This one's a keeper. [No.99, p.52]

It's yet another excellent Oldham album. [No. 115, p.54]

The Kings of Leon sound like Molly Hatchet locking horns with the Gun Club. [#60, p.105]

The group has managed to retain a sense of innocence, freshness and pure joy in the act of creation. [No. 100, p.59]

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

The Western Lands offers more bang for your buck. [Fall 2007, p.96]

Pollie's sulky tenor is perfectly suited to these tales of heartache and lost affection, with muted backing tracks that intensify the tear-soaked scenarios that bring him solace. [No. 142, p.57]

Some of the most progressive tracks of its 20-year career. [#71, p.93]

Too Bright highlights the moments of buoyancy that dotted his first two outings--both of which sounded nothing if not dour on first listen--and setting the stage for Hadress as one off the most compelling new American songwriters of the last half-decade. [No. 115, p.61]

This is very tasty Coffey. [No. 159, p.53]

In the face of today's painfully formulaic R&B/hip hop, they come off as the most soulful act on the planet. [#51, p.123]

An exuberant, ebullient revelation, awash in the cascading guitar work of Alec O'Hanley and Rankin's sunshiney, slapback-treated vocals, for a full power-pop effect that falls somewhere between vintage Tourists and recent Camera Obscura. [No. 146, p.53]

Though Deer Tick has moonlighted as a Nirvana tribute band, it's the group's love for the Replacements that shines on Divine Providence. [#82, p. 55]

Mountain Battles turns longtime engineer Steve Albini's bare-bones studio work into a virtue and spins Deal's ADD-afflicted worldview into gold. [Summer 2008, p.97]

It's a furious, loud, unbridled, relentless album. [No. 117, p.60]

Floating Coffin doesn't add many new ingredients, but it blends them more thoroughly, making for an Oh Sees more like an Oh Sees show, which is a welcome surprise, indeed. [No. 97, p.59]

The broadest, strangest and coolest sonic canvas that Deerhoof has ever framed. [No. 146, p.52]

By maintaining his intimacy while armed with a full palette of colors, Beam sets himself far apart from the rest of the hush-and-shush crowd. [Fall 2007, p.98]

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

Darnell has written and produced as many alluringly and subtly contagious melodies -- featuring lyrics rapt with cuttingly humorous tales of ruined relations, self-satisfying sexuality, vacation thrills and street-level detritus -- as Sondheim. [#81, p. 57]

Hunt manages to turn in his most intense and provocative album yet, a stunning mix of prog, punk and soul that can challenge even the most jaded listener. [#81, p. 57]

"It's not sad, but it's not OK," sings Emil Svanangen on Hall Music, neatly delineating the album's emotional landscape, a narrow isthmus of calm stretching into a sea of sorrow. [#81, p. 57]

The album's many ragged parts [are wrapped] into a rocking and rollicking package. [No.86, p.52]

It is, by any measure, a lovely, lovingly made record, its 13 tracks coming to enveloping climaxes via mystifyinng, electrifying turns of phrase. [No.99, p.51]

Whether Merritt's return to lo-fi will fly at Lincoln Center remains to be seen, but his melodic mastery is never in question. [Winter 2008, p.108]

The Evening Descends is a dizzying, carefully crafted ride; it spins, but never out of control. [Winter 2008, p.102]

English Electric is a tremendously satisfying listen for fans who've worn out their copy of Dazzle Ships. [No. 97, p.57]

Could be a Tortoise record with vocals. [#57, p.81]

It's exquisitely constructed sound with a sharp punk edge and an anarchist's ear for chaos. [#48, p.92]

Dealing with Trans Am entails dealing with a great sense of humor that's a fun and striking listen to boot. [#54, p.109]

It's clear that Vile still has great ambition to make robust, timeless rock--and the songs to back it up. [No. 97, p.60]

Occasionally a bright guitar line or luminous touch of piano floats out of the mix to deliver a hint of sunshine, but mostly the band does a skillful job of supporting Nathan Willett's anguished vocals. [No. 97, p.54]

