Sing-along melodies and breezy hooks are strewn throughout.

Her stream-of-conscious lyrics about self-esteem and troubled relationships are just more of the same medicine that went down better with 1995's Jagged Little Pill.

There are times when Conrad Keely's scabrous vocals are more grating than ingratiating, but this is mainly stunning stuff.

Gorgeous and intimate, the 14 songs on her debut disc ache with romantic maturity and a smart, slow-jam sexiness that belies the fact that, at 22, Jones is hardly older than Britney.

At 16 tracks, the melancholy mood lingers a bit long, but hey, if you can handle some meandering in your Britpop, then Here's something for you.

Simply striking.

Yeah, Issak's tunes are the equivalent of rock comfort food, but they always go down so easy.

Each cameo adds style, pizzazz (and most importantly, cool vocals) to the four-man crew's turntable acrobatics.

Confirming everything that is great about Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, Come with Us is equal measures driving rhythms and euphoric, widescreen melodies.

A few more tangible melodies would have gone down well, but the overall mood is magnificent.

But for all their influences, the Anniversary retains its own personality, with a laid-back style and pizzazz that keeps this party a pleasant one.

A far more streamlined affair, songs stretch out into dreamy extended jams that make bossa nova rhythms, sizzling electronics and screeching metal guitars seem like perfectly acceptable bedfellows.

The perfect guest at your next guilty-pleasure dance party.

Their debut drips of melancholy and swims in gorgeous sheets of incidental noise.

The band has energy and urgency anew.

The band's playing is mellow and freer than their tenser past outings, and frontwoman Johnette Napolitano's voice remains pleasantly husky. But some of the band's beautifully gritty venom is missing.

Frontman James Walsh channels Jeff Buckley's soaring vocals so perfectly over those lovely acoustic guitars and pianos that you won't be surprised when you hear the band's named after a Tim Buckley album.

The disc is bubbling with techno effects, a loose interpretation of Jamaican production and a (welcome) severe case of ADD.

With so much soundtrack and jingle work to be done, who can really blame these marketing all-stars for playing to their past successes?

It's not exactly the most sophisticated rap album of the year... but with production by Swizz Beatz on "Cry Babies (Oh No)," the head-bobbing chorus for "Rollout (My Business)" and the smooth joint effort with Nate Dogg ("Area Codes"), the crass clown can be entertaining.

A mixed bag, with its fair share of unsatisfactory pop throwaway moments but also a healthy dose of midtempo ballads and stratospheric numbers.

Recalls other feisty femmes like Alanis Morissette and Cyndi Lauper, and it all comes out lookin' rosy.

The Detroit rapper brags about life after success--money, women, drinkin'--and uses his mediocre rhyming skills on anthemic, fist-pumping Rock staples like "Forever" and "Cocky."

Who is Jill Scott? This is--in all her eloquent, inspirational, beautiful and melodic glory.

Merchant has achieved a lovely balance of art and craft.

This album contains just eight tracks--but each one of them is a testament to the unshakable power of the group.

Country's biggest commodity takes the easy way out with a meticulously picked and produced batch of tunes (see: safe) that would be impossible to screw up.

While [Linda's] death hangs over much of Driving Rain, Macca's knack for taking a sad song and making it better means tracks like "Lonely Road," "It Must Have Been Magic," "Your Way" and "Back in the Sunshine" are redemption songs, not exercises in self-pity.