A delightful surprise. [#75, p.99]

While longtime fans may lament the paucity of instamatic anthems, 'All The Old Showstoppers' and 'Unguided' reveal their charms with each new verse. [Fall 2007, p.106]

It's an artful & well-crafted collection. [No. 98, p.60]

There hasn't been a set of pretenders this convincing since Interpol. [#61, p.107]

After several years of wandering in the sonic wilderness, Parker has returned to his roots with a velvet-fisted vengeance. [No. 111, p.58]

Even the most seriously depressed songs here have a lightness that's been missing in the past. [#60, p.111]

Down In Heaven is the third full-length from Twin Peaks, and it’s undoubtedly their most solid collection. [No. 132, p.61]

Instrumentally, Torino strays little from previous Cinerama releases.... But lyrically, Gedge... [has] developed a gritter, nastier edge. [#55, p.72]

Tennis dances easily into the present with an album that pines for more for modern connection than campy reinventions of someone else's love. [No. 113, p.61]

The Avett Brothers are thankfully more interested in contemporary relevance than lockstep allegiance to dusty history. [No. 104, p.52]

Their voices blend together beautifully. [No. 145, p.57]

Williams is competing with listeners' ingrained memories of these songs and thta can be a challenge. But the rock songs rock harder, the swampy blues groove more deeply, and the "He Never Got Enough Love" rewrite tells a better story. [No. 148, p.60]

Serious fans will appreciate the sessions recorded with John Peel for BBC Radio 1 and the highlights culled from a 1982 performance at Boston's Opera House. [No.89, p.56]

Researching the Blues is masterfully produced and keenly performed. [No.90, p.60]

So Pitted is constantly poking and prodding at its audience with a wicked glee and demented smile. [No. 128, p.61]

There was more to the melody of Unwound than just a few simple, catchy primitive riffs. [No. 107, p.61]

Although Beast Epic does not broadcast its complexity and depth as with some past Iron & Wine efforts, it's still lovely, dark and deep. [No. 145, p.58]

Her witty wordplay and ironic humor offers a bit of relief from heartache and confusion that colors the record, but it's those shattered emotions that are the most impressive. [No. 134, p.57]

The good news is that there's a new burst of energy on the rave-ups. [No. 111, p.59]

Ascent is an album that manages to find the perfect harmony between the normal and the weird, the dirty and the clean, the psychedelic and the straight. Put it in your psych-rock emergency kit. [No.90, p.60]

What's missing most will probably not be missed at all: Berman's tendency to sound slack, sluggish and a bit lackluster. [#69, p.109]

A record that easily ranks among the heaviest, most remarkable releases in Constellation's recent catalog. [No. 143, p.57]

Take it all in, and you'll be carried away. [No. 111, p.59]

The linear song structures, full of droning, atonal, repetitive music, shrieking vocals and skewed tempos, still make this music as challenging today as it was in 1978, although some of the songs now sound remarkably normal. [No. 113, p.61]

There's no doubt who you're listening to when the calamitous chords and broken-phone vocals of "Factory" open the band's eighth full-length. [No. 148, p.61]

Even as he points out life's injustices and unpleasantries, there's an ease and comfort with which he accesses his long list of Americana influences. [No. 143, p.57]

There's a feeling of (relative) calm, with bouts of refined clarity to accompany the album's sage rage outbursts. [No. 109, p.52]

Elements of krautrock and psychedelia add color, buoyancy and narrative detail to the rippling dub-pop streams Dunis' disembodied voice drifts over like smoke. [No.89, p.58]

While the Universe is a fairly subdued affair, its quiet quality speaks volumes. [No.89, p.61]

We Are Him arguably surpasses his work with his old band merely by simplifying things a bit. [Fall 2007, p.90]

Elements of glam, power pop and soul creep into the Tyde's pool of sound, making for a winning, genre-spanning formula. [#60, p.117]

This is a sterling document well worth revisiting. [No. 123, p.59]

Hold On Now, Youngster... overflows with irony, pumping out bright indie-pop songs with titles such as “... And We Exhale And Roll Our Eyes In Unison” and “This Is How You Spell ‘HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams Of A Generation Of Faux-Romantics.’”

