Producer David Bottrill (King Crimson, Tool, Muse) gives Battle for the Sun a lean, sharp sound, stripping away a lot of the synthetic weight that bulked up the group's last few albums.

Like its predecessor, 21st Century Breakdown delivers less than it promises; it’s more successful as a rock album than as a rock opera.

Noel provides the best songs on Dig Out Your Soul, although his bandmates certainly can’t be accused of slacking in their efforts. The problem with this one is that it’s front-loaded with Noel’s songs, which makes the proceedings start to drag a bit.

Throughout, the joyfulness and invention, a marvel of pop craft, make Here We Stand hit the spot.

Weezer (red album), co-produced by Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee (who has worked in the studio with Snow Patrol and R.E.M. and was a guitarist in Compulsion), is slight and flimsy (10 songs, 42 minutes), but finally returns the band to its peak entertainment level.

Brimming with confidence and good humor, Don’t Do Anything is another high point in a career that threatens to become overstuffed with them.

A solid enough set from the Around the Sun tour but not particularly revelatory, it’s exactly what one would expect from a late-period R.E.M. live album, with no surprises in performance or setlist.

In Rainbows is a richly textured and resonant record. In a career marked by dramatic reinvention, Radiohead’s latest phase — growing old gracefully--is going quite well.

The instrumental "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" showcases Grohl's acoustic guitar chops, while the piano-driven "Home" provides a lovely ending to an excellent album.

The songs are catchy and listenable, but Samson's lyrics lack the depth of songs like 'Benediction' or 'A New Name for Everything' on its predecessor.

Rise to Your Knees doesn't sound exactly like either previous incarnation. Those expecting a return to form will find this one decidedly mellow.

Dylanesque is a winner, succeeding both for its incongruity and its sympathy.

Feist offers diversity and charm.

Favourite Worst Nightmare is a surprisingly significant improvement on an excellent debut.

An impassioned, angry and devastating document.

A rewarding, resonant album, Neon Bible ranks among the best indie rock recordings of all time.

The dolorous and enervated West reins in some (not all) of Williams' willful stylistic misadventures while holding fast to her golden triumvirate of death, love and longing.

More than any rock album in recent memory... this is a producer's creation.

It's like being stuck in the seat next to a chatty, batshit backwoods pixie for an 18-hour plane ride.

Individually, the tracks are every bit as good as anything else he’s ever written; as a whole, however, the album is too much of the same thing, as one glum tale follows another.

A likable, cogent album of adult punk-pop that matches Dando's easygoing voice to genial fuzz-rock.

As music for airports, the album hums along like a tension-age sedative, but if it was meant to be a grand artistic statement by an acclaimed band with a distinctive vision, it's pretty much static.

It's hard to imagine any other band with as much indie cred that could succeed with this material; it would be too audacious.

The Robinsons remain a fascinating couple on Get Yr Blood Sucked Out, burning through more inspiration and ideas in one album than any band has a right to.

While the depression accompanying a relationship breakup comes through, several tracks lose their quirkiness in the studio setting.

Unfortunately, his lyrics don't measure up; he writes songs that repeat a phrase or two in lieu of any sort of finished thought.

By so clearly rejecting the terms and expectations of rock and pop, The Drift asks fairly explicitly to be taken as a serious work of art. However, for all its highbrow aspirations, it seems to fall between two realms, lacking the innovative reach that would make it a credible presence among contemporary avant-garde compositions.

The gap between expectations and delivery, the contrast of emotions that go into real life as opposed to pop fantasy, makes this brief but satisfying album a pointed delight.