[Tweet] offers more mature and demure R&B this time out.

The band builds on the power of the previous Thirteenth Step, applying hypnotic arrangements, brooding melodies, and droning rhythms to a collection that sounds absurd on its surface, but is woven together by A Perfect Circle's heavy and dark-lidded instrumental approach.

An album that sounds vital and immediate.

One of his best.

An album meant to enrage, amuse and enliven.

The basic ingredients are delicate, minimal, well-conceived songs that utilize instruments ranging from guitars and analog keyboards to melodicas and chop sticks.

The Thrills continue to crank out buoyant melodies that keep singer Conor Deasy from downing in his bittersweet lyrics and brokenhearted vocals.

This is an astounding body of work--and definitely one of the year’s best.

For those who missed Nico’s erotic darkness the first time around, Midnight Movies have found the recipe.

Weightlifting is stellar TCS, expressing everything great about the band.

A pleasure to examine at close range.

Certainly a tougher and more traditional album than its two predecessors.

Wait a minute... you mean this isn't a Duran Duran album?

Skinner has often been declared the Eminem of British rap. But on A Grand..., he proves that if anything, he's British hip-hop's answer to master storyteller Ray Davies, or maybe idiot savant Brian Wilson.

Sonic Youth sound like their cover band in comparison.

These dozen songs, which swing with the organic, old-school funk Prince began embracing in the late-’80s, also avoid his ‘90s excesses, combining rock and soul as effortlessly and succinctly as he ever has.

Not quite jazz, not quite electronica, and not quite indie rock, Tortoise continues to define and evolve their own compelling cosmology.

Honkin’ On Bobo is a big bruiser of an album, with heart, soul, and fury to spare.

A smartly schizophrenic solo debut filled with the anything-goes dancefloor abandon of the ‘80s.

Sure, it's nothing that hasn't been done before.... Still, there's no denying that She's In Control is one helluva bad-ass, booty-shakin', funky-fresh party record.

Recalling Come Away With Me only for Jones’s sultry voice, the album has its share of pleasant throwaways, but those are balanced by a handful of starkly beautiful and excellently arranged songs.

West is at his best the higher the lyrical stakes get, and the more they contradict hip-hop orthodoxy.

The album carries a compelling intensity among the varied and evocative songs.

The good humor and easier tempos also make Twista’s forays into Guinness World Record speed more effective, even if manic window-rattlers like “Kill Us All” seem a bit predictable once you’ve heard his latest, slowed-down twist.

A shimmering example of wistful chamber folk-pop.

He hasn’t made a great album, but even Tupac never managed that; the bombed-out landscape of Boy In Da Corner burns instead with all the anger, confusion and messed-up desperation of youth.

The band attempts to continue to deliver the hits on its seventh album, Splinter, while retaining its punk roots, and the Offspring succeeds on both counts.

Tito Puente meets Daft Punk!