This song cycle is less about a particular state than it is about Stevens' elegant façade of cleverness.

While nothing here fails the consistent artistry of his work, neither does any of it make the direct connection to a soul and heart.

Weezer (red album), co-produced by Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee (who has worked in the studio with Snow Patrol and R.E.M. and was a guitarist in Compulsion), is slight and flimsy (10 songs, 42 minutes), but finally returns the band to its peak entertainment level.

If this collection weren't intended as a nearly comprehensive catch-all, it could have benefited from being pared down to two discs. Nevertheless, it offers a convincing alternative overview of Cave's work, covering all the stylistic points and diversions on his epic journey.

The songs are catchy and listenable, but Samson's lyrics lack the depth of songs like 'Benediction' or 'A New Name for Everything' on its predecessor.

Has muddied sound in spots but careful, detailed and varied playing.

Takk... resembles the movie The Aristocrats: a narrow selection of material given killer performances.

Black Cherry strips away almost all of the film score drama of Felt Mountain. This would be a bigger disappointment than it is if the album's dance-oriented, neo-new wave were less successful than it is.

Two albums of E musings is a bit much, but, on the whole, Blinking Lights does stand as a resounding return to form.

Jaunty, rambunctious, and youthful.

The performances are all good, but E’s voice is alarmingly scratchy.

Less punkish than its predecessor, the Liars’ second effort, although marred by Wagnerian excess, lyrical inanity and overlong atmospherics, is still a record of non-commercialized large beats and immense technical skill.

She takes a slower, more folk-rock approach to much of the material.

The Beekeeper meanders too much to be riveting in the way Scarlet's Walk is.

For the most part it succeeds quite well in its single-minded pursuit of disco euphoria, but there’s definitely a whiff of flop-sweat emanating from it.

A likable, cogent album of adult punk-pop that matches Dando's easygoing voice to genial fuzz-rock.

An extremely catchy collection of solidly crafted pop songs in the familiar New Order idiom.

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not manages to celebrate and mock its cultural milieu simultaneously with genuine affection and sarcasm balanced so well that the scale never tips too far either way.

Like all great garage rock, it all sounds the same, but that doesn’t matter.

Not everything clicks on Get Behind Me Satan -- sometimes it’s too timid and freaky -- but enough of it is so unique, even within the Stripes' own canon, that it succeeds regardless of its faults.

Pleasant but alternately catchy and bland.

Made in China is a raw, angry album that is difficult to endure at points due to the emotionally naked lyrics, but the lo-fi, almost punky, music is a perfect fit.

Like its predecessor, 21st Century Breakdown delivers less than it promises; it’s more successful as a rock album than as a rock opera.

The further they veer from the course (like the misshapen slide guitar and honking harmonica in the stupendous single "Ain’t No Easy Way"), the more memorable the sound.

The band's attempts to diversify the tone are not always successful.

While hardly bad... the album too often sounds as if the ceaseless invention that made Nixon so vibrant has been replaced by self-consciousness of the wrong sort.

The songs left over from the original, non-Matrix album form the emotional core of Liz Phair and make it worth hearing.

While the depression accompanying a relationship breakup comes through, several tracks lose their quirkiness in the studio setting.