The duo fight back with song after song full of cutting takedowns and brotherly wisdom--they get petty, they get mean, but aided by Arcade Fire orchestrator Owen Pallett, they turn their bitchfests into grandiose melodrama.

The CD is loosely tied together by a browbeating concept that condemns the glorification of Scarface-style violence and disposable pop-rap, but the moralism is as trite as a Tony Montana reference.

Imperial Teen deploy the familiar language of pop-rock, then subvert it with strange, chewy tales, making music that wraps arsenic in a candy coating. [Apr/May 2002, p.114]

The five new songs all feature Merritt's meaningfully inexpressive monotone, shrewdly minimal arrangements and flatly clever lyrics. [Jan 2004, p.107]

[They] emerge from the Chemical Brothers' shadow without ever threatening to break new ground. [#13, p.93]

As a songwriter, Carrabba is growing: this album shows more melodic and tonal variety than his previous efforts. [#18, p.118]

Somehow, amid all of this assault, the band builds some excellent tunes. [Sep 2005, p.136]

South won't win any prizes for originality, but their songwriting is endearing enough to mask the stink of opportunistic career change. [Nov 2003, p.121]

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

The details on October Road are exquisite, especially his tricky singing and deft acoustic guitar. [#9, p.155]

Their most songful release since the major-label hellos Goo and Dirty, and by most standards their best since 1988's pivotal Daydream Nation. [#27, p.144]

What's most impressive is that music of this caliber got left off their albums. [#13, p.100]

The Ritalin generation may have found its Bob Dylan. [#9, p.143]

Sturdy (and bland) anthems built on overused U2 chords and several barnstorming R&B vamps notable for thowback horn riffs and Aretha Franklin-style backing vocals. [Sep 2004, p.138]

Even if nobody's made a record that sounds much like this before, she's given her performance here too many times already. [Jun 2007, p.106]

What raises them above the hordes of young revivalists is their way with a cranky bon mot. [Jul 2005, p.121]

The fine distinction between cool and blase, aloof and distant, seems to have eluded them. [Nov 2003, p.106]

It's brave, and it's needed. [Jul 2006, p.95]

Loose Fur is fun, even if it is exactly the sum of its parts. [#14, p.139]

Their sense of perfection is also their downfall. [#11, p.124]

Suffer through some over-eager violin and flute solos early on, and by the time Morrison hits the guttural blues moans of the bonus track 'Listen to the Lion,' the songs have opened up like a source of eternal life.

The Furnaces play with a whimsical charm, so the band seems more like an arts-and-crafts project than an occupation. [Nov 2003, p.113]

This dense noise assault may not sustain the feeling of ecstasy from beginning to end, but its percolating trance rhythms... and captivating space experiments... connect on a visceral level that's rare in the cerebral world of electronic music. [Jun 2005, p.109]

It's not always successful. But the sheer audacity of taking computers to Camelot works splendidly in the pastoral beauty of "Y.T.T.E." [Oct 2003, p.124]

They've adopted a crisp, unfussy style that assures the audibility of Darnielle's artful words. [Mar 2004, p.124]

While her wailing contemporaries go off the rails with exaggeration, Braxton merely tightens her groove and rides these mellow, meaty melodies. [#13, p.91]

Equal parts wit, heartbreak, cool... and potential commercial suicide. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.112]

This mix of gospel classics and classic-rock clunkers turns out to be a surprise keeper. [May 2005, p.116]

The sugar is matched by splashes of vinegar thanks to untuned guitars and off-pitch vocals that toy with self-sabotage. [Jun 2006, p.137]

What elevates this power trio above any number of punk revivalists... are precision and craft. [Apr 2007, p.115]

The album’s dense, electronically seasoned pop includes her catchiest tune in two decades.

He's a master of sweaty hyperventilation, but it's his less frenzied moments--the techno equivalent of circular breathing--that keep the party from collapse. [Apr 2009, p.59]

Santogold bursts with the arrogance of a world-beating hip-hop debut while thriving on vulnerability.

While their new album never thrashes, it at least keeps its pretty bare feet on Mother Earth.

Rather than homogenizing his sources, Parton rubs them against each other. [Oct 2007, p.108]

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

His second proper album tempers the jollity with some beef, or at least a couple of traditional rock-guitar solos, and the result is an uncharacteristic stiffness. [#11, p.125]

Chain Gang of Love promises racy thrills--and delivers them. [Sep 2003, p.128]

This excellent collaboration plays to both halves' strengths. [Nov 2005, p.137]

The struggles to get over energize [Slug] far more than the perks of minor celebrity. [Nov 2005, p.131]

Liars are more about energy than solid songwriting, but these spastic, jagged grooves are powerful enough to inspire a sea of awkward punk-rock dances. [#9, p.150]

Much of the CD feels as though it could have been made anytime in the last 15 years.

Brainwashed suggests that Harrison's last years were largely comfortable, slow-paced and unaffected by any worries about his relevance. [#12, p.144]

[Dents] is, by Buckner's standards, gentle. [Nov 2004, p.130]

Fresh off his triumphant "Fishscale" series, the thinking-thug’s MC once again shows why he’s the alpha Wu-Tanger: palpable street authenticity, classic taste in R&B (Stax, Motown) and the breakneck rhyme virtuosity of hip-hop’s golden age.

