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

Should please sophisticated pop connoisseurs. [Nov 2001, p.85]

What... is immediately evident is the extent to which McKay has grown as a musician. [Feb 2006, p.130]

If alt-country were truly alternative, it might sound more like Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, especially on 'What Is Not But Could Be If,' where Silver Jews leader David Berman's booming vocals run as deep as anything this side of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen in their prime. [July 2008, p.151]

It's not that Elbow's half-Travis, half-early-Radiohead Britpop shoegaze routine is patently shitty; it's just hopelessly forgettable. [Mar 2006, p.134]

Noisy pop-punk that's bratty with pogoing entitlement. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Sure there are some lulls; but the face-melting trash that surrounds these tunes proves the band still have it in 'em to, well, slay. [Dec 2009, p117]

This record contains the musings of a full-fledged adult who's still young enough to remember the ache of youthful restlessness, indiscretions and uncertainty. [Nov 2014, p.87]

Kaiser Chiefs melt their influences into something entirely non-derivative--and thoroughly fun. [May 2005, p.172]

The contrasts of light/dark, father/son and sinners/saints never sounded so danceable. [Mar 2011, p.92]

VV naturally still resembles PJ Harvey prepping for a catfight in spots, but her vocals on standout pop nugget "Rodeo Town" reveal vulnerability reminiscent of the original tough cookie, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. [Apr 2005, p.126]

Everything's emotional whole is greater than the sum of its individual musical parts. [Aug 2005, p.176]

A must for electro geeks. [May 2012, p.81]

The tunes are as melancholy rosey as ever, the confessional as soul-stirringly honest and open. [#147, p.83]

Though the music on Revelling/Reckoning ranges from brilliant to mediocre, DiFranco's bold, descriptive lyrics (as usual) redeem any shortcomings. [#155, p.75]

At times their odes to the long-gone era of '60s psychedelia get lost in their lofty ambitions. [Apr 2004, p.84]

It's category-defying: raw and cooked, muscular and cerebral, shifting gears in seconds flat. [Apr 2003, p.70]

It is the best parts of a bar brawl, a naked Twister party and a street race in one cumulative package. [Sep 2004, p.117]

The band update a tired synth-pop sound with purring guitars and just enough punked-out drum and vocal flourishes to give texture to what might otherwise have become new-wave wallpaper. [Nov 2003, p.114]

He's free to let his freak flag fly with Destroyer, and Trouble in Dreams doesn't disappoint. [Apr 2008, p.152]

Ultimately, To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere is a small triumph not just in its existence but also in its execution. Second chances don't normally sound this sweet.

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.

That Cohen and Midgett are still making music after decades of popular indifference and one act of unthinkable tragedy is admirable; that they're still making albums as soulful, uncompromising and evocative as Blood Under The Bridge is close to heroic.

Much of We Were Dead feels like a culmination of the sound that Modest Mouse have spent the last decade or so honing. [May 2007, p.145]

If he isn't a sage yet, he does sound like a future star. [Feb 2005, p.94]

Muddy, swamp rockabilly. [Jan 2004, p.108]

The record tends to fade into the background and become something so indistinct that it's forgettable, even after multiple listens.

These clattering seat-inducers plow through both rational song lengths and all hopes of a settling conclusion. [Oct 2009, p.110]