Her lyrics drown in anti-gangsta correctives... but her best tracks transcend daily affirmations. [Jul 2006, p.96]

Generally, they’re smart and musical enough to turn rhetorical gestures into convincing rock & roll. But when they subtitle the whole schmear “A Love Vision!” you wonder who they’re trying to kid.

Overly somber. [Aug 2004, p.131]

Only on the album-closing "Summer Never Ends"... do the gals sound like they're relaxed and doing their own thing--not trying to make Paula's Boutique. [Sep 2004, p.140]

It feels like a record assembled by a focus group. [Oct 2007, p.107]

Unfortunately, most of The Eraser is half-finished sketches, dressed up with a few of Nigel Godrich's subtle production tricks. [Aug 2006, p.105]

Her haunting voice is perfect for these downcast dirges. [#11, p.139]

While Eyeball is essentially a breezy gloss on the blend of idiosyncratic pop chops and exotica that characterizes much of the Luaka roster, it's buoyantly lightweight nonetheless. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.106]

Lively and ingenious combinations of glockenspiel, theremin, tuba, accordion, strings and mariachi horns promise more emotional depth than Nick Urata's world-weary tenor warble delivers. [May 2008, p.75]

This follow-up isn't as clever or as caustic [As 2000's Life'll Kill Ya], but at least Zevon's now smiling as he goes his twisted way. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.116]

The mood is unsettling, exhausted and energetic at the same time. [Oct 2004, p.120]

The ceaselessly blistering tone does get overbearing. [Nov 2004, p.145]

Happily, [their] dogged consistency works in their favor. [Jul 2005, p.117]

Tempering his usually piqued voice and strumming with uncharacteristic restraint, Darnielle marinates in shadowy aloneness.

On the album’s best moments, he pours his hopeless longing into sweaty, inebriated celebrations of love’s boundless optimism.

Barat lacks Doherty's flash of unhinged genius, but his grasp of rock's basics is far firmer. [Sep 2006, p.139]

Zeitgeist’s orgy of avalanche rhythms, cascading riffs and sky-licking guitar is as grandiose as ever (the solo on "Tarantula" sounds like a nuke hitting a Guitar Center), but the bombast is softened as Corgan reaches out for shame-sharing community.

A sound that is almost vintage Bowie.... Even so, many of these 12 perfectly harmless songs plod where instead they should spring. [#8, p.115]

Their songiest record in more than a decade. [Jun 2006, p.145]

Filling the shoes of Jay-Z and R. Kelly--collaborators on two albums--is no easy feat, but thanks to slick production and stay-in-your-head melodies, the duo nearly rises to the challenge.

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

He never quite rises to this lofty occasion, and without anything to prove other than that he can come back whenever he pleases, he reverts to gloating. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.81]

In updating the duo's dirty old sound, Ball makes the arrangements clunky, too clean and dangerously close to the blandness Almond bemoans. [#10, p.126]

Borrowing liberally and transparently from Bright Eyes, the Cure and mid-1960s chamber pop, the band sublimates familiar expressions of indie gloom with string flourishes and twink­ling piano lines, giving Olenius both a shoulder to cry on and, in soaring songs like 'Tonight I Have to Leave It,' a source of joy.

If Borrell's originality ever equals his confidence, Razorlight might be as good as he thinks they are. [Nov 2004, p.141]

The trilogy signals a deep strangeness in this tour through his psyche. Fortunately, it has a fairly shredding soundtrack.

Fireflies' best songs are varied-tempo singalongs--this isn't hardcore but anthemic country. [Oct 2005, p.138]

His guitar reinvigorates age-old lines on neat and tidy arrangements, but he's even busier exploring the limited expressive range of his singing voice. [May 2004, p.119]