It's complex, deeply melodic, carefully arranged and (for the most part) very satisfying.

It's all very sweeping, operatic and inviting.

The remaining songs are uniformly well crafted, but they aren't necessarily going to please the people who come looking for more of the old "Jerk It Out" magic.

On Virginia Creeper, he shows a sharpened sense of Midwestern melancholy that is really quite appealing, despite the sometimes hackneyed musical arrangements.

Let There Be Morning isn't designed to bowl you over with its size and scope; rather, it's a quietly compelling, lushly orchestrated affair that slowly but surely melts its way into your heart.

Shifting from light and airy to a sort of mild bossa-nova groove on a few tracks, Kings of Convenience throw in just enough variation to keep things interesting, without snapping the listener out of the dreamy daze they've induced.

It lacks the freewheeling, go-for-broke gusto of its predecessors.

It's a good-natured and engaging mix of subtle sample manipulation, music concrete, downtempo dance beats and pop experiments.

While the band has adeptly navigated the waters of change, a few moments on Night on Fire are simply too slick for their own good.

A safe, if frayed, rock album that bristles and pops with flashes of brilliance, yet never ignites into the full-blown firestorm they're quite obviously capable of creating.

Bell Orchestre don't always make good on their ambitions, but the results are often excellent, despite (and usually because of) their sloppiness.

It's comforting, for sure, and you could very well fall asleep listening, or use it as background music, but you'd be missing a lot.

Knitting Needles and Bicycle Bells is the sort of album you put on when you're in the mood for a particular sound -- and the sound in question is echoing and catchy, yet depressive.

This is powerful stuff, unrelenting and dark.

Half Smiles of the Decomposed isn't quite the guns-blazing finale I always imagined the last GBV album would be, but it never becomes a limp-wristed approximation of the band in any of its previous guises.

They've mostly dropped the songs that traded entirely on their sexuality, replacing them with tunes full of nuance and subtlety.

According to the liner notes, Dilate took more than two years to record, beating the twenty-month-plus gestation period for 1999's Set and Setting. Fortunately, it works in our favor; they've used the time to experiment a bit, perhaps in an effort to garner fans beyond the nascent (but artistically stagnant) stoner rock genre.

England's Saloon combine the post punk rhythms of Stereolab with the poppiness of The Sundays, creating a melodically soothing murmur that, while derivative, is very enticing.

A solid set of shadowy songs with driving melodies.

The album is solid, though hardly anything spectacular.

Oooh! takes everything The Mekons have achieved 'til now and makes it rock in truly celebratory style.

Let Them Drink may not be as accessible to the mainstream as the band might have hoped, but The Capitol Years' updated blend of classic sounds is an addictive and refreshing change.

Though it's not the emotionally draining follow-up many were expecting, Seven's Travels succeeds. Its saving grace is the fact that Slug and Ant remain ignorant of, or choose to completely ignore, the hip-hop conventions that have handcuffed similar artists for almost a decade.

It all adds up to a noble, well-produced and strongly-realized debut for a woman who obviously has more on her mind than becoming a pop star and cruising her neighborhood in a Bentley.

If you can imagine Gary Numan, Prince and William Orbit teaming up to write and produce a record for Donna Summer, little on Black Cherry will surprise you.

Young Prayer is a visceral religious experience, its lyrics forsaken in favor of mantras that are more chanted than sung.

Dignity and Shame is sparse and vulnerable, showcasing nothing but Bachmann's bittersweet musings and his deep growl of a voice. It is by no means a unique album, but it's an effective one.

Usually entertaining, often thought-provoking, and occasionally insightful.