Compared with the Pixies, this is conservative and gentlemanly. [Aug 2005, p.109]

Marjorie Fair's plinky strums, orchestral swells and hummable lyrics are hard to dislike and impossible to love. [Aug 2005, p.111]

The beat-programming is crystalline, the feeling is frozen, the soul is northern if it's there at all. [Sep 2005, p.136]

He's never tried so actively to fuse prescriptive politics into [the] mix, and the move feels suspect. [Aug 2005, p.115]

For every killer raise-your-hands hook there is a snoozer of an SWV-esque torch ballad, and she can't seem to tell the difference. [Jul 2005, p.116]

Kelly sounds exhilaratingly unhinged by passion. It drives him into territory no one else is able--or willing--to navigate. [Aug 2005]

A mesmerizing history lesson. [Aug 2005, p.114]

Only a central, three-track lull--where grooves are preferred over songs--sours this eclectic, irresistible stew. [Jul 2005, p.114]

The idea is to build a monorail between Aphex Twin and Stax Records; the songwriting eventually slacks off, but Lidell's performances don't. [Aug 2005, p.111]

Shock gets dull, though, and Bizarre's bloated debut is profoundly unfunny. [Jul 2005, p.115]

A giddy funhouse of a record. [Oct 2005, p.136]

The songs change, but the sensibility remains the same, more or less: plaintive to mopey, clever to smartass, and back again. [Jul 2005, p.118]

Song after song in praise of ass, thongs and female compliance. [Aug 2005, p.116]

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]

It's not until the seventh song that voice and material converge satisfyingly. [Jul 2005, p.115]

We're left with the immutable Corgan sans ambition: his narrow whine, melodies not quite predictable but dull anyway and a misty worldview with collegiate airs. [Jul 2005, p.116]

Dry and straightforward disco-soul. [Jul 2005, p.116]

More tuneful and less experimental than their debut. [Aug 2005, p.113]

Happily, [their] dogged consistency works in their favor. [Jul 2005, p.117]

A record that encourages global consciousness shouldn't sound so isolated and chilly. [Aug 2005, p.110]

Let's face it: Foo Fighters are dull. [Jul 2005, p.117]

Pernice's neuroses sound as compelling as ever. [Jul 2005, p.121]

Never Gone's rock ballads are painfully and sometimes powerfully earnest demands for meaning and redemption. [Aug 2005, p.108]

[Annie] masterfully fus[es] synth-pop rhythms with her own feline coos. [Jun 2005, p.108]

[Coldplay] have made their masterpiece. [Jun 2005, p.112]

What initially feels jubilant soon turns grating. [Jul 2005, p.115]

When a guitar hero abandons guitar, it can be because he's bored or because he's a provocateur, or, in the case of Jack White, likely both. But he pulls it off. [Jul 2005, p.113]

This is really a missing Greatest Hits in disguise. [Jul 2005, p.118]