Even if Banks sticks to the "I've got two secrets but I only told you one" songwriting approach, hopefully a band shakeup will spark the soulfulness only occasionally heard in his contributions. [Oct 2010, p.118]

It's about as close a facsimile of the fractured and foreboding scattershot thoughts that haunt most of us at night as one can capture on record. [Feb 2008, p.115]

There are enough interesting moments... that each spin reveals a new nuance that makes this genre roundrobin worth signing up for. [Nov 2005, p.218]

[It] feels more put-on than intimate, more tried than true. [Feb 2007, p.109]

Owen leave behind the emotional outbursts of his collaborations with his brother Tim in Cap'n Jazz, Joan Of Arc and Owls, but keep a quieter, suburban rage alive on his sixth album. [Dec 2011, p.121]

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

Other than the booming, Devo-ish vocal effects on "Spacetime," these songs aren't pushing the envelope--but you should still tear it open and look inside. [Aug 2011, p.114]

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

[Often the album] leads to pleasant but forgettable songs, leaning toward Britpop.

It's a clear sequel that continues the character profiles and storylines frontman Rhett Miller created last time around. [Aug 2011, p.118]

This batch of cobbled-together love songs and lullabies makes for instantly likable pop regardless of its source material. [#155, p.77]

The sample-based backing tracks, hard-hitting but plain, don't have much choice but to play second-best. [Jan 2002, p.74]

Rogue Wave now resemble a more earnest Flaming Lips. [Dec 2005, p.204]

It's rad that Finch are back together sounding sharp, but the creative differences that led to this album being nearly a decade in the making remain apparent. [Oct 2014, p.100]

Good Charlotte have obviously put a lot of effort and imagination into Chronicles, and if it comes off as slightly awkward in parts, well, isn't that part of growing up? [Nov 2004, p.135]

Organic improvisational acts instinctively know which sonic snippets to expand--Lake Trout need to rediscover this ability. [Oct 2005, p.156]

Either way, previous Academy Is... fans will surely dig the tunes, but Fast Times is probably not the album that will see the band expand their scope too far out of the high school/Warped Tour crowd.

Tennis offer a solid but unspectacular album by a band capable of great beauty but one who seem to struggle translating that into great songs.

It's not an album that will change your life, but it could alter the way you look at bits of it. [Feb 2003, p.64]

The least imaginative album of their career. [Oct 2005, p.158]

Medicine is certainly a cohesive and mature outing, but it isn't nearly as fun as the band's previous shenanigans. [May 2004, p.102]

Although we have a hard time following along with this one's theme, we do enjoy the music in spurts. [Jun 2009, p.103]

The humor practiced by Black and cohort Kyle Gass hasn't evolved much since [2008's "Pick Of Destiny"]; Fenix is loaded with classic-rock-aping material which simultaneously admires and lampoons everything from Star Wars ("Deth Starr") to organized religion ("Throwdown").

The band of brothers and sisters (plus one cousin) have made the gauzy shooegazing of 2005's "Room Noises" a lot noisier.... What hasn't changed, wisely, are the soaring sibling harmonies and sense of wonder, which are still best heard in delicate moments. [Oct 2007, p.168]

All Around doesn't take you anywhere, but it does make where you are a little bit brighter. [Aug 2003, p.105]

Aveo's songwriting isn't as intriguing as their sound. [May 2004, p.94]

For anyone familiar with these progenitors of glam punk, 'Cause I Sez So won't surprise. [Jul 2009, p.130]

But under the ill-fitting vocals, Deep Down & Dirty has some dubby, dark tracks that work if only because they don't try so hard to be "Connected" sequels. [Jul 2001, p.85]