From its thunderous beginning to its quiet, echoing end, MACHINA/the machines of God is perfect dancing-in-the-dark-with-yourself-'cause-you-have-angst-in-your-pants music.

Two Against Nature marks a timely return of two chilly, heartless hipsters.

The most memorable tracks on Pieces in a Modern Style feel like high-brow Puff Daddy songs...

And while not so instantly accessible as much of the band's recent output, the songs still manage to be catchy, if elusively so; this is an album that rewards repeated listening.

This is classic Cure music, straight up (or should that be straight down?): lengthy songs (most more than five minutes) with plenty of cold, alternately chiming and grinding guitars, fluttering keyboards and, of course, Smith's mournful yowl, which hasn't sounded this intense since the The Top's "Shake Dog Shake" in 1984.

This album shows a band eager to expand its creative range. One wonders, sadly, what might have come next.

Wildly uneven -

It ain't Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis, but it's close.

Midnite Vultures is the album of a great entertainer, not a great artist.

When the Pawn Hits ... is so good that the next album could have a 900-word title and I wouldn't even scratch my goatee.

By my count, you've still got 50 keepers out of 69, give or take a few songs. And about a third of those sound like classics.

Remedy is the next great step forward for house music.

A trip into the prettiest altered states the Lips have yet kissed.

Play is a modest, charming little record built on a few simple ideas, and a winner on its own low-key terms: Moby has made the first electronic blues album.

Methodical, often sprawling and sonically messy, 13 isn't a charmer, but it is awfully seductive.