In Brief

*** Everything but the Girl, “Temperamental,” Atlantic. One of England’s most elegant outfits continues a magical mystery tour through the land of electronica, where dizzying drum-and-bass break-beats collide with Tracey Thorn’s wounded vocals and Ben Watt’s transparent sound collages. Once accused of soporific languor, the duo has concocted a meaty enough collection (in stores Tuesday) to dispel any doubts about its validity in the field of ethereal dance music.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.