The album is so "been there, done that" that Twain often sounds like she's ripping herself off.

A subpar album.

The frequently acoustic guitars and the frontman's mumbled ramblings on death, politics and love make this a fairly quiet, and deep, Riot.

A largely boring affair.

Even with all the drama, Construction is Elliott's sturdiest creation yet.

A little less than half of this stuff is worth singing about.

features several career-defining turns by superstar producers such as the Neptunes ("In My Arms Tonight"), Babyface ("Hands Up"), Missy Elliott and Timbaland ("Dirty"), with all the group's playfulness and silky-smooth funk intact.

Often thrilling, sometimes just interesting.

This collection of quirky tunes is largely directionless, with Gough's indistinct voice sounding lost and uncertain in a swell of pianos, strings and horn arrangements.

Michael Jackson's probably thinking, "Man, this is the album I should've made last year!"

The sturdy jams--decorated with Moog, powerful guitars and frontman Jakob Dylan's sexy purr--pour out of the stereo and stick in your head.

Features only a couple new Em ditties, but they're gems.... Better yet, most of the rest of the disc is made up of solid, original material.

Walk isn't groundbreaking as much as typical Tori Amos--a dramatic menagerie of atmospheric tracks filled with manic piano, morose characters and so many literary allusions you'll need CliffsNotes to figure 'em out.

If she had just shown up and sang her ass off, Stripped would've been a better show.

But even as Santana's magic fingers sometimes struggle for a common thread here, they still do plenty of good work.

His similar-sounding interpretations lose their oomph a few tracks in.

Here, Grohl consistently puts forth straightforward, stripped-down rock that is neither ironic nor pandering--a fine line between Cheap Trick and cheap tricks.

Throughout the disc, his attention to detail and melody stretch well beyond his 22 years.

The results are compelling and restrained, with hand claps, creaking organ and thudding bass drums joining Chapman's melancholy pipes.

The Nashville hottie shakes off some of her past cobwebs for slicker, bawdier rock and a collection of power ballads--most destined for a high school prom slow dance near you.

The ballads sound more mawkish than ever and the rockers sound, well, a lot like bad Bruce Springsteen rip-offs.

It all amounts to the kind of mediocre girl pop-rock about dreams and stuff that one writes when they want to be Vanessa Carlton or Michelle Branch but don't really know how.

J5 is hard enough to sample Public Enemy on the standout single "What's Golden" and features two of the best turntablists working today, Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark.

A little more electric guitar would've helped, but these tales of capitalism gone amok are worth checking out.

Babylon's treasures don't run as deep as they could've, but swingers will still enjoy this luxurious spin.

The transformation leaves her bland and boring, rather than bright like Britney or bold like [Michelle] Branch.

Many of these harrowing tunes, like "Lonesome Tears" and "Guess I'm Doing Fine" have the lonely blues feel of Beck's similar-sounding Mutations, and they definitely get better with repeated play.

This is an eerie meditation on aging, death and the corruption of popular culture.