Kelly Clarkson
All I Ever Wanted
RCA

Thankfully, All I Ever Wanted is not Kelly Clarkson's atonement for insisting on releasing the dark, gothic rock record My December against the wishes of label boss Clive Davis in 2007 -- well, at least not entirely. All I Ever Wanted doesn't completely abandon the tougher rock edges of My December, but it does ditch the brooding in favor of angry spunk, all the better to prove that the girl who sang "Since U Been Gone" is back. And she is -- quite self-consciously on "My Life Would Suck Without You," the first track and first single on All I Ever Wanted, a song designed by Max Martin to be an explicit sequel to his "Since U Been Gone."

Chris Cornell
Scream
Interscope

In case you didn't catch the symbolism, Chris Cornell is smashing a guitar on the cover of Scream because he's done with those six-strings -- he's leaving it all behind for Timbaland, who has long wanted to leave hip-hop and R&B behind to make a rock album. If this seems like the pair are working at cross-purposes to achieve the same goal, that's as accurate an assumption as the guess that the two are abandoning their strengths, even their sense of self, in a bizarre shared middle-age crisis. Scream is one of those rare big-budget disasters, an exercise in misguided ambition that makes no sense outside of pure theory.

The-Dream
Love vs Money
Def Jam

Love vs Money, like Love/Hate, was made with producers Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Carlos "L.O.S. da Mystro" McKinney, and it continues Nash's never-ending song cycle about his life as a chest-puffing softy who will get "all up on you like a white tee on a thug" and "circle the stars and bring you one back." Sonically, there are only slight variations on what he and his collaborators had been serving up for over a couple years, with swishing and panning percussion accents, droning and buzzing synths, syrupy vocal interjections, and unexpected hook deployment from every angle.

Mirah
(A)spera
K

Calling an album "mature" can be damning it with faint praise, but Mirah's luminous (A)spera embodies the best qualities of that word. While it might be subtler and gentler than most of her previous work, it also feels like a summation of everything that came before it. Advisory Committee was a gloriously audacious sprawl that showed exactly what Mirah was capable of -- which was a lot -- and C'mon Miracle was a reassuring shoulder to cry on, but (A)spera finds a delicate, sometimes tense balance between adventurousness and empathy.

Madeleine Peyroux
Bare Bones
Rounder

Madeleine Peyroux's fourth album isn't the normal mix of standards (contemporary or traditional) with a few songs of her own composing; each of the 11 tracks is a new song written by Peyroux, usually in tandem with producer Larry Klein or a guest. Still, she appears in her usual relaxed setting, with a small group perfectly poised to translate her languorous vocals into perfect accompaniment -- organist Larry Goldings, pianist Jim Beard, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, plus producer Klein on bass, Dean Parks on guitar, and Carla Kihlstedt on violin. Fans of vocal jazz may be disappointed to see that all the songs are new ones -- many a great conversation could consist solely of the standards she should perform -- but they may regret the disappointment.

Razorlight
Slipway Fires
Vertigo

Slipway Fires is Razorlight's most mainstream release to date, an album that downplays the band's garage rock past for something akin to Snow Patrol's adult-approved pop. Thick harmonies and economical hooks demonstrate the band's growth -- they're no longer ripping off the Strokes, having left the swaggering sounds of Up All Night far behind -- but growth is the very problem with Slipway Fires, whose mature, polished tones might as well have been recorded by middle-aged AOR vets rather than Clash-loving twentysomethings. This is an album of earnest piano ballads and well-scrubbed rock, an album that sports song titles like "North London Trash" but sounds as dirty as early-'80s Fleetwood Mac.