Like Urge Overkill or The Velvet Monkeys at their grossest, Trans Am's genre exercises don't stand up to close scrutiny, but as a dim soundtrack to your next beer bust, you might want to bring it on. [#220, p.66]

Given the sprawling length, naturally it's not devoid of a few stray gems and curiosities. [Oct 2011, p.60]

It all sounds very loose and off the cuff, but any positive sense of spontaneity is sabotaged by a delivery so careless it borders on the sloppy. [#229, p.68]

Aside from the odd flurry of inconsequential Afrobeat-inflected guitar, the style of Someday World is middlebrow session fare. [May 2014, p.61]

Some of street rap's brightest new talents appear--Chief Keef, Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan--and wear their Gucci Mane influence proudly, each in their own distinctively warped ways and yet all brimming with exactly the joy that their progenitor has generally lost to age. [Jul 2013, p.68]

They stick to their strengths--menacing songs about breaking peoples noses and such. [Jan 2012, p.70]

Hebden is clearly striving for dancefloor impact--but Reid's drumming is so untethered and, frankly, messy, that it sucks the explosions out of whatever bombs Hebden's trying to drop. [Dec 2008, p.60]

Those who lost interest after Tha Carter III may want to start paying attention again. [Sep 2015, p.57]

He's frozen in time, still rapping in an emaciated wheeze and overemphasizing his emotionless and cringe-inducing wordplay. [Aug 2011, p.69]

It's a rich mix, and though parts of this album consists of pumped-up club anthems, plus the notorious, raw, 'Club Action,' from thier debut "Yo EP," there is enough grit in the polish to keep it interesting. [Oct 2008, p.66]

As a prank or a statement, Expekoration is a particularly lazy one. [Dec 2010, p.50]

They play out as fascinating (and funny) monologues in themselves. [Nov 2012, p.62]

The whole thing seems to aim for slightness (of the disc’s 20 tracks, only seven are over two minutes long), but many of these sketches have the gorgeous, pastoral-futurist texture of Boards Of Canada or The Focus Group. [Oct 2017, p.53]

Most of the songs here work in pairs, or groups of three, as if Elfman couldn’t decide where to finish an idea and instead offers a few variations on a theme, diluting the punch of each individual track. ... The best tracks here are the ones where Elfman acknowledges his own limits and fears, without hedging or flippancy. [Jul 2021, p.59]

As inspired as it is, The Return Of Dr Octagon is no sequel. [#269, p.44]

Because of the time lapses involved in recording the material, the album sounds uneven and sometimes stale, sadly lacking the Misfits punk rock kick that he managed to reboot into early Danzig offerings with producer Rick Rubin. Of note, however, is the closing “Pull The Sun”, a majestic hovering ballad where Danzig drops the Jimbo stance to elevate his group and his more subdued vocal to a higher rock pinnacle. [Jul 2017, p.60]

The result is an improbably appealing melange of hyperslick R&B and musoid avant-Metal, where mid-1080s Radio Top Shop melodies nestle in the artful embrace of surgically enhanced riffola and soaring, pitchwheel punishing minimoog solos. [Nov 2010, p.65]

Tricky's problem is that the future has caught up with him. [#233, p.71]

For the majority of the tracks featured here, Hawkwind and Batt have jumped the shark with enough velocity to achieve geostationary orbit. [Sep 2018, p.59]

You can practically hear Lindstrom reaching for his wizard hat and robes at times, but equally Six Hats is right on time, digging into similar disposable digitalisms to James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual, all without bursting that disco bubble. [Feb 2012, p.61]

Still sounds like the work of someone desperate to gain the approval of the Drag City clique. [#215, p.69]

A clear triumph, a dense work destined to grow thicker with each listen. [#266, p.65]

Best not to think too deeply about it. [Sep 2022, p.57]

The tracks sung by Cafritz are more wired and garage punk, but these brief flashes provide contrast to Gordon's murkier shades. [July 2008, p.49]

A Better Tomorrow feels trapped by history, an impotent reflection versus a proposed resurrection. [Jan 2015, p.65]

There's Me And There's You, it turns out, a perfectly logical oddity. [Nov 2008, p.62]

Hayward sounds bored, Coxon throws out Clapton-ish licks, and Taylor's milk-and-water vocals make him sound like the younger brother of The Beautiful South's Paul Heaton. Only Thomas seems willing to inject any imagination into the songs. [Apr 2011, p.52]

Rick Ross is pretty much incapable of going more than 30 seconds with out using the word boss--too bad, because Justice League turn out three monsterous cruisetime tracks toward the end. [June 2008, p.63]