Gone for the most part are the skittering disco-punk rhythms and fully engorged urgency that drove their material. Instead, you have a slower, more methodical approach that lets these pop gems blossom out in thin ribbons.

Overall, the band seem to be running long on ambition and short on ideas. [Jul 2005, p.172]

A progressive work with plenty to offer the open-minded. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Unlike more polished bands with little to say after two releases, the Walkmen sound like they're gradually striding into some big shoes. [Mar 2004, p.106]

The studio can't really capture their awesomeness, and wile there are some killer songs on Our Own Masters, they might have been better preserved as a live album of all-new material. [Jul 2013, p.106]

Sainthood was produced by Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Howard Reddekopp, allowing the album to take on aspects of both its predecessors while still feeling new, and per usual with this duo, impressively skillful. [Dec 2009, p.114]

Dulli is in peak form here. [Jul 2006, p.194]

They continue to exercise more craft i their work than newbies a third of their age. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Overall, Witching Hour abounds with sugary swirls of Cocteau Twins melancholia retooled for a post-electroclash world. [Dec 2005, p.218]

Their songs have a weight beyond the bell and whistles, retaining your interest once the shock of new sounds and the novelty of genre-hopping is gone. [Apr 2008, p.152]

A quantum leap above not only Brand New's prior work... but beyond anything that any band in this scene are currently creating. [Jan 2007, p.129]

Dark is one of the first great records of 2008. [Mar 2008, p.146]

While their occasional reliance on wide-eyed sloppiness isn't endearing, when the band clean up, they have some irresistible pop nuggest in them. [Apr 2003, p.80]

Deerhoof's 13 years of experience have honed their sound to near perfection and is pleasing even to the most critical of ears. [Mar 2007, p.136]

Shows signs of nuance and restraint--relatively speaking. [Oct 2006, p.214]

This should be in everyone's stereo this spring, as it may go down in the history books as the Pet Sounds for the aggressive-rock world. [Apr 2003, p.82]

Compared to hearing 2001's instantly gratifying I Get Wet, listening to The Wolf is like getting mindblowing sex on a first date, only to have that person get a job at the Vatican the next day. [Oct 2003, p.136]

Feast delivers the meal Waste fans expect. [May 2012, p.81]

It's stylish, poppy and striking from songwriting to production. [Jul 2013, p.100]

Where a lot of new bands drop the ball is not quite capturing the state of bliss that made so many of those hippue classics what they were. But that's not a problem on The Ruminant Band. [Sep 2009, p.104]

It's 22 minutes of thoughtful, intricately expressed vexation like never before. [Jul 2014, p.103]

Although his output as City and Colour is drastically different from the visceral post-hardcore of Alexisonfire, his following is huge; both his previous C&C albums have gone platinum in Canada. With his third effort, Little Hell, it's easy to hear why. [Jul 2011, p.107]

Stickles seems more into channeling his inner Mick Jones, making Local Business sound weirdly like lost sessions from Give 'Em Enough Rope. [Nov 2012, p.94]

Lewis still sounds like she's trying to figure out where she belongs. [Feb 2006, p.118]

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]

Much of ex-Lives is encumbered by well-trodden ground turned muddy and attempts at atmosphere. [Apr 2012, p.96]

May be the weirdest record Malkmus has made since Pavement's Wowee Zowee. [Jul 2005, p.174]