Tracks like "Fading Dawn" hew closer to Barn Owl's sound, with the instrumentation a little less cloaked, but meditative forays like "Absteigend" are the biggest successes here. [No. 90, p.54]

A fascinating peek into Mercer's attic of influential detritus. [No. 125, p.59]

Balances restraint and abandon in a near-perfect ritual tease. [#71, p.99]

The group has dropped folky fingerpicking and bucolic string melodies in favor of episodic compositions full of complex horn and percussion textures. [#60, p.117]

Despite the experimental tendencies in the music, this is an album that catches attention in the home speakers as well as in the art scene. [No. 97, p.55]

Its songs are energetic and uplifting, with frontman and main songwriter Amayo's half-sung/half-spoken lyrics balancing snide humor with insightful commentary into the roots of the political quandaries we confront on a daily basis. [No. 146, p.53]

As If offers something close to perfection, as far as !!! goes. [No. 125, p.52]

This is a mature work. [No. 137, p.54]

The opposition between sonic abstraction and more familiar pop elements like beats, riffs and grooves creates a welcome tension. [#58, p.83]

Sadistically fun. [#60, p.97]

Luckily for us, low points are few and less about quality control than redundancy. [No. 104, p.52]

An organic expression of the beauty that can be found in the fragile, arbitrary nature of communication. [No. 92, p.52]

On Dilate, Bardo Pond does the trick by adding a bit of restraint and space to its familiar blend of Iommi-grade riffing, volume-induced overtones and Isobel SOllenberger's inimitably blasted moan. [#49, p.69]

Choir Of The Mind is more often introspective and engrossing. [No. 146, p.57]

Their playful mutability keeps them from being genre exercises and makes I Had A Dream a delight. [No. 137, p.57]

His best since 2001's The World Won't End. [#73, p.104]

Passage has all the elements of a classic, from undeniable hooks to head-spinning shards of noise. [No.87 p.55]

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

Holdin' The Bag pleases the punks and suppresses the alt-country garage rockers alike. [No. 125, p.61]

Few of Creed's peers pursue songs and sounds this blazingly epic and weirdly experimental. [No. 112, p.53]

Heavy, haunting and wholly captivating. [No.90 p.56]

It's not difficult to hear everyone from John Cate to Ryan Adams in the soundtrack. And yet, it's always distinctly Margot. [No. 108, p.57]

It's as good a collection as Saint Etienne has ever released. [#71, p.111]

Easily the most vibrant they've ever sounded. [No. 137, p.59]

The Broken String easily takes its place alongside those classics [Wilco’s Being There and Ben Folds Five’s self-titled debut].

We find a band tapping into a distinctly American heart of darkness, capturing this nation's descent into partisan chaos and random, endless violence the way only the foreign-born can. [No. 97, p.54]

[David] Gedge's fragile, understated vocals and keyboardist Sally Murrell's soaring, wordless harmonies only add to the sense of desolation.... [#48, p.79]

Glass Swords is a testament to the importance of cutting right the chase, boiling house music down to climaxes the way Lightening Bolt compresses wild metal soloing into hard, gnarly blasts of attitude. [#81, p. 59]

Ultimately, only a churlish, dead-eyed cynic would refuse to be moved by this inspired mix of riotous noise and feel-good vibetasticness. [Fall 2007, p.93]

The Pilgrimage is a much busier, more dynamic effort than its predecessor; one that never flails in its considerable ambition, but, rather, simply continues driving forward, all menace and swagger. [No.86, p.56]

The songs are quiet and emotionally intense, and they unfold like a collection of short stories in which characters and themes recur and play off each other. [No. 137, p.60]

The brevity gives the tunes space to present themselves without a needless bridge here or a prideful coda there. [#71, p.102]

This is the most blistering set the duo have put out in a long time. [No. 81, p. 56]

Newman has pushed his voice to a human place, upon a mantle, as if finally proud of the boys. Good show. [No.97, p.61]

The band manages to harness the immediacy of being a three-piece without sacrificing sonic depth or complexity.

