[Dulli] treats them all with the same ravenous intensity.

As an album, it probably won't spawn any MTV-hogging video classics--certainly, that was never the intention--but Finn fans in search of a mellow listen should find Everyone Is Here hits all the right buttons.

While McGraw may not be the greatest of warblers, nobody in country can touch him at conveying emotions too deep to express in words.

Tambourine may not quite live up to the Dusty in Memphis comparisons, but it may very well wind up the album of Tift Merritt's career.

Ignore it at your peril. [Amazon UK]

This album is bursting with quality. [Amazon UK]

Corralling such a large cast into anything like a coherent vision is no easy task, but it's one that the Concretes manage with some aplomb on a consistently spectacular album. [Amazon UK]

Beneath this band's graceful posturing lies a deep discontent and anger, but band lyricist Michael Timmins manages to once again turn that gentle simmering fury into poetic grandeur.

An impressive album in the best tradition of the Clan... Had this album come out in 1998, people might have hailed it as another Wu classic.

Persson, the finest pop lyricist working today, is on peak form while the band's back-to-roots grand piano and grander acoustic guitars provide an appropriately magnificent backing.

Flitting between fraught ballads and up-tempo adult pop (the misguided sample-laden singles "Freeek!" and "Shoot the Dog" being the unnecessary exceptions), George here returns to the structure and mood of 1990s Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1. [Amazon UK]

It's difficult to think of a more compelling sophomore record by a young singer-songwriter, Norah included.

Carpenter reestablishes herself not only as a world-class poet, but as an artist of the first order.

Van Lear Rose exceeds all expectations, a bold collaboration in which artists from two different musical universes forge a memorable work that neither could have created alone.

The Purple One has reconnected with that deep vein of funk after experimenting with his splendid and messy excesses since the cusp of the nineties, and turned out his best album since 1987's "Sign of the Times."

An arrestingly epic and assured debut. [Amazon UK review]

As with all great country music, exquisite execution, splendid sound, and depth of feeling combine to create a cathartic, redemptive result.

The quintet moves easily from straight ahead, if slightly-fractured rockers, to fine slices of cerebral sonics.

Intelligent, interesting, honest, diverse and ever so slightly screwed up--what more could you want from a rock 'n' roll record? [Amazon UK review]

[He] attacks these songs with passion, intelligence, and a refreshing lack of blues-rock pretense.

Despite his dirty mind, Chasez has proven to be an adventurous auteur, taking his music to places where NSNYC would never venture.

If the tasteful, lissome country-folk backing of steel guitar, fiddle, piano, drums, and harmony vocals from Cindy Wasserman is a tad shy of adventurous, the sound suits the ripe, romantic, and dreamy mood of Phillips's songs.

Arrangements begin with folk-friendly guitar, mandolin, and violin, only to rise into soundscapes worthy of Lambchop, if not Tricky.

West magically sledgehammers home his opinions on taboo topics over beats that are equally daring.

Dark, dusty, and ever bittersweet, Burnett's musical archaeology here is something considerably more than merely "O Brother Redux."

I Can’t Stop blows away the dust and finds more life and gutbucket flash in a seemingly inexhaustible vein.

One of 2003's best releases.

While it probably won't be remembered as his best album, The Black Album is his most personal to date and features some of his most compelling writing.

As unlikely as the collaboration [with Tim Armstrong] looked on paper, it works perfectly because the Pennsylvania native has always brandished a punk sneer beneath the corsets, gaudy hair color, and naughty girl demeanor.

Merritt's lyrics remain as sharp and funny ("We belong together/Like sex and violence," he croons on "Heather Heather"), but it's the ever-inventive arrangements--like the offbeat blend of ukulele and harmonium on "One April Day"--that make these gems especially memorable.

It’s hard to remember that he once wrote well-crafted ballads of romantic infatuation.

Westerberg's not making sensitive statements or trying to write a pop song as good as "Alex Chilton" here. As such, it's the best music he's made in years.

On every tune, Mercer packs more hooks and melodic invention than most bands do on one album. As a whole, it's an even better record than Inverted World.

Amorino sounds like a lost soundtrack to some cool French film from the 1960s.

Moments of playful mixing magic are at times followed by baffling inanity.

Out of Season creates a dreamily sinister otherworld that's both vintage and timeless. [Amazon UK review]

Seven's Travels features some of Ant's most adventurous and assured production.

She is still in the forefront of genre-transcending artistry.

For fans of Silver Side Up, Nickelback have delivered the goods once more.

Less immediately ear-grabbing than the previous disc, this self-titled record nonetheless sinks in deeply after a mere handful of plays.

Worthy of more than novelty status.

Seal never goes all out in any direction and this coolness, combined with Trevor Horn’s perfectionist production, plants the album inescapably in the realm of adult contemporary (although this is as good as adult contemporary gets).

An album that's smart at every level.

If the lyrics generally lack the literary precision of Zevon’s best work, the songs take on greater weight given the circumstance under which they were recorded.

By marrying ambitious rhymes to a series of increasingly hot beats, Nappy Roots have effectively avoided the sophomore jinx.