Cheap nostalgia and cynicism be damned. They still sound--on this evidence at least--utterly majestic.

The Jersey quartet offers its most effective heartland punk cocktail to date, but shakes and stirs the concoction with new influences and musical approaches. [No. 113, p.56]

Another profoundly pastoral and ethereal folk record. [No. 114, p.53]

The more he pushes these various personas, the less sense we expect him to make and the more rewarding he becomes. [Fall 2007, p.90]

Bonar sings with a bright pop voice that creates a startling contrast to her dark, disturbing tales. [No. 134, p.55]

Deep and communal, Barefoot In The Head is CRB's most impressive studio effort yet. [No. 145, p.59]

These are just tender pop songs, timeless enough to defy categorization. [#60, p.95]

Hypercaffium Spazzinate finds the band reenergized and more characteristically succinct. [No. 134, p.55]

The Chems remain committed to their singular vision, still plying those swooning synths, continuing to breathe new life from the echoes. [No. 123, p.55]

If you're looking to get good and lost, this record's your ticket. [No. 93, p.52]

The shiny-happy '60s dream-pop has been augmented by riffier synths and a reverb-ed out pulse that scratches at the surface of the '80s with the entire package boasting stunning vocal performances by all involved. [No. 128, p.61]

The Civil War uses familiar Matmos techniques to craft unfamiliar electronic music. [#61, p.103]

Bon Iver seems to be taking great joy in simply playing with musicians he admires. There's something really beautiful in that, and it shines throughout the whole album. [No. 103, p.52]

When their voices blend, moving from two-part to three-part harmonies, the music really takes off. [No. 150, p.55]

Features the same lyrical spirit and disjointed soul rhythms [as labelmate, Shabazz Palaces.] [No.86, p.58]

If New Facts Emerge reminds the listener of any post-millennial Fall album, I'd have to go with 2003's The Real New Fall LP. [No. 145, p.55]

The Orb's relentless, yet somehow unaggressive dance beats have a timeless quality that endures beyond any specific electronic trends, and its muse remains undamaged by time and space. [No. 122, p.59]

It's terrifying... yet also weirdly gorgeous and enlivening. [No. 123, p.57]

Guitar player Martin Belmont and keyboard ace Bob Andrews shine throughout, adding subtle fills and accents that give plenty of sparkle to arrangements that still merge R&B and rock with hints of funk and reggae. [No. 121, p.59]

Separation Sunday is a book-on-tape, a grim and funny tome that draws from the Bible and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. [#68, p.98]

lude tUnE-yArDs’ Merril Garbus, who supplies an urgent, rhythmic vocal from on the spooky and stellar “Little Queen Of New Orleans.” Low Cut Connie teases these flourishes throughout Hi Honey, making for an album that’s both retro-minded and forward-thinking.

Theoretically, this shouldn't work, but it does in spades. And its constant motion is terribly addicting and moving. [No. 150, p.61]

[It] only adds to the glory of his catalog. [No. 101, p.53]

Branan oozes country cred. [No. 113, p.53]

Traversing this much musical terrain without a hitch is reason to believe it's showtime for the Apollo. [#69, p.86]

File with the rest of your King Khan records under "readily accessible." [No. 148, p.59]

An exciting blend. [#59, p.103]

The Welsh quintet's second release goes down as easy as a mixtape on a '90s spring day. [No. 121, p.57]

Arcade Fire's tightest and tersest album since 2004's Funeral is by far its least ambitious, and the band is cool to riff on this. [No. 145, p.53]

Songs like "Driving School," "M Train" and the deathlessly compelling "Crazy" sound unerringly alive and modern, making this an excellent archival release. [No. 134, p.59]

A more suitable representation of the band's dynamic capabilities. [No. 111, p.57]

The beauty of Pleasure's vintage danceteria lies in its sharp 21st-century focus and Lerche's consistently reliable songwriting skills. [No. 141, p.59]

