MMW start with some dirty grooves, then add DJs, horn sections and singers for dissonance and disruptions. [Apr/May 2002, p.115]

Heartbreakingly beautiful. [#17, p.140]

An intentionally ludicrous Eurotrash concept album about the sweet life. [Apr/May 2002, p.113]

This set bogs down when the band flaunts its slow-chug technique at the expense of hooks and jokes. [#27, p.139]

The offhand charm isn't enough. [Sep 2003, p.123]

Effortlessly surges into the stratosphere of his better work--when not slipping into new age-y monotony. [Jun 2005, p.113]

Hypnotize has a little bit of everything: protest, pretension, comedy, brute force, delicacy, compassion, crassness, fury. [Dec 2005, p.143]

The second half drops off badly--the band seem to think that the tonic for a weak lyric is to slow the tempo to a crawl. [Nov 2005, p.130]

Pernice's neuroses sound as compelling as ever. [Jul 2005, p.121]

Sounds routine, obscure without much mystery. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Dawson's as self-assured as she is sensitive. [Jun 2006, p.137]

An ambitious, twangy and faintly psychedelic folk-rock set that still may not convince haters he isn't a twerp. [May 2007, p.102]

The Lillywhite songs are mostly improved here. [#8, p.119]

These songs don't rock; they squirm, shuffle and skulk. [#23, p.111]

Feels positively grand in scope. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.120]

A heartfelt batch of art-pop that never sounds snobby. [Mar 2004, p.117]

Weakened by a slew of club-oriented pieces that drown its personality in repetitive grooves. [Apr/May 2002, p.113]

Though she seems to be done with rapping, her hip-hop loops and restless genre-mixing still save her from vintage-dress purgatory. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.94]

At his best, Berman used to refract sage-with-guitar tropes into dryly perverse insights; but this time he's just smothering them in weird phrases. [July 2008, p.76]

This album takes major steps beyond its predecessor, "Love Is Simple." It adds a streak of joyful African funk, with sputtery rhythms and guitar curlicues.

Elbow's lifeblood is equal parts rain and alcohol. [Mar 2006, p.111]

[Kaiser Chiefs] are smug, preening and shallow, and so eager to entertain that they nearly piss themselves with pizzazz and energy. [Apr 2005, p.119]

It's rather straight where [his 1970 debut] was eccentric and charming. [Oct 2005, p.139]

Orton still oversteps the foul line that separates affectingly vulnerable from irritatingly feeble, but this is a step twards something more distinctive. [Mar 2006, p.114]

The Kills have put some machine-generated flesh on their bare-bones style. [Apr 2005, p.123]

Rubin pointed the direction, but credit goes to the band-which, for the first time on record, includes new bassist Robert Trujillo-for recapturing their old sound and reconciling it with what followed.

Would have benefited from more stringent editing... [Jun/Jul 2001, p.108]

The Hives aren't mere jokers, because they mix their novelty-band brio with the genuine anger and disgust of punk rock. [Aug 2004, p.126]