The new songs are excessively polished and precisely drawn, and relentlessly deliver an uplifting message. [Jun 2006, p.145]

Their new boss's hooks are often slicke rand less arresting than the minor-key grit they thrive on. [Jun 2006, p.142]

Tighter and more energized than anything the band has done since Vitalogy. [Jun 2006, p.142]

It presumably adds up to Something Important, but good luck deciphering what. [Jul 2006, p.103]

The riffs blast as if it's 1971 all over again. [Jun 2006, p.148]

A widescreen goth-punk stunner. [Jun 2006, p.144]

[A] snarly caffeine jolt of a debut. [May 2006, p.109]

The results can sometimes get bland; unlike its predecessor, which was moody and aimless, Drops is so polished that there are no ragged edges left to hang on to. [May 2006, p.109]

While it can tend toward the tuneless, the upside is language that differs plenty from a Jay-Z or Eminem but stands beside them in terms of power--a flow that, once you get used to it, becomes its own form. [May 2006, p.110]

Most of the album is more fun than a folkie could stand. [Jun 2006, p.147]

The group's unreconstructed P-funk would sound tired were it not so irresistibly spry. [May 2006, p.105]

Only one song exhibits any nuance or creativity--a cover of Supertramp's 1977 lark "Give a Little Bit." [May 2006, p.106]

Playing Coke to Knopfler's bourbon on some decent songs, [Harris] challenges his guitar to a beauty contest; it's a draw. [Jun 2006, p.140]

Without a target for their ire, TBS opt for sheer emo relentlessness. [May 2006, p.111]

An amped-up grotesque of torchy vaudeville and European parlor songs that starts as high-concept camp and winds up strangely illuminating. [May 2006, p.105]

The barn-burners are still grimy with brawling guitar, but more than ever shot through with delicate light... and the pithy ballads are crisp as cold beer. [May 2006, p.108]

What's the point of a cheesy goth-pop record that isn't any fun? [May 2006, p.105]

The album's an impossible mess, but so lively that it's worth sifting through the shrapnel for the tasty bits. [May 2006, p.106]

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

It plods before revealing its considerable sonic luxuries and melodic charms. [May 2006, p.105]

The music is as sexy as it is horny. [May 2006, p.105]

It's an "important" record... But, more crucially, it's an enduringly entrancing listen. [Apr 2006, p.123]

He's self-mocking enough to earn his laddish hell-raising. [May 2006, p.107]

It's hard to find LL in the crowd. [Jun 2006, p.141]

Like [David Gray and Damien Rice], Powter writes faceless tunes landmined with unsubtle hooks that can devour your brain in less time than it takes for an expert barista to whip up a cappuccino. [Jun 2006, p.143]

Folding in lean funk, tender arias and as many catchy tunes as West Side Story, Ze makes his cryptic polemic perfectly enticing. [Jul 2006, p.105]

Green manages to charm even as he annoys. [Aug 2006, p.108]

While their protest cries tilt feebly into goofball psychedelic funk, a lush poignancy bubbles up on the more ruminative tracks. [May 2006, p.110]