The Bunnymen haven't sounded this vital since 1987's "Lips Like Sugar," and some of Flowers' standout cuts rank among the band's best. [#50, p.87]

One-third of VII has the quintet living up to the folk/country billing with upbeat, chaw-spittin', porch-sittin' classics-in-waiting and depressive ballads presented in Eric Earley's stark, storytelling style. The other two-thirds have skittering keyboards and soulful backing vocals. [No. 103, p.52]

The band rarely strays from the album versions of songs (sometimes to a frustrating degree; would it have killed B&S to record a version of 'Sleep The Clock Around' without the annoyingly long fade-in?), but such faithful rendering doesn’t make the material predictable; rather, it shows the band at the top of its delicate game.

Though not without the psychedelics that informed the Verve's early records, Ashcroft spends most of Alone elaborating on the same elegance he initially allowed to die with the Verve's 1998 disbanding. [#46, p.67]

The band has finally become more than the sum of its friends. [#54, p.106]

Rub still happily rubs listeners the wrong-right way with crass, curt tunes. [No. 125, p.61]

Engaging and alluring as this fresh coat of cool on an easily recognizable sonic vehicle maybe, Better Nature nonetheless remains an album destined to placate--not trip out--fans. [No. 125, p.61]

The Midnight Organ Fight's bloodied-but-unbowed lyrics stand up to repeated listening even on the fastest cutes. [Summer 2008, p.106]

Throughout the album, Wedren knows when to go from maximalist to minimalist. And his multi-octave vocal range still delivers accessible melodies. [No. 81, p. 59]

Rest easy, the group that makes you wish you’d gone to film school so you could’ve built a movie around its expansive instrumentals--works that seem to come rumbling from the molten core of the earth itself--hasn’t changed much from the glory days of early albums such as 1997’s "Young Team."

A formidable, spooky album you can lose--or perhaps find--yourself in. [#61, p.97]

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

His guitar solos are more electrified than usual, and they sound like burning juke-joint riffs... a true American original. [No. 82, p. 53]

It's heady.... Wand delivers dynamic, lysergic rock 'n' roll. [No. 125, p.61]

If Dunger is trying to shed the [Van Morrison] comparison, Here's My Song won't help matters. [#71, p.94]

Uneasy listening, certainly, and not for the cursory-minded. [#59, p.94]

A rich, mainly acoustic fabric. [#86, p.59]

Sure, it's steeped in familiarity, but it's also fun in the sun. [No. 125, p.60]

The tunes where this trio goes it alone are audacious. [No. 103, p.54]

Throughout, McCombs hits a brilliantly unpredictable songwriting stride. [No. 103, p.57]

The emotional tenor on Lambchop’s 10th LP is hard to miss. Not that there’s anything wrong with being touchy and tender, but the calm, spare arrangements on OH (ohio) can only be described as pretty.

On par, quality-wise, with the triumph that was last year's Stereo/Mono. [#61, p.110]

Vega rarely got the opportunity to be heard beyond the underground, so clarity--in passing--was essential. And all the more piercing for it. [No. 146, p.61]

Shape Shift With Me has catchy anthems, heavy rock songs and speed rants; it's yet another excellent, and complicated, Against Me! album. [No. 135, p.52]

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

It all makes for what might be Dr. Dog's career-defining work. [No. 103, p.54]

Chelsea Light Moving finds Moore in renaissance mode. And it's pretty goddamn great, even if one might occasionally yearn for a Lee Ranaldo squall or Gordon vocal coo-roar up around the next bend. [No. 97, p.54]

Probably one of the better pop recordings you'll hear in '03. [#58, p.98]

Third World Pyramid, like its recent predecessors, is yet another gorgeous, quasi-psychedelic slice of the band's kaleidoscope-eyes popcraft. [No. 138, p.53]

Conatus hits like a miniature hurricane in a box. [#81, p. 60]

Like their English ancestors, the Girls deal almost exclusively in exuberance and wonderment, making found squalls and rattles sound like their own. But that might have more to do with the copious amounts of reverb echoing through the album’s best songs.