She's no longer interested in the simple pleasures of immediate hooks. Instead, we get something more complex, challenging and provocative. [No. 143, p.54]

Kinski has probably never rocked this hard. [No. 121, p.57]

That's Harakiri never loses its human touch. [No. 109, p.61]

Nelson and co-composer Buddy Cannon work magic on cocky self-assurance mixed with self-deprecation and the glory of womanhood in a manner befitting this wordsmith's living-legend status. [No. 101, p.56]

Prophet has something absolutely genuine to say, and he continues to be a prime exponent of walking like you talk it. [No. 114, p.61]

The duo constantly varies each elements of its sound in ways most rock bands could learn plenty from. [No. 95, p.56]

Weller has always created a fine present out of traces of the past; A Kind Revolution is a funkier present. [No. 143, p.60]

It's a treat to hear Cohen so comfortable in both his old and new skins. [No. 121, p.53]

One of the most powerful and overtly political albums he's ever made. [No. 150, p.55]

The sound here is languid and lo-fi, even when it's rocking. [No. 123, p.61]

La Foret sounds like what rock might've become if all the British Invasion bands had hailed from postwar Berlin. [#69, p.112]

Gelb's voice remains sweet as sandpaper, setting a tone that's elegiac, lyrical and lovingly enigmatic. [No. 104, p.55]

A beautifully dark masterpiece. [#56, p.99]

It's bolder, more focused and just all-around more rocking [than 2008's Party Intellectuals]. [No.98, p.59]

A wounded angel of a pop record ono which malice and sorrow are offset by rapturous surges of strings. [#60, p.117]

This music has been cunningly hand-crafted, despite the album's larger ensemble sound, and at times the songs come off like incantations. [No. 95, p.57]

Tunng has taken one analog-age lesson very much to heart by making Good Arrows nice and short; it's 11 songs clock in at 43 minutes, and only one is an outright dud. [Fall 2007, p.108]

While Cox’s narratives make little sense (much of the time, he’s not even singing so much as wailing wordlessly), the music is surprisingly accessible.

Though I generally partake in the Kool-Aid, some of Pollard’s post-GBV stuff has admittedly either gone over my head or missed the sweet spot. Brown Submarine’s pleasures, however, are inarguable.

These are not tunes created with an eye on the top of the charts, but it only takes about four bars to realize that they should be up there. [No.86, p.56]

Inhabit[s] some weird middle ground between The Teaches of Peaches and Prince's 1999. [#58, p.98]

Mutilator continues Thee Oh Sees' unprecedented, mind-melting hot streak. [No. 121, p.61]

No Wow is mechanical yet sexy, and a soulful, grinding groove is key. [#67, p.102]

Packed to the brim with moments of tonal and melodic transcendence. [#86, p.51]

Like his labelmates in Alabama Shakes, Booker takes inspiration from the past to make huge artistic leaps forward. [No. 143, p.55]

The mixed-bag effect of White Knight reaches its best moments on Runt's partnership with R&B shouter Bettye LaVette on the salty soul of "Naked & Afraid," and his teaming with Nine Inch Nails' film composition team Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the crushing, cinematic "Deaf Ears." [No. 143, p.61]

What sounds like downcast spaciousness is actually riddled with layers of sound complementing the expected morose and heartfelt topics. [No. 121, p.61]

A comeback triumph that exchanges the desiccated roboticism of its predecessor for the vital, maniac, seductively imperfect epic exuberance. [No. 109, p.55]

This California band seems to be one of those rare times when the major labels get it right. [#50, p.80]

Matangi ends up being worth the wait, which in this case is high praise indeed. [No. 105, p.58]

Yes, this album is a turophile's dream, but only the most black-hearted cynic could resist joining the party. [No. 141, p.61]

Wratten makes the kind of albums most of us would record if the defection of a muse and lover still haunted us years later--and if we could write unabashedly pretty songs. [#52, p.109]

Despite the disparate source material, each Suitcase disc feels organic, like a "real" Guided By Voices album.... Even a casual fan will find enough gems spread among the hundred songs here to justify spending the $50 to purchase Suitcase. [#47, p.107]