Yorn continues to embrace a simplistic sensibility, allowing his voice and some rollicking rock riffs to carry most of the tracks on Pete Yorn. [Oct 2010, p.120]

He's created the "good, good pop record" he threatened with "Arm's Way," wisely getting out of his own way and letting the simple but undeniable pleasures of the Motownish title track, the synth-happy '80s pastiche 'Tender Torture' and his latest Brian Wilson homage, 'On Foreigner,' with its massed Beach Boys harmonies, shine through.

The Human Romance shows an experienced band trying new things and succeeding. [Mar 2011, p.92]

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

The Big Deep is a very good album that is hard to pigeonhole. In a time when far too many bands are playing by the rules of one sub-sub-genre or another, true uniqueness is encouraging.

It's like BVB's other output in that it's not perfect, but the high points are still pretty damn high.

The relatively hushed tone of Several Shades Of Why is unnerving at first spin, strictly when considering the auditory atom bomb of Mascis' well-documented projects; but the second go 'round clears the clouds, revealing a vast lo-fi victory. [Apr 2011, p.115]

Your ears may start to ache a little, but it also makes the album's eventual deliverance all the more divine.

The album's missteps appear when the band slows things down; but for the most part, First World Manifesto is Pop-Punk 101, which is to be expected from a bunch of veterans. [Apr 2011, p.122]

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

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

Includes everything from Brighten The Corners-sounding pop blasts to comforting acoustic gems to dark rockers. [Nov 2001, p.91]

Answers an interesting question: What if, after The Bends, Radiohead had discovered pedal steel instead of Pro Tools? [Oct 2003, p.138]

One of the better nuanced and layered compositions we're likely to see before 2007 ends. [May 2007, p.152]

They've beefed up their bombastic prog-rock guitars and grandiose, Teutonic synth motifs to new levels of virtuoso excess. [Feb 2004, p.93]

White it's Oye's endearing melancholy that holds Unrest together, the Human League synth sounds are what give the disc its quietly indulgent charm. [Feb 2003, p.72]

It's an engaging listen. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Molina & Johnson's treasures are there, as long as you listen closely. [Jan 2010, p.95]

Other old rockers sound old. Iggy sounds brutal, harsher than last time, louder than ever, a pummeling self-production pocked with magnificent metal dumbness... [Sep 2001, p.88]

Thr!!!er is a party for sure, but you';; never really feel it unless you and 200 of your best friends are listening to it in an airplane hanger at 110 db. [May 2013, p.84]

Light We Made reveals a new sense of agency via Jon Simmons’ confident new vocal technique and experimentation with stronger electronic elements.

It's an LP that finds the band in complete comfort with in their place in the musical universe and willing to stretch out here and there into slightly uncomfortable postures.

Everblack won't disappoint anyone looking to hear TBDM do what they've always done. [Jul 2013, p.96]

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper arrives as less of a sonic surprise, but his knack for buoyant hooks remains on electronic psychedelia's forefront. [Feb 2015, p.92]

Cult at times feels cut from the same cloth as 2007's Walking Wounded. [Mar 2014, p.87]

Alphaville's best moments tend to be its most deliberate and glammy. [Sep 2014, p.108]

As great as At War With Reality really is, it is nothing but expectations, and for a band that shattered preconceptions and spawned an absolutely unbearable number of copycat bands with their last album, that's actually a bit disappointing.

The rest of the album is similarly focused on animated, inventive electronica which cherry-picks from minimal techno, early synth-pop, moody new wave and Animal Collective-like rhythmic collages. [Dec 2012, p.94]