THE VERVE: FORTH (ON YOUR OWN) **½ The Verve returns 11 years after scoring a hit with "Urban Hymns" and subsequently disbanding. "Forth" has one foot in the solid song structures of its 1997 album and one toe dipping tentatively into the more free-flowing waters of early albums. ...more

October 10, 2008

It's pure speculation, of course, but the Top 40 likely would be a lot more fun if The Neptunes - super-producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo - let their experimental side out on tracks they cook up for big-money clients such as Gwen Stefani and Madonna. ...more

June 12, 2008

THE HIVES: THE BLACK AND WHITE ALBUM (A&M/OCTONE) **½ Any garage-rock purists left in The Hives' audience will run scared and shrieking from "The Black and White Album," lashed by dance rhythms, drum loops, sequencers and all manner of concepts invented after 1966. ...more

December 27, 2007