Since she first raised her arms in what now seems like a blessing on the talent show "Britain's Got Talent," revealing herself as the new queen of pop's Island of Misfit Toys, Susan Boyle has come to mean several things to her fans: hope, the triumph of the ordinary, the reality-television embodiment of the Euro-American Dream. As a singer, though, she offers something else: relief.

Boyle's clear but warm tone and stolid phrasing turns everything it touches into a more songful version of New Age music. It's relaxing to listen to those drawn-out syllables, gradually building toward a gentle, wavelike climax. Boyle possesses neither an impulse to swing nor an ounce of the blues; whether she's covering the Monkees, the Rolling Stones or Madonna, Boyle sings like she's in a place of worship, surrounded by white walls and soft light, cooking up some chicken soup for the soul.

Her unearthly calm and gently piercing timbre are her best qualities. It's what makes her version of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" so touching. Instead of Mick Jagger's moaning, slightly derisive take on heartache, hers is truly resigned, the sound of someone who really understands and accepts life's limitations.

Some of us here at Pop & Hiss have a theory that almost everything is better with cats. To see whether such a hypothesis extends to music criticism, we reached out to two clever women who were responsible for bringing the LOLcat phenomenon to the stage.

Kristyn Pomranz and Katherine Steinberg are the brains behind "I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL!," an off-Broadway production based on the popular blog about silly kitties with misspelled captions. The musical premiered at the New York Fringe Festival in August and may make its way to other areas of the country (paws crossed).

Ben Huh, the chief executive of Pet Holdings Inc., which is the parent company of the I Can Has Cheezburger blog, recommended the pair for our project. Despite being an expert in cat-speak, the Seattle-based Huh says he's not very knowledgeable about new music.

So while other music publications have already jumped on the phenom, Pop & Hiss went straight to the source, and asked Pomranz and Steinberg to bestow their musical criticisms onto goofy pictures of cats. In between work on their new musical -- "which is also about food but not about cats," Pomranz wrote in an e-mail -- the duo has let us know what your pets think about your music collection.

We can has musik revyooz.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is one of the hottest --- and most unusual -- acts around right now. She wrestled with Madonna on Saturday, and recently parted with Kanye "Imma-let-you-finish" West for her November tour.

Between all these forays into pop stardom and designing high-end headphones, does Gaga even have time to make good music? The cat thinks so.

Click "read more" for the rest of the LOLcat music reviews.