Faith and Courage shows a songwriter still in command of her talents.

A beautifully seamless ambient work full of lullabies and dreamscapes?

The trio have hit their stride with a pop confectioner's treat which melds P-Funk with Shirley Bassey, TSOP soul with Caribbean reggae, and Chic disco with Moby-esque blues riffing.

Orgy sounds a lot like Marilyn Manson on this album, with touches of David Bowie and New Wave techno-pop added for flavor. The results are completely derivative... The result is an album that is often amazing sonically, occasionally gripping musically, pretty dopey lyrically, and absolutely empty in terms of real substance.

Very unique and very, very good....the songs on Righteous Love are brimming with the sorts of influences that you don't hear too much on the radio today: gender-bending atmospherics... Sly Stone/bar-rock amalgams... Dylan's recent haziness...

An album far better than the last. It's full of clever, upbeat songs and comes close to blending the lyrical and melodic brilliance of their first album, Gordon, with the energy of their live album, Rock Spectacle.

With 1998's Blue Wonder Powder Milk and now The Magnificent Tree, Hooverphonic's sound has become increasingly hip and cosmopolitan, slowly processing out everything that made it so alluring in the first place. It's still sleek and meticulously produced. But, as with the latest from Morcheeba (another band with similar trip-hoppy proclivities), the nagging sense of something menacing behind these songs has practically disappeared.

The punky edge to the band has been all but jettisoned, in favor of slick production, orchestral backdrops, and cloying melodies that render even the occasionally dark lyrics (mostly about divorce this time) surprisingly limp.

This new album... sees them mutating into less of a rock outfit and more of what is commonly called "adult contemporary" -- in other words, music for soccer moms and rich yuppies to play really loud in their BMWs-

As lyricists (they co-wrote many of the songs on Revelation), none of the members of 98° bring to mind T.S. Eliot, even at his jiggiest. But as a vocal group, they sure can be impressive.... while Revelation is nowhere near perfect, it is at times undeniably good and quite moving.

With Soul Caddy's stunted riffs, lethargic attack and thin, shiny sound, it's hard to believe that they're one of the most amazing live bands in the country, because exactly none of that energy translates here. Even on theoretical ass-kickers like "Irish Whiskey," the vibe is so washed-out (just like when they do "soul" or "funk" or "glam" or "grunge"), it's a bit depressing and Weird Al-like.

The collection of songs on Horrorscope is a rollicking batch of hooky tunes

Most of the album is, in fact, pop trash.