It means "Everything You Think You Know," "Smoking Kills," and "Day Man," while not bad, do feel slightly generic, which unfortunately diminishes the power of these well-intentioned, heart pounding songs. [Oct 2014, p.98]

If there's a downside to the rumbly growl emerging from the twisted minds of Chicago's Bloodiest, it's the sextet's unwillingness to push tempos beyond a snarling, hammer-slams-nail, mid-paced plod. However, when a gold-standard knuckle-dusting that’s part Swans churn, part Neurosis’ tribal stomp with Unsane’s propulsive groove is employed, does a lack of temporal variety matter? Probably not. [Feb 2016, p.102]

Gossip succeeds in delivering an inspirational array of tracks that, as a whole, are a natural progression (and successful foray) into the mainstream.

Only odd detours like a Russian oompah instrumental break the rhythm of the album; Rouen is an otherwise textured and engaging disc. [Nov 2005, p.222]

So authentic, you'll think songs like "Bad Dream Mama" were put to tape 25 years ago. [Jun 2004, p.108]

Cohesive and engaging throughout, this is the sound of a band at their most fearless. [Nov 2012, p.92]

For anyone familiar with these progenitors of glam punk, 'Cause I Sez So won't surprise. [Jul 2009, p.130]

This is unapologetic alternative rock with a rainy day, late-night drive twist. [Mar 2017, p.80]

Reflection supplants rage on “The Witness Trees,” while “Song #3” is a heartfelt, hook-heavy paean to love’s salvation that’s among Stone Sour’s most pop-savvy moments. ... [frontman Corey Taylor] still spits out words heated enough to melt earbuds on ragers including the near-thrash kiss-off “Somebody Stole My Eyes” and the aptly, awesomely titled “Whiplash Pants.”

Overall, the songs are well-written and daring. Some tracks are more successful than others (”Where Did It Go?” and “Vultures” are standouts), but it is an altogether engaging listen.

Volume Two, as its title announces, succeeds Volume One's charming, old-timey sensibility, relying again in Deschanel's sweet croon to augment the already inviting tracks. [Apr 2010, p.130]

What emerges here isn't the new techno folk or even world music for the e-universe, but a rare portrait of technology with a human face. [Mar 2002, p.78]

Kid Loco's production style stresses the band's shimmering guitars and rich harmonies. [June 2002, p.82]

This heart-cleansing vulnerability renders much of Final Straw's latter half monotonous. [May 2004, p.96]

You'd be hard pressed to find a more confessional album released this year. [Dec 2003, p.142]

It may not have the continuity or cohesive potency of a Document #8 or City Of Caterpillar, but it's a pleasant rage like few others coming out and, when necessary, clearly shouts what it wants to be heard.

This album is pure joy to listen to. [Mar 2011, p.96]

[A] charmingly naive and magnificent record. [Feb 2011, p.86]

Bewitching from front to back. [Jul 2006, p.192]

On their 13th studio effort, the Skull Defekts have evolved into an actual rock band. [May 2014, p.94]

Central Market could prove to some that contemporary classical music can be more epic than post-rock, more dangerous than metal, and have more to say than the most verbose MC-even if most of his songs don't have any words.

Finally, Coheed have made an album worthy of repeat listens, rather than a monster you skim through to hit the interesting parts. [Nov 2005, p.218]

The music on The Indian Tower is relentless. [Mar 2006, p.130]

Longtime Black Lips fans will notice a more polished production compared to past albums, but it also seems apparent that these boys have barely begun to scratch the surface when it comes to showing us what they've made of. [Nov 2007, p.170]

This self-titled is a true beauty. [Jan 2013, p.84]

Sounds like the updated fourth side of Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On. [Nov 2004, p.142]

Amazingly enough, only a few tunes drag or fade into the background--a testament to how strong (and focused) the songwriting is on Submarine. [Jun 2011, p.111]

It's possibly the band's most poignant work to date. [Jun 2011, p.107]

