The moodiest moments are what ultimately make this album Phantom Planet's best. [May 2008, p.140]

We're fans of Thorburn's day job, too, but this actually wins out when it comes to Sunday relaxation tunes. [Oct 2008, p.153]

The warm spirit that emanates from this loving tribute should be more than enough to keep you cozy through the cold months ahead.

Despite the variety and many obvious influences... the Greenhornes leave their own unique fingerprint on every song. [Feb 2006, p.126]

The Menzies score big about half the time. [May 2014, p.93]

Mediocre. [May 2007, p.162]

All that keeps Zoo from being a perfect record is the nagging feeling that Ceremony has even better work ahead. [Apr 2012, p.90]

As was true in those bygone days, the hippieish uplift can get a little fuzzy, but the bass-rattling jolt of "Buffalo" will clear your head--and fill the floor--fast. [Sep 2014, p.104]

Gardner and drummer Jason Hammel discover a prettier, fuller-bodied sound and enrich it with other instruments, such as strings on the inviting opener, 'Get Better.' [June 2008, p.130]

Though the album gets too repetitive, the uniformity of Acolyte still serves the band's purpose: Make the floor move.

The [absence of original bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham] is felt; at times, the album lacks the urgency and energy of the band's best work. Still, Content is an uncompromising experience. [Feb 2011, p.87]

His earnest vocals and easygoing spirit evoke both nostalgia and excitement for what may lay around the next bend in the road--a difficult feat he makes sound effortless. [Mar 2012, p.98]

Some of Bury Me In My Rings lacks gravity, but Sennett finds emotional weight on acoustic "Jailbird" and album standout "Born To Love You." [Jun 2011, p.107]

Thankfully, Damage easily bests the previous two Jimmy Eat World full-lengths, and its high points rival those of Futures and Bleed American.

Even [Haines'] coos about war can't make Live feel urgent or save its slanted art-rock outbursts. [Dec 2005, p.214]

Most of Boroughs feels like they're sampling themselves. [Aug 2004, p.120]

Offers few intriguing instrumental twists and only the faintest percussive pulse. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Whereas the Beckster tends to wriggle cheekily along to his funk, and Badly Drawn Boy does his own thing in spite of it, Gorillaz don't give a rat's ass about acting funky; they just are. [July 2001, p.68]

There are little surprises on Wishful Thinking, but with that comes little letdown.

The problem with this kind of timeless rock 'n' roll is that every city in the U.S. has a band who have mnore or less mastered it. [Feb 2008, p.119]

Going "conventional" may be the strangest move the Residents have ever made. [May 2005, p.178]

Surprises adorn "Control" and "Mother's Lullaby," too, demonstrating an impressively increased range from the usually hard-rockin' group. [Dec 2011, p.119]

While Hyperview has less interesting moments, it's an overall push toward the total renewal that adds another chapter to the band's fascinating evolution. [Mar 2015, p.92]

Voxtrot's biggest fault is that at times its understated strings, burbling keyboards and retro-fitted guitars sound almost too pretty and distant. [Jul 2007, p.170]

Public Enemy remain fiercely independent and definately revitalized. [Nov 2007, p.176]

[Whales And Leeches up its game] by being bigger, bolder, heavier, catchier and even more savagely fun.

A heartbreakingly brilliant album that unravels itself slowly if you just stop and listen. [Jul 2004, p.132]

By sticking to a strict formula of short, frenzied blasts of razor-wire guitars and mosh-inciting rhythms, Cerebral Ballzy have gobbed out an absolutely fluff-free album. [Aug 2011, p.112]

Fans will love it, but if you're not already on board, this album won't change your mind. [Oct 2007, p.169]

Like Creeper's previous albums, Take Back The Universe is a delicate piece of criss-crossing jangles and loose-limbed riffs, but the shimmery sprawl never coalesces into anything concrete. [#154, p.73]

It's a unique psychedelic experience only the most headstrong will be able to handle. [Aug 2004, p.122]

The Invisible Band has more layers, more moods than ever before, and more tunes as well. [July 2001, p.88]

Exactly what you'd imagine. [Sep 2005, p.170]

All [their] cleverness works better than ever before. [Oct 2004, p.142]

It's sometimes an odd fit, but the friction sparked from these mismatched traits lends Detrola an eccentric charm. [Apr 2006, p.222]

Although their fifth album has plenty to satisfy orchestral-rock geeks and hook-heads--especially the ecstatic, merry-g-round-dizzy "up In The Dark"--the collection shines when it goes for nuance and subtlety. [Jun 2010, p.108]

The bulk of Baby 81 draws from the dark underbelly of the Woodstock generation. [Jun 2007, p.156]

This collection comes together in a much more cohesive and fluid sense [than their debut.] [June 2008, p.131]

It avoids the sophomore slump by mixing a little meloody in with the morose--sort of like a down-tuned Pinback for stoners. [Apr 2009, p.108]

III/IV is the director's cut of a moment in Ryan Adams' all-too-prolific career. It adds dimension in some areas, but may be too much information for causal fans of the singer/songwriter.

