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The Long Blondes' Kate Jackson sings like she has amazing taste in lipstick, delivering smart, sex-as-a-weapon lyrics with a swaggering smirk that conveys both glam-charged confidence and femme-specific vulnerability.

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Waging a public battle with label boss Clive Davis, Kelly Clarkson has become an unlikely symbol of artistic credibility (Davis has openly questioned My December's commercial appeal). And like Alanis and Avril before her, she is following a megahit with a self-written serious rock release -- musically downbeat, emotionally tortured, and not Top 40-tailored.

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Scissors for Lefty don't disguise their influences -- listen a minute, and you'll think of a dozen bands they sound like (for clarity's sake: Pulp, the Killers, the Walkmen, Hot Hot Heat, and virtually every group in this week's NME).

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Beastie Boys have been casting about for nearly a decade, trying to figure out what to do for their career's third act. This all-instrumental album feels less like a redefinition than a placeholder until they think of something better.