Though we may never fully understand BUB’s highly advanced Space Speak comprised of rumbling mix of squeaks, chirps, and squrggles, listening to the ebullient Science & Magic would indicate BUB’s newfound ability to sneak out from under the proverbial bed and bask in a ray of sun.

The result is her finest record since "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," the decade-old masterpiece by which her career will always be judged.

The best songs bear the mark of an auteur weirding out, by himself.

Costas coos anachronistically whimsical and hallucinatory lyrics as if she were the ghost of an ill-fated fairy-tale heroine, and the haunted results suggest the greatest psych-folk obscurity you'll never afford on eBay.

He can't really pull off Dylan-ish literariness, but when he's loose, he more than earns his corduroy vest and Kris Kristofferson beard.

Devonté Hynes pens an indie-rock passion play that picks up the tempo and spotlights his thespian skills

His songwriting is sharper than you might expect. [Dec 2002, p.141]

Loney Dear's gauzy pop can be entrancing, but it's also incredibly easy to tune out: Let your mind wander, and the Swedish act's latest goes full blur.

The secret weapon on their second album is an unironic embrace of the elegant, harmony-rich hooks and wide-eyed lyrics of rock forebears the Righteous Brothers, which gives the Orralls' blistering tunes their own earnest, romantic edge.

The layered results are mesmeric, giving their introverted noise a new, laserlike intensity. [Nov 2007, p.114[

Hooks are typically meant to stick, and after the infectious opening tracks, very little of Barter 6 does.

It is a bit Sabbath-by-numbers, but given the weight of history (it's their first studio album together in 35 years), you can see why they would kind of back into the thing.

As a lyricist, Fallon has moved beyond bald cliché to bland commonplace.

It's fevered outbursts like 'Lookout' and 'Grey Skies,' where Dex unleashes his slightly sloshed voice and surfabilly guitar, that have real soul-saving potential

The quartet's stubborn refusal to evolve yields genuine thrills on their typically irascible 13th album.

While Purple Reign is not a masterpiece, it is a thoughtful, if slight adjustment on the lens of where Future stands, at a crucial moment in his career.

Campaign--a mixtape in name that feels not quite like a mixtape but not exactly like an album, either--is at its best when it carries on that tradition of richness of sound as a virtue in and of itself.

Maintaining Rhye’s style while enlivening it with non-synthesized instruments is the only real statement the album chooses to deliver--Blood is too gentle to telegraph much of anything concrete. Milosh’s lyrics are vague mattresses of assonance on which he lays down impressions of emotion.

After the Disco is the rare, superior sequel--think Toy Story 2--to Mercer and Burton's seemingly one-off self-titled 2010 debut as Broken Bells.

However much she slurs her lines on this fine fourth album, the shabby rockers and frayed ballads cut deep. [Nov 2008, p.93]

The new Fishing Blues feels so rote you’ll have to play the old records to remember that it’s not the Atmosphere norm.

The White Album not only matches the sounds and feelings of Buzz Bin-era Weezer, but also the craft.

This Montreal band's second full-length expands the abrasive post-hardcore and tender, tuneful poles of 2007's Some Are Lakes with help from members of Arcade Fire, Stars, and Besnard Lakes.

The record works best at its most focused and extroverted.

These new songs gleam with nouveau riche sparkle. [Oct 2006, p.96]

The resulting album blurs the lines between simple and sophisticated more effectively than Phoenix ever have before.

When he sticks to cheeky storytelling, the album gains grimy traction, but empty dirges like 'Pacemaker' send it drifting into novelty territory. [Oct 2007, p.112]

It's a lovely place that Soft Will fashions here, but it sounds hesitant about pulling you in, perhaps because its creators are secretly concerned that you'll realize you aren't really going anywhere.