It's the album's studied organic liveness that resonates the longest. [Mar 2002, p.137]

[It] threads seductive, chiming melodies through robotic, New Order-style rhythms. [May 2007, p.90]

Charles Thompson has fittingly made an album that sounds more like the Pixies than any of his previous solo efforts. [Oct 2007, p.96]

The album's first half is suffused with a longing that flits between hopeful and resigned, unsure which is the worse fate. At other times, she sounds a little exasperated--mournful even--but throughout, her elegant arrangements remain taut and full of energy.

Herren has the good collaborative instincts of Handsome Boy Modeling School, but none of their seedy, crowd-pleasing shtick. [Apr 2005, p.108]

Her tender songcraft grows stronger.

The Hazards of Love feels like a gambit, with the Decemberists betting that increased bombast and literary aspiration will make up for decreased attention to pop craft. It's a hazardous bet that yields spectacular sparks but ultimately asks for much more than it's willing to give.

The Fall has been billed as Norah Jones' rock album. In fact, it's something even more surprising: a hot-blooded soul record from the queen of the even keel.

Indistinct lyrics and plodding dynamics confine most of the songs to "just okay" status, but a few arresting tracks seem destined for a yet-to-be-built rock Valhalla.

Though Day by Day doesn't include any tracks as memorable as 1999's 'Beng Beng Beng,' Kuti still shines.

Though Kweli can't change his voice he was born with, he needs to figure out how to make it as compelling as his material. [Sep 2007, p.133]

Credit producer Butch Vig, too, who brings the trio closer to sonic Nirvana by coaxing out their snarls and then compressing and polishing them to maximum shininess.

Among those still cranking out shambolic odes to the suburban bored, these reformed shitgazers rule.

Her 1976 debut (reissued plus one new song free for download) is brief and unpretentious, a soprano celebrating heaven on earth over harp and piano.

This Gift flags halfway through when an odd excursion into retro-'60s twaddle gums up the works. [Feb 2008, p.97]

Build a Nation roars and throbs with vintage fire. [Jul 2007, p.92]

He, like the Beta Band, deftly creates a patchwork of Britain's mushiest styles, from Rubber Soul-era Beatles to Badly Drawn Boy's acoustic wanderings. [Sep 2006, p.108]

Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery splits the difference between the former's loose eclectic twang and the latter's tight psych-country on his solo debut.

There are light nods to the times—single “Love So Soft” lightly updates Thankful’s Christina Aguilera-penned “Miss Independent” and Breakaway’s “Walk Away” with a half-time chorus, and tracks like “Didn’t I” and “Heat” recalls Adele’s collaborations with Max Martin. But the rest is stubbornly old-fashioned: sloughing off the flakiness of the millennial male while extolling the virtues of taking it slow and pushing for commitment.

When pop structure interrupts the soundtrack-y vibe, it's modestly and briefly too much of singer Sian Ahern's sad, smok voice would lessen the mystery. [Apr 2008, p.102]

Dear infuses the snapping, beeping compositions of his second album with a sincere yearn, broadening the genre in the process. [Jul 2007, p.96]

What Tapes lacks in classic names, it makes up for in flow.

No longer the self-obsessed antihero, Slug continues his shift to serious storyteller, but the narratives here lack coherence and detail, while the music - ominous piano, lonely guitar - feels sketchy, like partial demos.

Blööz, blahs and mad-stonerpunk.

The dusty, reverent feel of even the album's wildest rockers gives the sense that he's just a lone wanderer battling solitude with sound.

He's already sophisticated enough to paste lines about real heartbreak onto chunky, melodic beats ("True Story"), then turn around and be an equally passionate goofball ("Getting Dumb"). Leaning toward the latter could make him a star outside the backpack circuit.

More than anything, I and Love and You proves how miscast the Brothers were as folkies, because their ambitions are so much larger.