Circles finds the band leaving a bit of the motorik behind for more melodic and dynamic territory. [#82, p.57]

This is dense and metallic and gorgeous. [#82, p.57]

Joker unwittingly set the bar high for his debut full-length. Unsurprisingly, it falls short. [#82, p.56]

Despite certain songs dragging on longer than need be, Night combines classical and flighty pop quite masterfully. [#82, p.53]

Though it reveals apparent influences ranging from Eyeless in Gaza to Simple Minds, the Baltimore trio's third album finds the band updating rather than simply recreating. [#82, p. 55]

The inanely literalistic Looping State of Mind magnifies that trend [toward expansionism], offering seven mutations of his trademark sound, in a newly expansive array of tempos. [#82, p. 55]

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]

DJ Shadow first made his name by delving deep into the world's bottomless pile of debris to redeem the wannbe hits and half-formed artistic statements of our musical past. Now, he contributes to it. s[#82, p. 54]

Crow's sense of humor still peeks through an otherwise melancholy baker's dozen of tracks. [#82, p. 54]

There's a noisy undercurrent on Breaks in the Armor, which may become even more prevalent with the return of and cross-pollination with Archers Of Loaf, but the album's stripped-back, still powerful songs might be indicating Crooked Finger's path from here.[#82, p. 54]

Howl works best when Feck and Co. marry their frustrated empathy with hopeful jubilation, letting the kids know that although they're lonely, they're certainly not alone. [#82, p. 53]

Wolfroy goes to Town is a meditative and sparse collection, and much of it continues the same train thought at work in the "There is no God" b/w "God is Love" single. [#82, p. 52]

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

If the stoner rock of the Atomic Bitchwax and Nebula crashed, with care and caution, into Swervedriver and the Doors, you'd have West. [#81, p. 60]

The Whole Love works best as aural comfort food.[#81, p. 60]

WWPJ returns to the moody and energetic sound of its debut with In The Pit of the Stomache, a 10-song set that bristles with raw post-punk power while pulsing with pop subtlety. [#81, p. 59]

His songwriting keeps growing hookier and more ingratiating. [#81, p. 59]

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]

Lucky for Conditions of My Parole, Puscifer has graduated from embarrassingly stupid to simply boring. [#81, p. 59]

They focus more on freeform jams than commercial song structure. Then, as now, it makes for indulgent and difficult listening. But, if the path of wisdom lies in such excesses, then the Larsons are certainly well on their way. [#81, p. 59]

Heaven? or Las Vegas? or, more probably (circa late '90's), Chicago? Hard to predict quite where Twin Sisters will end up, but it's a lovely, leisurely, labile journey all the same. [#81, p. 58]

"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]

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]

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]

They turn out to be pretty good influences on one another. Jay sounds generally reinvigorated: good-humored, full of nimble, intricate wit and atypically emotionally revealing, and if Kanye's rhymes occasionally remain as clumsy and crass as his personal life choices, he drops far fewer boners than usual. [#81, p. 56]

It's fine that none of this is the least bit subtle. Memorable, or anything other than baseline catchy, is another thing entirely. [#81, p. 56]

Tripper is a strummy, breezy delight. [#81, p. 55]

Cronin learned how to pack garage/punk fuzzbombs with big hooks as the Moonhearts' frontman, and he hasn't lost the ragged-and-reckless urgency here.[#81, p. 55]