Revivalist? Sure, but this refreshing, smarter side of the late '80s has yet to be co-opted into a hipster fashion show.

The follow-up proves Tunstall is no fluke.... but it also maks clear that Tunstall's glaring faults--dull lyrics filled with pedestrian phrases--aren't fleeting, either. [Oct 2007, p.112]

The Meanest Of Times moves beyond connecting the dots between working-class punk and ancient Celtic ditties, with surprisingly thoughful songs that explore lives shaped by drunken violence and Catholicism. [Oct 2007, p.100]

He doesn't stray far from his main band's template. [Oct 2007, p.108]

Despite numerous cameos from his mates, Drew still sounds orphaned and adrift. [Oct 2007, p.96]

This Oakland quartet teams with Yo Ma Tengo producer Roger Moutenot to create a make-or-break manifesto that often trumps indie rock's big-leaguers. [Oct 2007, p.110]

The result may be the year's heaviest, creepiest, and sexiest hard-rock group effort. [Oct 2007, p.104]

The Donnas have never seemed less enthused; none of the 14 tracks contains a melody as catchy or a beat as pumping as those on "Spend the Night" or "Gold Medal." [Oct 2007, p.99]

Vedder's incantatory vocals and campfire instrumentation evoke the eerie beauty of untouched lands. [Nov 2007, p.126]

Let's Stay Friends almost captures the band's sweaty, live weirdness on record, and it leaves enough breathing room for their wicked smarts to shimmy up through the hip-shaking indie punk. [Oct 2007, p.106]

The Bay Area band increase their stylistic range, with flashes of psychedelia, and creatively druggy overtones to balnce out the epic pummeling. [Oct 2007, p.104]

Motion City have deftly filled that space between emotional adolescence and responsible adulthood with this set of near-perfect pop. [Oct 2007, p.112]

While there's nothing here as dense and biting as the Ministry slams of Bush Sr. in the '90s, Jourgensen can still pile on the jackhammer beats and clever samples.

Occasionally, Lee's wit triumphs over his predictability. [Oct 2007, p.106]

The sweetness of Strawberry Jam is savvily balanced by the sour, or at least the edgy. [Oct 2007, p.98]

West's third album is memerizing and alienating, like all the purest forms of pop culture. [Nov 2007, p.114]

Live instruments have replaced the samples that fueled their debut, resulting in a more fluid, if still absurdly amateurish, sound. [Oct 2007, p.104]

On Happiness Ltd., they admirably mess with success, loading up their spastic, skinny-tie ditties with epic heft. [Oct 2007, p.104]

Charles Thompson has fittingly made an album that sounds more like the Pixies than any of his previous solo efforts. [Oct 2007, p.96]

Patrick Sullivan and company hint at broader possibilities on their fourth album, verging on a nasty ZZ Top-like boogie in 'No Dreams," and tiptoeing into funk on the crunchy rocker 'Alive Among Thieves.' [Oct 2007, p.108]

This London group's second studio album is pleasant but rather uneventful. [Sep 2007, p.129]

It just might be a masterpiece all over again. [Nov 2007, p.118]

Wiley only occassionally departs from the script. [Oct 2007, p.112]

The duo's effortless ability to plunder electronic genres without losing their identity makes Attack consistently fresh. [Oct 2007, p.111]

His lonesome drawl may sound arresting when it's 3 a.m. and you're stumbling home from the bar, but maudlin tunes like 'You Don't Feel Like Home to Me' and 'Some Tragedy' need more than quietly strummed minor chords to sell their hard-luck laments. [Oct 2007, p.104]

Qui's huffing skree just doesn't have the immediacy of the Lizard's Zep thud. But Yow's ragged bellow has aged nicely into a wheezing croon. [Oct 2007, p.108]

Too many perfectly good songs that never quite approach greatness. [Oct 2007, p.108]

Frontman Adam Olenius lobs his bon mots over tunes that borrow from Beck, the Velvet Underground, Bright Eyes, and the Cure. But when Olenius waxes roantic and serves up yet another ace, it's hard to complain. [Oct 2007, p.110]

It's gleefully cheeky, but a little safe. [Oct 2007, p.96]

While his unapologetically Dylan-esque vocals grate on weaker tunes, gems like the softly rollicking 'Time is a Lion' allow Henry to step out with a quiet roar. [Oct 2007, p.104]

On his 11th album, this musician's musician once again finds a coterie of like minds--Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor--to help turn chronic disquiet into disturbingly palpable dread-folk.

