Wainwright's songs are tight, cohesive and show real emotion.

A charming collection of breezy, hook-filled pop songs.

Derek Trucks Band has produced its most commercially viable CD to date.

The Scottish singer builds on the promise of her first album with Drastic Fantastic.

Sure enough, we know these devils: they're the ones who make so many latter-day metal bands look like hopeless poseurs.

Beauty & Crime, an artful array distinguished by classy sonic design and lyrical charm.

Fans of Dulli and Lanegan should happily devour the Gutter Twins, but even better, newcomers are in for a smooth, memorable introduction to two of the darker characters in rock today.

The duo's third album uses its fidgety rhythms and broad palette of synth sounds to create music that's perhaps subtler and more emotionally resonant than any they could hope to fashion using "real" instruments.

Thanks to a certain screw-it attitude and massive, enveloping soundscapes, Glasvegas is a deeply engrossing and relentlessly catchy introduction to a group that's hyped enough in Britain to have already generated plenty of backlash.

Fluency aside, with the first in what is hopefully a long line of releases, Fever Ray knocks down more walls than it puts up.

A full-length debut strong on deft, cheeky wordplay and blessedly free of the usual hip-hop clichés burdening her American counterparts.

These 12 songs are beautiful in their bucolic simplicity, and elegant, too, in their tidy melodies and warm flickers of emotion.

Smile is one of the better heavy releases this year, and one of the best in the band's extensive catalog.

Parallel Play finds the quartet in fine form.

Folk and rock collide in happy fashion as McKenna celebrates the commonplace on the rugged title track, setting vocal grit alongside flowing organ and a punchy backbeat.

He remains a singular performer, one who can't be overwhelmed by the usual Neptunes production. Williams' typically sparse 'Loose Wires' sounds simultaneously like Kenna's surefire smash--how could that Michael Jackson-inspired hook miss?--and the proof, thanks to its android-crooning verses, that the world will only see Kenna's face on his own, refreshingly distinctive, terms.

Beck has shown an affinity for retro-leaning styles on his previous records, too, but he's never found a sound quite as consistent or compelling as the one Danger Mouse dials in here.

As always, her uniquely sooty voice gives her the feeling of an old soul while lending levity to her darker songs.

The jumble of languages and sounds gives La Radiolina the feel of a noisy, colorful street bazaar where there's chaotic beauty on the surface and a certain poetic logic that runs underneath.

The prettiest moments here come on less characteristic musings, such as the shifting perspective of 'Down Here Below.'

A stunning return to form.

They’re subtle, but loaded with the laid-bare emotion she spent so long learning to harness.

Williams finds himself on the respected electronic label Tigerbeat6, raising expectations even higher. He more than meets them, navigating ably through sugary tracks tempered with a dark streak.

Thursday gets away with being so gloomy by keeping the energy level sky-high and the sonic assault dense, making Common Existence more thrilling than seething.

The prog-rock elements that begin the disc and surface throughout help to make the familiar sound fresh.

The wistful tunes are the big draw here. They're masterworks of pop production, with Robyn's wispy voice weaving through spinning swirls of sugary synthesizers and hip-twitching beats that make it all but impossible to sit still.

Here, Eno, who wrote the music, opts for a more familiar sound, mixing electronic elements and acoustic guitars to create cottony, unobtrusive pop songs.

An album so confident in its experimental spirit that its eclecticism seems nothing short of captivating, even though its charms are subtle enough to require a little time before they become apparent.