In cleaning up his act and focusing his attention on socially relevant soul music, ChesnuTT left behind some of the experimentation and sense of playfulness that initially made him so beguiling.

It is a thoroughly likeable little trifle of a record, valuable even if only for having produced what is undeniably The Single of 2010, but one wishes that Cee-Lo had not been nearly as content to work so comfortably within the confines of his considerable range and talent.

All the songs on Big Black Coat sound like love songs, all eleven of them.

First, there is almost nothing here that is objectively difficult to listen to. Most of the material goes down rather easily, and indeed some of it seems more than accessible. The paradox that confronts us here (and elsewhere), though, is that this is a largely frictionless experience. It feels as if the album doesn't ever get quite weird enough somehow, and there are frequent rather non-descript jazzy interludes that don't so much provide connective tissue as they merely put us into a slightly vapid holding pattern ("Remind U", "Debbie Is Depressed", "FF4", and passim).

This Liz, however, can still produce a satisfying forty-five minutes or so of 4AD-styled mysterious, drifting amorphia (complete with acoustic guitars and pretty vocals), and that’s rare enough that Grouper are worth watching.

Reflektor doesn’t contain any actually bad songs (the closest we can peg on the collection would be a small amount of filler material), but the impact of a full listen is one of catchy excitement and impressive pop rock which slowly rolls downhill into the murky sonic depths of the more somber second half without any truly punctuating final moment of the record itself.

It doesn't take a genius to see that this is a wicked concept on paper: Marshall's got the voice and the vibe to make it work, but there's a nagging sense that it wasn't properly planned out.

Bestial Burden is not much fun to listen to, even for those of us who take great pleasure in noisy, abstract, unhappy music. So if you really need to hit bottom and feel about as misanthropic and nauseous as possible in order to bounce back, Bestial Burden might be just the thing.

It’s hard to strike a balance in music between the sound of isolation and the connection to an audience. Mirel Wagner finds that tether more often than not on this album, but sometimes it’s so dark that that tie is hard to see.

"Pristine", "Let's Find an Out", and "Anytime" are all really strong songs, but they aren't enough to make Lush a good album. What they do is show that Lindsey Jordan has a lot of (the dreaded) potential as a songwriter that she isn't fully realizing yet. The rest of the album is too similar in sound and style to do much besides blur together.

Wolfe is as uncompromising a poet as she has ever been on She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, and while her disparate choices of canvas give us a bumpy ride, it’s one worth taking in good faith.

It is powerful but blunt electronic pop; hooks always aimed to tear, melodrama at an uncomfortable volume. Still it often works.

The 11 tracks of Gulag Orkestar are very good, but not the stunning achievement you might be led to believe they are.

TSOOL may be growing more understated as they mature, but this dependable album demonstrates again that classic rock played by its attentive fans can remain dignified and confident.

Odd Soul is appropriately odd, but not as odd as the band has proven that they can successfully be in the past.

i,i hangs between surrealism and meaning in a way that's more frustrating than tantalizing.

Anathema may not be at its most compelling on distant satellites, but what is less than optimal for these artists is still several notches above the rest.

As much as Give the People What They Want is a quasi-holding pattern and is middling in its success, hope that she can get back to doing what she does best, which just so happens to be the title of this very album.

In truth, [Silver Age] is simply just a pretty not bad retread.

Lyrically, Webb and Lambke are as masterful as always, but unfortunately, somebody should have told them to focus more on the actual music, as the actual songwriting is inconsistent at best; for every one track that renews our faith in the band, there's another that shatters our expectations, disappointingly hookless, lifeless songs that just go through the motions.

Compared to the previous compilations' sense of liberation, Charli sounds at odds with its some of its invested players and parts: the label, the fans, and Charli the artist. ... When its gears click, Charli glides.

There’s no denying that he has his own style, but a little more variety in execution might make Under the Skin a more enthralling and thus, listenable experience.

Lone Justice may have been a better performing unit before Geffen forced that ‘80s drum sound and Benmont Tench’s ubiquitous keys on them, but there’s something to be said for having Tom Petty and Little Steven contributing material when you haven’t quite gotten a handle on songwriting.

Fading Lines is typified by a lot of great atmosphere without much in the way of great hooks. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t any hooks, just that they aren’t quite strong enough to make most of these songs individually memorable.

Playing Robots Into Heaven is ultimately a flawed but, at times, interesting and worthwhile foray for Blake into more beat-led, dancefloor-friendly music.

Psychic isn’t quite rock, but it does lean more heavily on backbeats, guitars, and occasionally even traditional song structure than any of Jaar’s previous work. The vocals are even clear at times.

Combining a brilliant debut with some never-heard, once-unfinished songs is clearly a move made with diehard Jesu fans in mind. But, for the curious and casual music listeners, it's the record's shorter songs that, oddly enough, are the least listenable.

The orchestrations are mostly neutral, sometimes problematic, occasionally great. But: the quartet deserves an album of its own.