The anti-sentimentality gets a bit relentless over 18 songs. [Aug 2006, p.118]

Isaacs’s indistinct, flannel-waving wail doesn’t add anything to these titanic anthems of soul and struggle, which don’t say much beyond: Dave Navarro, still breathing, still taking meetings.

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

If their ultraviolet jams can sometimes get lost in the gaze, here they're balanced with more crisp songcraft. [Aug 2006, p.107]

Matt's solo joints continue to advance his kooky, obscurantist aesthetic, though they miss the distracted smolder of his comely foil. [Sep 2006, p.140]

Because he clearly aced his Beatles/Beach Boys classes, Noir's elaborately multitracked recordings... make his gentle bitching irresistible. [Aug 2006, p.113]

Guitarist Kerry King physicalizes Araya’s emotional investment; his mad, crunched-up playing is anxiety rendered in sound.

Hit-and-miss. [Jul 2006, p.104]

[He] falls back on stagnant street tropes and the tinny synth-and-sneer antics of old standby Swizz Beatz. [Sep 2006, p.139]

Their nostalgia is occasionally endearing but usually curdles into crotchetiness. [Aug 2006, p.110]

Even the best of these tracks lack the grimy menace of the most thrilling Neptunes beats. [Sep 2006, p.147]

Petty, never good at deep thinking, tries to introduce some grand gestures and literary flourishes, but they're forced compared with his amiably corny odes to driving and boozing. [Sep 2006, p.147]

From the orgiastic "We're All In Love" to the painfully mortal "Take a Good Look at My Good Looks," they're all clearly Dolls for life. [Aug 2006, p.113]

Over girl-group incantations, reggae lilt and courageously dinky old-school hip-hop allusions, Gartside searches for his emotional car keys, each comely coo abstracting him further from the truth he seeks. [Aug 2006, p.117]

He specializes in layered harmonies, not deep lyrics. [Aug 2006, p.117]

The two Louris/Tweedy writing collaborations stand with the best work of both. [Aug 2006, p.108]

They're not the kind of band that ages well... [but] one hot summer is all they need. [Aug 2006, p.107]

Like a question 1970s double disc compacted into 45 brutally efficient minutes, it has the momentum of a meteor. [Aug 2006, p.108]

It's like School House Rock for hip kids. [Aug 2006, p.117]

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]

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

Some selections are heartwrenching... But others bear the stain of sentimentality, denial, even exploitation. [Jul 2006, p.98]

The album's final third is useless... Fortunately, the rest is bracing permutations of the lopsided, much-sampled post-disco rhythms that helped define NYC art-funk 25 years ago. [Oct 2006, p.135]

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

It's at once a distillation of all that drew tweeners to Dashboard... and a messy, multidimensional celebration of romance and regret. [Jul 2006, p.99]

Fundamental ingeniously explores political chicanery through imaginative set pieces about private relationships. [Aug 2006, p.113]

When he tries to get serious... Drew comes across as nothing more than a self-important shock artist, way out of his element.

It has at least seven killer tracks. [Jul 2006, p.101]