Ego War doesn't disappoint, offering an instant hit of raucous energy via choppy rave-house dynamics, high-density Daft Punk-style production and a refreshingly anti-epic approach to songwriting. [#16, p.114]

Combines guitar-driven, slightly Weezer-esque songs with the odd moment of touching musical beauty. [#17, p.133]

More of the same, except less. [#17, p.145]

Refreshingly... [Northern State] would rather rhyme about feminism and softball than about hip-hop's tired polarities. [#17, p.139]

His most intimate recording yet. [#17, p.138]

Convincingly lovely through and through. [#17, p.140]

14 Shades is nominally heavier than the group's two previous albums, though the band tempers its harsher instincts to let Lewis ruminate unmolested. [Aug 2003, p.132]

Two things save Electric Six from becoming the alt-rock Weird Al: Their jokes hit home and their music is convincingly ferocious. [#17, p.134]

Some of the brightest three-part harmony singing since Crosby, Stills & Nash first gathered around a mic 30-plus years ago. [#17, p.144]

Simple, charming and surprisingly innocent. [#17, p.143]

Stylistic attention-deficit disorder dilutes the focus and also dates it. [#17, p.137]

Its densest aural jungle so far. [#17, p.136]

Every chorus is a rousing tribute to overstatement. [#17, p.137]

His campiest, and skimpiest, since his debut. [#17, p.138]

The group's lite grooves, awful raps and wide-screen choruses are beginning to sound desperate. [#17, p.144]

The mean-spirited sounds of Good Mourning are easy to listen to, but hard to forget. [#17, p.132]

The joke isn't well-conceived or funny enough to sustain over an hour. [#16, p.123]

He orchestrates IDM glitch, acoustic guitars, strings, hip-hop beats, witty rhymes and emo candor with casual, genre-blending assurance. [#17, p.133]

Cobra Verde embrace classic-rock posturing with all of its messy emotional overreach, wanky-yet-tasteful guitar solos and bombastic songcraft.

Hebden treats software as a rocky road to hummable compositions of seductively intricate invention. [#17, p.135]

Of the nearly 59 minutes of music here, about 40 induce deep pleasure. [#16, p.125]

New Porn songs gush eagerness and surge like the front car of a roller coaster. [May 2003, p.122]

Brainy, brooding, classically "indie" guitar music. [#16, p.121]

Although a few tracks retain Felt Mountain's eerie beauty, Black Cherry's natural habitat is less supper club than strip club, and Goldfrapp sound right at home. [May 2003, p.119]

With On and On, Johnson pushes past those folk- and root-distressed interiors and glides into cool new musical areas. [#16, p.122]

The Cameras mix sex and spirituality over a gorgeous bed of organs, harps and 12-part harmonies. [May 2003, p.120]

The Coxon-less Blur seem half a band, adrift in a loopy, moody head cold. [May 2003, p.115]

The musical treatment is Depeche Mode-lite, setting generally passionate songs in an antiseptic electronic context, and Gore's over-earnest voice lacks the presence to reinvigorate them. [May 2003, p.120]

The songs on Fever to Tell swerve like they're being followed by the police, constantly changing and transforming. [May 2003, p.124]

Offers a twisted melancholy David Lynch would applaud. [May 2003, p.120]

Some of her material still has an emotional earnestness that would make Bono blush. [#16, p.121]

Only the fuzzy reggae of "Power of One" is lively enough to rouse a dozing listener and hint at what the record might have been with a little less midnight meditation. [May 2003, p.121]

This new material could benefit from the kind of friction that kept Whiskeytown from being stable for more than a few months. [May 2003, p.115]

[Moffat's] monotone is offset by colorful arrangements. [May 2003, p.114]

Shambling and confessional. [May 2003, p.116]

That's both the best and the worst thing about this album: The music is much more eloquent than the lyrics. [May 2003, p.112]

A whiz-bang jukebox of state-of-the-art West Coast scruff-rock. [May 2003, p.126]

Unashamed candor often spells dreary self-indulgence. In Germano's insightful hands, it's fascinating and strangely exhilarating. [May 2003, p.119]

Give Whirlwind Heat this: The first time out, they've managed to sound exactly like the worst bands downtown New York coughed up in 1982. [May 2003, p.125]

Start the 18-song album in the middle, and embarrassments like Nicks's "Illume (9-11)" reced behind love songs that exorcise pain with an accusatory chorus and a skein of guitars. [May 2003, p.116]

An album of languid grooves and slowly descending melodies. [#16, p.117]

A gorgeous, streamlined piece of acoustic Americana, beautiful and fully realized. [May 2003, p.120]

It's almost as much fun as 1981! [May 2003, p.114]

Wailing, distorted guitars and jumpy backbeats deliver messages of escape, refuge and, ultimately, sweet hope. [May 2003, p.124]

Faceless is exactly that. [May 2003, p.120]

They sound comfortable in their own skin--and able to get under yours. [May 2003, p.127]

It's unfortunate that the balladry is rendered via anesthetized soul instead of the ambitious arrangements of Timbaland. [May 2003, p.118]

Unlike 2001's spare Essence, this album prickles with the lyrical details that make Williams's work exceptional. [#15, p.126]

