Artist: Trouble Andrew Review: A pro-snow boarder-turned-musician, Trevor Andrew is engaged to the breakout singer Santogold. So it makes sense that on his major-label debut (which he self-released in 2007), he gets his lady to play hook girl on "Bang Bang," a sweet pop-punk jolt of thrumming bass and squiggly synths. He's also got an "L.E.S. Artistes" of his own: Andrew blasts gold-digging girls on "Chase Money" with hilarious rhymes like "You're a lush with a crush for the cash pile." But the rest of Trouble grows... Rating: 2.5 Stars

Artist: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Review: "Sometimes, to do what's right/You must walk alone," sings Ronnie Winter on the third album from the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, a Florida quartet who quietly went platinum last time out. Winter goes for inspirational platitudes all over Lonely Road, which suits a band that thanks God in its liner notes. But despite a couple of winners — see the very catchy, Fall Out Boy-ish "Step Right Up" — little in RJA's tunes inspires. The band skips between emo pop and orchestral pomp while... Rating: 2.5 Stars

Artist: The Kinks Review: Even before the Kinks made their first hit, the 1964 fuzz rocket "You Really Got Me," singer-composer Ray Davies was writing about euphoria in the past tense — check out "I Believed You," a brash 1963 demo included on this six-CD set and recorded when the Kinks were still a North London dance band called the Boll-Weevils. But Davies quickly refined that raw longing into a fiercely personal pop of loss — the mourning grind of '64's "Tired of Waiting for You," the explosive '65 wailer... Rating: 4 Stars

Artist: Bee Gees Review: During 1967 and 1968, the Bee Gees became an international phenomenon with three albums and many more singles of folky balladry, most of them smashes. That stopped when their lavish 1969 double LP, Odessa, produced zero hits; guitarist Vince Melouney left, and Robin Gibb temporarily followed suit. The stereo and mono mixes included in the three-disc reissue of this disruptive opus present the Gibb brothers' arrangements at their most opulent: The string-laden instrumentals and soulful baroque... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: Like the film. the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire is all curry-flavored ghetto fabulousness. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" makes a cameo, but the star of the album is the songwriter who M.I.A. calls "the Indian Timbaland": A.R. Rahman. Rahman — unknown here, but one of the world's top-selling artists — juxtaposes the folk sounds of Mumbai's slums with the techno of its city streets. On opening track "O . . . Saya," tribal drumming, murky electronics, metal guitar and M.I.A.'s declamator... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: Like the film. the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire is all curry-flavored ghetto fabulousness. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" makes a cameo, but the star of the album is the songwriter who M.I.A. calls "the Indian Timbaland": A.R. Rahman. Rahman — unknown here, but one of the world's top-selling artists — juxtaposes the folk sounds of Mumbai's slums with the techno of its city streets. On opening track "O . . . Saya," tribal drumming, murky electronics, metal guitar and M.I.A.'s declamator... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Johnny Cash Review: This set of heavily doctored Johnny Cash tunes almost succeeds as musical comedy. Pete Rock adds an electronic shuffle in an otherwise faithful sendup of "Folsom Prison Blues," and the result is pleasantly goofy. And producer Philip Steir (No Doubt, Los Amigos Invisibles) amusingly inserts the fast-talking near-rap from Cash's "Get Rhythm" into a bumpy disco-house mix. The thing is, this wasn't intended as comedy — it's a "tribute" executive-produced by Snoop Dogg and the late singer's son... Rating: 2 Stars

Artist: Cut Off Your Hands Review: There are moments on this New Zealand quartet's debut when they sound like the best buzz band in the world: "Oh, girl . . . it's been days since I held your hand," sings Nick Johnston in an early-Beatles croon on "Oh Girl." Glowing tunes about romance and childhood memories abound on You and I, a hopped-up album of caffeinated power pop that is spiked with a lot of youthful kvetching. Producer Bernard Butler (formerly of Suede, currently known for Duffy) gives the songs punch but not too much... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Mark Olson Review: Mark Olson and Gary Louris' new disc may not be the Jayhawks reunion some fans hoped for, but it's a respectable set of mostly acoustic folk songs sweetened by the duo's bright, sibling-like harmonies. Most of the music here is slow and muted: In "Saturday Morning on Sunday Street," the two channel Simon and Garfunkel like they used to channel the Burrito Brothers. This isn't trailblazing work, but on tracks like "The Rose Society," Olson and Louris sound as though they were born to sing togethe... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: Whatever its cinematic merits, Cadillac Records, the new film about the legendary blues and R&B label Chess, has already performed the valuable public service of exposing some of the greatest American songs to millions who might not otherwise have heard them. There would be no rock & roll without Bo Diddley's walloping backbeat and Chuck Berry's pealing guitar solos; no strutting rappers without the badass blues boasts of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; no Beyoncé crooning "If I Were a... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: Whatever its cinematic merits, Cadillac Records, the new film about the legendary blues and R&B label Chess, has already performed the valuable public service of exposing some of the greatest American songs to millions who might not otherwise have heard them. There would be no rock & roll without Bo Diddley's walloping backbeat and Chuck Berry's pealing guitar solos; no strutting rappers without the badass blues boasts of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf; no Beyoncé crooning "If I Were a... Rating: 5 Stars

