These new hooks are just as sharp as you'd hope for. [Mar 2017, p.80]

'The Motorcade Sped On,' a track that chops up funky beats with verteran newscaster Walter Cronkite reporting the death of President John F. Kennedy, is worth the price of admission alone. [July 2008, p.170]

It's a handy metaphor for the record, and Folds in general: Obsessed with love but with a careful eye for the absurd, humanizing details. [Nov 2008, p.160]

On Brilliant! Tragic!, Argos has channeled his inner Johnny Rotten, seemingly vacillating between contempt and boredom. Fortunately, the band play with a similar sense of toughened rawness. [Jun 2011, p.106]

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

Mascis... provides the most compelling case yet to worship at the altar of his slacker guitar genius. [Jan 2003, p.92]

The high points are among the most fun songs Walker's recorded.

A Ways Away casts a spell you won't want to break. [Jun 2009, p.102]

The instrumentation and arrangements on Strange negotiations bring out the subtleties in Bazan's ever-evolving songwriting style. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Frankly, we think this is better than One Bedroom. [Jun 2003, p.98]

Laid-back and largely instrumental glitch-pop. [Jul 2005, p.186]

Live! is essential listening for Decemberists obsessives--and an excellent primer for those who aren't fans just yet. [May 2008, p.135]

Nicolay serves it up hot, no matter what musical milieu is on the menu. [Feb 2009, p.106]

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

It's dizzyingly brilliant, and evidence of how tall these Lions have grown. [Sep 2009, p.102]

Against The Current's most mature and polished release yet. [Jun 2016, p.99]

On the whole, these are fast paced, highly-charged ska-punk songs, but they’re riddled with musical flourishes and nuances–not to mention impossibly catchy hooks.

Each track is different from the last, yet the album maintains a cohesive identity. [Jun 2012, p.76]

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 Rumble Strips are often seen as Two-Tone ska revivalists when truthfully the sound is more like Wreckless Eric doing Memphis soul with occasional stops in Michigan to raid the vaults at Motown. [Sep 2008, p.159]

Fans will enjoy his latest installment of heartbreak set to piano. [Mar 2003, p.92]

The project is pretty perfect, really.... Give Up ultimately becomes a beautiful lesson in how to dance life's pain away. [Mar 2003, p.100]

This quietly experimental album ends up being Death Cab For Cutie's great leap forward--an achievement of pop formalism wrapped inside a beautiful cacophony. [Jun 2011, p.108]

Punchier production and more energetic songwriting point The North in the right direction. [Oct 2012, p.92]

For all of its precocious, borderline bratty moments, Death Of A Bachelor is a remarkably nuanced affair. [Feb 2016, p.95]

Moon is bith dark and sweet, its elegiac tones creating a distinct mood that is at the same time beautiful and heartbreaking. [Oct 2010, p.112]

For anyone who misses the era when Tegan And Sara were still crafting fizzy, folky breakup--and makeup--songs, Say What You Mean is the perfect remedy. [May 2013, p.92]

A smart and occasionally gorgeous country-fried rock effort. [Mar 2002, p.77]