Blutengel (German: Blood Angel) (stylized as BlutEngel) are a German futurepop musical group formed by singer Chris Pohl (also of the groups Terminal Choice, Tumor, and Miss Construction and the owner of the Fear Section label) after he had to leave Seelenkrank due to contractual and legal problems…

Trumpeted in some circles as a New Order rarities collection, Lost Sirens doesn't really fit the bill as such, but it does offer a wealth of bonus tracks from circa 2005 – call it the second disc of the deluxe edition that was never released for Waiting for the Sirens' Call. Their eighth album, it eventually appeared to be the band's swan song, given Peter Hook's eventual estrangement from the rest of the original lineup. Compared to that album's half-hearted songwriting and rote sound, Lost Sirens positively shines – leading to the customary questions of why this material didn't replace several, if not many, songs on the original Sirens' Call. Most of the excitement is due to the lead-off track "I'll Stay with You," a solid rocker that sounds like it should've been their comeback single after 2001's energizing Get Ready. As on much of their work of the 2000s, guitar is forefront and synths are used only for texture, but with excellent results, led by the midtempo storm of "Hellbent" (the only previously unreleased track, which appeared on a 2005 hits collection).

Alphaville's 2010 comeback album sets the time at defiance, playing as if the last two decades never existed, but the band's return to its prime form is so flawless the record sounds almost timeless. Thirteen years since their last commercial studio album, they pick up where synth pop left off: midtempo beats impossible not to tap to, romantic and nervous keyboard textures that take that space ambience of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream and put it to work, and dramatic vocals with a weepy edge, like Erasure is still the hottest new thing in town. This is supposed to sound plastic, but it doesn't, the hooks are too good, the melodies too convincing, and the mood is pinned down perfectly, as if the band spent all the time since 1997's Salvation working full-time to polish their stuff (though, as Axl Rose demonstrated, that's not necessarily a good thing). Besides, good dance-pop music hasn't really changed much since Alphaville's heyday, and there's since been plenty of synth pop aficionados keeping the flame alive and making Catching Rays on Giant relevant, but even if the style had been buried and forgotten after "Forever Young," this record would still shine through simply on the strength of its songwriting.

Left to his own devices, Prince will indulge in his peculiar vice of releasing triple-albums. He celebrated his freedom from Warner with Emancipation, following that with another triple-disc in Crystal Ball, which just happened to be the provisional title of the scrapped three-LP iteration of 1987's Sign o' the Times, he had a triple-live set in 2002, and now he's navigating the rough waters of online distribution and exclusive contracts with big box retailers in 2009 with another triple-disc set called LotusFlow3r…

Prince's star faded not long after he won emancipation from Warner Brothers in 1995, as he abandoned the mainstream so he could follow his whims however he liked. Which meant that he effectively started making records for nobody but himself, whether that meant triple-disc collections of new material or an all-instrumental smooth jazz album, and in short order, his fans started dwindling away to nothing but the hardcore, who themselves had their patience tried by such antics as Prince suing his own fanzine in the late '90s. It seemed that he was fated to permanently wander in the wilderness, making music for an ever more selective audience, until he suddenly decided in 2004 that he wanted to be back in the game, returning to the spotlight with acclaimed performances at the Grammys and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, announcing an all-hits tour, and releasing Musicology, his first major-label distributed album in five years…

This truly is an all-star affair. Parliament and Funkadelic alumni like Bootsy Collins, Eddie Hazel, Walter "Junie" Morrison, and Garry Shider, among others, resurface from various stages in the Mothership's time upon earth to contribute to this stylistically sprawling and urbanely funky session; adding to the impressive roll call are high-profile soul and funk guest stars such as Sly "Sylvester Stewart" Stone, Bobby Womack, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker. And leading the charge is the master himself, George Clinton.

Given the cold shoulder Madonna's 2003 album American Life received by critics and audiences alike – it may have gone platinum, but apart from the Bond theme “Die Another Day,” released in advance of the album, it generated no new Top Ten singles (in fact, its title track barely cracked the Top 40) – it's hard not to read its 2005 follow-up, Confessions on a Dance Floor, as a back-to-basics move of sorts: after a stumble, she's returning to her roots, namely the discos and clubs where she launched her career in the early '80s…