Artist: Keyshia Cole Review: "I'd like to introduce a sexier side of me," Keyshia Cole coos on the slinky intro to her third album. True to her word, the Atlanta singer sheds her street sass for some softer tunes. "Make Me Over" is a shimmying, string-pierced vamp — break out your jazz hands! — and "No Other" pumps Spanish guitar into a Mary J.-style monogamy ode. Not everything feels fresh: The lyrics are gooey ("Touch my soul, make me lose control"), and Tupac makes a posthumous cameo. Cole does better when she... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Kevin Rudolf Review: Miami songwriter-producer Kevin Rudolf is the first rocker signed to Cash Money Records, and he's already making money for his New Orleans hip-hop bosses: His single "Let It Rock," an arena-ready electro jam with a fine cameo from labelmate Lil Wayne, has blown up on pop radio. Unfortunately, the rest of Rudolf's self-produced debut is a middling rock record dressed up in sleek digital clothes. Rudolf hitches stomping, synth-packed grooves to lyrics so lazy you want to prod them with a stick: "I... Rating: 2.5 Stars

Artist: A.C. Newman Review: Between his solo output and his work with the New Pornographers, Carl Newman has turned out five records in six years — pretty prolific for a guy who seems to spend loads of time crafting his songs. Newman's second solo album shuffles between power pop and mild psychedelia while tossing in horns and coed harmonies. Get Guilty isn't quite as consistent as a typical Pornographers record, but the arrangements are lusher. And like all Newman records, it shows off his smarts and maintains a... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Ladyhawke Review: For Phillips "Pip" Brown, the New Zealand-born singer-songwriter known as Ladyhawke, 1985 is not merely a year: It's a career choice. Ladyhawke — the name comes from a Matthew Broderick fantasy film released in, yep, 1985 — is a retro fetishist, slathering her songs in synthesizer fanfares and thudding drum machines that precisely evoke the mid-Eighties sound of Pat Benatar, Kim Wilde and the Top Gun soundtrack. Ladyhawke is a skillful craftswoman, and in songs like the grandiose... Rating: 2.5 Stars

Artist: Fall Out Boy Review: Fall Out Boy have become the kings of emo — without actually showing much emotion. Sure, they make all the signature emo moves: Singer Patrick Stump bellows cries of hurt, catalogs of grievances and confessions of inadequacy over guitars that hurtle toward big choruses. The group's fourth album, Folie à Deux, begins in high-angst mode, with him crooning "I'm coming apart at the seams" over a funereal organ. But behind the melodrama there is a smirk. In the galloping "Disloyal Order... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Powderfinger Review: "I was bored listening to the same chords," Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning sings in "Lost and Running." He doesn't mean it. The Australian band, together since the mid-Nineties, spiritually hails from an older intersection: mid-Eighties U2 and (no shock, given Powderfinger's name) the fuzz-toned Seventies of Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The best songs here do not stray far. Dirty-guitar shriek and burnt jangle fortify Fanning's earnest romanticism in "Head Up in the Clouds" and "Long Way to Go."... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: School Of Seven Bells Review: This New York trio of ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza is the sum of hip contradictions: om-drone modernism coated with the Dehezas' antique vocal blur of Gentle Giant's prog-choir counterpoint and the harmonies of a medieval Shangri-Las. The effect is warm goth — New Order with more eros. "Chain" veers close to electro-candy Madonna, but the Neu-like zoom and robot-nun chanting in "Sempiternal/Amaranth" are more beguiling, like an evening... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Anya Marina Review: Anya Marina's childlike voice doesn't jibe with her randy album title. But that doesn't stop the San Diego singer from growling come-ons on "Afterparty at Jimmy's" ("You got soul onstage, boy/How about soul in the sack?") or purring like Jessica Rabbit on the cabaret-style "All the Same to Me." She dials it back on "Vertigo," a sweet ode to a dizzying dude. With blippy drum loops, it sounds like a play date with a Casio — proof that Marina still has G-rated fun. Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Tobacco Review: Tobacco's Tom Fec just made one of the year's best stoner-rock records — only it's powered by synths, hip-hop beats and vocoders instead of guitars. Moonlighting from his electronic psych-rock band Black Moth Super Rainbow, Fec crafts spectacular, Air-style instrumentals ("Pink Goo") and expertly spins reedy Mellotrons into indelible hooks ("Hawker Boat"). Bonus points for lyrics that get lost in pot-smoke profundity: "Honey Bunches of Oats is the greatest cereal ever." Rating: 3.5 Stars