For simian disco, electro-pop remixes by DFA and Hot Chip stand out amid Disc 2's uneven DJ fodder. [Jan 2008, p.98]

Now 22, she's full-on pissy and proud, pulling from some reliable forebears on this fascinating follow-up.

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

Lorde’s least vital project by several leagues. There’s just very little magic here. The album lilts and meanders across 12 tracks, wholly avoiding the incendiary electronic percussion of past releases. ... Fewer drum machines would be fine if the tunes were particularly engaging, but the album’s general sense of self-satisfaction all but screams no pressure, friends, check this out when you get around to it. The lax style is no accident, of course. Lorde is a deft songwriter.

Songs like "Fast Cars"... are gregarious, just like the beats, which are playful where Bazooka was ponderous. [Mar 2005, p.85]

NY's Finest has everything you'd expect from this legendary producer. [Mar 2008, p.108]

In dialing down the pomp of Belong and the fuzz of their debut, the Pains discover something that transcends mere buzz: an ageless indie pop sound that could last them for years to come.

Much like Bon Iver's output, Range of Light delivers a set of songs with a fixed sense of place and a nostalgic sense of time.

His neoclassical melodies feel warm and full of blood, his keyboards weep where others bleep, and he puts so much skillful passion into female vocal showcasing that the tracks on his solo debut are consumed by a yearning for companionship that's only shaken momentarily.

Trading obscure metaphors for assertive personae, Amos sings with a remarkably forceful focus. [Jun 2007, p.92]

It's easy to miss the bright counterweight that has kept his old-soul melancholy afloat in the past. [Sep 2006, p.100]

They still make totally successful, totally stupid modern rock anthems pumped up on three-chord riffs, an abiding love of the sci-fi sex-kitten archetype and a separate track for handclaps.

Only a snob could hate these 11 songs, which wear their bright, adrenalized grooves, lucid melodies, and arena-ready choruses the way the Hi-Fi boys wear their vintage Poison T-shirts: proudly and without a shred of irony. [Mar 2003, p.119]

Beneath the glitzy production, the songwriting lacks luster--catchier tunes like 'Daniel' and 'Dem Girls' offer jaunty bouts of melodicism, but the vast majority of this elegant Brit jangle feels a bit recycled.

Stripped of cheap but effective lo-fi tricks, Mysterious Phonk is meandering and moronic.

Changing Horses' Americana journey is hardly inventive, but Kweller's boyish charm and quirky songwriting keep it more promising than predictable.

Mostly, though, they demonstrate that pop trumps piety.

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

Unshackled again from the need to craft radio-­ready riffs, the guitarist unfurls long­-winded but beguiling keepers.

Drift[s] off into heavily EQ'ed cymbals and pastel-gray synth-string washes. [Jun 2005, p.108]

It's a drag that so many of Mirage Rock's most transcendent moments--the stuff suggesting real maturity--are so quickly undone by such nonsensical toss-offs.

Unlike... Worlds Apart, So Divided is built less on brute force and more on hyperdetailed songwriting. [Dec 2006, p.101]

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

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

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

A cleverly plotted head trip disguised as a ramshackle mess, the debut full-length from this psychedelic Oakland quartet turns brain-scrambling confusion into a fine art.

We Are Born accentuates Sia's goofy party-girl side: Produced by Lily Allen's mate Greg Kurstin, it's full of up-tempo electro-pop jams that sound like Amy Winehouse covering Toni Basil's Mickey.

Amazing Grace is at peak moments an amazingly graceful representation of MC5/Stooges skid marks on a psychedelic superhighway. [Oct 2003, p.112]