Funplex, the band's first album since 1992, is loads of fun and totally free of 'plex.

With plenty of talent, the Raconteurs have a unique sound; they only need to spend more time trimming it down.

Even with song subjects nicked from movies, the only false thing here is the title: Get Awkward my ass. It's extremely difficult to imagine these hyperdrive darlings as anything but fully adept.

Though it has its strong and weak points, Trouble In Dreams will no doubt receive well-deserved commendation. As a whole, however, it is the result of a grand but imperfect design (which, as we all know, has merit of its own).

If the choice comes down to being obvious or oblique, the band could take a forty-five minute saunter down the road less musically traveled. When they do, I'm hedging that the result will be a masterwork. Until then, releases like A Mad and Faithful Telling will be as engaging as anything that has come before, but will only offer hints at what these colorful characters might do when they finally release the catapult.

While the production values on the album are stronger, so is The Odd Couple's focus on Cee-Lo's voice.

Alopecia is a very good, occasionally great record that is just a little bit closer to nailing this hip-hop acid nightmare of a sound than what's come before it.

How does it compare to his previous three records--or eight, if you count his former band? Suffice it to say that's a rhetorical question. If Joe DiMaggio made albums... well you get the point.

Rollie has yet to find his voice, though.

Asking For Flowers is the work of a musician freshly settled in to the rhythm of her creative seas, and from here it is the horizon where her true potential shines.

When they hit even small strides, like the album's murky single 'Gila,' the relief is like a breath of ocean air. Otherwise, for the most part, the admittedly pretty songs simply fade away, like footprints in the sand.

Bolstered by the sound of a full band, with Heretic Pride Darnielle has created one of his best releases yet.

While the record pleases on most all levels, the flavor of sound at times feels somewhat generic and a bit too lethargic, which keeps the disc from being great.

Do You Like Rock Music? is a large, unabashed attempt at greatness, and where other bands might diffuse into a chaotic mess in the process (ahem, Broken Social Scene), British Sea Power remain, skillfully intact.

But what makes Made In the Dark their best album to date is how great the ballads are, a trick no mere techno act was supposed to master.

Not surprisingly, the lyrics lack any real nuance or trenchant insight, but the fervor of Kravitz's vocal, coupled with hard-charging guitars and battering drums, gives the song a visceral power.

Although not an album of the year candidate or (unfortunately) likely an even noteworthy nod, Collett nonetheless delivers a fine collection of songs.

The album can be charming and downright catchy at times and, depending on your present mood, that may be just good enough.

What is key to this album's effectiveness is how Vampire Weekend's rhythmic momentum enervates the filler, turning another band's less flamboyant 'Campus' into a cymbal-crash-on-every-hit mini-epic, or the nearly irritating 'Blake's Got a New Face' into drunken singalong.

Those listeners who recognized Black Mountain as one in a long line of inward looking, backward thinking bands will find that In The Future ups the ante. That's not automatically a great thing, and it means that Black Mountain will yet again be greeted with abundant I know what you're doing and I don't like it reactions.

Brighter Than Creation's Dark is a tour de force that easily earns its praise and rings out as classically as any classic rock album.

Few bands have managed to blend so many divergent sounds and styles together to make such an interesting, great-sounding, and cohesive [key word] record as Evangelicals have with The Evening Descends.

The pair accomplished what they set out to do, but by no means are they causing any whiplash with the results.

Distortion is really a triumph of the evening-out.

The music is what makes Lupe's pretensions palatable.

8 Diagrams is intricate, inoffensive, interesting.

Rehab has every right to coast on the momentum of Ghost's hot streak--exploit it, if you will--for an overload of same.

And desperate single aside, it all works pretty damn well.