Gil Norton's production has taken the band to new heights, allowing the music to have as much grit, substance, and dynamics as the lyrics.

There's something here for everyone, to be sure--but closer to Ween's antic hearts, something to annoy everyone as well.

Sure, it's a jumble, but, like the Beatles' White Album, it hangs together.

It's All In Your Head reveals the band that is very much on top of things.

Everything about this album moves the duo up a level.

Some of the dreamiest pop to emerge on the U.S. side of the pond in recent years.

Twice is a sweet, mercurial foray into lip-quivering American indie-rock infused with the blissful aroma of Creation-style ambience and the woody scent of paisley-clad cosmic country.

The album boasts a handful of crowd-pleasing, party-starting cuts.... Yet more common are moments of startling beauty... and heavy doses of recrimination and regret.

A stylish tour de force.

Like all of the band’s best work, Thief requires more than a few listens to fully appreciate, but those who stick around will be richly rewarded.

Lush, impossibly mature.

The more Nastasia withdraws into her own world, the more attractive her music becomes.

Finds Welch showing more warmth, ease, and openness as both singer and songwriter.

Lyrically autobiographical, songs deal with Gahan's trouble with relationships and intoxicants and, though they lack Gore's sense of drama and perversity, they do have a maudlin charm.

By mixing sweet with sour, E's warm and fuzzy mope rock sounds great whether it's blasting out of a convertible on a sunny day or playing in the background on a rainy night.

Mellencamp's rawest album to date.

Zep faithful will welcome the belated release as evidence for enduring loyalty, but younger fans may find its diversity and dynamics even more enlightening.

An impressive, mature effort that expands a predictable Brit-pop sound into something with varied textures, shades and nuance.

An adventurous meeting place between the Smiths' guitar-driven anthems, the Zombies' vocally intricate garage-pop, and melt-in-your-mouth '70s Quaalude rock.

Electric Six is the most exciting band to come tumbling out of Detroit since Kiss.

As with the band's other releases, the music inspires clear feelings of love and hate.

To his credit, Jenkins is much more interesting a songwriter when he's wounded, offering candor that's not evident on TEB's first two discs.

Another set of sad but very fun songs.

Slideling is McCulloch's best solo offering by a distance.

Fortunately, this spare approach serves Thompson well because he's such a strong and varied songwriter plus a remarkably distinctive guitarist.

While Albarn still has an ear for a melody, without Coxon's guitars to subvert them, most of these songs sound like the work of a new band.

The limitations of Lanois’s vocals lend an engaging frailty, leavened with bleak, lonely, instrumental interludes.

Another accomplished collection that adds richer arrangements and instrumentation to Cary's mix of rock, folk, and country tunes.

Fans of their live performances will appreciate its wall-to-wall rhythmic thrust and quirky textures, while aficionados and newcomers alike should welcome its surprising, seductive melodies and mature songwriting.

Rootsy and undeniable, The Intercontinentals is yet another Frisellian work of genius.

A diverse and engaging work.

Always clever, sometimes hysterical, and sometimes cloying, Lynch is a way hipper Weird Al for the post-millennium MTV generation.

Mixes arena rock in the vein of an Alice in Chains with the aggression of Pantera.

There's more Patti Smith in her than there is Patsy Cline.

If you like the Strokes, you should be spending this week’s CD allowance on Elefant’s first full-length recording.

In a sea of pretenders, the Kills are capable of providing some genuine competition for the White Stripes.

As much an album for slam-dancing nights out at Goth haunts as it is music for the psychiatrist’s couch.

Top to bottom, this may be Chesnutt's best effort since his 1996 disc About to Choke.

The album is a showcase for Cash's trenchant, soul-baring songs about love and mortality.

For the most part though, One Step Forward is more self assured and richly textured, nicely refining a winning formula that will no doubt enchant the many fans of its predecessor.

[A] provocative, if slightly uneven, album full of quirky lyrics and some irresistible melodies.

A truly remarkable progression, and a great album to boot--Antenna is the work of a band that's constantly moving forward.

There's not a weak moment on this dark-horse gem of a disc.

Dust is an atmospheric tour de force that doesn't just come from left field, it breaks through the outfield wall.

Sprawling, funny, angry, compelling, and entirely unafraid.

Here he shows more quirky imagination and inventive musicianship than on any of his earlier efforts.

If it's an album that also argues that the band is working from formula, it's one they'd be wise to patent.

Longtime fans might take it like a kick to the head, but this band is clearly moving toward bigger things.

Hersh has also masterfully tamed her potent vocal quirks here, using them to tease one moment and hypnotize the next.

Disciplined, varied, and often mind-blowing playing.

Few bands... make slowing down sound this risky.

While Dar Williams's artistic trademarks--lyrical introspection, melodic warmth, an occasional tendency toward breathy vocal preciousness--remain much in evidence on this collection, the expanded musical support adds more rhythmic propulsion and layers of harmonies to the mix.

Bright Yellow, Bright Orange is further proof that the second half of the Go-Betweens’ career is one well worth following.