Embraced by trance, breakbeat, and house DJs alike, Maas has been heard in almost every sort of dance setting, so he's earned the right to his own compilation. [2/2001, p.85]

Arguably their best effort since jumping to the majors... Golden Lies hums with chunky metal chords, suspicious scents of Beatlesque psychedelia and wah-pedal freakiness. [12/2000, p.102]

Only the blindly in love will fully appreciate Suitcase, which is chock-full of bruised and blemished tracks, though it's not all throwaways. [#147, p.94]

The music on Selmasongs brings Bjork's penchant for haunting melodies, cinematic imagery and ambient percussion fully to bear.... Though composed for a film, the music is 100-percent Bjork and may well be her best work yet. [12/2000, p.91]

Wrap Cracknell's voice around a sweet, soulful confection and she remains the embodiment of all modern pop dreams and desires. [Dec 2000, p.94]

A laser-sharp collection of songs written with two things in mind: rocking hard and having fun. [12/2000, p.110]

A massive instrumental effort, as skilled and musical as it is on-the-fly improvised and messy. Seamlessly blending sonic experiments with live group interactions, godspeed saunter through these four extended pieces with ease. [#150, p.94]

As perfect pop goes, the Januaries hit all the right exotic buttons. Their songs bubble with Stereolab's bop-ba-bop melodies, glide effortlessly on Saint Etienne's dance-savvy '60s pop, and float on Air's variety-show timelessness. [12/2000, p.99]

Dominated by sparse instrumentation and lyrics that are merely good... relatively lifeless tunes. [12/2000, p.115]

Decidedly mellow and acoustic in nature, 'Excuses' continues [Neil] Halstead's love affair with country, folk, and pop.... masterfully written, recorded, and played. [#147, p.103]

He's created a bona-fide pop album--smokingly soulful, sure, but armed to the teeth with hooks and refrains, radio-ready and simultaneously transcendent. [#147, p.84]

The upscale bars and clubs of the world will undoubtedly toast these two for The Mirror Conspiracy, and you should, too. [#147, p.110]

While The Menace isn't as coruscating as Primal Scream's funk-noise plasma wall, Exterminator, it does offer enough twists, turns and fractured sensibilities to make listening to music an active experience again. [#146, p.88]

The best songs are, as usual, the weirder ones... Elsewhere, Balls spends too much time riding the same quirky-dance autopilot that has fascinated Sparks since the late '70s. [Jan. 2001, p.102]

While it doesn't flow with the breathless ingenuity of their earlier albums, it's still a cut above 90 percent of today's electronica. [#147, p.109]

The first De La Soul full-length lacking a consistent vibe throughout... [#147, p.81]

In place of Morcheeba's poetic brooding is a poppy, chorus-hook-chorus songwriting style that will probably irk a lot of their fans.... From the sounds of it, Morcheeba are going for the teen-pop market... [#146, p.104]

A scattershot bagful of wild rides and demented ditties and an album of maniacal depth and vision. [#146, p.86]

Bow Down... was developed alongside a movie script and works as vivid NYC filmic music and an electic-by-default modern concept album. [12/2000, p.96]

[Stephin] Merritt likes to sing about dancing--'I'm Lonely' gives us good reason to join him on the floor. [#147, p.92]

It's almost silly to accouse An American Movie of being overproduced, because string-driven flights of fancy and studio gloss are simply what successful well-adjusted nice-guy bands do on their third album. [#146, p.89]

You may be surprised to learn that the roadside corpse does more than twitch; it gets up and positively rumbas in places ("Girls of Summer"), while "New Birds" heaves with the same fidgety agitation that occasionally made Joy Division seem special. [#147, p.83]

Warm, lush soundtracks bathe the ears in the same bittersweet symphonics that marked out the latter-day Verve. [#146, p. 82]

Closest in style to 'Systemisch', it lacks the sublime glow of 'Diskont94', but it updates the former's chugging wash with a more varied tonal palette. [#146, p.97]

La Luna's overall style is ambient industrial, with a hypnotic, grinding pulse and pounding kick drum, embellished by sporadic rhythmic tappic, guitar growls and strange electronic squiqqles... and while Czukay's industrial groove is righteous, 47 minutes of it is excessive. [Jan 2001, p.87]

The album sounds, not surprisingly, overproduced, lacking even a hint of the earthy quality of 'I Do Not Want...' and leaving little space for O'Connor to stretch out vocally. [#146, p.96]

It all combines for an enjoyable listen... provided you block out the lyrics. [#146, p.102]

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