It's far, far better than anyone ever had a right to expect. [No. 117, p.53]

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]

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

Mansion Songs isn't a great LP, but there's a damn good EP buried in here. [No. 117, p.55]

These tunes would work better if the influences weren't so obvious. [No. 117, p.55]

This is the first time since 2003 that Elverum fully succeeds in casting a meditative spell strong enough to suck everyone listing into its singular IRL riptide. [No. 117, p.57]

Body Pill nods briefly to vintage Detroit techno and no-holds-barred house in between stiffly edging out its own ground on the very crowded floor that is contemporary dance music, often on the same track. [No. 117, p.59]

Best experienced in depressed darkness while contemplating your existence. [No. 117., p.59]

Grim Reaper shows that Lennox has bigger things on his mind than mere crowd-pleasing. [No. 117, p.59]

The richest, smartest, warmest work they've ever done. [No. 117, p.61]

No matter your tastes, there's something to put you on edge. [No. 117, p.61]

Twerps succeed in making decades-old style sound brand new again. [No. 117, p.61]

It undermines its poppy ideas with unorthodox chord changes, meandering melodies and a jarring minor/major push-pull. [No. 117, p.61]

If there is no respite from volume, there are variations in pacing. [No. 117, p.59]

Any absence of qualitative gain is overcome by quantity: 19 tracks, 10 tracks, 10 players, three LPs and nearly two hours with one of the best start-to-back country/rock records of recent years. [No. 117, p.59]

This is an album with a lot of parts to fall in love with. [No. 117, p.58]

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

Musically, Honeybear is more polished effort than Fear Fun, with more production and horns to fill out the songs and an even bigger experimental streak. [No. 117, p.56]

Hatfield, drummer Todd Phillips and bassist Dean Fisher still mash up the agony and ecstasy in the same idiosyncratic, gorgeous way we knew and loved. [No. 117, p.55]

Much of this album comes surprisingly close to the woozy heights scaled by Barat's old gang--but not quite close enough because, if there are criticisms here, it's that there's too little light and shade. [No. 117, p.52]

Earle doesn't try to reinvent the blues, but he wears them well. [No. 117, p.53]

It's a pleasure to hear him unpacking his toy, stretching out and exploring this new set of voices. [No. 117, p.61]

Hexadic too often misses the point by honing in on formlessness and esoteric explanations instead of solid consistency. [No. 117, p.61]

Capturing the band at its creative zenith, the three albums on Volume 2--Music To Strip By, Charmed Life and The Band That Would Be King--are hip-shaking, chin-scratching things of beauty rife with bent-grooves and wacked-out, sexed-up story songs that fall somewhere between Jonathan Richman and the Residents. [No. 117, p.53]

Despite faithfulness to the originals, this is unsurprisingly polished compared to the source material. [No. 112, p.61]

Come to it for the moody abstractions and impressionistic scene-setting. [No.112, p.60]

After several years of wandering in the sonic wilderness, Parker has returned to his roots with a velvet-fisted vengeance. [No. 111, p.58]

Overdrive showcases barer instrumentations and peeled-back song structures. [#110, p.59]