There's plenty of classic Mogwai downtempo and hypnotic trance, the likes of which will make you reconsider flippantly using the phrase "epic as fuck" again. [Oct 2008, p.160]

Show Your Bones is the sort of second album that, rather than being a sophomore slump, makes you anxiously wonder what albums three, four and five will sound like. [May 2006, p.176]

A gorgeous set of spectral, ambitious and carefully crafted songs. [Jun 2006, p.188]

Oxford Collapse cruise effortlessly from shoegazey dream pop to classic college rock to Schilitz-soaked Americana. [Sep 2008, p.150]

Although short of a masterpiece, (a)spera is Mirah's most satisfying start-to-finish disc since her 2001 solo breakthrough. [Apr 2009, p.135]

When Bayside's Anthony Raneri pops up on "Texas Mickey," it's just the cherry on top of yet another consistently great Silverstein record. [May 2011, p.96]

The army of noise behind his bitterness is at once massive and impressive. [Jul 2003, p.117]

A marked improvement over their eponymous debut, North sounds like Muse and the Stone Roses on steroids. [Jan 2005, p.113]

While the band's last album, Amber, showed the beginnings of something great, Amber, while not perfect, has actual moments of brilliance. [Mar 2006, p.134]

In simplest terms, this is emotional catharsis put to pop music. And it sounds fucking great. [Jun 2006, p.174]

He abetteed by vibrant backdrops full of guitar-driven samples, which push the disc closer to rock than hip-hop and keep the energy high. [Aug 2009, p.106]

The sequencing on Lost Songs is top-loaded with furious rockers that gradually dial down velocity and acceleration toward atmospheres familiar, anthemic and delicate as Conrad Keely's ragged-from-shouting vocal style continues to command attention. [Nov 2012, p.86]

As much fun as a desperado can have without going on a tri-state crime spree. [Oct 2006, p.214]

Pretty awesome, seriously. [Apr 2008, p.153]

While the album is rooted in chiming and growling guitar licks, the dense layers of each song are revealed only through multiple listens. [Jul 2001, p.66]

Amazing. [Jan 2004, p.108]

It's the little touches that make Daydream so appealing. [Nov 2006, p.190]

The pair of albums don't feel at all like a gimmick, but more like a labor of love that gives each of frontman Will Sheff's characters the appropriate amount of time to shine. [Oct 2008, p.152]

Take Care, take Care, Take Care is their most lush offering to date, with the layers of instrumentation blurring together so sublimely, it's hard to discern what instrument might be making such a wondrous sound. [May 2011, p.92]

Instead of rehashing rap and rock, he smashes up pop melodies, metal riffs and industrial beats with a hammer, creating something that teeters on parody yet heralds an enthusiastic return to the days when hair metal knew how to get the crowds loaded. [Apr 2002, p.65]

Their darkest, most impenetrable record yet--the aural approximation of staring down a mine shaft at midnight. [Jul 2002, p.75]

Manslaughter is a ferocious, heavy record that proves once again that Ice-T and company are undeniable metal contenders, far more than a pop-cultural footnote.

Just what the doctor ordered for those underwhelmed by last year's Built To Spill album. [Jul 2002, p.94]

You would need massive amounts of time on your hands in order to write, refine and record a debut album as thrilling as The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets.

A rapid barrage of sludge-rich bass, scalding guitar distortion and wrist-popping drums fill atop frontman Drew Thomson's infuriated black humor. [Nov 2014, p.98]

Though the length of the songs can prove to be daunting, the album is arguably one of Isis' finest moments. [Jun 2009, p.105]

By smoothing out the rough edges, the guys found new ways to bleed. [Jul 2013, p.104]

The Coral blow through genres like Top 40 radio does flavors of the week. [Apr 2003, p.74]

The music the two make has taken a huge creative leap forward. [Oct 2014, p.100]

With Burials, AFI are going larger than life to get back into the small of their fans’ hearts.

Transit Transit, the follow-up to 2004's similarly majestic Future Perfect, doesn't stray from the intended path, offering sonic action painting, narcotic dreamscapes and other manifestations of sonic bliss that you simply cannot divine from any band currently operating.

Dogs Eating Dogs is a strong effort.

