It shows the old ska formula to be an unimprovable invention. [Sep 2005, p.135]

Some Loud Thunder is certainly uncompromising--which isn't the same thing as "good," although it's got a handful of very good moments. [Mar 2007, p.131]

Zigzags between immensely beautiful and crushingly ordinary with disorienting regularity. [May 2005, p.122]

This is beautiful, baffling late-night music for shy boys and robots. [Aug 2006, p.108]

Aside from disposable ballads and the sappy "Perfect Man," Survivor blasts haters, child molesters, and "been-around-the-block-females," keeping the blood up as they whup ass. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.108]

Alien Ant Farm's songs may be catchy, but their wishy-washy personality makes it hard to care. [Sep 2003, p.118]

Superfine pop moments never stifle the underlying Jamaican flavor... even if Beenie sometimes sounds a bit like a guest on his own album. [#10, p.114]

Her voice was made to rip, and when she lets go just a little, the coyness turns sultry--proof that she might just have a life after high school.

The first third of 0304 tries too hard to impress.... But soon she calms down and knocks out undeniable hooks. [#17, p.142]

This album stands on its own, with... an emphasis on beats rather than technical tricks. [#27, p.149]

The group aims for a mix of artistry and cred, a la N.E.R.D. or the Beastie Boys, but their music is rarely as catchy. [Aug 2004, p.130]

Solid, sometimes brilliant. [#11, p.146]

Too much about Tracy Chapman's Let It Rain is austere. [#12, p.138]

Where they once spun enveloping hood verite, here they just list gangsta signifiers without building a world from them. [Aug 2004, p.136]

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

Wildflower is assiduously intimate: lushly orchestrated, strictly mid-tempo and abundant with musings about balancing freedom and love. [Oct 2005, p.136]

When Caleb evokes God's wrath on the "crucified U.S.A." or describes lost-highway lonelines, the batter-fried U2 atmospherics and portentous Dixiefied grunge makes his worry as real as Brimstone. [Oct 2008, 2008, p.80]

The sitar flourishes ini "Splitting Atoms" are muted by Learning's adult sheen, which lands this unusual record in an awkward middle ground between Bjork and, say, Oleta Adams. [#9, p.150]

Dub, metal, Okinawan folk, hip-hop and various strains of out jazz all inflect Blondie’s hooky popcraft, and they never pretend they’re something they’re not, such as young.

These amply melodic songs offer a style manual of orchestral pop and twinkly genre touches. [Mar 2006, p.112]

Kelly's true genius is the metaphor-laden sex jam, and Double Up has some great ones. [Jul 2007, p.115]

DMB's five nimble instrumentalists... take Putumayo globalism to a Sigma Chi frat party. [Jun 2005, p.107]

Manson's music still evokes decay, but he sounds more fertile than ever. [Jul 2007, p.116]

On the harder-rocking half, Duritz is nearly emo-esque in his self-loathing.... The disk's Sunday Morning half, is more acoustic, quieter, reflective. But after the epic bender that precedes it, it's also just kind of a drag. [Apr 2008, p.78]

The tone of these literate tunes remains as light as Chesney's singing of them stays soulful. [Mar 2005, p.136]

With CSS, even biting the dust is a blast. [Aug 2008, p.82]

The songs are richly and surprisingly textured, having more in common with experimental jazz than folk. [#15, p.122]

His flirtations are mostly asinine, autopilot-Lothario stuff... but his voice is, as always, a hypnotic melt of menace and charisma. [Dec 2004, p.145]