Artist: Nelly Review: Combining Will Smith's friendliness with St. Louis slang and a down-home drawl, Nelly has mastered his own brand of crossover appeal. On his fifth album, he mostly sticks to that pop-rap formula, cranking his distinctly melodic flow to hyper-speeds and playing the good-natured hedonist on cuts like "Party People." But when he tries to come off hard on a handful of Dirty South brawlers, he ends up sounding generic: "U Ain't Him" finds him rhyming about gunplay and warning no one in particular abo... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Ne-Yo Review: There's a difference between a ladies' man and a man who loves women, and Ne-Yo reps for the latter. The 28-year-old singer-songwriter says his latest collection of heartfelt love songs is a tribute to the Rat Pack's pressed-suit style, but it's actually a superb concept album about what a great boyfriend he can be — call it Songs in the Key of Nice. Having already penned lady-power hits for Beyoncé and Rihanna, he's the Gloria Steinem of R&B on "Miss Independent": "She move like a... Rating: 4 Stars

Artist: Metallica Review: In the Eighties, thrash metal wasn't a scene, it was an arms race: riffs kept speeding up, drum kits got bigger. But with 1991's Black Album, Metallica opted for unilateral disarmament, slowing their tempos, shortening their songs and smelting their chugging guitars and piston-powered drums into armor-plated pop hooks. After that, the band rushed from one reinvention to another, starting with the Southern-rock infusion of 1996's Load and culminating in the muddled, bizarrely produced group-ther... Rating: 4 Stars

Artist: Joan Baez Review: "I believe in prophecy," Baez sings on her new album. For five decades, her ringing soprano has been a prophetic sound, summoning the earnestness and anger — and, a bit too often, the self-righteousness — of the folk revival that made her its poster child. For her 24th studio release, Baez has teamed up with Steve Earle, who produced the album and contributed three songs. It's a fruitful partnership: Earle's hard-won earthiness acts as a counterweight to Baez's ethereal tendencies,... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Tricky Review: 2008 is shaping up as the Year Bristol Bounced Back. Earlier this year, the city's trip-hop lords Portishead released the superb album Third. Now comes the first record in five years from Tricky, who helped codify the foreboding Bristol sound along with Portishead and Massive Attack in the mid-Nineties. Tricky's hometown is much on his mind: The album title refers to the hardscrabble hood where he grew up, and he has called the album a homage to the Brit pop of his youth. You can hear the... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Okkervil River Review: On this album-length sequel to last year's The Stage Names, these Austin indie rockers continue to dissect the looking-glass emptiness of life spent on the stage, as well as in the cheap seats. "Fuck long hours, sick with singing," frontman Will Sheff sings over slow-building, mariachi-style blues on "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979," a boozy, post-fame portrait of the late gay glam rocker Jobraith. Like its predecessor, The Stand Ins also... Rating: 3 Stars