They're like the best party band at the best party you can imagine. [#11, p.130]

Happily, this structure is as mercifully loose as Penn's melodies are tight. [Aug 2005, p.113]

The best moments are [Jenner's] least intelligible. [Oct 2006, p.141]

This album is a model of aging, raging indie idealism. [Apr 2006, p.118]

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 rote Los Angeles studio rock is dominated by the radio-friendliest songwriters money can buy. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.112]

Kweller's skeletal songs rely mostly on his acoustic guitar, garage-y riffs and swinging, Beatlesque piano. [Apr 2004, p.130]

He's more vehement than ever before, and the music feels rag-and-bone honest. [Sep 2004, p.136]

Bitter, cold and insular, None Shall Pass is also profoundly (if proudly) out of step. [Sep 2007, p.124]

The title song is killer, but built of such familiar musical materials that when it comes around the third time, it’s plumb tuckered out. The track is one of three standouts that run over five minutes, and all three are too long.

A slice of British street life with strut, and guitars. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Everything here, from the restrained pedal steel and drifty organ to the lyrics, reflects a gentle informality that has nothing to do with laziness and everything to do with following the flow.

A handful of affectionate Neil Young pastiches, a rocked-up hymn, and some tipsily swaying ballads. [#10, p.122]

Lucid, enjoyable and occasionally full-on rockin'. [Oct 2003, p.115]

Through it all, the machines sound as juicily alive as the human beings. [Apr 2009, p.63]

Dear Heather is top Cohen. [Nov 2004, p.131]

The band's smart-boy quirks make repeated listens progressively more enjoyable. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.106]

Without goth glamour or Fall Out Boy self-flagellation, Voices gets mired in a modern-rock middle. [Mar 2006, p.113]

The Pretenders’ ninth studio album is a pleasant roots record.

If their debut was a night of chasing skirts and drinking Jim Beam from the bottle, Heartbreak is the bitter, worn-out morning after. [Mar 2005, p.138]

These songs create a series of vivid but minimal soundscapes. [Sep 2004, p.140]

Brings Pierce's preoccupation with panoramic emotional and chemical excess to startling, transcendent climax. [Oct/Nov 2001, p.112]

The Bush-Blair era has damaged these guys, and the results rule. [Jun 2007, p.105]

There's a fine line between sounding passionate and overwrought, but [The Veils] find themselves on the proper side of that smudgy barrier--just. [Aug 2004, p.142]

This is 21st-century lounge with a Manson heart — music for unwinding, or maybe plotting crazed revenge.

The sound quality is appropriately assy, and guitarist Ira Kaplan has fun playing a pissed-off leather-jacket pimplehead. But Yo La’s gentle side naturally peeks out.

The music is cheery even when the feelings are miserable; it's like rainy-day Smiths driven by pianos instead of guitars. [Mar 2005, p.140]

15 thrilling highlights. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.93]