Along the way, it scores a lot of points, thanks to Nigel Godrich's earthy but twisted production.

Songs like "First Night" and "You Can Make Him Like You" conjure up a bit of Springsteen, a bit of Westerberg and far more catchiness than they should rightfully be allowed.

[The Crane Wife] not only matches past pop glories, in most cases, it tops them.

Evanescence fans can rest easy knowing The Open Door handily re-creates the sonic storm of the debut.

As concert recordings go, this is one of the best.

While a handful of the songs sound derivative, it's hard to resist the tambourine-enhanced exuberance of standout cuts like "Penny on the Train Track" and "I Gotta Move."

Crazy and fun, this is for the people who thought Gnarls Barkley's album was a little too tame.

On "Waiting on the World to Change," Mayer breathily imagines a world where frat boys get off their couches and have people sign petitions. Sigh. A little more of that and less of noodley songs like "Vultures" and "Gravity" would have been a good step toward reminding us who Mayer really is.

The group sounds as wonderfully debauched, degenerate and dejected as ever.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

The veteran singer-songwriter has opted to retreat into old-timey blues, rattling off clichés about blind horses and hog-eyed towns while laying down a halfhearted soundtrack of brushed drums, plucked guitars and woozy strings.

[This] downcast disc is actually an improvement on its predecessor.

The Day After sounds like something we've heard before.

Idlewild is a more down-tempo affair than its genre-splitting predecessor, but it wins points with stone-cold psychedelic soul classics such as "Mighty O," "Peaches" and "Hollywood Divorce."

Listening to her debut album, you get the feeling that she breezed in and out of the studio.

The result? An album that could just as easily bear the name of any other pop singer working the charts today.

It's too much.

Of course, it sounds ragged as all hell, but that was half of his old band's charm.

An arresting mix of the singer's political and personal strife set to a jazzy backbeat.

They're not exactly shaking up their own heavy-duty formula, but with the hell-and-handbasket thing going strong, what difference does it make to them?

The album's bluesy Americana-inspired tunes like "Saving Grace" and "Turn This Car Around" are, sure, kind of predictable, but they make up for that by being pretty darn good songs.

Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2040 for something else this good.

For a bunch of jokesters, these guys deliver some seriously good music.

Head-smashing songs like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Invincible" all point to an album that strives to be nothing less than epic. It succeeds.

And by classics we mean poorly produced electro songs you'll hear once, chuckle and never want to hear again--unless you have a head wound or a Sparks fetish.

Most of these songs are just as good, if not better, than the ones that actually made the cut.

This could have been groundbreaking once upon a time, but there's nothing really new here and only a few songs ever rise above sheer novelty value.

The group sounds genuinely reinvigorated.