Rather than try to duplicate the new-wavy sounds of their current output, the trio smartly keep the sound consistently raw, and lead singer Kelly Jones hasn't sounded this inspired or dangerous since 97's Word Gets Around.

Surprisingly impressive.

What's disappointing if you're a fan is that the man has his tropes -- both melodic and lyrical -- and stubbornly sticks to 'em.

Love may not be a full-on revolutionary take on the Beatles catalogue, but it does bring back some of the most awesome material ever to come out of a recording studio.

Sam's Town works well as a cohesive album, despite its delusions of grandeur.

Molko still manages to carry songs with his affected, nasal delivery as the band provides a steady backbone.

They sound more like a live band than they have since their debut, and this relaxed natural quality suits them perfectly.

Christ Illusion sounds like an bid to get back to the Reign In Blood era by reining in the tech prowess that weighed down God Hates Us All and Divine Intervention.

Eno definitely does imbue the mix with some sonically compelling elements, washing songs through some darker-than-usual moods.

Kelis... raps, rants and successfully maintains her spacey freakiness while sailing out into even radio-friendlier waters.

A perfectly enjoyable and to-the-point album that leans heavily on influences like the Cure and My Bloody Valentine.

Occasionally, the band comes close to falling back into old habits, but with their new enthusiasm for sounding nothing like they used to, they've successfully created an album's worth of intelligent music for the Warped crowd.

There's still space for reliable 'Driver fare: paranoid, vocab-intensive rhymes, self-deprecation and absurd imagery woven into a frayed lyrical tapestry that begs to be unravelled.

There aren't really any Beautiful People-type moments, only a collection of songs that work surprisingly well as a kind of musical diary for a performer who has finally acknowledged that he's not the threatening icon he once was.

The album as a whole does drag on, and the songs aren't as immediately grabby as those on their last disc, but We Were Dead is more interesting and varied than Good News.

23 is fundamentally a more interesting album than 04's Misery Is A Butterfly, neither as cartoonishly bleak nor as sonically pristine.

Probably his most personally revealing work yet.

Parochial pop somewhere between Supergrass and the Arctic Monkeys.

The Future Crayon, like Tender Buttons, is a little predictable at first but grows more complex after several listenings.

The result still falls within the confines of lilting indie pop but this time goes beyond cutesy pastiche.

Every song has a lovely flow, with a steady cadence and easy accessibility that no fan of poppy indie rock will want to do without.

This is a groovy record from start to finish, with no major standout fantastic song and nothing that sucks.