Rhine Gold doesn't sound like it's trying to create another emo anthem, which gives its tracks a genuine, unaffected quality. [#86, p.53]

The pop hits sound as good as anything McCartney did with the Beatles, but it's the ballads that make this a winner. [No. 105, p.57]

Transformation is richly and lushly inherent in everything Hegarty makes his own. [No. 116, p.53]

Cryptograms is a pleasant enough record, but it remains to be seen if Deerhunter can add up to more than the sum of its gear and influences. [#75, p.96]

Each soft, slow hymn to the darkness makes the band's beauty more pronounced. [#51, p.102]

Some songs here make more sense than others, and the musicianship, while spirited, isn't quite accomplished. [#61, p.92]

Easy crowd banter and goofy in-the-moment revisions of lyrics make Live not only a fine addition to the band's discography, but an excellent summing-up of the best of its output so far. [No. 117, p.53]

A welcome addition to its expansive discography. [No. 125, p.59]

With guitar ace Marc Ribot and pedal-steel master Eric Heywood along for the ride, she continues exploring the intersection of hope and heartache. [No. 139, p.57]

The band's linear approach might have you pining for an injection of dynamic flourishes, as the songwriting often consists of settling on a single tempo and rhythm and bouncing between two riffs for the duration. [No. 146, p.53]

Unwilling or unable to ascend the vertiginous heights of 2009 debut Gorilla Manor, Hummingbird instead buries its beak in the sand. [No. 95, p.58]

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

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

This is stark music for rock adults--pure and simple. [No. 107, p.61]

It includes four instrumentals that feel wide open without sacrificing the band's essential heaviness. [No. 150, p.51]

Over the course of 10 albums, Joe Henry’s music has grown increasingly rich, complex and difficult.

The zigzagging, liquid bass is the most surprising thing on a record you expect no surprises from. [No. 112, p.61]

While they haven't really changed up their formula on this second LP, they have gotten exponentially better at brewing it up. [#82, p.59]

The pure-pop masterpiece everyone knew McCaughey had in him. [#49, p.84]

Unlike its predecessor's quirky pop stance, Hot Shots is defiantly, mindbendingly progadelic -- suitable for controlled-substance consumption galore. [#51, p.85]

Every bit as visceral and thrilling as fellow Manhattanites the Strokes. [#54, p.98]

The unrushed songs are equally appealing, gussied up with elegant guitar and piano accents and spiked with disarming lines.

It's difficult to accept him as an angry rocker. He's so great as a lovelorn crooner - heard here on "Seek It," one of the album's few moments of tenderness - that it's hard not to be nostalgic for the old Hawley. [No.91, p.55]

It's a warped ride overall, though not without some solid moments hidden beneath the surface. [No. 96, p.54]

It's hard to listen, and that makes Dear Mark the kind of pointedly painful pop that forces me [to] rush out, buy 11 albums that came before it and never get around to opening the packages. [No. 100, 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]

Brave stuff. [No. 117, p.54]

On its own terms, Void Beats Invocation Trex is a Cavern worth exploring. [No. 128, p.53]

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

The album is the reliable mix of shorter, inverted blues-rock dirges and extended workouts one has to come to expect from this well-oiled machine. [No. 141, p.53]

By focusing mostly on the early entries from Dylan's canon, Nile reminds us of Dylan's power and poetic brilliance. [No. 144, p.57]

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]

Results are varied.... Luckily, Deerhoof's blahs are better than most people's best. [No. 116, p.57]

Every Open Eye takes an "if it ain't broke" approach, following in the same sonic vein as Bones--sometimes outright repeating Bones--but not really building on it. [No. 125, p.58]

Moderat's pop ambitions are clear. And mostly fulfilled. [No. 130, p.59]

It's a darker, more nuanced album, and Jones, now 37, sings with more depth and soul than she did in her youth. [No. 136, p.54]

Atomic offers rare glimpses into the band's writing process and exists as an anomaly in Mogwai's catalog that's sure to intrigue diehard fans, but offers little more to anyone else. [No. 132, p.57]

Amos delivers another set of stirring songs tempered and emboldened by years of experience. [No. 110, p.53]

It's missing much of the quirkiness of its predecessors--and some fans will bemoan that fact--but Motivational Jumpsuit is the best, most consistent recent GBV effort. [No. 106, p.58]

The Gradual Progression manages to keep a curious balance between high-concept art and Fox's own fiercely independent spirit and virtuosic talent. [No. 146, p.55]

Each measure of music on her third album is milked for its last ounce of wizened drama, each word imbued with the same measured solemnity of a grandmother's deathbed wish. [#74, p.109]

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]

Everything Ever Written falls right in line with the great records the combo has produced 2002's The Remote Part. [No. 117, p.57]

His penchant for quirky arrangements remains in place, as does his gift for shrewd lyrics and dark, ironic humor. [No. 130, p.55]

Songs so immediately enthralling you won't even notice the faint Dungeons & Dragons scent of [Rieger's] lyrics. [#54, p.88]

Nowhere near as strong and complete as Bewilderbeast, but its best moments burn just as brightly. [#57, p.81]

A full-length valentine to the Jesus and Mary Chain. [#60, p.110]

This could have been Costello's urban album, or his funk album, or his black album--but instead, it's simply his new album. [No. 102, p.54]

Ewan Pearson's productions certainly bang, shimmer and simmer resplendently as called for-- but these are hardly the pro forma femmepowerment anthems it might suggest. [No. 150, p.59]

This is hardcore at its best. [No. 101, p.56]

