Her voice is a bear hug in the literal sense; succumbing to it is like being carjacked by Patsy Cline.

When she depletes her stock of declarative phrases, Olsen has little to say about these mercurial emotional swings except that she's feeling them. Or unprepared to commit to them. Still, the good songs on Burn Your Fire for No Witness suggest Olsen is figuring out how to sound--how to resound, actually.

Invasion of Privacy is a cohesive piece of work that demands to be heard in full, from front to back, side to side, on the pole and on the stove.

The 10 tracks on Love Is Not Enough are more than just a physical workout: they’re cardio for the brain.

For the most part, they don’t disappoint.

His voice emerges from the din only occasionally, embodying the sound of ANIMA itself: half-man, half-machine, totally immersed in the beat.

Sparkle Hard is the kind of quirky and realized record made by an artist with nothing to prove.

The best-sounding Decemberists record to date. [Nov 2006, p.103]

Elizondo's zippy production effectively pushes Apple's tendency to plod. [Nov 2005, p.96]

The Breeders’ there/not there qualities are such that unacquainted listeners will imagine what the band sounds like and they’d be right. Expedient and necessary, All Nerve is what we need now, next week, in 2023.

Killing Time is no breakthrough, but it does pack actual hard-rock crunch, not just sure-shot emo punch.

WWW stretches Whack’s stylistic range, reintroducing an artist who seems more deeply in tune with her emotions.

Throughout, the musicians seem to be cooking in their own worlds, but their parts fortuitously interlock and tasty grooves frequently arise. There’s so much going on in How You Been, and it’s all interesting.

Gathered from scraps of the You Want It Darker sessions and cobbled together with contributions from Beck, Feist, Bryce Dessner of the National, and more, it’s a worthy postscript to Cohen’s farewell, another clear-eyed look at the inevitability of death.

A bruisingly great collection of demented 1988-style boom-bap. [May 2004, p.107]

Hynes impeccably orchestrates his jazzy art-funk, resulting in the best sounding music of his solo career.

With Don’t Forget Me, Rogers sounds fully confident abandoning the glossiness of her earliest work—she doesn’t need studio flourishes to bolster her transcendent songwriting.

Flashes of fun appear--dig the glam-Sabbath stomp of 'Inconvenience'--but most of Dark could use more color.

Of course, the main attraction remains his bristling, zigzag guitar licks, which still astound nearly 40 years on. [Jun 2007, p.96]

Though less dynamic in delivery, and less diverse in production, than prior releases, Vince Staples contains all the ingredients that make him such a unique talent.

[Franz Ferdinand's] Alex Kapranos... owes JK crooner Paul Haig a pint. [Dec 2006, p.103]

The real magic of Currents, though, is in how Parker so effectively (and genuinely, for the most part) manipulates the listener’s emotions without necessarily revealing any himself.

While writing some of the most accessible music of her career, she makes fun of the assignment a bit while completing it. The maturity of her songwriting voice on Rebound is staggering, and makes her enterprise feel like an emotionally embodied exercise as well as a technical, aesthetic one.

She continues that trend on Sling, where she explores musical terrain that’s completely new to her. Though Antonoff’s production sometimes feels like it’s holding Clairo back a bit too much, that doesn’t impede Clairo from writing excellent songs. Sling is further proof of that.

The real orchestration is in Beam's voice, a sigh so angelic it masks the religious turmoil within. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Kelela proudly stands within the genre’s tradition. For the most part, she avoids making any grandstanding romantic or political statements, but Take Me Apart finds its purpose within the subdued complexities.

Guest producers give Frank its greatest highlights. ... Though much of the album is well within Anakin’s comfort zone, it also sees him trying more melodic approaches.

[Death Cab] have never made the truly great album that their best songs promised. Until now. [Nov 2003, p.112]