[He] veers awkwardly into slickly arranged, radio-friendly verse-chorus-verse. [Sep 2005, p.109]

Idlewild are compelling when they put Woomble's sad-sack lyrics front and center, but on aggressively average rockers like "You Held The World In Your Arms" and "Century After Century," the band's turgid squall swamps his words. [Jun 2003, p.103]

Like your favorite dive bar, it feels uncomfortably familiar. [Feb 2006, p.87]

Everything is underwritten or overwrought. [Feb 2004, p.104]

A suite of faux-folkie electro that fuses the introspection of Ray of Light with Music's fast-food dance licks. [Jun 2003, p.99]

Amid the so-so modern rock is one of his most sublimely sincere songs, "(Shine Your) Light Love Hope." [Aug 2005, p.103]

80 minutes of dank, chopped-up percussion and blitzed hard-drive scree. [Apr 2004, p.94]

Sounds like the morning after, confused and calm all at once. [Jan 2005, p.100]

While nothing here feels as urgent or frenetic as his 2002 debut, Memoryhouse, selections such as “And Some Will Fall” and “Late and Soon” rank among the most beautiful in Richter’s catalog. However, In a Landscape doesn’t always work. Richter staggers a series of nine “Life Studies” throughout the 19 tracks—comprised in part of tape delays, reverb, and vocoder, these short ambient sections break the natural flow of beauty.

A hectic sonic pileup. [Dec 2003, p.130]

A relaxed, even graceful affair. [Dec 2003, p.123]

On the more stripped-down songs, though, Conley's keen intuition pokes through. [Jan 2004, p.102]

Funky like Fred Schneider and Barney Fife killin' it at karaoke. [Sep 2003, p.115]

With its surges and dips, Confessions mimics the rising/falling action of, say, a DJ set, a hit of Ecstasy, or Madonna's own career. [Dec 2005, p.106]

There are a few lulls in which the band seems to be capably but perfunctorily going through the motions. (Raspy cheerleader vocals; cheeky rhythms; chunky, anthemic guitars—we get it!) But they’re outnumbered by the more inspired stuff.

For all its sonic sizzle, Prodigy's fourth album feels frustrated. [Oct 2004, p.113]

Without much dissonance or funk in the mix, this falls just short of butter. [Mar 2004, p.96]

If only this Baltimore art-rap exhibitionist were as consistently funny as his album titles. [Jan 2004, p.100]

It's like being trapped in the dressing room at Express for an hour. [Apr 2006, p.91]

Producer Mick Jones does his best to juice up these almost-songs. [Jan 2006, p.91]

Behind all the ridonkulous disses and boasts, Missy sounds a bit unsure of herself. [Jul 2005, p.97]

He's great with the hook-meoldy algebra, not so hot on figuring out what to say beyond "Love, blah, blah, blah, la, la, la." [Apr 2005, p.108]

What's so brilliant about ['Taiga'] is how Yoshimi finds spiritual connections between unlikely genres. [Oct 2006, p.102]

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]

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]

Even when he's bumming, though, Walker still finds comfort in a good groove or a tart horn chart.

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]

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