Equitable with the Fall's bossiest, most brazen moments. [#70, p.94]

The finest moments here are all Feist-like. [#70, p.102]

In its ornately layered, keyboard-heavy sonics, ALbatross is more latter-day Talk Talk than early Gang Of Four. [#70, p.110]

Rouen is all long jams and breezy acoustics, the telltale signs of a band that feels it's time to sober up. [#70, p.110]

By stepping around traditional rock instrumentation, the group is able to cover a lot of ground. [#69, p.112]

When this band surprises... it provides moments indie rock could use more of. [#70, p.102]

Set Free is no rehash, simply an album whose parameters are clearly defined in order that its interiors can be brought to life. [#69, p.86]

Tangiers' sound has... evolved from its early, Stones-heavy incarnation into something approximating Interpol as backed by the E Street Band. [#70, p.110]

Enthralling music that embraces you like your mama never did. [#69, p.87]

La Maison offers a glimpse into the Casadys' strange, spooky world; Noah's Ark shows them taking tentative, often intriguing steps outside of it. [#69, p.91]

Recalls the blow-out blues of Beggars Banquet, a record not so much made for reveling as it is for the next-day hangover. [#69, p.95]

Takes a baby step toward the mainstream. [#69, p.108]

Picks up where [their debut] left off. [#69, p.108]

It's not so much airily psychedelic as totally stoned. [#69, p.99]

Casts Yoshimi as a manic priestess espousing the various virtues of the universal religion of rhythm. [#69, p.105]

Even in its most somber moments, Birds is all catchy, all the time. [#69, p.108]

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

This Invasion manages to be not only a perversely unique look at the Doors' cabaret rock but also makes for a catchier Coral. [#69, p.91]

Consider this follow-up one step back. [#69, p.98]

An ambitious album... but it's undercut by Fink's inconsistent readings. [#69, p.96]

On par with anything in the back catalog. [#69, p.106]

Campily butch. [#69, p.110]

In some ways, shedding the epic storytelling has given Vanderslice a more universal appeal. [#69, p.111]

At an hour long, Infiniheart occasionally feels infinite, but moments of perfection make VanGaalen's meanderings seem a necessary part of the whole appealing coincidence. [#69, p.110]

A dull collection of dreary drone-rock songs. [#69, p.111]

Sounding like mid-period R.E.M. isn't the noblest of ambitions, but it somehow seems to work. [#69, p.98]

Nearly buries itself in interesting ideas that are ultimately unrewarding. [#69, p.98]

The songs on The Repulsion Box sound like they were banged out in the underlit kitchen of a crumbling Appalachian cabin. [#69, p.108]

Penn's precision in balancing melody, mood and texture throughout nicely counters the often-depressing subject matter. [#69, p.106]

Songs that actually shoot for happy tend to slide into saccharine. [#69, p.96]

The hooks fail to sink in, and Kinski is occasionally too clever for its own good. [#68, p.100]

Royksopp's shift to the fun side is exactly what its music needed. [#68, p.110]

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

Suggests some arcane Canuck payment scheme in which lyricists are compensated by the syllable. [#70, p.106]

Overwhelmingly desolate. [#69, p.112]

Pajo comes as close to capturing his mercurial talent and shifting identiy as we're ever likely to hear. [#68, p.106]

Takes The Strangest Things' dark, occasionally scattershot pop and refines it with sharper songwriting and a slicker approach. [#69, p.100]

Guitarist John Hill... generates enough raw power to mask the shortcomings of any old lead vocalist. Fortunately for this Denver foursome, it has one of the most exciting singers around today. [#68, p.91]

A sweet deja vu, it's 1991 over again. [#68, p.111]

[A] return to the simpler production style of 2001 debut The Optimist LP. [#68, p.112]

Too much of A River, though, doesn't give you enough music to love it. [#68, p.110]

Emphasizes melodic intention in a manner that transcends electronica or the outer reaches of experimental hip hop. [#68, p.92]

Too stylistically diverse, willfully weird and lyrically cryptic to be anything more than an acquired taste. [#68, p.101]

These are the quiet, beautiful songs that made Belle & Sebastian seem so monumental for a short time. [#68, p.88]

Axes comes off as a spikier, more experimental Stereolab or a more adept Raincoats. [#68, p.91]

A quartet of droney sameness [in the second half] essentially grinds Moonlight's funkiest ingredients into a sluggish, repetitive pulp. [#68, p.111]

Bazan's ability to write compelling, catchy tunes remains intact. [#68, p.100]

By its very generic nature, Seadrum/House Of Sun sounds more like background music than anything the Boredoms have ever recorded. [#68, p.87]

Snaith lets his wanderlust steer, and the album is better for it. [#68, p.91]

Their best record since reuniting. [#68, p.95]

