Akon – Freedom
Akon spun off two number one pop hits and one number two from Konvicted, so he couldn’t be blamed for working the same tricks, yet Freedom is a major change of pace — the kind of drastic switch-up that normally happens after reaching a creative and commercial dead-end. Hip-hop and R&B are all but scrapped entirely. The set instead is rooted in the gleaming synthesizers and spring-loaded dance beats of Euro-pop.

Britney Spears – Circus
Last year, Britney Spears was in a Blackout, this year she’s acknowledging her life is a Circus via a friendlier, happier re-do of its club-centric predecessor. If Blackout was a producer’s record, Circus is a handler’s record, an attempt to sweep all the madness of the past year under the rug and give the people the Britney that they know and love: high-energy dance-pop, drippy ballads and a hint of scandal.

Neil Young – Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968
The latest installment of Neil Young’s Archives — and allegedly the last before the long-awaited box set arrives — is Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 which presents a full set of highlights from an intimate two-night stand at the Ann Arbor venue. This is the show that produced the “Sugar Mountain” as heard on Neil’s Decade and the rest of the concert is equally good, offering a welcome reminder of just how open-hearted and fragile — and, thanks to the winding spoken introductions, how funny — Neil Young was before he turned into a legend.

Craig David – Greatest Hits
Burl Ives – Favorites for Children
Danny Kaye – Grimm’s & Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales for Children
Panic at the Disco – …Live in Chicago
Scarface – Emeritus
Carly & Lucy Simon – Sing Songs for Children (2008 Reissue)
Simply Red – 25: The Greatest Hits
Various Artists – Best of Chess: Original Versions of Songs in Cadillac Records
Original Soundtrack – Cadillac Records
Original Soundtrack – Cadillac Records (Bonus CD)