Patten's ability to conjure such urgency with out ever slipping into anything so easy as a typical groove goes some distance. [Oct 2011, p.65]

Abstract hiphop-heads might be turned off by the slick machismo, but others will have some good dirty fun. [Oct 2011, p.65]

Extra Playful lives up to its title. [Oct 2011, p.63]

In truth most of it is middling stuff. [Oct 2011, p.62]

What could have ended up sounding like sketches, are now completed pieces,m full of suspense flashback, refrains ad other temporal tricks. [Oct 2011, p.61]

By unplugging the effects and simply playing, they sound re-energized. [Oct 2011, p.61]

Even if the music remains fairly consistent, the concepts mark off more ambitious territories. [Oct 2011, p.60]

Musically, in other words, Strange Mercy delivers plenty of interest. What's not so convincing is the songwriting, specifically the lyrics. [Oct 2011, p.60]

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

A certain bass jumpiness is evident throughout these six tracks, a post-grunge melodic murkiness that is at once reassuring but also puts paid to elevating the record into the realms of the ethereal. [Oct 2011, p.58]

On How The Thing Sings, Orcutt reveals a more open vision. [Oct 2011, p.58]

Get Lost is no worse (and no better) than 2010's Living With Yourself. [Oct 2011, p.56]

These performances have been rightly cherished by collectors for decades. [Oct 2011, p.54]

Not a visionary rollercoaster thundering around the heavens, but a rewarding slow and subtle grower. [Oct 2011, p.53]

While nothing on III is exactly a soundtrack to sipping caipirinhas in the sun, there's also nothing about it that suggests grimacing theatrically on a darken dancefloor. [Oct 2011, p.52]

Th art here is ensuring that too much is in fact just enough, and Rustie is a master of it. [Oct 2011, p.51]

Season Of Earth is music rooted deep in the black, black earth and whose only limit is the blue, blue sky. [Oct 2011, p.50]

There's still plenty to enjoy on Tassilli, but desert blooms fade fast when overwatered. [Sep 2011, p.65]

Though they're written to sound simple on the surface, PG Six's songs reveal an unusually high level of artistry on closer inspection. [Sep 2011, p.62]

Two nostalgia trips for the price of one. [Sep 2011, p.62]

They have a certain beauty, but it all feels sterile, airless. [Sep 2011, p.59]

This is the most introspective Wolves In The throne Room release to date. [Sep 2011, p59]

Rather than the sound of people battering against existing structures, Social Climbers exude comfort. [Sep 2011, p.58]

In lesser hands [it could have slipped into corny retro tropes], but In Dust is if anything even less indebted to past styles than last year's impressive self-titled debut. [Sep 2011, p.56]

It's actually more pleasurable to pick a track at random and leave it on loop. [Sep 2011, p.56]

Its utter ahistoricity is one of its more charming dimensions, in a "why not?" sort of way. [Sep 2011, p.52]

Bozulich's gloom is top quality gloom, as far as that goes, but nothing here lights up the heart like [2008's] Voyager's blistering "Truth Is Dark Like Outer Space." [Sep 2011, p.51]

As the Crow flies has a folkier feel than previous advisory circle releases. [Sep 2011, p.50]