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]

Oneida's most cohesive and beautiful record to date. [#68, p.105]

Ultimately attains genuine staying power. [#68, p.108]

Its songs rest at the tipping point between melodic and atonal without seeming like middle-of-the-post-punk-road accords struck between dissenting intraband camps. [#68, p.106]

Taken in one sitting, Our Thickness is just wearying. [#68, p.110]

Sparkles with glittering innovations. [#68, p.102]

The Sunset Tree can be bleak, but it's also redemptive. [#68, p.104]

There's never a sense that the singer convinces himself he's got anything beyond the rote punk/blues motions to draw from. [#67, p.112]

Like Oskar, Otto luxuriates in tiny, clicking blip-beats with a sense of sythn orchestration. [#68, p.102]

Full of ideas as well as joyful energy. [#68, p.86]

Let There Be Morning may not cure your insomnia, but it should be a soothing antidote to that fourth double cappuccino of the day. [#67, p.96]

Fans will find nothing to object to. [#67, p.102]

What strike most are Sheff's strained, impassioned vocals and the joyful variety of instrumentation. [#67, p.110]

Only confirms the Belle And Sebastian comparisons this Australian band has endured throughout its seven-album career. [#69, p.100]

Remarkably, the shifts in tone and mood only serve Guero in the end. [#67, p.85]

An instant power-pop classic. [#67, p.84]

The album refines rather than revamps the Decemberists' approach; it's the brightest panel of a triptych, not a new exhibit. [#67, p.95]

Without seeming pretentious or curated, Out Hud is making dance music that feels "important." [#67, p.110]

It's an overstuffed, uneven album, one that's not disappointing as much as it is disorienting. [#67, p.111]

The A Frames ultimately come off as serious students of history, not fashion. [#67, p.84]

It's drowsy, but drowsy with one cup of coffee in it. [#68, p.108]

Akron/Family is John Brown's body, the ghost of Tom Joad and the art-school spirit of Andy Warhol crammed into one ornate, mossy mausoleum. [#68, p.100]

The album's most human aspect is its contradictory nature, an ultimate lack of emotion that make the exhilarating Homework and the sentimental Discovery so accessible. [#67, p.90]

Evokes an industrial Enya soundtrack that would play on Frodo's laptop. [#67, p.112]

Nothing ever explodes on The Evens, which eschews Fugazi-style noise in favor of subtle dynamics and unsettling clarity. [#68, p.92]

Violent, seething and uncompromising. [#67, p.96]

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

Five years past, you'd figure Prekop has found something beyond tenderness and cool timbres. He hasn't, and that's OK. [#67, p.110]

The songs are vibrant enough to convince you to forgive their derivative nature. [#67, p.87]

During its most commercial moments, Frances ventures dangerously close to System Of A Down, without the nu-metal grandstanding or fake volatility. [#67, p.106]

Sharply written and softly played, the perfectly bittersweet End Of Love balances the books. [#67, p.87]

As it's continued to grow, Ida has begun to sound almost ordinary. [#67, p.98]

It's all very romantic and swoon-worthy. [#67, p.93]

It would seem the sun has risen over Dead Meadow and the flowers are finally in bloom. [#67, p.90]

You can dance to almost anything here, but between breaths, you'll marvel at his control and the way each sound pops like a primary color. [#67, p.104]

"The Lost You" is a breathless, if unfortunate, peak. What follows are four miserable, mostly tuneless dirges that bring a slow death to [the] album. [#67, p.97]

Once a means to subvert pop/rock formula, the band's abruptly shifting dynamics have themselves become formulaic. [#67, p.97]

What makes the album exceptional is its thematic unity and storybook approach. [#67, p.85]

Pretty and pleasant without ever being especially compelling. [#67, p.100]

This loosening of the reins, ironically, has yielded her most intimate and cohesive album. [#67, p.92]

Only a couple of tracks on Nightbird flicker with any sparks of life. [#67, p.96]

Feels like a product of the past. Not the distant past, either, where at least its retrofits could be forgiven as homage. Lemon Jelly captures electronica circa 1993. [#67, p.102]

Whimsical, immaculately realized music. [#67, p.98]

That Different Days is so listenable despite its flawed nature is testament to Costa and Anderson's wonderful songwriting and shrewd decisions. [Jan/Feb 2005]

Doesn't offer much in the way of anything appealing. [#67, p.90]

All Rise flitters about like an overly melodramatic actor: it might be pretty, but it offers little more than monotony. [#67, p.97]

Any party mix could benefit from the crisp beats, blasts and riffs here, and just because Stereo Total's music is jubilant doesn't mean it's vapid. [#67, p.111]

Where the smart rap of Antipop Consortium came off as quick and cutting, Maverick just seems remote. [#66, p.86]