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

The music tends to drift along unobtrusively.

Even at their most nihilistic, these 16 songs resonate melodically, like Eminem's most haunting material. [#15, p.118]

The scholarship is too obvious at times... But at their streamlined best... it's like Britpop's glory years never waned. [Oct 2006, p.137]

Unusually crafty for a stoner-rock record. [May 2006, p.111]

While yet another geography gimmick song ("The Mesopotamians") might try the patience of anyone older than 8, goofiness also inspires them. [August 2007, p.118]

When it comes to creating nuanced and irreverent, yet oddly touching, pop and rock simulacra, no one really touches pseudonymous Pennsylvania duo Gene and Dean Ween, still together after 23 years.

A set of abrasively melodic pop songs. [May 2004, p.124]

There are moments when this third album is blissfully gorgeous--just not enough of them to make his song of himself interesting to others. [#11, p.125]

This is the brightest, breeziest, giddiest record Fall Out Boy have ever made.

They're not the kind of band that ages well... [but] one hot summer is all they need. [Aug 2006, p.107]

Strange and compelling. [Sep 2005, p.132]

Assured but tame. [Nov 2006, p.139]

This music is better hazy, its messages garbled and out of reach. [Dec 08/Jan 09, p.82]

Literate and heartfelt, the album's also a sonic riot, with gutsy electro, dream-pop and feminist rap jostling for attention beneath Sarah Cracknell's creamy vocals. [#11, p.142]

Smarter, bouncier and more full of insidious electronic hooks than its predecessors. [Aug 2003, p.124]

Trice puts a playful swing into his unlikely rhymes. [Nov 2003, p.122]

Witness the birth of a new dance genre: fantasy-core!

The Hazrds Of Love is a medieval romance that feels like homework. [Apr 2009, p.80]

Kweli’s rigid delivery and obsession with self-empowerment remain liabilities.

The more her follow-up slugs [Lucinda] Williams' bourbon'n'romance on the rocks, the drier it gets.... When she shakes it up just right on the sinister libido-rocker "Back To Me," she sounds familiar and like no one else. [Apr 2005, p.116]

There’s an exhilarating and ruthless intensity here, mingling the grimness of country murder ballads with the simplicity of girl-group pop.

Without playing "best since" games, just say it ranks near the top of the eight [albums] they've manufactured since 1980. [Oct 2005, p.142]

Because he clearly aced his Beatles/Beach Boys classes, Noir's elaborately multitracked recordings... make his gentle bitching irresistible. [Aug 2006, p.113]

Calla's tension-filled deliberations are similar to the calibrated push-and-pull of SIgur Ros, but not nearly as pristine. [#14, p.133]

Mostly, Peaches sadomasochistic come-ons sound like a satire of phone-sex services, without the per-minute charges. [#11, p.139]

Swift has the personality and poise to make these songs hit as hard as gems like 'Tim McGraw' and 'Our Song' from her smash debut, and, once again, she wrote or cowrote them all.

Nada Surf settle comfortably into adulthood. [Nov 2005, p.138]