A very fine solo album indeed.

Yes, the overall sound is more uniform. Uniformity, however, is not necessarily a bad thing.

A monumental rock-'n'-roll album.

The difference this time is that the Hold Steady consistently kick ass, nailing both Paul Westerberg's Teenage Yearning/Angst and Bruce's Common Man to a cross of Pure American Rock, unafraid of cliché, undaunted by the task of making the familiar exciting again.

The Crane Wife is an impressively realized song cycle.

For Human Animal, Wolf Eyes have stepped back from pure violence, bringing in some of the old cinematic features while retaining pieces of the vicious nature that has served them well.

Whichever way you look at it, as avant-pop or cubist soul, Return to Cookie Mountain remains an intoxicating, intriguing but accessible album.

The icy qualities of Last Exit's synths are retained, but the old minimalism is certainly gone, and enough real warmth buoys these productions that songcraft actually develops.

Every line is razor sharp and yet brilliantly descriptive.

There's more body here, more barroom spill and rollick. There's also a feeling Ward is pushing at the fabric of his music, trying to expand and progress. But the same cinematic mist hovers, the same old, old intimacy fans know well.

Her rock-oriented approach here will please some, but such a genre-hopping exercise is only occasionally provocative.

No, this album is not superfluous -- far from it. The Avalanche brings Stevens' exacting vision on Illinois into sharper focus.

I'm not clear on everything Cex, but I've heard enough to know you want to hear this.

Rather Ripped is what you'd expect from a Sonic Youth that's getting back to the cool rock 'n' roll sound they trademarked years ago, completed by a tagline of frenzied feedback and chiming guitars.

If naysayers can't get past the sheen of spiced-up production, it's their loss.

While their sound may be familiar, Camera Obscura are anything but run-of-the-mill.

Although Loveless and Psychocandy are obvious reference points, this album actually succeeds most on its charming, candy-colored pop songs.

Really, there are few surprises here, but there is a crucial one, which is that Continental gradually reveals itself to be a solidly constructed and rather strong collection.

At the close, the guitars surge forward in waves of noise, a precursor of what's to come. And come it does, with the hammering, staccato fuzz of the album's title track and the speed riffs of "Woman on the Screen."

An album full of vitality that is smart and intelligent without being boring. More importantly, however, it is simply incredible.

Bitter Tea offers immediacy, but little reward for return visits; offers vastness -- at a dawdling 73 minutes -- but nothing in the way of big ideas.

Listening to Introduction is like viewing the world through someone else's glasses, skewed, disturbing and perhaps causing a bit of vertigo.

It is, at one time or another, twee reggae, hipster rock-ism, synth-pop balladry, post-Interpol gothickry. It's an inconsistency that's both noble and annoying.

Somewhere in the mess of feedback and sonic sluggishness is something that strikes a nerve, makes you want to hear it again.

There's an indefinable freshness and purity here.

What makes At War With the Mystics different is spontaneity -- and not spontaneity in a jazz sense. Listening to this album you get the feeling that absolutely anything could happen -- as if it's taking final form only as it reverberates off your eardrums.

Ringleader of the Tormentors feels rushed and underdone in both the songwriting and arrangements.

In the end, it is musicianship that makes Duper Sessions unquestionably successful.