For all the pomp and watermelon costumes, Perry is primarily a smart and personal pop songwriter. And Teenage Dream shows-in carefully selected spots-that she's ready to grow up.

You either love or hate Pitbull's music, and sometimes a little of both when listening to the same album.

The recipe might be different, but the ingredients are largely the same.

Shaka Rock may not expand Jet's range, but its high-energy guitar assaults should impress modern rock audiences.

It's a well-crafted brand of meat 'n potatoes hard rock.

A decade and five albums into its career, the rock band certainly sounds as youthful as ever.

Britney Jean, her first album released in her thirties, is a subtle shift away from frantic bangers and into more forthright songwriting.

Shock Value II packs plenty of heat from the layered beats, but never lets Timbaland shine as the artist he wants to become.

The fresh material isn't likely to expand your idea of who Bret Michaels is.

The dozen tracks of effervescent, shimmering, faith-based synth pop blend Young's adenoidal, Warped tour-ready vocals with a decidedly '80s new wave flavor.

After the devil-may-care disco of "Blurred Lines," Thicke's career peak, Paula's introspection seems half-baked. It is Thicke's personal love letter for Patton--and comes off as relevant mostly just to the two of them.

Throughout Can't Be Tamed Cyrus seems checked out of her vocal performances, singing with neither the tween-queen enthusiasm of her Hannah Montana material nor the confrontational energy of 2008's Breakout.

The tunes are competently rendered, but that actually makes them worse: That these guys are selling out shows as what amounts to a cover band is the kind of thing you need to be super-baked to wrap your head around.

Following the release of its much buzzed-about 2008 breakout album, electro-rap duo 3OH!3 returns with more fast-paced, catchy digital-pop beats on its latest set, Streets of Gold.

It's a worthwhile reinvention, but a little more noise wouldn't have hurt, either.

Lyrically, Louder is rather one-sided, as she often sings about the perils of relationships, over and over, in ways that we've all heard many times at this point. Still, it's a solid effort that shows she has promise as a bona fide pop artist.

While the title of the Peas' newest album, "The Beginning," might suggest a retreat from this everything-to-everyone agenda, it's everything but.

The duo and an assortment of guests-including Will.i.am, Busta Rhymes, GoonRock and Calvin Harris-extol the virtues of late nights, trendy tequilas, hard bodies and vibey DJs.

Half of the album finds the successful singer/actor making the kind of pop-inflected R&B once heard from En Vogue or SWV. Cool & Dre handled the bulk of the album's production, setting the star's vocals against head-nodding beats that come reasonably close to more youthful urban-radio fare.

With some hits and misses, A.K.A. journeys through some predictable refrains with a handful of prospective triumphs.

Speedin' is an uncomfortably internal album that's a pleasurable listen. It's not as gleefully nihilistic as Future, but comes across just as revelatory.

What's surprising about the best cuts from the 15-track set is how much heat the Police frontman and his varied collaborators create.

While listeners can't help but be reminded of his fall from grace, Brown also shows us on Graffiti that he's still a formidable talent.-

It's a bold change of course that gave overseas ears pause when it was first released in July under the group name RPA & the United Nations of Sound.

Although the cleaner melodies and pop polish seem to mute the rapper's stream-of-consciousness salvos, he still shines on "Drop the World," featuring Eminem.

There are certainly smiles to be had as the group grouses its way through some of the most ambitiously arranged and melodically polished tunes it has released to date.

Buffet Hotel might be less about the songs and more about generating a vibe. If you subscribe to it going in, you'll check out happy.