This is no slavish style bite by Euro pretenders; it's a delectable refiguring.

Though his global messages aren't particularly deep, his skilled, spirited execution sets him apart from other peacenik troubadours. [Oct 2007, p.101]

'Houseclouds' is dance pop of hit-worthy catchiness and the taut, pounding 'Freak Out' puts to shame most contemporary psych outfits. [Sep 2007, p.133]

[Aesop Rock's voice] Paired with the Long Island rapper's abstract, self-aware lyrics, it makes None Shall Pass a challenging, rewarding head trip. [Sep 2007, p.122]

Bring on the Comets is ultimately a bland regression. [Sep 2007, p.138]99

He finally gives his dark, dense instrumentals room to breathe on his fifth album. [Sep 2007, p.136]

Some halfhearted rhymes linger, but contagiously energetic political jams such as 'Cold War' make it easy to forget that it's been three years since anyone heard of Le Tigre. [Sep 2007, p.136]

Lifeline is a commanding, unjammy take on gospel-influenced rock, featuring his most spiritual singing since 2004's Grammy-winning collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Akron/Family provide consistent backing, but it's Gira's array of violins, "krautabilly" electric guitar, accordion, and choral vocals that turn the tunes inside out.

When he sticks to cheeky storytelling, the album gains grimy traction, but empty dirges like 'Pacemaker' send it drifting into novelty territory. [Oct 2007, p.112]

The band offers their richest, most eclectic accompaniment yet. [Sep 2007, p.122]

M.I.A.'s border-crossing dance pop is a revolutionary manifesto set to the victory-party vibe of the future. [Sep 2007, p.127]

The melodic sense of Newman and cowriter Dan Bejar keep things from stalling out. [Sep. 2007, p.136]

Lewis' wordplay smartly unspools over the course of a song--with 'Breakin' Up,' she creates a 'Since U Been Gone' for grown-ups, and on '15,' narrates an Internet jailbait vignette without melodrama or moralizing. [Sep 2007, p.132]

Snaith now claims he's taking time to composae songs, rather than winging it out in the studio, and these sticky-pop confections are the result, full of lithe vocals, swooping keyboards, distant drums, and assorted benign flashbacks. [Sep 2007, p.124]

Though Kweli can't change his voice he was born with, he needs to figure out how to make it as compelling as his material. [Sep 2007, p.133]

On this foursome's fourth collection of infectious indie pop, they downplay the sly smirking of the past. [Sep 2007, p.132]

Bassist Ariana Murray steps up to provide sonic stability. [Sep 2007, p.129]

Galactic complement these inspired contributions [from guest rappers] with chunky wah-wah guitars, chugging rhythms, and beats so tightly action-packed that they could be the soundtrack to a sleek Hollywoood crime frolic. [Sep 2007, p.129]

For a band named after a benchmark of mediocrity, it's fitting that they bow out consumed by matters so ordinary. [Sep 2007, p.134]

Muttering Jon Langford, golden-toned Sally Timms, and the rest of this sweaty eight-strong mob are at their red-eyed best here. [Sep 2007, p.134]

The band's latest is sublimely elegant and more maturely conceived.

The Danish duo condense pop's last 45 years into the pure, simple essence of an early Jackson 5 single. [Sep 2007, p.132]

The vintage makeover suits them well. [Oct 2007, p.100]

Singer/songwriter Will Sheff gives overkill a good name on Okkervil River's fourth album. [Sep 2007, p.136]

In small doses these acoustic dirges and country-rock laments--played at tempos that make Crazy Horse sound like Slayer--pass by indistinctly, but over time, the slow-blooming guitar solos and age-old folkie melodies of tracks like 'Bowery' and 'Trouble in Mind' reveal their sturdy, dignified strengths.

The result is seductive and understated, with familiar '60s touches. [Nov 2007, p.116]

Forever is livelier, grittier and better [than "Be."] [Aug 2007, p.101]

Even with precisely triggered drums and sensuously distorted bass lines, the band seems stuck in place. [Sep 2007, p.138]

McKeown's Marc Bolan-influenced rhymes and party-time shouts are always wryly slapdash, but the weaving bass line and expansive structure of 'Situation' indicate that 1990s still retain some of the members' arty ambitions.

