[Coldplay] have made their masterpiece. [Jun 2005, p.112]

Beneath their steel-wool guitar tone, the songs swing like a slammed door. [Nov 2005, p.137]

The two halves of OutKast seem less collaborative than ever.

She's chosen a bunch of fiery roles that even she can't dull up. [Jul 2007, p.114]

Although a few tracks retain Felt Mountain's eerie beauty, Black Cherry's natural habitat is less supper club than strip club, and Goldfrapp sound right at home. [May 2003, p.119]

Somehow the emotions bleed through, raw as hell. [#17, p.132]

Gutterflower, for better or worse, is a perfectly executed encapsulation of the unexciting state of mainstream rock in 2002. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.108]

It's almost as much fun as 1981! [May 2003, p.114]

A daring and triumphant concoction. [#27, p.140]

Though Moorer's lyrics sometimes slide from smart to schmaltzy, her superb singing ensures that every tune on Miss Fortune is incandescent. [#10, p.122]

Overall, the tracks range from overserious and plodding to cloying and jumpy.

Movement and change remain his inspiration. [Oct 2007, p.107]

His best album since Vauxhall & I. [#27, p.140]

The Deftones' fifth album turns the dial to "statesmen." [Dec 2006, p.172]

Every white soul traditionalist from Hall & Oates to Duffy demands catchy, impactful songs, yet that’s where Thicke is thinnest.

It's the musical equivalent of George Lucas's tinkering with the Star Wars DVDs--some flaws are best left uncorrected. [Nov 2005, p.135]

As Clef drops mostly trite lines about green cards, strippers and police harassment, this strategy either succeeds brillantly--or goes haywire. [Nov 2007, p.153]

Album No. 5--their first for indie stalwart Epitaph--amps up the band’s aggro guitars, cookie-monster yells and proggy ambition.

The Thermals are the rarest of punk bands: a three-chord, three-member outfit whose clamorous drive actually resolves into a riveting, accessible worldview. [#27, p.146]

It's hard to shake the feeling that this is a collection of dope beats in search of some rhymes. [Aug 2004, p.134]

Most of the album, like the single 'Tick Tock Boom,' sticks to formula. [Nov 2007, p.150]

The best ’80s-revival funk made by white Canadian hip-hop kids since, like, ever.

Despite the metaphysical yet conversational “Knowing” and a sexed-up title track that begins with his come in her hair, she doesn’t offer enough evidence that her new love is any realer than all the others she’s exulted and struggled through in eight albums going back to 1979.

Mascis sticks to his bombastic Dino formula on this record, but he still impresses with anthemic rockers, mellower jams and bluesy numbers that allow his Neil Young-inspired ax to shine. [#11, p.136]

Crimson's current incarnation combines the sounds of previous editions, especially the early math-rock of the mid-'70s and the deft, Talking Heads-redolent Ph.D-funk of the early '80s. [#14, p.138]

Full of the sort of twitchy New Wave pop that really gets the hipsters' hips a-shaking. [Jun/Jul 2004, p.148]

This is mostly music to zone in and out of--periodically, new sounds and rhythms croip up and coexist in rough approximation of grooves, catching the ear; other times songs drone in the background, either beatifically ot forgettable. [Nov 2007, p.146]

Retro-atmospherics guru M. Ward and grizzled guitar genius Marc Ribot leave their dusty fingerprints. Holland leaves behind a trail of her own.