Simple Math is a perfect interpretation of an imperfect man's life, and hopefully just another chapter in the larger story Manchester orchestra have yet to reveal. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Heaping handfuls of sound are shaped into a dizzying array, landing somewhere between a heavy Queen, even heavier '70s British prog and a more interesting Dream Theater. [Jul 2015, p.96]

Ultimately unremarkable. [Jul 2004, p.134]

All four members are back in the fold and each one sounds like they're playing with purpose and energy. [Jul 2017, p.82]

While it isn't his best work, Rain on Lens shows that Callahan is proving to be frustratingly hard to pin down, but capable of unleasing brilliance at any given time. [Nov 2001, p.94]

Wratten's finest post-Field Mice LP. [Dec 2001, p.98]

Mostly stuck in a low gear. [Dec 2003, p.156]

All told, this is hardly a bad addition to Eisley's burgeoning catalog—their development is obvious, and there are enough quality songs present to improve that theoretical "greatest hits" collection for their live show.

While Personality is all masterful and ambitious, nothing really sticks in the end. [Sep 2006, p.232]

It contains the band's most focused songwriting since the last album Gottehrer produced, 2005's Pretty In Black. [Oct 2012, p.92]

It's a shame it's a one-off, because Dark Night's trippy, psychedelic tunes are a true treat for your ears. [Aug 2010, p.146]

Their [Daniel Blumberg and Neil Hagerty's] collaboration resulted in an album that requires close attention to find the golden details hidden in its crevices. [Aug 2013, p.88]

John Gourley gives the envelope a token push but lays back a little too much into his comfort zone; the rest of the band abet him with lucid and calm performances. [Aug 2011, p.118]

Their best album to date. [Apr 2013, p.85]

Pensive and engaging, Jumping The Tracks is the quintessential headphones record that gets better with each listen. [Mar 2014, p.88]

While Release has all the hallmarks of a great DJ mix album, it's a record meant for pop consumption. [Nov 2007, p.176]

It's surprisingly how generally lukewarm the music is on Newman's sophomore effort, Get Guilty. [Feb 2009, p.103]

What sounds like leftovers from Miller's last solo effort and bizarre surf-rock-inspired numbers rear their ugly heads, leaving these Lone Star Staters in jeopardy of repeating the grade. [July 2008, p.158]

What matters is The Futureheads have made significant artistic and personal inroads to make sure their fans' enthusiasm rises to match theirs. [July 2008, p.158]

Turner's third solo release shows how versatile he is as he single handedly bridges the gap between Brian Fallon and Billy Bragg. [Oct 2009, p.115]

When it works, it’s great; when it doesn’t, it feels clunky at best and skippable at worst.

TBS still manage to drive home those angst-filled undertones fans have both embraced and expected since the band's inception. [Oct 2016, p.90]

The paino ballads make Black Dirt more melancholy than previous efforts, but no less masterful. [Jun 2010, p.102]

The feeling isn't sucked out yet, but the focus is. [Sep 2002, p.92]

Has an infectious energy that keeps things from growing stale. [May 2002, p.84]

Daybreaker is their best yet. [Jul 2012, p.90]

A bona-fide motherfucker of a stoner jam. [May 2006, p.170]

It's a clear sequel that continues the character profiles and storylines frontman Rhett Miller created last time around. [Aug 2011, p.118]

There's still dead air begging for Wedren to fill it--preferably with stronger melodies and more lingering turns of phrase--but until his old band reform and make a comeback album, Wand is well worth waving.

La Di Da Di urges you to dance and then challenges you to keep up with every bob, weave and time signature shift. [Oct 2015, p.98]

Thrillingly adventurous and tuneful, if occasionally indulgent. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Not as memorable as Tarwater's peers like The Notwist. [May 2005, p.138]

It's a decent disc that'll simultaneously satisfy your cravings for pop music and the avant-garde. [Dec 2008, p.153]

Though some tracks lull more than thrill, that seems to be the goal. [May 2009, p.114]

By letting the listener into his universe this time, Washed Out have created an album that inhabits you as you inhabit it. [Sep 2013, p.94]

This should be among Perry's higher-profile efforts in some time, with production by Andrew WK, and guest appearances by everyone from Moby to Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt. [Oct 2008, p.150]

Man Man are still digging around in a diverse bag of influences. Fortunately, they keep pulling out winners. [Sep 2013, p.90]

The fast parts are faster, the hard parts are harder, and the melodic sections are more memorable. [Oct 2001, p.102]

While Folie A Deux at times feels like the band are showing off the contents of their Rolodex, the album's standouts are so good that they will undoubtedly become standards for the band's live shows for years to come.

