Disjointed, yes, but Early Birds is a fascinating document all the same. [No.89, p.57]

The first Wheat album that'll make you cringe through four or five listens before you can tolerate its artificial sweetness. [#61, p.111]

Mostly, the remix collection works in this vein, mutating the originals by further accentuating the brooding atmosphere and driving the beat harder. [No. 94, p.61]

Though it's but a collection of outtakes and rarities, June 2009 plays like much more than just that, making for a fitting precursor to Causers' light, breezy textures and the grooving forest-lounge of this year's Underneath the Pine.

The songwriting is flat-footed, with few moments that break from the homogeneous stupor. [No.87 p.54]

Good Graces falls just a tad flat. [No. 102, p.59]

Think a minimalist A Tribe Called Quest. [#60, p.110]

Doesn't quite reach greatness, but it grows and changes with every listen... [#46, p.92]

Listening to this breakup-on-tape is captivating. [#64, p.98]

Hagerty’s Howling Hex, which plows the radically different but equally worked-over field of nerd-rock whimsy on Earth Junk, starts promisingly, with a spooky clutter of hooting keyboards and echo-soaked vocals.

Try to listen to a whole [Azure Ray] album and time stands still, not out of boredom, just deja vu. [No.91, p.52]

Classical/new-age strains mash against underlying funk beats with this record's favorite motif being sophisticated Europop twisted around throbbing rhythms sourced from sound sample slices, giving it a feel that falls somewhere between Mike Patton's Lovage, Peeping Tom and the pseudo-highbrow commercials that Chanel and Lindor use to hawk fragrance and milk chocolate. [No. 112, p.55]

Continue to blame "hipsters" for cultural ruination but can't find any to shame because they stopped wearing white belts a long time ago. [No. 148, p.53]

Sounds like it was put together using spit, eyelash glue and sequins that fell off David Johansen's costumes all those years ago. [#64, p.90]

Many cover choices are deft... though others like the Best Coast's bouncy take on Nicks' "Rhiannon" and Karen Elson's on-the-nose "Gold Dust Woman" are less revelatory. [No.91 p.61]

The touch is lighter, with more interest in groove and atmosphere than climax. [No. 131, p.59]

The pop tunes are as good as any that Folds has written.... The "Concerto" tries too hard to be Gershwin or Richard Rogers, but lacks the flow of "Rhapsody In Blue" or the drama of "Slaughter On 10th Avenue." [No. 124, p.57]

If a smokestack tenor spewing a cloud of menagerie is your kind of daydream, the faulty superhero came through once again. [No. 132, p.51]

Harrowing electronic soundscapes set the scene like a Cronenberg film with sputtering, stuttering drum machines, droning organs, witchy background coos and Stewart vocals. [No. 106, p.61]

There's some buzzing and belling on "Puzzle," some crimped cracking that doubles as new wave, but for the most part, it's California dreaming at its dumbest.

It runs longer than an hour, and no matter how much you liked the Smiths you probably don't hav ethe patience for that much Gene. [#56, p.89]

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

To make the perfect album, we suppose, that elusive thing that the beauteous hooks on "The Light of F=Day" and "Met Your Match" certainly makes strides toward. [#86, p.53]

They sound much heavier and quite unburdened by commercial notions. [No. 145, p.61]

Bossy's reformation seems based in penning the dullest platitudes imaginable. [No. 112, p.59]

Most disappointing about PersonA is that it oscillates between gutsy and lazy. [No. 131, p.51]

It helps that the androgynous vocals carry a hook here and there.... Otherwise, it's hard to pull any other redeeming qualities out of Galore. [No. 106, p.59]

It’s easily their biggest-sounding: a bright, trebly, disco-poppin’ melody feast bursting with keyboards, harmonies, Tinkertoy production flourishes and chorus after towering chorus of fizzy, whiz-bang pop goodness. [No. 132, p.57]