Even when the Wire slow way down, their densely layered riffs reward wall-shaking volumes. [Oct 2008, p.83]

Recalls The Bride Stripped Bare, Ferry's 1978 art-R&B lament. [#8, p.116]

Their hard-bitten Calvinist worry and storm-a-brewing' guitar tangle feel earthier than most back-to-the-land hipster escapism, especially when threshed out by roundhouse drummer Greg Anderson. [Sep 2007,p.129]

The surprise is that the realist rage of material they had barely thought about in years feels so right in the age of Dubya. [#23, p.106]

The best songs here brace his vulnerability with expansive flourishes. [Apr 2004, p.134]

Conley could use a few more breakups to check his sentimentality. [Oct 2003, p.126]

The disconnect between their always gnarly syntax and the suede-buffed production drains the album's energy. [#4, p.116]

Rich, smooth, and speedily forgettable. [Mar 2004, p.128]

Unfortunately, most of The Eraser is half-finished sketches, dressed up with a few of Nigel Godrich's subtle production tricks. [Aug 2006, p.105]

With 81 chronologically ordered tracks... With the Lights Out can be a slog. But for Nirvana fans, it's also a necessary rite. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.119]

Oberst always projects a spiritual generosity unknown to most footloose troubadours who can’t commit.

A&E is generally more subdued, but, like Pierce’s earlier work, it’s best at its most theatrical.

Far from the usual collision of greatest hits and "Hello, Cleveland"-type bluster. [#4, p.122]

Organ-laced acoustic ballads like "Block Island" are a tad too drowsy for the disc's tough topics. [Aug 2004, p.134]

The best thing she's done since winning the Grammy. [Jun 2005, p.110]

Her ardent love songs ultimately come off not as love songs but standard ache-and-pain Mary tracks--making this album not quite the breakthrough it might have been. [Mar 2006, p.109]

Uncommonly rich and unfashionably gynocentric, Scarlet's Walk makes the personal universal, using the stories of women lost, left and unseen to chart a map of the American psyche. [#11, p.124]

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

Her effortless cool has gained range. [Sep 2004, p.144]

[Slug is] suddenly one of the best alt-rappers around. [#9, p.143]

'Up' sounded like the work of a band getting its bearings. On 'Reveal,' they're still finding their way. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.110]

There are two even matched KT Tunstalls on her debut album: One borrows from Chris Martin's bag of shopworn metaphors... The other one is more unsettling and more intriguing. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Junior Boys’ immaculate synth-pop comes with a heartsick afterburn, even such unrobotic elements as a wandering saxophone or gentle acoustic guitar.

More mature, more focused, and a little less fun. [Mar 2004, p.115]

The contrast between Pearl and Natasha isn’t always crisply drawn, but a central conviction animates both.

Too bad about the self-important, chanted lyrics, which rattle on even when the band's trying to stretch out and groove. [Apr 2007, p.110]

This follow-up just isn't as lovable. [Jul 2007, p.110]

It's like School House Rock for hip kids. [Aug 2006, p.117]

If the students sound like masters, then Yoko’s generous legacy is secure.

It’s a very rare, wondrous thing: prog-rock for firesides and fuzzy-slipper Sundays.

Ladytron's doom-laden arrangements feel as accomplished as Radiohead jamming with the Pet Shop Boys. [#10, p.120]

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

It's an attractive kind of stoner-folk, whose dimensions she controls on a minute level, with enough gradually shifting detail to get lost in. [#27, p.139]

They still emphasize meditative atmosphere and near-whispered melody. [#10, p.120]

A handful of tracks--the shuffling 'Fill Me In,' the swinging 'What It Is'--work an assured swagger, but Wood never quite nails his role model’s tomcat growl or sly nonchalance.

Chao’s jovial, chatty, Spanish-English-French crooning helps the ADD sensibility flow into something that feels like a happy incantation rather than a protester’s harangue against George Bush.

Many bands sound like this, but few do it so well, or with such dorky haircuts. [June 2008, p.77]

THe music is scarily gripping... his best computer blues since 1994's The Downward Spiral. [May 2007, p.108]

What makes this album slightly dry is its gorgeous conservatism. [Apr 2005, p.118]

A DJ is only as good as his taste, and Girl Talk is immaculate. [Sept 2008, p.78]

But vintage doesn’t mean nostalgic. 'Dirty Old Man' is the pissed, hilarious antithesis of his wide-eyed ’70s signature 'Old Man,' and it rivals Nick Cave’s 'No Pussy Blues' (see Grinderman) as the year’s best song about a deranged, horny graybeard.

His voice comes as sharp as a rusty switchblade. [#8, p.125]

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

Not since his debut has the Doggfather been any higher. [#12, p.155]

A further step forward. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.102]

Romantica is Luna's most energetic record ever. Which isn't saying much. [Apr/May 2002, p.115]

Ever since he figured out how to write tough-buzzard songs, on his 1997 comeback Time Out of Mind, he’s been knocking them out of the park. This one leans hard on ready-made blues in the citified-country-ways style of Chess Records.

This time, he's playing with a minimalist, barely electric trio that wouldn't dare overshadow his sleepy-voiced utterances, painstakingly plucking one note at a time, and writing songs mostly about horses or mortality or both. [Jun 2005, p.115]

Odd touches, from the choir that materializes halfway through 'I Got Mine' to the sonar ping keeping time in 'Oceans & Streams,' add texture yo these impressionistic tales of ramblin' and being done wrong, without ever sacrificing the Keys' raw power. [Apr 2008, p.76]

The Secret Migration comes dangerously close to being just another Mercury Rev album, and they're too inspired for such a mundane fate. [Jun 2005, p.112]

Unlike the rousing punk-, Kinks- and new-wave-colored mosaic of Parklife, this one sticks to sepia-toned, dub-nodding abstractions. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.86]

Song after song in praise of ass, thongs and female compliance. [Aug 2005, p.116]

Faithfull could use more stories to work with: she's a better singer of narratives than exotic phrases. [Mar 2005, p.140]