Like the best of BF5, it's both plaintive and punky.

The tunes here are full of immediately memorable, if not obvious, hooks, and the vocals capture a tenderness and vulnerability he's never before revealed.

Matching Homework in quirkiness, buoyancy, and club-ready freak-beats, Discovery combines the best of what Daft Punk has to offer: mid-'80s synth-pop ("Digital Love"), sleazy euro-funk ("Harder Better Faster Stronger"), shake-your-booty electro-metal with spacey guitar effects ("Aerodynamic" -- Basement Jaxx meets Eddie Van Halen), and minimal, big-beat tunes that Underworld wishes it would have thought of first ("Superheroes").

It's the breath-taking songwriting that clinches the deal here.

It's not likely that Up will have the same kind of cultural significance as a milestone like So, but there is no way that fans can write Up off as a disappointment, either.

Morphine's most ambitious and accomplished work.

Shopping Trolley is a fun, for-the-fans work with a heavy dosage of otherwise unavailable rarities. It's safe to say, however, that casual listeners looking for Gomez's Philips [TV commercial] appeal are not best served here. Try 1998's Bring It On instead.

By assembling a heavyweight lineup of talent to support -- including soul legend Bobby Womack, the Congos, and the Pharcyde -- Rae & Christian set lofty aspirations and, more often than not, reach them.

Sailing to Philadelphia, the singer's guest-star-heavy sophomore outing, is a deliberate, grown-up record (in a season which has seen a pronounced lack of adult offerings) that feels -- heavily in places -- like Dire Straits: Five Years Later.

Mathers slips only when he tries to play out the movie's rags-to-riches vibe with his friends.

It's only on "Close to Modern," a slinky, soul-infused number, that the French Kicks truly distance themselves from their downtown N.Y.C. contemporaries.

Let It Come Down, might well contain the most potent feel-good music he's yet crafted.

Unemotional throughout, Long Walk Home is without obvious peaks of joy or valleys of sorrow, offering instead a steadfast, unerring journey.

Yup, the angst and fury of 1997's Pinkerton is a thing of the past, as the band indulges in the kind of buzzing hooks and euphonic harmonies that made songs such as "Buddy Holly" and "Undone (The Sweater Song)" such huge hits.

The overall package is a slick, Rockwilder-produced old-school styled joint that's still got a foot in the year 2000 -- classic and timely all at once.

Of her three post-"comeback" albums, it is the closest in spirit to her '70s work. And not coincidentally, it may be her best.

The songs don't vary a great deal dynamically. Harris' lyrics set Red Dirt Girl apart.

Guitar-heads will automatically buy this, but it also deserves to reach any audiences excited by imaginative music working outside commercial boundaries.

This one finds him getting almost downright sappy. But it suits him well.

In spite of the sudden changes of mood and style, the album coheres nicely around Jackson's strong personality.

They're too smart to just be "art punk," so singer Karen O squeals like Kathleen Hanna and Barbara Mandrell because, well, she can.

As someone previously known to wallow in her torment on occasion, Etheridge has found with her seventh studio release a newfound maturity that bodes well for both her emotional and musical future.

While Dreamland is a dignified, pleasant album, you can't help but give the edge to 1975.

Mirwais lays down grooves that aren't even sensual; they're rambunctiously horny.

Cuttin' Heads whizzes by in just under 40 minutes, with ridiculously charming acoustic pop, Latin-flavored sizzlers, and menacing love songs.

Fans of both Parton and refreshing acoustic roots music should find the album unambiguously divine.

Provides a refreshing change of pace from the current formulaic R&B chanteuses.

Many artists try their hand at varying stylistically within the same album, but often fail miserably. With Movement in Still Life, BT has turned out one of those rare albums that actually pulls it off.