The Bros' songs mostly rollick on witrh the agreeably vaudevillian bonhomie of The Band, when not essaying gloom with swooningly lachrymose balladry. [June 2008, p.114]

A lush and trippy affair with shades of Edward Lear-like surrealism and John Winston Lennon amid strawberry Fields. [Mar 2008, p.103]

NuAmerykah is her boldest and best yet, brilliantly eccentric but repaying every indulgence. [May 2008, p.106]

Scally's armoury of drum boxes, Bontempi organs and electric guitars provides shape-shifting backgrounds--classic '60s pop arrangements filtered through the fuzzy prism of a dream. [Mar 2008, p.108]

Opener, the self-referncing 'Better Get to Livin'' is cheesy and disposable even by Nashville standards. The title track, also autobiographical, is better, but like several songs suffers from '80s-style over-production. [June 2008, p.115]

Here her wonderful voice, smooth and warm with throaty twang and unforced power, has free rein to do what it does best on 11 fine new songs. [May 2008, p.111]

A giddy chaos of fuzz-noise and thundering drums ensures these sclectic experiments still sound like no one else but The dirtbombs. [May 2008, p.114]

Despite its promising title, Lust Lust Lust is mighty forlorn. Or, optimistically, transitional. [Dec 2007, p.100]

Aficionados will welcome a renewed emphasis on Vudi's idiosyncratic string-bending, erecting iridescent frames around Eitzel's through-a-glass-darkly vignettes. [Feb 2008,p.105]

The polished arrangements of Heretic Pride do Darnielle's songwriting no favours. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Isolation doesn't get more splendid than this. [June 2008, p.100]

His gentle mantric vocals and concise, evocative lyrics drift through layers of treated instrumentation and ambient electronica. [Apr 2008, p.112]

Not every number here reaches its perfection, but 'twas ever thus with the works of Raymond Douglas Davies; warts and all, and even the warts are interesting. [Dec 2007, p.109]

The use of borowed items invites comparisons, not only with the originals but also with other versions of the same song. And there Moorer fails the test. [Apr 2008, p.102]

Those who liked the first two albums will be pleased to hear the Deep Purple-esque, brazenly '60s organ-rock sounds and indian religious refernces still firmly in place. [Sep 2007, p.104]

This is musical wheatgrass juice: wholesome, virtous, but ultimately fun-free. [Mar 2008, p.115]

Grand Archives are a modest outfit, never as anthemic as Bridwell's widescreen My Morning Jacket-lite, but with a celestial line in harmonies. [May 2008, p.114]

Here is a pop masterpiece so toe-tapping and huggable that we might just have to rearrange the canon. [Mar 2008, p.106]

As a snapshot of Friday night through Monday morning in 36 minutes flat, this is a joy. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Briitsh Sea Power's third album proves once again there's more to them than stuffed owls and a facination with odd geological landmarks. [Feb 2008, p.100]

They wear their ideas on their sleeves, certainly, but under all the layers, a heartbeat is sometimes hard to find. [Feb 2008, p.104]

That play of sonic summer and spiritual winter shades this. [Mar 2008, p.102]

Possessed of hazily catchy and irresistible choruses, the end result is an endearingly affectionate blend of radio-friendly AOR and homely indie-rock touches anchoring their grand pop to something human. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Deceptively simple, Watershed highlights what Lang does best--fulsome ballads sung with precision timing, intelligence and a humourous twist. [Jan 2008, p.100]

The new dad has ditched the gap-year spirituality to reach for a more adult world where poverty, war and uncertainty must be confronted, and it's a world beyond his expressive abilities. [Mar 2008, p.102]

There's substance to 'Long Sad Goodbye's accusing lament for his late father and Vietnam's denunciation of the Iraq war, but Kravitz generally limits himself to muscular yet uninspired multi-instrumental expertise and sloppy-thinking hippitude. [Mar 2008, p.114]

District Line is Mould's strongest song collection since Sugar's alt-rock paradigm, "Copper Blue." [Mar 2008, p.102]

Old Growth has the primeval, fuzzed-out power of the trio's earlier albums, but with a new clarity and groove. [Mar 2008, p.113]