Arctic Monkeys Go Darker, Show Staying Power

(NEWSER) - Ciara's tiny voice can't survive in the spaces her producers leave on her new album, Fantasy Ride, but the disc does provide a few fascinating diversions. Some critical opinions:

• "That's what you get with Fantasy Ride," Tom Breihan writes on Pitchfork. "A few brilliant left turns that feel almost accidental mixed in with a sort of end-times hunger for a top-40 audience that doesn't seem to exist anymore. As a vivid little snapshot of what's happened to the pop music business, it's fascinating. But it's not much of an album."

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."

Rapper can't quite nail a return to his glory days on new album

(NEWSER) - 50 Cent, once at the forefront of rap music, returns with Before I Self Destruct—but his fourth solo effort isn’t impressing the critics. “Though packed with tough beats, dense production and 50's most ferocious delivery in years, the gloats about shootings, drugs and bloody 'hoods feel about as fresh as a Saw sequel,” writes Edna Gundersen in USA Today . The album “isn't likely to renew 50 Cent's currency.” More»

Even so, the 'beloved iconoclast' puts together an interesting collection

(NEWSER) - With the announcement of Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, “smirkers got smirkier”—you try picturing Dylan singing the lyric, “How’d ya like to hang a stocking on a great big coconut tree?” without smirking—but in the end, the collection is interesting, if a bit silly; “a surreal and occasionally rousing collection of gooey holiday ballads,” writes Amanda Petrusich for Pitchfork. More»

'Sprawling' double album should please longtime fans

(NEWSER) - The Flaming Lips are no stranger to reinvention, having transformed “from garage-punk misfits into a splendorous, kaleidoscopic rock outfit,” then later “into a sophisticated, sincere symphonic-pop troupe bestowed with increasing commercial acclaim.” The release of Embryonic marks another sea change—and it’s the band's boldest effort since 1997's Zaireeka, writes Stuart Berman for Pitchfork. “There's a raw directness to Embryonic that's been largely absent from Lips records since the mid-'90s.” More»