A better record than Come Away--less piano bar, more honkey-tonk. [Apr 2004, p.93]

[He] still knows how to make palpitating street anthems. [May 2006, p.91]

From the blocky organ chunks that lead “I’m Angry” to the fuzzed-out almost-boogie of “Shark-Shark,” the diversity of POPtical Illusion teases its way out after subsequent listens.

Unerringly lovely, but best when the drums heat up. [Feb 2006, p.87]

It's a testament to both Cee-Lo's vision and the producers' artistic sympathy that the collaborations maintain a coherent, vintage R&B vibe. [Mar 2004, p.91]

He’s not shaking those defining qualities on Light Verse. Instead, that distinctive voice is a foundation for towering songs, an album that grows and blooms with epic crescendos (“Yellow Jacket”), slow-burn earworm hooks (“Anyone’s Game”), and tongue-in-cheek, Shakespearean clown wisdom (“Nobody’s perfect or as dumb as their luck”).

Imagine Joni Mitchell if she'd made Miles after Mingus. [Feb 2005, p.92]

The swollen, baroque-pop arrangements... may ruffle the band's more delicate followers. But the songs are always smart, and it's the music-librarian's humor that helps keep things from slipping into the maudlin. [Nov 2003, p.109]

More prosaic and profane than many of his labelmates. [May 2004, p.108]

As a current-events commentator, Gray's got better beats than The New York Times and funnier lyrics than Fox News.

Though [Meloy] rarely cracks a smile, he finds creativity in defeat. [Apr 2005, p.101]

It's a techno album, straight up. [Aug 2005, p.98]

On Frog Boiling in Water, DIIV have once again shrewdly adapted, pivoting away from the chonky riffs of Deceiver and delivering the most tense, subtle, and cerebral music of their whole career.

Fang's edge is a bit more mosh-by-numbers than Hole's. [Dec 2003, p.129]

The bleaty rhythms and abrasive guitars start to pile up willy-nilly, and some of the more techno sections sound like kids going bazonkers in a toy store. [Oct 2004, p.109]

Both these records chronicle the physical and mental graffiti of figuring out how to emerge from some very large shadows, including his own, with nerve and power. [Jul 2005, p.96]

As dark and sweet as baking chocolate and as ambitious as the Mars rover. [Apr 2004, p.94]

At its best, Big Ideas jostles with brilliant songcraft that signifies her rapid growth as an artist—if the essential aesthetic is little changed, the execution is often warmer, more mature and expansive.

[Vocalist Beth Ditto's] temper-tantrum vocals turn tired indie-rock poses into two-minute biblical epics. [Jun 2003, p.105]

[Eitzel's] best album of closing-time kvetch since 1993's Mercury. [Dec 2004, p.124]

Twisted, quirky pop gems. [Feb 2006, p.86]

He's got an excellent ear, a savvy way with hooks, and an untrained voice that knows its limitations. [Mar 2005, p.88]

Gruff stuff... A few rockers lighten the load, but not by much. [Sep 2004, p.120]

Supercharged, furious, hopeful. [Jun 2004, p.107]

As ornate and bloated as West's ego. [Sep 2005, p.99]

They add enough kinks to the old herky-jerk formulae to make their half-hour in the sun blaze by like nobody's business. [Dec 2004, p.124]

This completely non-shitty '70s-Nashville country record reminds you why Adams was once a big deal. [Nov 2005, p.101]

She doubles the weird factor. [Feb 2004, p.104]