Their second full-length builds on the band's pretty, shoegazer pop and richly textured space rock soundscapes by emphasizing powerful rhythms and beautiful melodies that take the songwriting to a new level. "Hideout" is more like a sonic galaxy that engulfs you from all angles. You're enveloped by layers of reverb, loops, and the interplay of male/female voices. A driving, forceful rhythm section fuels a propulsive energy that gives an urgent quality to much of the album, whereas other tracks convey a wistful melancholy. It's this combination of ethereal atmosphere and strong rhythm that makes the album wholly compelling and promises a powerful live experience. "Wonderfully off-kilter pop songs" - NME.

Anyone familiar with cultish comedy series Flight of the Conchords will be aware of the wonderful songs that the hapless New Zealand duo Bret and Jemaine concoct for each episode. Tackling all genres, from hip hop and soul to glam rock, the duo create highly original and well-produced tracks that typically satirise the very genre they?re imitating. This album collects together many of the show?s best musical moments, many of them subtly revamped. "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" and "Boom" illustrate the pair?s hilarious 'rap' skills. "Think About It" parodies socially minded soul visionaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, "Bowie" satirises the 70s icon (especially his prodigious drug use), while "Inner City Pressure" mimics the Pet Shop Boys. Two of the most memorable songs from the series——"The Prince of Parties" and "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)"—are also both present, making this the definitive FOTC compilation. The humour ranges from offbeat to downright daft, but there's nothing laughable about the production, which is mostly first class. It's true they could have given us a few new songs, but then how many comedy albums can you repeatedly rewind and find yourself not only laughing, but dancing too?—Paul Sullivan

Franz Ferdinand is an unrelentingly smart, fluffy, and fun debut. This Scottish four-piece plays vaguely angular, guitar-heavy post-pop that makes you want to dance around the room while playing air guitar. It's the ideal hipster guilty-pleasure music. This is what the Rapture and Interpol would sound like if they wrote songs half as good as those they rip off, or the Strokes if their parents had sent them to art school instead of the fashion academy. Every song on here is so blatantly derivative it sounds almost original, like a Blur without the gloomy hangover. It's too early yet to tell if this is just a band for the moment or one for the ages—but who really cares with pop music, anyway? Songs like "Darts of Pleasure," "Come on Home," "Take Me Out," and "Cheating on You" are so good they will surely appeal even to those without slanty, messy haircuts. —Mike McGonigal

After more than a year spent on the road behind their breakthrough self-titled debut—just how many times can Alex Kapranos sing "Take Me Out" without getting his skinny tie into a knot, anyway?—you might expect the members of Franz Ferdinand to feel a little frayed around the edges. But if You Could Have It So Much Better was supposed to be a bloated sophomore album focusing on bad airline meals and cold hotel swimming pools, somebody forgot to tell the Mercury Music Prize winning Scottish quartet. Instead, the Franzies return with a disc packed with thrilling punk-pop treatises like the single "Do You Want To," political rabble-rousers such as opener "The Fallen," and lovely psychedelic ballads that explore the common ground between the Beatles and Bowie, like "Eleanor Put You Boots On" (about Eleanor Freidberger of the Fiery Furnaces, no less). It's a stunning, confident piece of work that suggests the band is merely getting started. —Aidin Vaziri

A side project doesn't usually hit gold, especially when said project is a quirky virtual collective fronted by cartoon characters. But the first, self-titled album by Gorillaz—the brainchild of illustrator Jamie Hewlett and Blur frontman Damon Albarn—actually hit platinum and turned into a surprise worldwide hit. Naturally expectations were a lot higher for Gorillaz's sophomore effort, but Demon Days actually is even better than its predecessor. With producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura gone, Albarn, a.k.a. 2D, has paired up with DJ Danger Mouse (responsible for the infamous Grey Album that illegally mixed the Beatles and Jay-Z) to steer the musical ship, while a whole new slew of guests enlivens the proceedings. Albarn has described Demon Days as being darker, but there's a real kooky dance-party vibe coursing through the CD. Despite its somber tone, "Kids with Guns" is lifted by a killer bass line, for instance, while the catchy first single, "Feel Good Inc," is augmented by an appealing contribution from De La Soul. Other noteworthy guests include Roots Manuva and Tricky collaborator Martina Topley-Bird on the dubby "All Alone" and Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder on the bouncy "DARE." And yet it's a 69-year-old actor who gets to deliver the most baffling contribution—just listen to Dennis Hopper's spoken-word narrative on "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head." Elisabeth Vincentelli

Our Love To Admire is at once unmistakably Interpol and undeniably new. The witty and perverse "No I In Threesome" is an upbeat ode to shaking up a staid relationship propelled by Carlos D's peerless bass melody while the tenderly observant "Pace Is the Trick" proves that the band are still the masters of the dramatic – check the painful pause right before the sinfully satisfying return of Sam's thundering drums and Daniel's ringing lead guitar. The band's impressively seductive evolution is obvious all over the record, but never more so than on tracks like "Mammoth," "Who Do You Think" and on the album's lyrical centerpiece, the ghostly "Rest My Chemistry." While Daniel is understandably proud of the song he cautions against reading too much autobiography into its lyrics. "We always leave the interpretation to the listener," he says. "I mean, you shouldn't watch a movie for the first time listening to the director's commentary!" Our Love to Admire closes with "The Lighthouse," a funereal dirge that is among the most unexpected and memorable songs ever recorded by the band. Almost entirely percussion-free, the song is constructed around Daniel's mournful guitar and Paul's sparten lyrics. Not only is it one of their finest moments to date, it provides the album's most goose-bump inducing moment, the very same reflex shivers that make Interpol live shows such an exhilarating experience. As the very last song the band recorded for the album it was, they say, the hardest to play. The hypnotic guitar part was played on a 50-year-old guitar that had toxins on the strings, providing Daniel with a blistering and painful sensation in his fingers. The band weren't even sure the track would make it out of the studio, but once they heard Paul's remarkable vocals they were floored. The song – and the album – doesn’t so much end as it bleeds to a close with a long, echoey coda filled with feedback and strings. A fittingly dramatic end to a stunning and emotional journey. Interpol is back, every bit as good as before but charged with a new spirit, a new direction, a new label and, most of all, a new confidence.

On Jerry Seinfeld's debut CD, he already sounds sick of his material. Of course, the point of the performance that it captures—the HBO special I'm Telling You for the Last Time—was to perform the routine one last time and then retire it forever. This recording was taped just a couple of months after Seinfeld went off the air, and the crowd sounds like it's jonesing for a fix—they laugh at everything, even Seinfeld's setup lines ("So what's with the cabdrivers and the BO?"). Still, Seinfeld's humor—that now-familiar observation from a satisfyingly elitist point of view—delivers. But after all the late-night talk-show appearances, the book Seinlanguage, and nine years of the series, was there really any question? —Randy Silver

Tracks include: 1. Purple Haze 2. Manic Depression 3. Hey Joe 4. Love Or Confusion 5. May This Be Love 6. I Don't Live Today 7. The Wind Cries Mary 8. Fire 9. Third Stone From The Sun 10. Foxey Lady 11. Are You Experienced?