Manufacturer: Real World Records

As Greatest Hits--and particularly the busking pavement jazz of "Lovecats"--reminds us, the best Cure singles were very often tangential exercises; halcyon playtime divergences offering a Goth-free contrast to some of the weightier studiousness of some of those early albums. Or, as smudged frontman Robert Smith says of this 18-track collection, "Songs that are sung with a smile." This ...

Manufacturer: Polydor Group

Kings of Leon are four members of the Followill family, three brothers and a cousin. The title Youth & Young Manhood is an accurate summary of their places in life--the oldest member, drummer Nathan Followill, is 23, while the youngest, bass player Jared Followill, is just 16. The brothers had a childhood that was both eccentric and peripatetic, living out of a car while their preacher ...

Manufacturer: Hand Me Down

Having achieved the improbable by redeeming traditional soft rock as a chart-friendly genre, are the London quintet challenging their audience a touch too much by titling their second album Join with Us? After all, wasn't recasting the terminally unfashionable likes of Supertramp and other so-called 'guilty pleasures' already a rather big ask? But it transpires that Dan Gillespie Sells and ...

Manufacturer: Universal

Manufacturer: Rhino

Rush-released in secrecy, the story goes that The Raconteurs wanted their album to appear in shops without any fanfare, as if it had always been there. It didn't work that way, but Consolers of the Lonely can certainly lay claim to being an album that is at once familiar and accessible--indeed, it won't be long before it'll seem like an indispensable part of your collection. The two ...

Manufacturer: Third Man/XL Recordings

The royalties must have seemed tempting at the time--hell, they still must--but it's got to feel galling to have written and recorded one of the genuinely great modern British soul songs, only to have it stolen from you and paraded in new bling from every speaker and screen. Anyone still under the impression that Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse cooked up the all-conquering "Valerie" themselves would ...

Manufacturer: SonyBMG

Manufacturer: Fueled By Ramen

Icelandic-Italian singer Emiliana Torrini has achieved much, but gained comparatively little, off the back of a career that has blossomed in a nook out of the mainstream's line-of-sight for over a decade. She's been a voice for hire for dance acts aplenty (Paul Oakenfold, Thievery Corporation), was the lungs behind the sky-reaching "Gollum's Song" in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and ...

Manufacturer: Rough Trade

Since 2002's jaunty Waiting for My Rocket to Come, Jason Mraz has developed into a more mature, well-rounded pop artist. We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things is his most multi-dimensional work yet, covering everything from groove-based material to ballads. While tracks such as "Make It Mine" and "Butterfly" refer back to the catchy style of previous albums, there are many other styles ...

Manufacturer: Warner