T’nT use gnarled-up keyboard sounds and mix tricks the way third-tier punk bands use screaming and feedback--to disguise the lack of something to say.

Is Under Rug Swept as good as Jagged Little Pill? Ultimately, no. [Feb/Mar 2002, p.108]

Good living has tilted his writing from surefooted and universal to numbing and platitudinous, while his stormy passions are becalmed by an overwhelming production job. [#14, p.130]

It takes a few listens for Songs to feel more than just odd, but as with most Eitzel projects, its mood lingers like cigar smoke. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.106]

It sounds as bitter and cynical as most of Chilton's solo stuff since Big Star originally imploded. [Oct 2005, p.134]

The more you listen, the less soothing his songs become; this is drifty music about living a rootless life where satisfaction is elusive.

Takes Cursive back to their chickenscratch days. [Sep 2005, p.144]

It's the sound of a group treading water. [Jul 2007, p.110]

They’ve buried those strengths deep to make way for a humorless new approach that borrows the turgid bleariness of Oasis (“Living’s much too easy and dying will be some kind of bore”) but misses the Gallaghers’ pomp and glory.

Austere in its beauty and a little wearying. [Mar 2005, p.143]

For the most part, the formula still works fine. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.107]

Almost every one of these twangy, homespun gems finds him in the heat of romantic battle--taunting, eviscerating or pleading with a lover or an ex.

Spears’s fifth studio album is her most consistent, a seamlessly entertaining collection of bright, brash electropop.

Angry Mob delivers 13 consistently catchy tracks that bounce unrelentingly. [Apr 2007, p.115]

The first few songs on their fourth might fool you into thinking they have a future.... But it's downhill after the highpoint: 'Sirens in the Deep Sea.'

At home, it's hard to see the point of these whiny raps, tongue-in-cheek R&B jams and lo-fi funk grooves. [#13, p.93]

This is a transitional album: Mould sprinting away from his past. [Apr/May 2002, p.116]

They still can't overcome their addiction to sugar. [#9, p.152]

Shaggy has one of the most grating voices in pop. [Oct 2005, p.143]

The craziest moment on this debut LP is 'Fucked Up,' where they beg to have their pussies eaten one second, their teeth smashed the next.

Walking on a Dream initially sounds as familiar as montage music in an HBO midday movie, but it will haunt your dreams.

Luckily, all the ironic distance doesn't blunt the band's attack. [May 2006, p.109]

With Simon LeBon sharpening his typically abstract lyrics and everyone bolstering the contrasting, constant hooks, Timbaland perfects the rock-techno fusion his solo album fumbled, while Duran emphasize their willfully plastic extremes. They’ve never sounded this pretty and severe.

The bulk of One Monkey finds the boys trying too hard to distance themselves from their former weirdness. [Aug 2004, p.132]

More of the same, except less. [#17, p.145]

Matthews's singular skill is adroitly tipping his elastic, emotive voice and sorority-seducing melodies from buoyant to melancholy. [Oct 2003, p.123]

Sadly, though, if Petty's fourteenth album fails to emulate the success of his best work, it won't be because corporations have conspired to turn off his mic, but because it's simply not as good. [#10, p.127]

Despite the occasional misstep... it's a welcome album to anyone who wishes the past 15 years never happened to Run-D.M.C.'s legacy. [Nov 2005, p.139]