Editor’s Note: In Sound Advice, the first Friday of every month, veteran BDN entertainment writer Dale McGarrigle, Rockin’ Out columnist Emily Burnham and a revolving stable of BDN writers review new albums from across the musical spectrum.

“With Teeth” (Interscope) – Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor doesn’t do his fans any favors. In the six years since 1999’s double-disc odyssey “The Fragile,” there was a time when we heard next to nothing about Nine Inch Nails. Then there was a year or so of rumblings from his rock-star mansion in New Orleans that a new album was in the works, and that it was going to be called “Bleedthrough” and that he categorized it as, musically, being like “12 hard punches to the face.” Trent’s not one for subtlety.

Well, we have a new album. It’s called “With Teeth,” and instead of being like 12 hard punches to the face, it’s more like 13 songs that are unmistakably the work of Nine Inch Nails that are also – dare I say it – funky. As in, you can dance while you’re screaming your lungs out to them.

The album starts off on one of the high notes of Trent’s long career; “All the Love In the World” begins with the piano twinkles featured so prominently on “The Fragile,” along with Trent’s tortured vocals. After a masterful crescendo, it locks into a devastating electro beat, and sets the mood for the rest of the album: painstakingly crafted electronic rock.

“You Know What You Are” hearkens back to “The Downward Spiral,” with its high, pounding drums and screamed vocals, while hit single “The Hand That Feeds” and midalbum track “Only” sound more like indie heroes The Faint than the stuff they’ve done in the past. Though there are a few draggers, the album is as good as anything Trent Reznor has ever done, and in some places, better. – Emily Burnham

“Monkey Business” (A&M) – The Black Eyed Peas

The quartet that put the funk in “Elephunk” return with a new release that proves that that 2003 multiplatinum breakout album was no fluke.

Will.i.am, Fergie, apl.de.ap and Taboo again show that, in a music world filled with the all-too-serious, they know how to put the fun back in funk.

The bulk of “Monkey Business” was recorded during 18 months of touring to support “Elephunk,” and that gives it a fluid, live feel of a group in the groove.

All kinds of musical influences are thrown into the hip-hop melting pot that is The Black Eyed Peas: snippets from surf-guitar king Dick Dale and neo-folk singer Jack Johnson, brass and all manner of percussion and guest contributions from Justin Timberlake (again, on “My Style”), Sting (“Union”) and the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown (“They Don’t Want Music”).

What pours out is “Monkey Business,” a beat-happy, tap-provoking blend that crosses all kinds of musical genres to reach all sorts of listeners, which will pour out of iPods, Walkmen and car stereos alike for months to come. Maybe it shouldn’t work, but it does. And, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. – Dale McGarrigle

“Youth” and “From the Ground Up” (El Music Group) – Collective Soul

With nearly four years elapsed since their last studio album, the five-man band from Georgia may have decided they needed to make up for lost time and released a pair of new albums within six months of each other. “Youth,” released late last winter, represents a rebirth for the band, which replaced a guitarist and switched record labels. “From the Ground Up,” released last month, is an acoustic offering. It’s not only stripped down in terms of production, but also tracks, as there are just eight, only one of which is new. Ironically, the lone new song on “From the Ground Up” is “Youth,” but there is no song titled “Youth” on the album of the same name. Both albums suggest the band is much more relaxed as well as reinvigorated after a tumultuous absence from the music scene marked by two divorces, a lineup shakeup, and a divorce from Atlantic Records that made them independent for the first time since 1994 debut album “Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid.” The result is a clean sound that borrows from both the debut and the seventh, 2004’s “Blender.” Some have called “Youth” a Collective Soul album for non-Collective Soul fans and “From the Ground Up,” its eight-song acoustic follow-up, just the opposite. As a longtime fan, I liked both, but if I had to choose, “Youth” gets the vote, hands down. The better course of action? Buy both. – Andrew Neff

“Separation Sunday” (French Kiss) – The Hold Steady

Craig Finn, singer for the Hold Steady, spits out his words like he can’t keep up with them. He sounds like he’s lifting his head up from his fifth or sixth pint of the night to comment on the scene around him. He slurs, he jams in extra words, and he just barely navigates through his deft, verbose lyrics. He’s like Shane McGowan meets Bob Dylan.

On their new album, “Separation Sunday,” the band makes good on the promise they showed on their debut “… Almost Killed Me.” Musically, they’re a balance of classic rock bombast and bar band ease – like the E-Street Band mixed with the finer points of Meatloaf’s back catalog. They’re the perfect foil for a charismatic front man.

And what a front man Craig Finn is; you won’t find a more skilled, perceptive lyricist out there. His songs are stories, populated by stoners, skaters, has-beens, never-weres and the occasional hero. He weaves in recurring places, people and images, so that “Separation Sunday” becomes a narrative on some busted up town, where everyone has big dreams that more often than not don’t come true.

An excerpt from one of the highlights from the album, “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night,” shows the lyrical heft Finn throws around: “We gather our gospels from gossip and bar talk / then declare them the truth / We salvage our sermons from message boards and scene reports / We come on to the youth / We try out new testaments on the guys sitting next to us in the bars / with the bars in their windows / Even if you don’t get converted tonight / you must admit that the band’s pretty tight.” – Emily Burnham