A pleasurable but uneven set that makes for occasionally compelling, but not addictive, listening.

There's nothing new under the sun in the world of Stereolab. Diehards will enjoy Margerine Eclipse simply because it exists and isn't lousy.

Want One matches the eclecticism of Poses and his eponymous debut, but suffers from a lack of memorable songs.

None of the songs on Get Behind Me Satan is bad; all the songs together, however, fail to meet the Stripes' criteria that all you need is two. For these tracks, you need four, five, six musicians -- not to drench the proceedings in a Scott Walker deluge, but to fill the spaces, the former job of White's guitar and Meg's drum bashing.

Many of these songs have about as much sonic bite as a warm cantaloupe. When you compound this with Doe's more meandering songs, the results sound anemic.

Without the first disc, the double disc Cold Roses wouldn't be half bad.

Ether Teeth can be dull if you're paying too much attention to it.

Porcelain neither builds on the promise of Wiretap Scars nor cashes in on the band's gifted heritage.

A return to form, though, doesn't imply a return to greatness.

Beyoncé never met a ballad she didn't like. Out of Dangerously in Love's 14 tracks, a staggering eight are the kind of overwrought, no-tempo love songs even Toni Braxton has the sense to avoid.

It's no departure from any of the band's previous combinations of shuffling beats, spacey blips, dramatic strings and squeaking, soughed vocals; such a delivery of old comforts is precisely what makes the album so dull.