My Dark Places (Domino Records) is the first Television Personalities record since Treacy's release, and it's the kind of album that typically gets described as being a "beautiful mess." At times, it seems half-finished. "All the Young Children on Crack" runs in a dopey loop, with the title line round-robined over the drum cadence from "We Will Rock You." Ditto "Ex-Girlfriend Club," where Tracy lifts the melody from "UpTown Top Ranking" for no clear or useful purpose. But more frustrating are the moments when the album coheres, because it's there that Treacy's tragic genius is revealed. "I'm Not Your Typical Boy" is a sweet, stumbling piano ballad in which Treacy recalls meeting a childhood girlfriend's parents for the first time. Their assessment of him, which provides the song's title, is quietly devastating.

The Atlanta rapper Jay Jenkins, aka Young Jeezy, is himself no stranger to dustups with the law. When South Beach police stopped Jeezy attempting to flee a skirmish involving some of his friends, they (allegedly) found a startling array of weaponry in the car and promptly slapped on the cuffs. He's cozy with drugs, too. Last year's Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (Def Jam), an album this reviewer stupidly neglected to include in his Top 10, was the David Copperfield of cocaine trafficking.

Jeezy's best asset is his delivery. On the now-circulating Can't Ban the Snowman mix tape, Jeezy wheezes out his verses, stretching out words and twisting them around the whalloping beats. He even weaves his voice right into the music, punctuating drum hits with drawn-out "Yeaaahh"s and answering himself with a spliced-in "That's right!" As a lyricist, he comes up a bit short (an issue he defensively addresses). He has a tendency to rhyme words with themselves, an approach that comes across not as a trick but as a cop-out. When he comes through, though, it's gold. "I shoulda got five mics in The Source," he laments on "I'm Back." "Instead I got five bricks and a Porsche." Not your typical boy, indeed.