Episodic is a steady, ten-track affair that doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it leaves on an anxious note.

Supergrass' Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey deliver 12 blasts of stylistic tinkering that never subsume the songs' original intent: to rock.

The North Carolina native's third album unveils deceptively sharp tales of hearts in distress, implying fierce emotions just under the surface. [Mar 2008, p.106]

It swaggers like prime Replacements, though with far better polish. [Jan 2008, p.103]

With a hot guest list (Ciara, T.I.), this is bound to bump the clubs, but beyond that, it's clown time.

The Thrills have matured into pretty crafty tunesmiths. [Nov 2007, p.125]

Once the annoying vocoder-rock of 'Tombstone' kicks in, you remember that alll dystopias start out with the best intentions. [June 2008, p.114]

To call some of these 26(!) word-and-riff bombs unfinished would be charitable; a few even seem unwanted.

Damn Right Rebel Proud, typically, raises less convincing hell than plenty of current mainstream Nashville product.

Instead of sounding like a half-baked aberration or a tedious, overlong experiment, Die Lit broadcasts a refreshing and well-developed aesthetic--one that feels like Carti’s specific achievement. Its appeal feels distinctly corporeal, like it’s inducing some swag-rap equivalent of ASMR through exploring a limited and tightly EQd collection of sounds.

Lewis' wordplay smartly unspools over the course of a song--with 'Breakin' Up,' she creates a 'Since U Been Gone' for grown-ups, and on '15,' narrates an Internet jailbait vignette without melodrama or moralizing. [Sep 2007, p.132]

The tropes in YG’s songs are West Coast traditional (women, realness, threats, repeat) but there’s a combination of veteran savvy and lane mastering that refreshes the more expected moments.

The Pale Emperor plods inoffensively from start to finish with moderate gloom and a similar level of hooks.

The ideal major-label debut for the age of modern-rock insecurity -- think Everclear minus the arrogance. [5/2001, p.141]

This is the work of noise nerds bent on finding beauty where others see nothing but a tangled mess. [Jul 2004, p.110]

If the studio stuff lacks punch, her live material pulls fresh meaning from her music's subtlety. [Feb 2002, p.110]

An L.A. album in all senses of the term -- pretty, temperate, and incredibly surface. [Aug 2001, p.138]

Nothing ventures beyond the tunefully middle-of-the-road, nor does any song manage the effortless historicity of good album rock. [Nov. 2000, p.206]

Shift[s] between singer/songwriter Rhett Miller's heartrending country and mojo-fueled power pop. [Sep 2004, p.120]

Brace the Wave doesn’t really crest above Barlow’s torrential output, it’s just another pre-frayed entry in a catalog of scratchy home recordings.

In the grand, elegiac 'Legacy,' singer Neil Tennant delivers what's either a farewell kiss or simply a cheeky end to the most thoroughly heartfelt chapter in the pair's 25-year story.

There's real drama in the band's sweeping crescendos and ringing guitar chords; there's something genuinely affecting in their newfound emo overtones.

The sharp riffs only occasionally add up to anything with a pulse, but the Pornos have always been bad mathematicians. Archaeology -- that's their subject.

This mysterious Swedish dream-pop band's music remains hazy--mucho echo, blurry harmonies, soft acoustic instrumentation buoyed by generous synth strings, and a bright white ambience suggesting both sunny Balearic beaches and blinding Scandinavian snowstorms. Yet its emotions are conversely vivid.

[BRMC] have never sounded more self-assured. [May 2007, p.84]

Paring down his tuneful new-wave pop to a bare-bones piano-bass-drum lineup might not been the best idea for Joe Jackson. [Feb 2008, p.94]

Never has she sounded freer than she does here, a self-styled villain biting the forbidden fruit of gossip and letting its juices run down her neck.

Whenever it seems that Islands are losing you, Arm’s Way coughs up a moment so beautiful it might make your heart swell and burst into a bloody, disgusting mess.