The duo's engaging, self-titled debut isn't quite as easy to parse as their moniker. [May 2009, p.123]

They reinvent themselves as house-music auteurs exploring a sound closer to shoegazing's late, great headphone womb than house's aerobic aphorisms. [Nov 2001, p.79]

They've honed their craft to incorporate increased nuance alongside blunted force. [#153, p.83]

There's plenty of killer talent to be found here. [Jul 2003, p.108]

While the musicianship is first-rate, the middling tempos and docile, homogenous instrumentation quickly grow boring. [Oct 2002, p.94]

On Disco Volante, [David Gedge] sometimes becomes as tedious as a typical pick-up line. [Jan 2001, p.86]

It's a relief to hear even weirder experiments emerge on Fragrant World--especially the second half. [Sep 2012, p.94]

A few throwaways aside, Beacons is a welcome kick in the tush. [Jul 2009, p.131]

Just as Metallica introduced a generation to Misfits with their 1997 covers EP, Garage Days Re-Revisited, Danzig pays similarly enthusiastic homage to his influences on Skeletons. [Jan 2016, p.94]

Fan waiting for the true follow-up to 2001's Go Plastic may now warm their souls by the heat of his hard drive. [Jun 2012, p.84]

A radical reinterpretation of the material that expands and adapts it using inspired improvisation and healthy doses of feedback. The songs are all the better for it, with added shades of emotion and fury oozing through every chord and squeal.

The end result is an album that doesn't pull its punches, a direct message to the people with enough rhythm to get some movement out of stiff limbs while we dance away the recession blues. [May 2009, p.123]

It's the best post-retro, pre-futurist, avant-antiquarian psychedelia of 2005. [Nov 2005, p.226]

It's a comforting, fuzzy listen. [Apr 2013, p.92]

So despite some standouts--thw more energetic and melodic "Dissolve" and "Swoon"--the Brothers' latest, trippiest trip is best taken as a whole. [Jul 2010, p.123]

The instrumentals falter. [Jun 2004, p.97]

There are no walls of distortion or crunching riffs; this time, they've traded all that for the beauty of Craig B.'s vocals and understated ambience. [Apr 2007, p.180]

With Red Of Tooth And Claw they've finally realized the full potential they've been hinting toward all those years--and like all great stories, it's not always pretty. [Apr 2008, p.158]

A reliance on monotonous tempos and rhythms--and a disappointing lack of melodic variation--further make Endless Now fell curiously lethargic. [Sep 2011, p.112]

For the most part, the album eschews the elaborate orchestration that defined his solo debut in lieu of atmospheric--and expansive--rock songs. [Nov 2006, p.186]

Lacking the hyperbole of, say, Chemical Brothers or the musicality of more band-like fare like Crystal Method, he finds a middle ground of giving-and-taking frequencies between his twos and fours, as if mixing it live. [Sep 2001, p.104]

Exquisitely crafted folk-pop minimalism that whispers with profundity and burrows deep into your heart. [July 2002, p.84]

Comfort Eagle is infinitely smarter, smarmier and catchier than Weezer's Green Album. [Oct 2001, p.79]

Chalk a point in the "win" column for the old school. [Dec 2010, p.116]

It's an arc of moods and musicianship, ranging from dynamic tension, inspired cinematic tension and moments of textured finesse. [Apr 2014, p.94]

Circa just sound oddly restrained, in a way, and the most enthralling moments don’t feel quite as emotionally resonant or grabbing as the band’s been so capable of in the past, especially with a slower pace down the stretch. That said, an average Circa Survive album is still a cut above most anything out there, and their subtle yet ever-continuing evolution remains a compelling thing. [Oct 2017, p.81]

Just beacuse they've moved toward a more organic sound, doesn't mean no fire remains in their bellies. The melodic themes and Dave Davison's vocal phrases may draw Beatles and Country Joe McDonald comparisons, but angular guitars still skitter in the back ground of "Israeli Caves" and "Solid Ground" while fleet-fingered complexity drives "Pigeon." [Jul 2010, p.127]

