So easygoing they're like going nowhere, his voyages to the beaches, beers and frathouse memories are easier journeys than the saccharine mountaineering that occupies the rest of the disc. [May 2004, p.119]

The ballads, which are copious, are dull. [Mar 2006, p.115]

The melodies are often limp, the rhythm section disappointingly friction-free, and Cumming’s main lyrical M.O. is to name-drop coke constantly, like the doofus at a party who mistakes a key bump for a badge of cool.

It trades the epic scope of their more established countrymen for a stab at pop accessibility. [Nov 2003, p.116]

Merritt's lyrics are typically playful, and Claudia Gonson coos them with dreamy detachment. [#9, p.146]

Simple, charming and surprisingly innocent. [#17, p.143]

Full of standard-issue street rhymes and treacly R&B hooks, Back Again makes you want to shout "Cut!" halfway through. [#15, p.125]

These dozen R&B songs boast all the verve and sex appeal of a busines plan. [Apr 2009, p.61]

Her wispily aspirational singing tugs hardest on 'Fall,' cowritten with Natasha Bedingfield, where escapism and realism do battle and her pretty pony of love rides a beautiful rainbow that may or may not lead to the glue factory of hobbled dreams. Stay tuned.

Her subject matter is goofier, her flow is dumbed down and her beats are staler.

Even the fiercest moments never fully detonate. [Jul 2005, p.114]

It's the sound of a 24-year-old accepting death, as imagined by a lifelong misfit aging gracefully. [Nov 2007, p.158

Lacks some of the cocksure oomph of his debut, though RZA does try to broaden his sonic palette. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.128]

For all their craft, the songs are bland and vague. [May 2004, p.126]

Feels curiously behind-the-curve. [Oct 2005, p.142]

Pete Yorn’s songs sound so damn good, it’s easy to assume they’re not smart.

Over 45 minutes, it feels monotonous and preposterously self-pitying, but in controlled doses, it bests all the rest of the U.K.'s current wave of post-Coldplay bedwetters. [Jun 2006, p.145]

When Ville lets loose a rare scream on 'Love in Cold Blood,' it's a downer. Dude: We know you've come to suck our blood, but at least have the courtesy to romance us first! [Oct 2007, p.110]

[Hayley Williams'] Tennessee crew's second album isn't as charmingly precocious as the first. [Jul 2007, p.116]

These are among the most rivetingly unconventional vocal performances she's ever offered. [Mar 2004, p.116]

Sounds like it's been held in a vault since her heyday. [Oct 2004, p.112]

While they once sounded behind the times, they now sound outside time, with songs evoking about 30 years of guitar pop, in the vein of R.E.M. and Fountains of Wayne, though nowhere near as original. [Aug 2005, p.113]

Works both as satire and actual make-out fare. [Feb/Mar 2002, p.113]

Full of hard beats and soft sells. [#11, p.136]

They're not the first--or even the fifteenth--recent band to draw on that era [of the 1980s], but they're among the most assured. [#27, p.138]

Start the 18-song album in the middle, and embarrassments like Nicks's "Illume (9-11)" reced behind love songs that exorcise pain with an accusatory chorus and a skein of guitars. [May 2003, p.116]

Mostly, he's outmuscled by the production. [Oct 2004, p.122]

The pulse underscoring the album keeps it hopping when the songs meander. [Nov 2004, p.142]