2007 release from pianist/songwriter TORI AMOS is a long one, for sure, but AMOS is able to use her songwriting prowess to make it work. Sure, there's a few tracks that clock in at around a minute-and-a half (two tracks even fall in at under one minute), but the rest are all three to four minutes, spanning a range of styles from a more twangy, southern feel to TORI's trademark piano with electronic backing. Once again, TORI AMOS has been able to release an album that doesn't disappoint, even though many of her peers have long since fell off since her debut way back in 1990 or so. Though the gimmick of three different personas performing the songs on "American Doll Posse," the songs themselves work, & that's what matters.

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You know when you really love a band, and you go back to their first album and it's like some kind of raw blueprint for everything that's to come? That's BOTTLE ROCKET WES ANDERSON (RUSHMORE, ROYAL TENNANBAUMS, LIFE AQUATIC, FAB MR. FOX, MOONRISE KINGDOM) LUKE & OWEN WILSON in 1996! Their first movie!! 100% CULT CLASSIC, WAY RECOMMENDED

2008 EP from your favorite musical busy-bodies, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. Forging ahead after their 2007 album "Strawberry Jam," a feast of electronic tweaking and cacophonous voices, "Water Curses" is a snack in comparison. Not to presume this collection is any less an "Animal Collective release," this EP is concise and a treat to hold us over until the next tour de force is unleashed upon us.