By CHUCK CAMPBELL, Scripps Howard News Service

"A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH," Van Halen (Interscope)

Van Halen's back with "A Different Kind of Truth," and why not?

"BORN TO DIE," Lana Del Rey (Interscope)

"THIS MEANS WAR," Attack Attack! (Rise)

Bold Ohio band Attack Attack! seems to want to make everyone at least a little unhappy with its new "This Means War."

"LIVE FROM THE KITCHEN," Yo Gotti (J Records)

Yo Gotti's new "Live From the Kitchen" sounds like something from years ago -- and not just because it has reportedly been delayed from release by a couple of years. It sounds older than that, like from more than a decade ago when rudimentary gangsta rap was flowing through the mainstream.

"BANGARANG," Skrillex (Big Beat/Atlantic)

When Esperanza Spalding was announced as a nominee for Best New Artist in advance of last year's Grammy Awards, she was universally dismissed as a noncontender against her much-better-known competition that included Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence + The Machine and Mumford & Sons.

"AYAH YE! MOVING TRAIN," KG Omulo (KG Omulo)

KG Omulo is an "Afro-urban" music mixologist, a native of Kenya transplanted to Florida who has concocted a range of Afro-hyphenate styles -- Afro-funk, Afro-pop, Afro-beat -- with a heady Caribbean flavor and strains of rock and blues for his "Ayah Ye! Moving Train."

"ARCHIVE plus SPIRAL," Thomas Comerford (Spacesuit)

On "Archive plus Spiral," Thomas Comerford sounds like one of those friends you go to when you're feeling down, because he's always feeling worse.

"ACROBATS," Peggy Sue (Yep Roc)

"SKELETON," The Good Natured (Astralwerks)

Kids today sure like that '80s music.

London trio The Good Natured -- featuring 20-year-old Sarah McIntosh as its frontwoman -- is one of the more recent, and more effective, acts to put a modern spin on pop's quirkiest decade.

"RED," Dia Frampton (Universal Republic)

It's rare for singing-competition shows like "American Idol" to turn contestants into actual idols. Sure, there's all the in-the-moment hype, lavish praise from judges, screaming adoration from fans, vows that "you haven't heard the last of me" from contestants as they're booted.

But all too often, you've heard the last of them.