There's no question that Marilyn Manson's 1995 album Antichrist Superstar was a great-sounding record. It brooded, ripped, and clattered in all the right places, mixing industrial beats and samples with roaring heavy-metal riffs, echoing Goth keys, and the occasional tuneful pop vocal. But for all the sonic appeal, some of the song-writing wasn't too strong. No such problem on Manson's new record, Mechanical Animals, which forsakes some of the band's former grind in favour of dynamic glam rhythms and good old-fashioned melody. When the band tones down, as on the largely acoustic "Speed of Pain" and "Fundamentally Loathsome", Manson even sounds like a candidate for an Unplugged session. Most often, however, as on "Rock Is Dead", "User Friendly", and "The Dope Show", Mechanical Animals is a brash, decadent, and glittery display of self-indulgent hooks and melodramatic vocals that sounds like Aladdin Sane-era David Bowie and T. Rex at their most boisterous crossed with the more modern sounds of today's industrial nation. -Jon Wiederhorn.

End of the Century is the musical documentation of a form looking for rebirth. Having burned itself out in four short years by 1979 (that's a short century!), punk rock cast about for a spark to reignite the flames. The Clash found it in political rage and musical wanderings; the Ramones found it by infusing their already well-honed pop sensibilities with a huge dose of pathos. Who'd have thought these boys-the same ones who cried "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and who wanted to "Beat on the Brat (with a Baseball Bat)"-had it in them? The concept looks great on paper. Combine the famed "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector with the three-chord, three-minute, speed-laced ditties of the Ramones-and it sounds even better on vinyl. The Ramones never needed any help sounding massive, but Spector's production brings out subtleties hidden within, making Johnny's lone Mosrite guitar blaze like a bomb squadron, coaxing some evocative and emotional singing from Joey, even (gasp!) shading some of the songs with strings-punk-rock sacrilege in those days. The Ramones live up to the task by writing some of their best-and most overlooked-songs to date. "Rock & Roll High School" and "Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio?" are exhilarating (and somewhat nostalgic) bids for commercial recognition. Even the covers here-"Baby, I Love You" and "Chinese Rocks"-transcend the original source and become solid members of the Ramones' community of songs. Though they've been accused of rewriting the same album over and over, End of the Century proves the Ramones were much smarter, more adventurous and more innovative than we'd ever expected. [+]

In grand rock & roll tradition, Staind now have their grey album-14 Shades of Grey-just as the Beatles had the white album and Metallica the black album. While lumped in with the often indistinguishable nu-metal crowd, Staind stand out, thanks in part to memorable ballads, such as the pained and beautiful "It's Been a While" and "Epiphany" from the quartet's 2001 breakthrough Break the Cycle. Their latest offering represents a natural progression; realising the commercial potential of the poignant but heavy rock ballad, they've penned a slew of them. The light and cheery "How About You" is radio-ready, while the layered, string-backed "So Far Away", an honest and grateful musing on success, is another get-out-the lighters showcase for singer Aaron Lewis. Lewis's beautiful ode for his baby, "Zoe Jane", a tribute to late Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley ("Layne", which intentionally and effectively cops Alice's signature sound) and the grandiose thank-you note "Intro" are stronger, overtly introspective entries in Lewis' sometimes mushy, sometimes touching album diary. -Katherine Turman.

"You either love or you despise, there's just no room for compromise" spat Anglo-French bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel on "Burning Up Time". And by the time of No More Heroes-the Stranglers' second album-the battle lines were drawn between those (the press and the women's movement, mainly) who saw the future "Meninblack" as uncouth sexist pigs peddling aggressive punk Doors music and those for whom The Stranglers were a fantastically melodic, intelligent punk-rock combo, albeit one with a dangerously dry sense of humour and a swift-fingered, pipe-smoking keyboard player. The former had plenty to complain about: Elderly aunts up and down the land must have fainted the day an unwitting Dave Lee Travis played "I Feel Like A Wog" ("out on the dirty shitty jobs") on Radio One, so it's probably just as well they never got to hear the teacher-pupil relationship smut of "School Ma'm" (most unsavoury line-"disgusting behaviour, all over the parquet flooring") or the infamously rude "Bring On The Nubiles", which was chanted like testosterone-charged Daleks and featured the word "fuck" eight times. Musically, The Stranglers were on a roll-Dave Greenfield's use of Hammond organ and Moogsynth coupled with Burnel's sonorous belch of a bass and Hugh Cornwell's not-bothered vocal made them instantly recognisable. And at least half of No More Heroes is every bit as good as Rattus Norvegicus (in fact, most of the album was recorded at the same time). It's also the only Stranglers album to spawn two Top 10 singles, namely the gutteral call-to-arms of "Something Better Change" and the iconoclastic title track-a genuine rock classic. -Kevin Maidment.

Their name might be tailor-made to bait sniffy hardcore purists, but it's the music on Leaving Through the Window-the debut full-length from So-Cal emo-popsters Something Corporate-that should really divide the punk kids eager for the latest release stamped with the Drive-Thru insignia. Touting influences like Billy Joel and Elton John alongside more traditional touchstones like New Found Glory and Jimmy Eat World and featuring, in the shape of Andrew McMahon, a lead singer more keen on pulling up a piano stool and playing an elegant recital than reeling across the stage with mike clutched in bloody fist, Something Corporate truly are the face of easy-listening emo. Is this a bad thing? Occasionally. They tend to rely a little too much on orchestral strings when they're trying to milk every last drop of emotion out of tracks like "Cavanaugh Park", and "Punk Rock Princess" is about as soppy as this sort of music gets. But the embittered "If You See Jordan"-a song about a high-school bully that can't grow up when the prom's been and gone-and the determinedly anti-macho "Drunk Girl" offer a pretty sweet antidote to brainless frat-rock punk. Besides, Something Corporate are bucking the tedious trend of three-chord moshpit conformity and we should certainly applaud that when we see it. -Louis Pattison.