Artfully arranged songs about planets and beasts and bittersweet harmonies recall British folk-rock combos like Fairport Convention and Pentangle without coming off as retro or twee. [Jun 2006, p.137]

Their debut throbs like the Strokes with cross-eyed parents, their songs gritty and economical, their drummer nasty in all the best places. [Aug 2003, p.126]

Funnier, angrier, weirder. [Mar 2004, p.123]

So goofy and heartfelt it's endearing. [Apr 2006, p.114]

They're after something different here--it's just not as good as what they've left behind. [Apr 2006, p.110]

He switches styles and moods nearly every song, but his caramel harmonies and swirling guitars are reliable constants. [Apr 2005, p.113]

Hot Chip's relentless stylistic hopscotch... ends up in an intricate muddle that fully engages neither hips nor heart. [Jun 2006, p.138]

They're fascinated with rhythm, repetition and duplication, like early-'70s German experimental bands Neu! and Can. [Mar 2007, p.136]

This Is Not A Test lacks feeling--besides beats, what else what does she care about? [Jan 2004, p.102]

Badly Drawn Boy pulls off the job with panache, tipping his hat to Nick Drake, Burt Bacharach and acoustic-era Bob Dylan. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.103]

Mope-rock never felt so good. [Nov 2003, p.121]

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

Neither for the faint of heart, nor for those allergic to pretentiousness. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.103]

[The] sense of playful adventure ensures that smooth needn't mean snoozy. [Jun 2007, p.108]

An album this pretty can make you believe in romantic spells lasting beyond first semester.

It's more consistent than Laundry Service, and maybe even more irresistible. [Jul 2005, p.120]

Problem is, [her] words are rarely about anything but her own dexterity. [Oct 2004, p.122]

They've created the Sgt. Pepper of screamo.

[A] near-flawless suite of deep, dark and powerfully sexy tracks. [Apr 2006, p.112]

It nearly always feels fresh, the way a new flame does. [Dec 2004, p.132]

The band replicates the surface effect of Otis Redding ballads, New Orleans jams and Motown pop-soul down to the last tambourine rattle, but their material rarely goes deeper than nostalgic genre exercises--which means it never satisfies like the real thing.

Ceaselessly enthusiastic European dance-pop that's deliriously colorful, vividly inane and usually about themselves. [Aug 2003, p.126]

Her coy delivery suggests a seething everywoman concealing her rage under an ominously bright surface.

All of this might be more satisfying if the group's lyrics were strong enough to turn caricatures into characters. [Sep 2003, p.116]

Quality is full of witticisms, but it draws equal strength from sonic diversity. [#12, p.145]

For an album almost four years in the making, it's frustratingly half-finished, like a series of preliminary sketches. [#27, p.142]

What Led Zeppelin did for bombast, Lambchop try to do for delicacy. [Apr/May 2002, p.114]

THe British balladeers have returned after a long layoff as elegantly miserable as ever. [Oct 2008, p.83]