I picked this up in New Zealand on the recommendation of a relative. The first track was absolutely captivating -- mellow, understated, with a complete absence of climax that leaves you wanting more. A thing of quiet beauty.
Unfortunately, there's nothing else like it on the album. There's a fair amount of variety, and all of the material is competently performed, but none of it quite reaches that level, at least to me. There are moments in some of the ballads that come close, though. The harder rockers have some melodically interesting elements, but there are also some thematic re-uses that could have been done without. Using the same interval in a few different keys as the core of a few different songs gets old fairly quickly. More subtle thematic referencing would have been more interesting.
There's one outright jarring moment, too -- part of the hook from Saddest Song in the World sounds quite a lot like the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Shihad's spin on the riff makes for a good song, but it's impossible to keep the Stones' classic out of my head when I listen to Shihad's tune.
Overall, I do like the album, but I don't love it. None of the Above is going to be a staple on my playlists, but the rest of the album will be a much less frequent listen.
The Record: Love is the New Hate (Shihad), 2005
One-line verdict: Hit-and-miss.
Standount Tracks: None of the Above, Dark Times, Stop

I saw this album on shelves in New Zealand and made a note to check it out when I got home. As it turned out it was available on iTunes, so I picked it up. It's hard rock, with conventional lyrics and more than a hint of screamo. The guitar textures are interesting and novel, but the melodies themselves are generally fairly straightforward.
There are a few interesting tracks, especially the first and last, but even they are just very good examples of the genre rather than anything unusual. The album as a whole suffers from the curse of sounding too consistent for its own good. The songs blend together and many of the middle tracks just aren't memorable.
There isn't much more to say about this one. It's an enjoyable listen, but easily displaced by the next purchase.
The Record: End the Silence (Blindspott), 2006
One-line verdict: Unsurprising, but solid.
Standount Tracks: 1975, Pray for Me

David Bowles has said that his intention in crafting this album was to create "intellectual dance music." In this he succeeded admirably, and I find This Insubstantial Pageant significantly more palatable than I find most conventional dance music. My tastes in the electronic tend more toward Orbital, Boards of Canada, and Nine Inch Nails, though I do enjoy traditional four-on-the-floor bass drum electronic dance music if I'm in a club.
Somewhat predictably, the highlight of the album for me is the blues vocals over acoustic guitars and synth backgrounds in the opener, Huckleberry Juju. Bowles has a good singing voice, and I'd love to hear him record a real acoustic blues number... which leads me to my main complaint about the album: the effected vocals. Frequently, the vocal tracks have an effected bass tone that sounds synthetic, even if it actually isn't. Sometimes the bassified vocals work for me, but most of the time I find myself wishing for uneffected or possibly distorted vocals.
Some tracks are possibly a bit longer than strictly necessary, though that's more a much more useful "failing" in dance than in other genres.
Melodically, This Insubstantial Pageant is considerably more interesting than a lot of other dance. That's also true lyrically -- at least, when I can make the lyrics out. The effected vocals make it harder than it should be.
Overall, though, when I want to pull a dance record out of my library, this is one of the first ones I go for. Quite enjoyable.
The Record: This Insubstantial Pageant (David Bowles), 2007
One-line verdict: Dancey.
Standount Tracks: Huckleberry Juju, Ineluctable