Norah Jones, 'The Fall' (Blue Note)

Don't know why she didn't do this before.

Thanks to the involvement of folks like Ryan Adams (who cowrote one song) and Kings of Leon producer Jacquire King, The Fall has been billed as Norah Jones' rock album. In fact, it's something even more surprising: a hot-blooded soul record from the queen of the even keel.

Them Crooked Vultures, 'Them Crooked Vultures' (DGC/Interscope)

Three's company for Grohl, Homme, and Jones.

"Just me and my dead-end friends again," sings Josh Homme on the debut album by Them Crooked Vultures. Homme's pals here aren't exactly of the dead-end variety: In addition to the Queens of the Stone Age frontman, Vultures comprises Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters on drums and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards.

Dashboard Confessional, 'Alter the Ending' (Vagrant/Interscope)

King of emo-folk pain embraces two-state solution.

All Chris Carrabba’s albums as heartthrob-in-chief of Dashboard Confessional have been about tension, primarily romantic: He can't help comparing his current love to the idealized version in his pretty little head. But an aesthetic battle also rages within Carrabba, one pitting Dashboard's solo-acoustic roots against the frontman's desire to move arenas with the intensity of his emotion.

Shakira, 'She Wolf' (Epic)

Latin pop mami down for whatever, wherever.

"I want us thinking outside the box," Shakira tells a lover on her third English-language studio disc.

Robbie Williams, 'Reality Killed the Video Star' (Virgin)

The ego again requests clearance to land.

Robbie Williams insists in "Bodies" that "All we've ever wanted is to look good naked," which is a very Robbie Williams thing to insist. Truth be told, though, this A-list Englishman desires more -- namely, the American breakthrough that's eluded him since "Angels" threatened to build a following here in 1999.

Jack Johnson, 'En Concert' (Brushfire)

In the European Union, they call him Jacques.

Think you know all there is to know about Jack Johnson?

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