More coherent, conceptual, and organic than their eponymous British Invasion-influenced debut. [Dec 2001, p.154]

The songs remain the same: clear-eyed musings on breakups-as-existential-crises. [Dec 2004, p.124]

For all the period-piece lethargy of "Warm Summer Sun" and 
"I Fall Asleep," though, they balance it out with the blistering "Space in Your Face" and "Honey Bear."

Baroque but not self-indulgent. [Jul 2006, p.83]

The results don't always play to the singer's melodic strengths; ?uestlove sounds a bit reined-in, too. Occasionally, though, they send up some serious sparks, as with a raw garage-funk take on Baby Huey's "Hard Times."

When I Never Learn aims for pop, it's the hazy Shangri-Las variety; the melodies are Li's lushest to date, but the smoke never clears around them.

Scuffed-up and brainy, Object 47 finds Wire still beguiling after all these years.

Instead of reaching that precipice and seeming to over-stretch for some sort of tipping point into the mainstream, he's forged his own world, on his own terms, and invited like-minded artists to flourish there as well.

Food is indeed "the real thing," a satisfying album grounded by familiar funk, rooted in classic soul sounds and focused on the everyday rituals of life: eating.

These pop dirges are comforting until they get preachy about sins and healing. [Jan 2005, p.91]

The spontaneous vibe seems fitting, with Darnielle's ordinary-guy vocals, embellished by Bruno's subtle guitars and keyboards, giving their observant tales of sexual misconduct ("How I Left the Ministry") and weary struggle ("Cruiserweights") the punch of vivid short stories.

Their excellent new Bless Off, which careens even more crank-ably--not to mention somewhat less grumpily--than 2011's also very good Primitive Blast.

Pink works best as a one-woman army.

Gratuitously avant saxophone squawking mars some of the disc's best moments, but Xiu Xiu's knack for grafting lush hooks onto noisy post-rock remains seductive.

An album that’s fundamentally modest, even as it stretches to be both looser and more technically ambitious.

This latest effort shift boils down to two key foci: bolder, less guarded lyrical choices (much of the record deals with Paternoster's ongoing battle with chronic mono) and more strategic space for the frontwoman's legendary guitar solos.

Even by Hyperdub’s standards--a 20-year lineage of beats birthed and incubated in London’s most soot-smeared corners (grime, dubstep) and Chicago’s windwept streets (footwork)--this is not a light record.

The Florida band is now content to catch Pixies-ish waves of gentler mutilation and ride them 
to college-rock bliss.

He falls into mawkishness far too often. [Jun 2007, p.93]

He can disavow his youthful rage all day, but Gabel is at his best when he's feisty.

The shotgun rhythms, spaghetti western guitars, and dubstep explosions intertwine with lover's rock, roots reggae, and other island styles to impressively evoke the pair’s genre-splicing DJ sets.

From the stark black-and-white artwork to the sounds within, Panda Bear's fourth album scales back, proffering succinctness rather than sprawl, exchanging samplers for sequencers, in favor of added warmth and intimacy.

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]

Graves' earnest lyrics are purposely mixed far beneath the caustic instrumentals here, but when a few words do surface, we're treated to thoughtful (if only partial) confessions.

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

A record that's at once stark and lush... Mojave 3 makes sadsack rock of the first order, flying over the lives of the hopeless in such a way as to make their failures cinematic, their pains panoramic.

Fortunately, the old pros gel well often enough to keep things rolling -- with some help. [Jan 2002, p.107]

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