Via Audio thrill at taking risks, succeeding throughout the album's 12 tracks. [Mar 2010, p.98]

Solidly entertaining. [Aug 2004, p.122]

Green's heightened tunefulness along with the broadened emotional resonance that results should enable this band to relate more to an enlarged fanbase... [#154, p.63]

These 11 songs are decidedly more polished. [Oct 2015, p.100]

Robert Pollard breaks with several of his own traditions--fewer songs (only 10), and of those, eight break the 2-and-a-half-minute barrier. [Aug 2008, p.163]

The duo's brand of hip-hop sounds like a mind-meeting between Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton and pimped-out Bay Area rapper Too Short. [Oct 2001, p.91]

Far from the emperor with no summertime clothes, the five songs on Fall Be Kind--a mixture of holdovers from the MPP sessions and new material recorded this year--retain the electronics, but add some samples and head in a darker thematic direction.

The despair in the vocals complements the weight of the music, with just enough melodic hookiness in places (especially “Outside Of Me,” “Sheltered” and “Knew”) to keep you engaged, balanced with some truly epic tangents (see closer “Around The Railing”).

Wisely, the quartet avoid the well-trodden road of "epic" guitar rock to deliver textures loaded with lyrical guitar phrasings within over-modulated grit and distortion.

Confield not only documents the future of IDM; it also cements Autechre's name in the pantheon of sonic visionaries. [Jul 2001, p.63]

A foot-stomping, bum-shaking good time from beginning to end. [May 2002, p.80]

Radio also is the most intensely personal Green Day album in years; as much a celebration of life on the upside of 40 as it is a reminder of the choices, conflicts and contradictions that mark a life well-lived.

Fans of TBR will undoubtedly love this record as much as the last. [Aug 2012, p.91]

Now more than ever, Hanna's voice and music resonate and inspire. [Oct 2013, p.88]

Plays like the soundtrack to a string of awe-striking discoveries. [Feb 2006, p.120]

Has a curiously timeless sense of eclecticism. [May 2006, p.166]

As stylishly remote, timelessly constructed and challengingly intelligent as you'd expect from artists like these. [May 2002, p.83]

Shimmering guitars haunt tormented tunes, dark gravel growls vie with Thom Yorke-y high notes. Unquestionably, Coldplay could not have existed without an awe-stricken respect for Radiohead's The Bends, but they are also capable of escaping its shadow... [12/2000, p.94]

Gossamer is still full of incredibly catchy choruses, dozens of layers of funky instrumental tracks, spazzy electronic flourishes and of course Michael Angelakos' sky-scraping falsetto. [Aug 2012, p.88]

An Object is another great volume in the experimental duo's catalog that feels more colossal than their comparatively small eight years together. [Sep 2013, p.90]

There are no real surprises on Bleed, but as a return to the steady Garbage ferocity of old, it's first rate. [May 2005, p.134]

Rickly pulls off rock-god histrionics and urbane cool, as the band shore him up with a melodic roar that should convince the world to finally stop caring about U2. [Oct 2015, p.97]

His fourth album, This Is Our Science, proves the MC is equally as adept at improvisational freestyles as he is at crafting hooks that will stay lodged in your lobes indefinitely.

Fantasies flows seemlessly from song to engaging song, with less focus on the dance-based instrumentals of "Old World" and greater attention to frontwoman Emily Haines' thoughtful lyrics and lilting voice. [May 2009, p.112]

What we're left is all the brutality of High On Fire's previous work, but with a razor-edged focus. [May 2012, p.79]

While Original Pirate Material isn't as good as the U.K. press hyperbole would have us believe, it does prove that sentiment and sincerity are more interesting than slickness and skills. [Dec 2002, p.96]

Sounds Phishy enough to satisfy the masses and fresh enough to reach those without a predisposition for patchouli and patchwork. [Jun 2002, p.76]

Here's the thing about originality... You don't really need it when you play this proficiently. [Dec 2006, p.188]

They really hit their offbeat stride on Fortress with "Japanese Woman," the tale of a woman who "lives in my closet" and "eats up all my food when she thinks I'm at the office." [Aug 2010, p.150]

You could feel the Kicks reaching for this sort of grandeur in the more inspired moments of 2006's "Two thousands, " this time, they're bathing in it. [July 2008, p.158]

Pierce's organic approach on Grace makes the album feel exquisitely intimate, personable and warm. [Oct 2003, p.138]

For fans of Sigur Ros and Mogwai, this is a godsend, but those who feel like those bands just incessantly mine one-chord riffs would do better to stay away. [May 2004, p.96]

It's what fans have long been hoping for: an alum fill of catchy sing-alongs with substance. [Nov 2011, p.94]

