Cloudspeakers

On his own albums and his contributions to Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham has tried hard to be the next great Texas singer-songwriter: He has the gruff voice, moodiness and melodramatic song titles ("Th... Read more

The first album in four years from the Buffalo, New York, trio sounds like the darkest moments of previous Goo discs stuck together in a 48-minute marathon of middling angst. For many groups, diggi... Read more

American Idol Season Three winner Fantasia Barrino comes across like an updated Patti LaBelle – a big voice equal parts gurgling and throaty, with a predilection for vocal melodrama. But on her thi... Read more

There have been countless great pop songs about "California Gurls," some of them by actual California girls. But Katy Perry's Number One smash is one of the girliest and most Californian. It sets t... Read more

Some artists think big. Sufjan Stevens thinks long — whether it's the 20-word song titles or the orchestral suite about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This EP features two monster opuses: the Simo... Read more

Brian Wilson has more than a few things in common with George Gershwin. Both led wildly successful musical partnerships with their brothers. Both combined pop-song punch with harmonic sophisticatio... Read more

John Mellencamp's 25th album, No Better Than This, continues the thread of American archaeology that he began on Trouble No More, a self-produced 2003 set of traditional songs and covers. But where... Read more

Upright-bass prodigy Esperanza Spalding was barely out of her teens when she dropped her first CD, Junjo, a stunningly sophisticated yet playful set of acoustic trio jazz: rubbery bass, piano, drum... Read more

Never mind the artwork or the title, the chief concern of Iron Maiden's 15th album is Earth — specifically, the end of it: "There will be a catastrophe the like we've never seen," warns Bruce Dicki... Read more

Have you ever watched footage of the BP oil disaster and wonder­ed, "Hey, what do the guys who sang 'Crazy Bitch' think of this?" Wonder no more! Buckcherry respond with "Our World," on which Josh ... Read more