Mostly these provoke wows and crikeys of crooked pleasure. [Jan 2010, p.93]

The core idea brings a bright focus and forward movement to their gummy, ambrosial stoner sound, adding bright melody and fairytale zing to these end-of-summer tales of beachbound escape and smalltown torpor. [Nov 2009, p.101]

As you hit repeat to hear Horehound for the umpteenth time, what's remarkable is that these 11 tunes, with their sonic curveballs and causl vim, suggest that a second Dead Weather LP would be almost as welcome as the White Stripes' seventh. [Jul 2009, p.90]

To be fair, Sharpe, a dramatic alter-ego for leader/singer Alex Ebert, does corral a few tunes infectious enough to last the distance on Broadway. [Sep 2009, p.90]

Beautiful, minimal and bewitching, it is both another reason to hate Peter Broderick and another reason to admire him. [Aug 2009, p.102]

It's their talent for great hooks, that gets you in the end. [Aug 2009, p.99]

At points they're both elegant and, dare we say it, beautiful, so if this is the emperor's new clothes then they're wonderfully cut. [Jul 2009, p.97]

The overall feeling, despite all the musical mix'n'matching is of a traditional record: a rootsy return, rather than a copy of a certain Canadian seven-piece art-rock racket. [Jul 2009, p.105]

There's a back-to-basics feel on the mid-tempo country rockers, the slow beauties and mournful lap steel, and even on the musically warm, more upbeat, almost Tex-Mex opening song. [Sep 2009, p.92]

It represents the singer's best work since the aforesaid "Urban Hang Suite." [Sep 2009, p.93]

The result, unfortunately, is one of the dreariest hours you will even spend listening to music. [Aug 2009, p.100]

Sparse backing, strings or a brimming organ interject occasionally, and enhance their combined voices on a brilliantly realised record. [Aug 2009, p.100]

As this crackles with youthful brio and subtlety, we can start speculating what this band may go on to achieve. [Aug 2009, p.98]

Oneida may well be evil geniuses in the midst of creating a classic, multi-album masterpiece. [Aug 2009, p.103]

Five albums in, his music finally sounds as threadbare as his chosen eulogy, dropping any evidence of the richer--if still ragged--arrangements that launched his deeply affecting six-track debut. [Jul 2009, p.107

Unfortunately, much of the rest veers from lightweight to teeth-grindingly irritating, suggesting a private joke that perhaps would have been best left in private. [Sep 2009, p.93]

There hasn't been quite enough time yet for them to construct much of a unique sonic indentity. [Aug 2009, p.94]

The full-tilt, punk-like intensity manifested on the band's first two long players is further honed and sharpened. [Aug 2009, p.109]

Wilco (The Album) is as consummate as anything its author has yet delivered. [Aug 2009, p.97]

Electric Dirt, as implied, is a continuation of "Dirt Farmer's" themes, packing a sharper jolt. [Jul 2009, p.94]

It's a doleful piece, with many trad Moby elements present. [Jul 2009, p.94]

Its choice of selections successfully reinvent the familiar and/or introduce the less well-known. [Jul 2009, p.104]

With standards so consistently high, picking further peaks is a tough call but the surging wah squel of 'Over It' and 'I Don't Wanna Go There's' stellar guitar squall also score way up at the top of the scale. [Jul 2009, p.105]

This is, however, their most mellow, reflective and tempered release yet. [Sep 2009, p.95]

This is an adventurous, joyful album from a major talent. [Aug 2009, p.98]

The quintet's first bona fide album in five years, perhaps acknowledges the baton passing, as does an absence of post-rock tropes. [Jul 2009, p.97]

He manages to retain every essential element of blues tradition, sounding as basic as Hooker, yet at the same time probes ever forward into areas previously unexplored. [Sep 2009, p.96]

Results vary, froma plodding, Kasbian-like 'Deeripper' to the charmingly labyrinthine 'Headdress,' which is so fresh it feels like the genuine article. [Jul 2009, p.96]