work of genius, wrapping religion, love and life into emotionally thrilling gifts.

Williams' captivating lyrics are gut-wrenchingly intimate.

Beautiful pop symphonies that hit like a Louisville Slugger.

Their debut drips of melancholy and swims in gorgeous sheets of incidental noise.

This disc's rich, exotic flavor gets more intense the longer you chew on it.

He gets all beautiful on your ass for the Orpheus portion of this double-disc set, then explodes with a pounding intensity on Abattoir Blues that'll knock your socks off.

Get past the dark stuff and Demon Days reveals a stash of songs that are more fun than a Hong Kong Phooey marathon.

As concert recordings go, this is one of the best.

Ms. Dynamite's debut album is heady stuff, punctuated by groundbreaking beats, seductive vocals and melodies that lodge themselves firmly into your cranium.

They've updated fuzzy '90s-era alternative rock while tinkering with becoming Northern Ireland's answer to Coldplay.

Deeper Bruce fans will go ga-ga over the dearth of hits on this collection and twists like "Born in the U.S.A." getting a Nebraska-esque treatment and a great version of "Jungleland." Everyone else will simply love it.

Beck's taken everything he's good at and made it better.

Say hello to your new metal gods.

A most pleasurable guilty pleasure.

Exquisite, angry, sad and personal, basement is a beautiful swan song of one of this generation's best.

There's something totally irresistible about Antics: The air of mystery, the bleak but hopeful arrangements and the melodies so sharp and moving that they might inspire a night of heroic partying.

Fusing R&B, pop, jazz, blues, throwback soul--hell, you name it--Keys delivers grandstand ballads (like the single "Fallin' "), midtempo music, diary-worthy lyrics and feminist funk as if they were all as uncomplicated as scales.

Some called their first two albums derivative, but with this third disc the guys wrestle their greased-up garage boogie until they own it.

It's [Lewis'] powerful voice and compelling storytelling... that makes the songs of busted relationships and failed faith really sting.

Stanley's eloquent, understated and unpretentious folk music is more than up to the challenge of finding its place in a world devoted to teen pop and nü-metal.

With soft electronic rhythms and tape loops bubbling under, her impassive voice lays out rich lyrics as melodies build and explode around standout tracks like "Galaxies" and "Parisian Dreams."

This album contains just eight tracks--but each one of them is a testament to the unshakable power of the group.

Even with all the drama, Construction is Elliott's sturdiest creation yet.

Most of these songs are just as good, if not better, than the ones that actually made the cut.

Give it a couple of spins, and you'll find it's completely mind-blowing.

An acoustic-based, late-night journey focusing on social and political bummers and characters who've been battered by life.

Slapping his knees, spitting and grunting, Waits makes the already raw blues sound of songs like "Metropolitan Glide" and "Trampled Rose" sound even more grizzled.

Melodically exquisite, this is a triumph of minimalism.

Even if you think you've heard it all before, West is a winner.

There's no reason to buy any other electronica CD this year.

A blur of shouted vocals, tribal drums and scattershot riffs.

Some Cities brims with confidence, as the band delivers a mix of Motown rhythms and windswept melodies with unblinking force.

You either get the concept or you don't, but those who do will feel tingly all the way down to the base of their dance-floor spines.

Simply awesome.

Cleverly mixes soft-focus hip-hop, trippy space rock and Ennio Morricone-style melodrama with Albarn's unwavering pop melodies.

The Alternative to Love is tipped to be his big breakthrough album, and it's easy to see why. It's full of bright '70s power-pop choruses, infectious guitar riffs and the kind of laid-back breeziness that suggests most of these songs came to him in his sleep.

[Plans has] ginormous power-pop melodies in songs such as "Soul Meets Body" and "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and wussy-boy lyrics that'll make your heart grow a few sizes.

It delivers the ultimate knockout--sticky R&B grooves and a heavenly falsetto that point to greats like Marvin Gaye ("Soul Sista") and Stevie Wonder ("Queen Sanity").

While their sound is decidedly of the moment (Bloc Party, the Killers, et al), their songs are undeniably catchy as all get-out.

Walk's mellow mood sidesteps the usual overly melodramatic soundtrack hoo-ha for a journey that works as well on the stereo as it does on the screen.

LL does DEFinition with a superstar panache that never gets into that dangerously cheesy Will Smith territory and keeps it streetwise without putting on a front.

If you've got the time to dig in, Frances the Mute proves a cohesive, intricate and expertly layered experience.

Features only a couple new Em ditties, but they're gems.... Better yet, most of the rest of the disc is made up of solid, original material.

Looks back to prehistoric U2 and Cure records for inspiration.

The songs don't exactly have the stripped-down demo feel Harrison intended--but mercifully aren't as over-glossed as those on his last solo album, 1987's Cloud Nine.

Through it all, the guys stay just as tight (translation: radio-ready) as ever, offering up tracks in near-perfect three-minute doses.

With loads of acoustic guitars and the Jayhawks' winsome country harmonies, this album looks back to the sound of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Hearing the bare-bones "Across the Universe" or a de-orchestrated "The Long and Winding Road" is revelatory.

[Starsailor] sounds more confident than ever.

Double the pleasure, double the fun? Definitely, definitely.

This gem glistens with bumpin' hits by Nelly, Clipse, Snoop Dogg and others.

Are you listening, Quentin Tarantino? Here's the soundtrack to your next movie.

Who is Jill Scott? This is--in all her eloquent, inspirational, beautiful and melodic glory.

Songs like "Invincible" and "Do What You Want" don't disappoint and should be on the playlist for any retro dance party.

A majority of By the Way features astoundingly wise steps in new, mature directions.

Unlike so many other cut-and-paste experiments, this actually sounds like music and not a clever science project.