Overreaches. [Jul 2006, p.88]

You'll find [it] either icky or inspirational. [Jul 2006, p.83]

There are interesting moments... but too often they're smothered in a formless buzz of guitar, samples, voilin, harmonica--you name it. [Jul 2006, p.87]

One of [the year's] most heartfelt albums. [Jun 2006, p.80]

Her insights plumb poetic shallows. [Jun 2006, p.81]

Instead of the poppy makeover many anticipated, the Mobb's seventh album is a curious blend of gunz-money anthems, G-Unit-ized sex romps, and visions of the great beyond.

They seem to be having fun. [Jun 2006, p.79]

Essentially a synthesis of the various phases of the band's career. [Jul 2006, p.85]

With his knack for extracting humor from the mundane, Skinner’s the perfect poet for this snooze of a topic.

[Springsteen's] loosest, most vigorous album in two decades. [Jun 2006, p.84]

The combination of titanic chunk-chunk riffs, sleek lead guitar, and radio-ready harmonizing comes across as heroic. [Jun 2006, p.82]

Recall[s] his greatest '90s-electronica work. [May 2006, p.91]

They burden their appealing, childlike take on Brechtian cabaret's cold raunch with so much lush production... that it's as though Palmer is being drowned by a gallon jug of overpriced perfume. [Jun 2006, p.79]

Musically, A Blessing and a Curse is the Truckers' least complicated album. [May 2006, p.93]

Brilliantly unhinged rock spiked with R&B and power pop. [Jun 2006, p.80]

Sure, emo bands cry over their myriad problems all the time, many of which are delivered either as mopey confessionals or with Gerard Way-ian gothenticity, but rarely are they so post-apocalyptic.

Few bands this side of Wilco float along so easily on little more than diagonally rendered elegiac noises and severe anxiety disorder. [Mar 2006, p.95]

You in Reverse... rejects the pithy pop of their 1999 breakthrough, Keep It Like a Secret, for spacey, stretchy tracks that emphasize their unique, virtuosic musicianship.

Calexico have abandoned much of the jazzy, mariachi-infused Americana pulses that characterized their former sound.

Feels like rock that Beavis would play if Homme were his pal.

Uneven but fascinating. [May 2006, p.92]

The static beats of... Scott Storch and Trackmasters do little to freshen up his sound. [Jun 2006, p.78]

Unlike many rockers who cherish childlike ideals only to fall prey to amateurism or whimsy, Ze is aware that kids are both complex in their inventions and earnest in their intentions. [May 2006, p.93]

Both jarring and hypnotic. [May 2006, p.91]

Sometimes [his] acoustic finger-plucking moves past half-angst into something boozier, but his solo debut is boxed wine at best. [May 2006, p.91]

At War is gnarlier and a bit less tuneful than the group's previous two CDs. But the arrangements, and Dave Fridmann's signature blend of clarity and overmodulation, remain intricately weird. [Apr 2006, p.89]

[A] potentially polarizing mash note.

Rocks with a woozy pothead-punk swagger. [May 2006, p.91]