While The Loud Wars is overflowing with extremely impressive musicianship, creative time shifts, and interesting instrumentation, it also has an inviting pop sensibility. [Jun 2009, p.99]

With a renewed, stripped-down focus, Fortune is some of their best stuff yet. [May 2014, p.88]

The trouble is that their debut album is saturated with the kind of contrived angst that seems to always maintain a level of popularity with upper-middle class white kids who don't pay their own bills yet. [Mar 2009, p.107]

The effortless pop smarts are appealing, but the Ruffians will need to vary the delivery if they're expecting a career. [Mar 2008, p.144]

Ruthless, catchy and armor-plated, the Los Angeles quintet have focused on refining their sound, yet there is also greater nuance, making this perhaps their most atmospheric record. [Sep 2013, p.88]

The ominous charm that had fans nose over tail is not completely lost in Agony & Irony. [Aug 2008, p.156]

Loose continually festers with a blistering intensity and creativity that's not for the closed-minded or faint of heart. [Feb 2004, p.88]

In no uncertain terms, Crash Love is an accomplishment that raises the bar for them as musicians and writers.

Much of the album reflects a tension between melancholia and euphoria that sounds more like an epic battle between Fischerspooner's love for New Order and Pet Shop Boys--but with beefier, disco-fied beats. [May 2005, p.174]

Earnest and joyful throughout, they don't make records like this anymore, so be glad Anathallo didn't listen and made one anyway.

With this soft-spoken and delicate record of almost-drawling songs, he's moved his work one step closer to Nashville. [Mar 2002, p.81]

Succeeds not solely as a studio recording, but as a reminder of how powerful the band's live show is. [Aug 2004, p.118]

This Is For Real is the album Aerosmith might make if they were back on the sauce. [Jul 2004, p.146]

[Weikel and Summers] positively push forward, blissing out with an educated northern soul and a highbrow glide-guitar jones that finds them creating their own space in time. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Listening to singers Torquil Campbell and Amuy Millan is like watching two dancers perform an urgent ballet: Their equally lovely voices merge and seperate, always working in unison and sometimes soaring above the other. [Jul 2010, p.127]

Beyond the necessity, Birdie is a record that teeters an indie/emo line with ease and a sense of hybridity. Press “play” for a sense of melancholic calm.

World Peace is a frustrating experience, moving too quickly between temperaments and overstaying its welcome by a good 20 minutes.

Telepathe should be appauled for making a challenging record; though it frequently doesn't hit the mark, there's plenty for fans of minimalism to get excited about. [Mar 2009, p.116]

It could have easily gone into darker, scarier narratives and/or sonic atmospheres but they shut it down at the near three-minute mark. Unnecessary brevity is a sticking point: Sea Of Cowards' 11 tracks run a little over 35 minutes.

The album is a success because it shows sophistication and growth. [Apr 2014, p.94]

Like Merzbow jamming with a broken dishwasher through a short-wave radio. [Nov 2004, p.146]

It's right in line with the band's natural progression; so much so that it's almost difficult to believe it didn't come out a decade ago.

It's certainly a leap further into the ethereal weirdness that defined 2004's shoegaze- and electronics-inspired Panopticon. [Nov 2006, p.192]

How We Operate shuffles between exuberance and wistfulness like a drunk stumbling through a crowded bar--and yet, oddly enough, it's also onoe of the more coherent albums in Gomez's career. [Jul 2006, p.192]

We're skipping past Gold Medal's soggy, pub-folk title track toward an otherwise flawless album of glossy, commercial punk. [Dec 2004, p.142]

While the disc does get bogged down with a little too much force-feeding of the Christian and Gloria characters (just like Idiot's Jimmy and Whatshername), it's a safe bet that the listener will come out the other end having largely enjoyed the last 70 minutes and 18 tracks.

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

Slow and achingly graceful, L'Altra's mellow moods are welcome any time of day. [Jul 2002, p.76]

All you can do with oaklandazulasylum is dive in and hang on to the moments of true beauty, the shards of shattered folk songs, synth-pop and multitracked harmonies that litter--or decorate--why?'s mindscape. [Sep 2003, p.118]

The music you'd imagine might play as you ascend to heaven--or the soundtrack to the WB's next teen drama. [Aug 2004, p.118]

This husband-and-wife team have made the same album for the third time. [Nov 2003, p.100]