Bare bones it may be, but it's still recognizably David Gray. [Sept. 2010, p. 102]

Where 2008's 2 was frazzled and powerful, this one feels soporific, moderate, even a little slight. [Sep 2010 p.94]

The Final Frontier, its scratchy, clattering intro resembling The Mars Volta and signifying that this national institution's quest for adventure remains unabated. [Sept. 2010, p.98]

Despite a few bright spots--a Beach boys-style makeover of I Got Rhythm and a swooning I Loves You Porgy--the album falls short of either artist's legacy. [Sep 2010, p.93]

It might sound like a stunt, but results in a deeply felt and surprisingly enjoyable exploration of American Vernacular music. [Sep 2010, p.93]

Black City is the devil leering over Asa Breed's shoulder, a seedy, dirty place--but a fascinating one, too. [Sep 2010, p.99]

Surrounded by punchy horn and a rhythm section that knows its Duck Dunn and Al Jackson, Jr., this is one Paperboy who delivers. [Jun 2010, p.102]

On her fourth album, Melua does her damnedest to break out of her self-imposed schmaltz trap. [Jun 2010, p.94]

While initial listens don't suggest a classic like Kiko, one gets a feeling that this as a work that will reveal layers over time. [Sep 2010, p.104]

Truly devoted fans will certainly savour such standouts as the glistening, blissed-out "Ballad In Urgency" and feel-good bluegrass nugget "Downtown Money Waster," but less patient Crowe-watchers may find this a rather long, just occasionally indulgent goodbye. [Sep 2010, p.98]

On "It's A Party" and on the album's title track they just about manage to nail the right combination of Black Crowes-ish bluesy swagger and no-brainer air-punching party anthems. The fact that such a combination has been done to death--and more memorably, and many years ago--loses Buckcherry points. [Sep 2010, p.106]

This latest sheds much of the lo-fi fuzz and spur-of-the-moment sloppiness that characterises previous records, allowing the myriad hooks and melodies to stand out bolder, brighter and all the more pleasing. [Sep 2010, p.106]

For all its intimations of rootless drift, The Suburbs finds Arcade Fire back home, and so much happier for it. [Sep 20110, p.90]

Regardless of these felicitous connections, however, Hoop remains her own invention and the appeal of her biographical details doesn't lie so much in the glitzy endorsement of Waits as in the fact they chime so perfectly with her melding of Kat Bush sensuality and Mary Poppins whimsy. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

From the vogueish cat on their album cover to the deliberate non-production, Crazy For You comes wrapped in a hipster cloak, but Cosentino is no slacker. [Sep 2010, p.98]

Mines dips and twists spindly, telescopic guitar lines, taut coils of rhythm and controlled electronic pulses. [Oct. 2010, p. 100]

Ultimately, The Runaway suffers from an excess of emotional drizzle and not enough musical firestorms. [Jul 2010, p.102]

Thankfully it finds Richter exploring other directions. [Sep 2010, p.94]

Intriguer may be more route one than 1993's mighty, loose-limbed "Together Alone," but it is classic Crowded House, and greater for it. [Jul 2010, p.97]

Any band that can record something as impressive as the gently swelling Radiation deserves to be taken on their own merits. Even Elbow may have to doff their hats this time. [Sep 2010, p.106]

Returning to their electro roots might seem a surprising direction to take...but it works. [July 2010, p. 96]

At its best the record soars, but After The Meteor Showers' slight echo of Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" left your scribe cold. [Jul 200, p.97]

This is The Chemical Brothers at their crowd-pleasing, raucous best. [July 2010]

Less electronic than the albums he made under his King Biscuit Time and Black Affair aliases, it's Mason's best post-Beta Band work. [Jun 2010, p.98]

Treacherous lapses notwithstanding, there's enough vim and invention here to suggest that Foals may yet prove themselves champion thoroughbreds. [June 2010, p. 96]

On their latest LP, the group's influences -- the thrift store soul of early E Street Band, late period Clash, and the besotted rock of The Replacements -- are still worn on their sleeves. [July 2010]

Five years after the self released Robyn, she's teamed up with the Teddybears Klas Ahlund again but made a subtle shift away from the Top 40 to something more leftfield. [July 2010, p. 97]

Tom Petty's turned his attention to a resume of his life so far -- 15 crunching, clever, moving tracks that make his earlier point far better, indicting the rest by breezy example. [July 2010, p. 96]