Orgy sounds a lot like Marilyn Manson on this album, with touches of David Bowie and New Wave techno-pop added for flavor. The results are completely derivative... The result is an album that is often amazing sonically, occasionally gripping musically, pretty dopey lyrically, and absolutely empty in terms of real substance.

With Soul Caddy's stunted riffs, lethargic attack and thin, shiny sound, it's hard to believe that they're one of the most amazing live bands in the country, because exactly none of that energy translates here. Even on theoretical ass-kickers like "Irish Whiskey," the vibe is so washed-out (just like when they do "soul" or "funk" or "glam" or "grunge"), it's a bit depressing and Weird Al-like.

Jakob Dylan and his team have fashioned an album that's longer on big guitars, crunchy grooves and cool changes than overt confessionals. All told, Breach is a subtle, seamless effort with nary a lull or misstep -- in contrast to its multiplatinum predecessor, the second half of which suffered from a series of pedestrian songs.

Yes, as with OK Computer, stark minimalism marks this effort, and the carefully plotted layers of instruments and machine-generated blips only add to the feeling of emotional emptiness. Seemingly stripped bare of all adornment, however, the new album beats with a loud, persistent, sometimes unsteady heartbeat.

With 1998's Blue Wonder Powder Milk and now The Magnificent Tree, Hooverphonic's sound has become increasingly hip and cosmopolitan, slowly processing out everything that made it so alluring in the first place. It's still sleek and meticulously produced. But, as with the latest from Morcheeba (another band with similar trip-hoppy proclivities), the nagging sense of something menacing behind these songs has practically disappeared.

As lyricists (they co-wrote many of the songs on Revelation), none of the members of 98° bring to mind T.S. Eliot, even at his jiggiest. But as a vocal group, they sure can be impressive.... while Revelation is nowhere near perfect, it is at times undeniably good and quite moving.

Like any good party, it's the music and the guests that make Bridging the Gap so memorable.... Each track is so strong and willfully catchy that you may forget who's driving the soul train.

Concise and compelling, Bootleg Detroit is a sonic snapshot of Morphine basking in its best virtues.

Overall, Harsh doesn't lack for bright spots or catchy melodies, but ultimately, it doesn't move me.

An absolutely amazing mainstream pop album.

Björk's airy and exalted vocals are wonderfully familiar. She may be singing as Selma, but Björk herself isn't too far beneath the surface.

With "Modus Operandi," Photek blew open the possibilities of drum 'n' bass by paring the genre down to its simplest, most ominous elements. Solaris, by comparison, sounds absolutely generic.

An album far better than the last. It's full of clever, upbeat songs and comes close to blending the lyrical and melodic brilliance of their first album, Gordon, with the energy of their live album, Rock Spectacle.

Very unique and very, very good....the songs on Righteous Love are brimming with the sorts of influences that you don't hear too much on the radio today: gender-bending atmospherics... Sly Stone/bar-rock amalgams... Dylan's recent haziness...

A record of both disappointments and welcome surprises.

From the double album's first echoes of guitar and strings to its droning denouement, godspeed you black emperor! creates a musical soundscape that alternates between flashes of sonic brilliance and moments of quiet ecstasy.

Immaculately recorded and mixed, the set (all classics, from "Pearls Girl" and "Born Slippy" to "Juanita" and "King Of Snake") presents all of the improvisatory and visceral excitement of an Underworld gig without (as is the case with most live recordings) losing any of its sonic intensity.

The Januaries is a most promising first effort.

Toward the end of Man or Astro-Man?'s A Spectrum of Infinite Scale there is a track called "A Simple Text File" which is nothing more than a recording of a dot matrix printer producing a hard copy of... a simple text file!... If only the rest of the album were this intensely cool.... Every great leap forward on Spectrum is accompanied by an equal and negative small step backwards...

The seamless integration of acoustic strumming, post-collegiate lyrical references, crystalline ambiance and overall etherealness of the entire album make With Ghost an album that certainly stands on its own.

Smart, funny and unabashedly feminine....a bouncy and infectious record.

[A] tighter, indigo-deeper, more vision cohesive joint than its predecessor.

Gone is the preciousness of Elastica. Instead we get a confident and comfortable Frischmann, her voice, ever cool, fronting a rejuvenated punk-loving band.

This time around, LL goes deep and scores with his most consistent, diverse, adventurous, dome blowing/SUV-bumping set of tunes since the Mama Said album...

Yes, nearly every track is a Jeep-worthy jam, and, yes, guest vocals from the likes of Redman, Chaka Khan, Busta Rhymes, and the Beastie Boys introduce unprecedented name-recognition, but this isn't a pop album by any stretch of the imagination.

The trio have hit their stride with a pop confectioner's treat which melds P-Funk with Shirley Bassey, TSOP soul with Caribbean reggae, and Chic disco with Moby-esque blues riffing.

A real piece of art, with an unmistakably original sound and incisive storytelling.

The collection of songs on Horrorscope is a rollicking batch of hooky tunes