Halfway between a fraternity kegger and a housewarming party.

As was the case with John Legend, who beamed into the club on his latest, the initial effect is jarring, even in its star's capable hands. But it also settles in nicely.

Appears and sounds more like a work-in-progress than a finished disc.

An uneven and ultimately unsatisfying return.

On the synthy, Darkchild-produced 'So Over You,' Ashanti croons about getting past a former relationship, while the Jermaine Dupri-mixed 'Good Good,' featuring elements of Michael Jackson's 'The Girl Is Mine,' finds her confidently belting about her abilities to please in bed.

There are potent moments like the rise-and-fall ballad 'Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?' and the fierce 'Nothingtown,' but 'Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace' sounds more like a tentative step in the Offspring's new direction.

Aside from grand moments like "All Hands on Deck - Part 1: Raise the Sail" and the orchestral wall that builds on "The Sweetest Wave," you don't get the feeling that a continuous story binds the album together.

Most of The Block is a reasonable enough approximation of faceless club pop, complete with standard-issue guest stars (the Pussycat Dolls, Timbaland) and out-of-left-field rap bridges.

It simply isn't his best work.

The album doesn't really push the creative envelope and relies too heavily on guests at the expense of the principal artist. [15 Apr 2006]

Things start out strong... [But] the rest of the material is basically an easy-listening version of the band, with vocals weak enough to be distracting and an over-reliance on multilayered, kitchen sink production. [20 Aug 2005]

[It] works best when he's rapping alongside guests.

Live has settled too comfortably into the skin of a middle-of-the-road rock act. [17 Jun 2006]

It's about average for albums from Prince proteges.

Power ballad 'What If' reveals that Tisdale can deliver the radio-ready goods, and 'Tell Me Lies' is convincingly spunky. But the rest of the material, as racy as it sometimes is, doesn't give the singer room to comfortably let loose.

Beyond a few faster songs ("Paper Jesus," "Falling"), the album gets lost in its own blandness. [13 Aug 2005]

The band's first new set since 2002 is full of these well-intentioned attempts to recapture some of that '80s pyromania (or in the case of the absurdly large power ballad 'Love,' herculean '70s prog-rock balladry), but without producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, who left for the much more profitable world of country years ago, the results are solid if unspectacular.

The album is hampered by needless skits and, at times, too slick production.

Overall, the album plays too stiffly for these experts of synth-hewn dance/pop.

The album is, while not terrible, not very memorable, either.

The set is somewhat of a shambolic affair, wherein kernels of good ideas get blown out, jumbled up or lost in execution.

Too often Santana sounds like a guest on his own show.

If crude tales of incest, child abuse, drug abuse and just about every other type of abuse are your thing, then... "Hannicap Circus" is for you.

A respectable effort.

Sometimes it's good bizarre. Other times it's bad bizarre.

It's a shame that the end result, the first under the Queen name in 13 years, is not very memorable.

Aside from a few catchy club tracks, there is nothing all that exciting about Chingy's third album.

What this channel lacks is true feeling and originality.