Lifehouse - Stanley Climbfall

When you come up with the most-played radio hit of the year, there is no need to wrack your brains for a follow-up. Lifehouse, who earned such a distinction with 2001's highly addictive "Hanging by a Moment," shrewdly stick to the emotional guitar-rock palette of that breakthrough single for most of their second album. "I wouldn't change a thing," frontman Jason Wade declares on the searing "Spin," and the band follows through on powerful, life-affirming tracks such as "Wash" and "Take Me Away." Produced by Ron Aniello (Days of the New), mixed by Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, U2), and written primarily between tours, this is the kind of ambitious and endearing album that suggests its makers won't settle for anything less than global domination. --Aidin Vazari