Gemini, Her Majesty is by and large a step back towards the fertile brilliance that rightfully gained Rx Bandits exposure in the early 2000s, recapturing the jubilant mix of styles they deployed with so much fresh aggression and poise.

Quite an impressive start. [Aug 2006, p.206]

It's a sharp effort taken in pieces, but as a whole, it's a little lacking.

Despite some bummer subject matter, this could be the year's most fun album. [Nov 2013, p.84]

He comes closer to rediscovering the excitement, ethereal looseness and raucous twang that epotomizes his first three efforts than he has any time in the past 15 years. [Jul 2010, p.123]

True to form, the band deliver yet again on Car Alarm. [Nov 2008, p.155]

Overall, this collision of dirty loops and polished pop is Information you need. [Dec 2006, p.198]

Even at his most commercial, Jake stays true to his groove. [Jan 2008, p.131]

This 13-track disc can be heard as a welcome return to basics. [Aug 2011, p.118]

While the album has bright spots, overall it feels a bit dull and without the spark that made 1998's "Midwestern Songs Of The Americas" so fresh and exciting. [Dec 2008, p.132]

brand new eyes astonishes from start to finish. [Oct 2009, p.111]

In spite of the repetitiveness, Fucked Up Friends comes out gold and crispy and ready, for you to get your hands on it. [Nov 2008, p.164]

Confident, unselfconsciously weird and always engaging, Welcome Oblivion is a strange world that will draw you back again and again. [Mar 2013, p.88]

LFO executes these retro moves with flamboyance and subtlety, so we can forgive Bell his derivativeness. [Nov 2003, p.118]

Relentless rhythms and boisterous basslines propel the disc's quick-paced tunes to their catahrtic capital-letter choruses. [Aug 2003, p.104]

Dark and compelling. [May 2004, p.104]

To Rococo Rot don't need more bounce in their already metronomic step, so I-Sound shows the group on this collaboration how to add a bit of swagger. [#155, p.86]

Sounds like every other disc Matador has released by them. [Oct 2004, p.134]

Fila's prowess on bass and guitar keeps the music feeling more composerly than other, more sample-heavy excursions. [Apr 2002, p.74]

There's a handful of tracks that should have been left on the cutting room floor to slim down the set, but Heart Attack is undoubtedly a step up for Man Overboard. [Jun 2013, p.91]

A must-hear. [May 2005, p.138]

Don't worry about it being a chore; after devouring the album in its entirety almost a dozen times, we're still craving more. [May 2009, p.120]

This is a band in complete control of ts creative vision, and the result is a sharp, confident album. [Oct 2013, p.88]

He's a poetic if not somewhat mad genius on his own, but Peer Amid makes it clear Higgs is at his best pacing the prow of mighty musical vessel. [Mar 2011, p.99]

It might not be the same band as in 1998, but this graceful, elegant record is more than deserving of a place in their discography.

The infectious All Or Nothing takes all the right things about their debut and improves on them. {Oct 2008, p.161]

This progressive spin on the classic EpiFat sound yields original, enjoyable results. [Dec 2014, p.105]

In short, Mythologiesis reverent to past creative innovations, while creating a few of its own. [Dec 2015, p.104]

Typical electronic fare mixed with a captivating rock sensibility. [Jul 2005, p.186]

It's surprisingly decent. [Jul 2007, p.174]

It's a summertime record guaranteed to freak out half the "Surfing USA" fans in the world. [Oct 2006, p.202]