Surprise: Britney's New Album Is Innovative

With big hair, big riffs and MTV buzz, Germans threaten to go mainstream in US

(NEWSER) - Having dominated Europe, German rockers Tokio Hotel are threatening to go mainstream in the US, if the reception their riff-heavy pop metal earned among screaming preteens in San Francisco this week is any indication. "The best way to describe the glam-metal-emo-pop-tween group," Aidin Vaziri writes in the Chronicle, "is like the Jonas Brothers for girls who prefer chipped black nail polish and fishnet stockings to unicorn puffy stickers and purity rings." More»

Reviews of new album surprised by candor about Guy Ritchie divorce

(NEWSER) - Madonna is back. Her latest album MDNA, is at once a confessional look at her divorce from Guy Ritchie and a bouncy dance album. Critical reaction is divided pretty starkly as well. Here's some of what people are saying:

• "It’s a bipolar collection that pumps out effervescent electronic pop before making way for a contentious personal agenda," writes Jon Pareles of the New York Times . Still, it's "less arty and more determinedly poppy" than Confessions on a Dance Floor. "Don't expect vulnerability. The lyrics insist there are no regrets," and the songs stick to the "unvarying, superhuman pulse of electronic dance music."

Album comes out a day in advance

(NEWSER) - Radiohead’s new album, The King of Limbs, has appeared a day early—and the reviews are already pouring in. Here’s what critics have to say:

• “The angst has gone,” writes Lucy Jones in the Telegraph . “There’s none of the anger of Hail to The Thief, the horror of OK Computer or existential anxiety that features on In Rainbows.” But that’s no downside: “It’s a treasure,” she writes. “There is no end to Radiohead’s genius.”

The pop starlet needs to wise up and offer some introspection

(NEWSER) - Britney Spears, and of course her handlers, seem to think she’s ready for a full-on comeback—and judging by the success of new single "Hold It Against Me," she's giving it a good go. But is a Britney comeback possible in the new world of pop, where Ke$ha (who can certainly “offer a few dance hooks in a girl-gone-wild package”) and Lady Gaga (who “has almost single-handedly reinvented the blonde dance beast aesthetic”) have swept in and taken over the spot once held by Brit, wonders Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon . More»

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ' is also the rapper's best effort yet

(NEWSER) - Kanye West is officially back: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the best album of 2010 and the best album of West's career," asserts Jonah Weiner on Slate . The rapper, always unable to keep quiet about things he finds unjust, has "managed to channel his sense of injustice into his music more fully and thrillingly than ever before. It's a seething and sad album, full of tales of transgression, betrayal, repudiation, and bitter vindication. It's also wild fun to listen to." More»