The dominant strain is melodically powerful modern jazz where "Mvt.-1" and "Mvt.-III" are the triumphant highlights with joyous Paper Chase and Jittery Peanuts reference points. [No. 150, p.55]

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]

As 1991 albums go, Out Of time in its own way is an era-defining as Nevermind, Loveless or Spiderland. [No. 137, p.58]

There's a lot of worthwhile material for her to perform here. [No. 100, p.59]

As lovely as that sounds, April loses momentum under such a reserved approach.

It's a captivating album, full of gradually shifting textures, meditative chants and brilliant guitar playing. [No. 106, p.59]

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]

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]

By the time MacLean gets around to a spoken-word revisit to an old haunt, "The Museum Of Fog," you're happily along for the surreal ride. [No. 146, p.55]

the "new" Neubauten is a stronger unit than it has been in the entire latter half of its existence.... Silence Is Sexy is brilliant, and Einsturzende Neubauten remains without peer. [#46, p.75]

I hear another kid in the time honored-tradition of Paul Weller between the Jam and the Style Council, eager to explore the musical universe without any adults telling him how to go about it. [No. 147, p.55]

The first two discs develop in a predictable but always rewarding and intelligently curated way.... The rest of the collection, by design or happy accident, chronicles the plummet and crash from visionary transcendence to the kind of dark Romanticism that the Bad Seeds were mining at about the same time in Australia. [No. 131, p.58]

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

These songs are all stripped-down gems by a great performer who's unselfconsciously brave--and moving from strength to strength. [No. 110, p.55]

The treatments are smartly contemporary, balancing Amidon's clawhammer banjo with Frisell's echoing electric guitar, backed by jazz-inflected bass and drums. [No. 114, p.53]

Arab Strap's most affecting album yet. [#71, p.86]

These new arrangements--mostly piano, trumpet, upright bass and pedal steel--lend the songs a deeper loneliness, a richer tragicomedy, as if they really belonged in a concert hall, and maybe they do. [No. 119, p.55]

The Power Of Negative Thinking is a weighty, absorbing, often hugely entertaining and occasionally thrilling curio. JAMC completists will love it, but four CDs’ worth?

A few demerits are warrented for pointless and distracting tempo changes in two of the album's most satisfying songs, but otherwise, the off-kilter, kichen-sink production works. [Fall 2007, p.101]

Overall, this is as disarming and wide-eyed a pop record as you’re likely to hear all year.

If Bondy's been searching for a suitable solo identity, Believers may be his charmed third time.[#81, p. 54]

Its performances over the past year have generated much anticipation for DIIV's debut full-length, but Oshin doesn't connect the same way. [No.89, p.53]

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

She's inverting the musicians' aging curve, each album more challenging and less easily digestible than the last. [No. 103, p.58]

The group maintains the signature controlled-chaos staples of its sound--big, dirty riffs underpinned by John Dwyer's trademark ghoulish vocal melodies--while broadening its already hyper-musical palate. [No. 109, p.55]

[A] gorgeous concert recording. [No. 111, p.54]

The active present Human Voice takes advantage of each of Dntel's original promises. [No. 114, p.54]

Put them all together and you've got a drink that goes down hard, with a potent bittersweetness distilled by a master. [No. 122, p.60]