It's full of loose sing-alongs, drunken chants and spooky ballads; of apocalypse, synicism and Satanism; of a jaded worldview that joyfully sees everything as --in the words of the opening track--"Dark dark dark." [Fall 2007, p.102]

This tune ["Calling Planet Earth--We'll Wait For You"] captures Ra's formidable Arkestra bursting at the seams. ... The two other tracks included here are less essential, consisting of droning tones and percussion interludes. [No. 142, p.61]

Endlessly moody and surprisingly versatile, this record moves by its own secret logic. [No. 144, p.61]

Deacon possesses the rare ability to tweak the conventions of his chosen mode of musical expression while expanding them into a distinctive style signature. [No. 118, p.55]

The band lives up to its rep as a tight live act. [#86, p.53]

The success of the Amazing in general--and Ambulance by proxy--is the band's uncanny ability to touch on a wealth of styles without flying any specific philosophical flag, thereby remaining unique in tone and execution. [No. 134, p.53]

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

LP3 is instrumentally nuanced. [No. 115, p.61]

It's less an emphatic, assertive statement than a patchwork scrapbook of disparate moods and tunes that, taken as a whole, feels not unpleasantly unfinished, somewhat hazy and dreamlike and understatedly charismatic. [No. 146, p.59]

The longer cuts here have some great ones. It's just the kind the Juan MacLean crafts seem to work best with plenty of room to wriggle and stretch. [No. 113, p.57]

Eno brings interesting and complex rhythmic counterpoints to his 3-a.m. atmospherics.... It all sounds so very sleepy in the end, and quite numbing, in a most uncomfortable way. [#51, p.92]

There is something effortlessly contagious and opulent about her melodies and cozy rhythmic kink. [No. 109, p.57]

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

The succinct 10 songs on Brood X are all upbeat workouts. [No. 141, p.53]

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]

3rd is somewhat overstuffed at 18 songs.... But it's still an ideal soundtrack for the dead of winter, when you're pining for pitchers and catcher to report, or when your team's out of the race by the dog days of August. [No. 108, p.54]

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

Sadly, "Everything Is Wrong" announces another second-half fade, the back side congealing into the same zombie histrionics that sank Interpol. [No. 113, p.57]

This is an album with a lot of rich, rewarding darkness in its grooves. [No. 113, p.57]

The Brazilian foundation is here but so are glimmers of his signature unhinged, skronky electric-guitar work. [No. 142, p.57]

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]

For the most part, the band has deftly added its own experiences and experience to original template of its debut, and comes out gleaming in the other end. [No. 101, p.61]

It's not an overall disaster, it's certainly never dull, and there's plenty to keep the loyalists happy. [No. 100, p.58]

Offers both considerable beauty and ugliness. [#82, p. 62]

Fatigue ensues from the relentless stream of common-man clichés, delivered in the most vocally bombastic way possible. Which makes the carefree 'Casanova, Baby!' such a pleasure; the Gaslight Anthem finally stops playing to the stadium, resulting in a positively joyous, catchy rock ’n’ roll song.

[Mike Polizze's] an understated master of the rock 'n' roll hook.... With big and booming Superfuzz Bigmuff-style production cleaning up the band's Drag City debut, that distinction becoming clearer. [No. 96, p.58]

The only misteps are when Oakley Hall drifts into more straight-forward terrain. [Fall 2007, p.106]

While it's a deeply cathartic break-up record, it's both personal and political. [No. 108, p.57]

For the most part, Excuses plays like a companion piece to 1998's Out Of Tune--chock full of the lethargic pedal steel and Topanga Canyon-rock cornerstones that make [Neil] Halstead's songs so powerful. However... Excuses leaves room for more delicate moments and patient ballads... [#47, p.108]

Angels just rocks. [Winter 2008, p.108]

It's best record. [No. 141, p.61]

Trouble In Paradise proves her more than capable of putting together a solid pop album on her own. [No. 112, p.57]

This minor genius from Gothenburg hurdles over [the heartbreak record] as effortlessly and charmingly as his livelier material. [No.91 p.58]

When they open up and truly let go, they achieve states of near euphoria and joyous magnificence. [No. 150, p.56]

Although they rarely stray far from their now-familiarly icy aesthetic on Shrines, the decidedly captivating manner with which Purity ring navigates said aesthetic makes for one of the most exciting debuts in recent memory. [No.89, p.59]

A concept where every title is a different animal should've wielded funnier, more songful results. [No.98, p.55]

While it lacks the singular impact of their still flawless debut, it's still an object of languorous beauty, rather like the band itself. [No. 105, p.57]

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

An album that’s rewarding--and pleasantly intelligent--from start to finish. [No. 128, p.53]

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

Love If Possible is a delightful confection, and Sakamoto keeps it just the right amount of sweet. [No. 159, p.59]

Faced with conventional, if not threadbare, tunes, Sylvian becomes grand in comparison, humming and mumbling through the subtlest opera of tweaked, quaking noises. [#60, p.117]

A hungry batch of songs that finds Malin wandering the avenues and uncovering compelling stories wherever he goes. [#64, p.100]

If it's been a minute since you've spent time with BSS, Hug Of Thunder could be a revelation. Otherwise, you'll just have to settle for it being a very good album. [No. 145, p.53]

There's more to Cheatahs than throwback sonics, though it takes a few listens to really catch the complex melodies and structures in the album's strongest cuts. [No. 106, p.53]

Frame's always been an old soul, and the heartfelt Seven Dials is a welcoming return. [No. 113, p.55]

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

Toth's spare lines still keep you listening and wondering, reeling you in to music that starts out gently lyrical and ends up as immersive as the sea. [No. 142, p.61]