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Having dabbled in punk, ska, hip-hop, and electronica during the last decade-plus, the style-shifting Aterciopelados ("the Velvety Ones") try polished-yet-punchy rock on their addictive seventh album. Singing en español, clear-voiced Andrea Echeverri ponders subjects like immigration ("Bandera") and pregnancy ("28"), projecting unflappable confidence.

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A trio of biz-savvy power-pop nerds from L.A., the 88 built a following the 21st-century way -- by placing songs in commercials for Target and Sears and TV shows like How I Met Your Mother.

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Thirteen years after his unjustly neglected debut, Pre-Life Crisis, Nashville's Dwight "Count Bass D" Farrell is still a quirky Deep South firebrand. He juices his tunes with R&B flavor and spices his beats with charmingly off-key vocals and stentorian rhymes.

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For their 13th album, the Cure reverse a long downhill slide with a record that clearly matters -- not just to leader Robert Smith, who's been revising it for years, but to everyone involved, particularly peak-era guitarist Porl Thompson, whose return results in this 30-year-old band's densest and most detailed effort ever.

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Though he's unlikely to encounter much trouble selling these romantic conceits to his female-heavy fan base, some of the scenarios on John Legend's third studio album could be fresher: In "Good Morning," for example, he attempts to convince his lady to skip work and spend all day snuggling.