The dozen tracks crackle with the energy of post-millennial British rock and the hook-lined swoon of the late-'80s British post-wave. [Sep 2011, p.120]

A collection of delicate love songs with a back-porch feel, but the electronic warbles add enough texture for a new generation of stoners to space out on. [June 2003, p.96]

From start to finish, Leveler is exhilarating. [Jul 2011, p.106]

The group's self-titled fourth album may be the maverick trio's most straightforward yet. [Oct 2007, p.160]

It's an album's worth of lamentation for accidentally getting older, and it's one of Kasher's most affecting albums to date. [Nov 2010, p.114]

Boasts the accessibility and ambition of a true star. [Jul 2003, p.124]

It doesn't really ever quite rise above excellently pleasant, yet it's remarkably consistent, musically varied and occasionally, endearingly specific. [Aug 2013, p.90]

There's a spiraling circularity to Circumambulation that makes the disc feel more like a hypnotic, deathlike hymn than just a bummer stuck on repeat. [Aug 2013, p.92]

Indictments abound on The People Or The Gun, Anti-Flag's seventh full-length that proves Pittsburgh's politically aware punks haven't lost their bite nor bark. [Jul 2009, p.122]

Studio wizards [Fred] Deakin and Nick Franglen conjure dreamy electronic vistas that teem with languorous grooves, lush ambience and euphoria-inducing melodies. [#153, p.82]

Finally makes good on Malkmus' claims of musical maturity. [Apr 2003, p.80]

It's as beautifully patient and thoughtful as anything else in Dallas green's expanding catalog, while carrying the same sort of modest insecurity and self-doubt that's made the project so warm and personable. [Jul 2013, p.98]

This is still some of the most original, passionate and listenable music of the year, but the mood has changed. [Jan 2002, p.95]

The infusion of new blood, thankfully, seems to have put the Stills' post-punk posturing and emotional distance to bed for good. [Jul 2006, p.194]

To conveniently label it elecroclash would be a disservice to Out Hud's myriad dynamic contours. [Jan 2003, p.96]

One needs to spin [the album] multiple times to appreciate the complex but heart-tugging prog-folk dream-pop contained within. [Jul 2007, p.168]

Eight near-impeccable tracks. [Nov 2004, p.140]

You’re Always On My Mind is a cohesive pop-rock album that sees the band in top form.

It's the skillful meshing of Benjamin Gibbard's part-stream-of-consciousness, part-confessional vocals with melancholy piano and achingly melodic guitars that reveal a fleshed-out Cutie are indeed a band of uncommon beauty. [Dec 2001, p.79]

The lullaby-like "Death" feels too on-the-nose, but it doesn't detract much from Carrier's bittersweet power: an atmosphere of loss, contemplation and return. [Sep 2013, p.88]

Ryan Adams asserts a distinctly Americana ethos into dynamic, woven layers of rock on Cardinology, showcasing the diverse range of this prolific songwriter nd his backing band. [Jan 2008, p.129]

The pop smarts practically shimmer throughout. [Dec 2001, p.83]

Gone is the rock'n'roll grit reminiscent of '70s Detroit rock, and in its place is a stylishly tailored sound more akin to '60s California pop. [Sep 2004, p.136]

Future self displays enthusiasm without overstaying its welcome, and its daring moments are its most satisfying. [May 2011, p.93]

A gorgeous and moving album. [Oct 2013, p.86]

Grey Britain sports some decidely non-punk maneuvers in the form of piano-concerto codas and unnerving sound effects that elevate the band from mere street-punk cliches. [Jun 2009, p.104]

A short, quiet, and relatively still bit of genius. [#154, p.82]

If you've been moved by Sparta before... you're going to have the same reaction once the roiling "Guns Of Memorial Park" opens this album. [Jul 2004, p.127]

It would have been incredibly easy for them to rest on their laurels and placate the faithful. Instead, they took a huge creative risk, pushing the idea of what--and who--they are as a band while still retaining their identity. And damn, does it sound good.

Rubies is nothing if not ambitious. [Apr 2006, p.204]

The result is a beautiful collection of understated, orchestral roots rock that will enrapture both NPR and Pitchfork devotees. [Apr 2008, p.153]

Pussy's Dead is Autolux at their most intriguing--and was definitely worth the wait. [May 2016, p.80]

It's one of their strongest albums, which is saying a lot for a band who've been workhorses for the past two decades. [Aug 2009, p.106]