War Stories feels more like a random compilation than a fresh exploration. [Aug 2007, p. 110]

Planet Earth is a consistent, exhilarating winner from our reigning genius. [Sep 2007, p.121]

The result is a bigger, slicker record laced with potent "American Idiot"-style Bush-bashing, a handful of emo-heavy relationship ballads, and very few surprises. [Sep 2007, p.138]

Thw Quin twins' new-wave pop hooks are stroonger than ever. [Aug 2007, p.109]

The Broken String pares down the track list and polishes the best of the EPs. [Sep 2007, p.123]

That tight, compressed punch [of staccato guitar rhythms] is augmented by subtle orchestrations whose airy ambience hints at the chameleon funk of David Bowie and the dance minimalism of early B-52's. [Aug 2007, p.106]

Emerald City may be his most unsettling work yet. [Aug 2007, p. 110]

The real story of this breathtaking follow-up... is Romeo Stodart's transformation from merely a good songwritier to an outstanding one. [Feb 2007, p.85]

Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons continue to smear psychedelic synth cheese and stereophonic airplane noises over chewy grooves that veer closer and closer to straight disco.

They return to the infectious anthems that made them Warped Tour headliners. [Aug 2007, p.110]

Editors have acquired a sense of urgency and emotion they lacked on "The Back Room." [Aug 2007, p.98]

Men's Needs isn't nearly as unique as Jarman thinks, but his tunecraft is often as sharp as his wit. [Aug 2007, p.100]

While the lyrics to 'On the Rise' never explicitly address the se-duction of addiction, the pretty drone that cuts through the jangly melody nails it exactly. [Aug 2007, p.104]

In the end, this is a loud, almost triumphant statement .

Admire feels oddly reined in, a transitional record by a band not yet willing to completely let go of the past.

The tug-of-war between bristly unavailability and candid confession mirrors a musical duet between post-punk snarls and genial pop charms. There's no resolution, but the struggle is endlessly compelling.

Time on Earth is an assured, soothing collection of sweet-tempered pop tunes ("Even a Child"), and ballads ("Pour Le Monde").

The album is their most straightforward yet. Fortunately it's not short on the witty lyrics and solid songwriting that always kept them from being a novelty act. [Aug 2007, p. 109]

Gracefully melancholic electronica with too much soul to be relegated to sushi-restaurant background music. [Aug 2007, p.106]

Given time, Isbell could be roots rock's Flannery O'Connor. [Aug 2007, p.102]

Simply enjoy the band's increasingly deep groove, its rich crosscutting of violin and accordion melodies and its mastery of both Gypsycore trash and lilting Euro-reggae. [Aug 2007, p.106]

Vig both sweetens and strengthens Against Me!'s attack without sacrificing the band's innate Raggedy Andy appeal.

The tagets haven't changed much, and Bad Religion still hits them hard. [Aug 2007, p.98]

Libertad does improve slightly on the mostly hookless choogling of the band's 2004 debut, "Contraband," with songs that are punchier and a bit more memorable.

By Act III, T.I. faces down T.I.P. in the mirror during a bizarre skit, yelling, "Why can't you just talk about what's wrong with you? Why can't you just let everything out?" The same could be said for the ambitious but uneven T.I. vs. T.I.P.

Easy Tiger plays like a tightly focused best-of compilation from Adams' past six or seven efforts. [Jul 2007, p.96]

It's slight and, even at its liveliest, inconsequential. [Jul 2007, p.92]

Build a Nation roars and throbs with vintage fire. [Jul 2007, p.92]

A soul-drenched, horn-inflected labor of lust. [Jul 2007, p.100]

The second record falters with a clunky combo of Celtic rock and leaden hip-hop rhythms that squashes the fragile, hook-free tunes. [Jul 2007, p.100]

She cements her place as the pop figurehead for the overlooked and underappreciated teenage girl in all of us. [Jul 2007, p.94]

Ferry embraces these Dylan classics... with undiluted sincerity, gently remodeling the barbed lyrics into graceful modern art. [Jul 2007, p.96]

Seldom do aural hallucinations feel this triumphant--or this real. [Jul 2007, p.92]

The Fragile Army trades the cluttered arrangements... of their first two albums for tightly focused orchestral pop with big Technicolor hooks. [Jul 2007, p.102]

A noisy, cranky piece of work. [Jul 2007, p.91]

[It] focuses on Rolex-precise riffs to offset a battery of beats, rattles, and ringing bells. [Jul 2007, p.96]

Lush, slo-mo, and mildly psychedelic. [Jul 2007, p.102]