Isn't so much minimalist as just plain minimal. [Aug 2003, p.120]

The music is dramatic with a glammy Britpop insouciance, and Garcia is a refreshingly earnest romantic. [#16, p.117]

They break their own rules, even adding expansive guitar solos, to keep themselves interested and fans off-balance. [May 2003, p.123]

McNew adds his own hybrid theory, wittily merging classic and iconoclastic by exploring his influences. [May 2003, p.116]

Cocky and nicotine-stained, the Kills revive the cheap art of sinister underground rock and puzzling, mysterious pseudonyms. [May 2003, p.121]

Ultimately, the anthems are as generic as they are hooky. [May 2003, p.123]

Being shallow and immature is both his strength and his weakness. [Apr 2003, p.131]

The music is sexy in the dirtiest possible way, which makes up for the band's stoopid posing. [May 2003, p.114]

Sad, pretty, funny and touching. [#14, p.137]

Continues Cash's no-fun, high-literary period. [#15, p.121]

Harder, denser, uglier. [#15, p.128]

THe result is like a cross between R.E.M. and Coldplay, but Idlewild show their true smarts by continuing to attack every track with youthful energy and passion. [Apr 2003, p.124]

Longwave sound more British than Strokes-ish, with a mild talent for writing melodies that demand your attention. [Apr 2003, p.125]

They've made a great record of choogling and--surprisingly for the wonky Malkmus--tender tunes. [Apr 2003, p.125]

One of the country highs of the year. [#15, p.121]

They still spit nervous energy, but Shelly's melodies have suffered, and his pubescent whines have unfortunately matured into apologies for bad behavior. [#15, p.121]

The songs transform emo's search for truth and its vivid angst into great drama. [#15, p.122]

Full of standard-issue street rhymes and treacly R&B hooks, Back Again makes you want to shout "Cut!" halfway through. [#15, p.125]

As familiar as alt-country has become, Ward makes it worthwhile again. [#16, p.125]

Not since the Clash has a band evoked so precisely the grime and thrill of young London. [#15, p.124]

The production sparkles.... But the songs are dull. [#14, p.131]

For her to pull off something as ambitious, gritty and accomplished as this at age 21 is flat-out amazing. [#15, p.127]

Log 22 may be Holland's greatest export since Heineken. [May 2003, p.115]

An ephemeral, genre-less mix of beat-driven mood music. [#15, p.127]

When they're not straining to be anthemic, Turin Brakes still weave a seductive spell. [#14, p.143]

The songs are richly and surprisingly textured, having more in common with experimental jazz than folk. [#15, p.122]

Diamonds is pointed, pulled-back and juicily considered instead of massively jammed-out. [#15, p.120]

Mostly, though, this is vintage mid-'90s Everclear. [#15, p.122]

[Beans] makes music for MCs to scratch their heads to. [#15, p.120]

What's keeping the band from achieving a unique identity are Havok's generic whine and medoicre lyrics. [#15, p.120]

Sweet, spooky harmonies, partly inspired by the death of a close relative, given a naked acoustic production. [May 2003, p.125]

If the White Stripes gave up blues-rock for steroids, acid and death metal, they might sound something like this. [Apr 2003, p.124]

Crimson's current incarnation combines the sounds of previous editions, especially the early math-rock of the mid-'70s and the deft, Talking Heads-redolent Ph.D-funk of the early '80s. [#14, p.138]

The band turns [Kris Roe's] melodic remembrances into energized, youthful pop anthems, like a less-frivolous Blink-182. [#15, p.120]

Just as electrifying as before. [May 2003, p.125]

With the groundbreaking stab at emo self-analysis, Cursive deserve at least a boost out of the emo ghetto. [Apr 2003, p.122]

There are enough moments to suggest that, should they ever concentrate on, say, just 10 of their favorite styles, they could be fab. [#14, p.133]

He sticks defiantly to formula, hustling a string of synth-heavy, syncopated club jams. [#14, p.134]

Sometimes the music can feel as cold and clinical as Kraftwerk, but even then, the lyrics emote wildly. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.106]

Good living has tilted his writing from surefooted and universal to numbing and platitudinous, while his stormy passions are becalmed by an overwhelming production job. [#14, p.130]

Their youthful gusto is admirable. The results, alas, are not. [#14, p.141]

Cute but not too sugary, smart but not too brainy, [Stacy] Jones's songs practically define pop-punk. [#14, p.130]

A raw, passionate record. [#14, p.135]

As lively as contemporary folk gets. [#14, p.144]

A beautifully contained album, short in length and miniaturist in vision. [#14, p.135]

The songs aren't strong enough to hold the disparate influences together. [#13, p.91]

Sadly, distracting overembellishments dog her sixth album. [#14, p.133]

At several points... the duo belatedly attempts to revivie its peak period formula, but... it's as old-fashioned as a Lollapalooza 1992 T-shirt. Fortunately, Jourgenson and Barker's new ideas are better. [#14, p.140]

Almost a novelty record--a musical version of a press release or a spin-control interview with Diane Sawyer. [#14, p.128]

[Hammond's] "Crown Vic"... fits snugly among these relaxed, happily run-down blues. [#14, p.136]