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If anyone was worried that the disco tangents on 2005's With Teeth meant Trent Reznor was finally lightening up, fear not -- this one's about the apocalypse.

Lil' Flip was once known for blithe concoctions like 2002's "The Way We Ball" and 2004's "Game Over (Flip)," which sampled the Pac-Man theme. Both singles were great fun, but after emerging on the wrong end of a career-threatening beef with T.I. over who was "king of the South," the Houston native has unfortunately tried to toughen up.

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Patti Smith misplaces her fearless edge on this oddly subdued set of covers. Versions of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" add nothing to the perfect originals, while dated, mediocre songs such as Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and George Harrison's "Within You Without You" are beyond saving.

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Imagine you're 19 or 20, and your first album breaks sales records, wins multiple awards, and shows up on virtually every critics poll. What do you do next? If you're Sheffield, England's Arctic Monkeys, you work and work and work, a tactic that soon resulted in the quiet departure of apparently exhausted bassist Andy Nicholson.

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Though they've yet to gain the visibility of the Flaming Lips or the Shins, the New York-based Comas compare favorably with both, especially in their more lovely, fuzzed-out moments.

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Careening and frenetic, Oakland's xbxrx don't just make math rock -- they make advanced placement math rock. Tightly constructed tracks like "Suffocation" and "Minds" practically ooze coefficients, while the shredding on "Center Where Sight" and "In Veins" features a Trapper Keeper's worth of million-miles-a-minute notes.