The Josh Ritter who appears here is primarily a writer of quality pop songs.

If at times it's a little too knowing for its own good, the music itself is less claustrophobic than before. [Nov 2007, p.121]

Even by his prolific standards, Sojourner is impressive. [Oct 2007, p.99]

While they sound no less vital than their infuriatingly profitable contemporaries, they sound no more, either. [Oct 2007, p.101]

Ackerman's psych-mangling songs covers a riveting emotional and sonic range. [Dec 2008, p.92]

The band’s decision to keep things on more orthodox tap seems to have been accomplished at the expense of some of their spirit.

A couple of sweaty, sybaritic slowjams prove that his libido hasn't waned, but his mojo undoubtedly has. [Oct 2007, p.101]

Remarkably extending to 18 tracks, Absolute… traces the discography from the wide-screen Mary Chain of 'Only Happy When It Rains' to the Bond theme 'The World Is Not Enough' and the Spectorish strings of this year’s comeback, 'Tell Me Where it Hurts'--though 2001’s cute 'Androgyny' is an odd omission.

Canada's Quin twins fairly blaze through The Con's 14 compact, supercharged tracks. [Oct 2007, p.109]

Just as the record threatens to flatten into artifice, they bust out their best Clash and Cheap Trick moves on 'Middle Management,' gleefully shattering the porcelain into smithereens. [Jan 2008, p.82]

Rather than producing themselves, they could benefit from a wise head adding a touch of reverb, a sting of echo.

The Brothers prove they can still poleaxe a dancefloor with a well-aimed barrage of strobe-ing electro-house.

Avoiding the ponderous repetition that dragged down songs like “Bullets” on the first record, they concoct a gentler, dreamier atmosphere with less apparent anxiety, and create a shadowy veil of sadness, shot through with hopeful transcendence.

Zeitgeist comes on with a vicious energy, a jugular-grabbing intensity.

It’s a majestic, grandiose, machine-tooled album, subtly orchestrated with gothic pianos and doomy organs.

“Waters Of Nazareth” yawns like a car crusher, mashing hip-hop, electro and funk into gleaming slabs of sound, while “D.A.N.C.E” displays a lighter touch, channelling Chic disco in a whirl of sugary keyboards and euphoric violin stabs.

The fact that Time On Earth takes several listens to sink in practically ensures that it will be undervalued, if not ignored, which is a shame, because this taut album possesses the immersive qualities and cumulative impact of a good novel.

Overall, Sirens… may be a bit of a stylistic scattershot, but the Muscle Shoals foundation and Isbell’s razor-sharp songwriting mark it as an auspicious debut.

Her debut British release showcases a vivid and fully formed talent clearly versed in quirky, often humourous songcraft. [Nov 2007, p.125]

High on aggro but low on ideas, it mimics The Pistols' sneer and The Jam's melodies, while throwing in some inexcusably clichéd lyrics.

At its best, in its stoned funk and stewed grooves, there’s enough to suggests they could even fulfill their early ambition to be the "Sly and the Family Stone of Salford." Double double good.

The real triumph of Easy Tiger is less rooted in the sound, more in the attitude. [Jul 2007, p.114]

The Mix-Up is the best record collection ever thoroughly digested and re-imagined by a bunch of guys in love with sound.

[It] sidles forth with an easy-going aura, belying the artistry within. [Jul 2007, p.107]

It smacks of compromise. [Jul 2007, p.109]

Translated From Love utterly captures Kelly Willis' oft-wayward talent. [Oct 2007, p.115]

Ferry's systematic methodology reveals the flaws as well as the qualities of the chosen material. [Apr 2007, p.105]

Every one of these 11 songs is a work of wayward genius. [Apr 2007, p.106]

A compellingly weird experience. [Jul 2007, p.92]

You can occasionally hear [Adem's and Hebden's] trademark sounds punctuate these proggy, Tortoise-like instrumentals. [Jul 2007, p.102]

Idealism is essentially a retread, but a superior retread with subtle character definition. [Jun 2007, p.97]

They continue to find some clever ways to do a pretty dumb thing. [Jul 2007, p.112]

At times here it feels like Debbie Harry took a wrong turn on the way to Studio 54 and wound up with Shed 7.

As boisterously sentimental as The Cavern at closing time. [Jul 2007, p.106]

This is the kind of exploration of space and motivation that the dance-punk scene is supposed to be about. [Jun 2007, p.98]

Another entry in Cornell's catalogue of partial successes. [Jun 2007, p.91]

[A] remarkable album. [Jun 2007, p.91]

Musically, affairs lack Manson's customary anthemic poise, but tracks like "Heart-Shaped Glasses" draw on Berlin-era Bowie and Iggy's The Idiot with brooding panache. [Jul 2007, p.107]

If nothing else, [his] accountant will be pleased with Maths & English's broad appeal. [Jul 2007, p.99]

As spirited as this effort is, there's not much here to worry James Murphy. [Jul 2007, p.99]

What has sadly gone missing here, however, is Farrell's voice. [Jul 2007, p.112]

He sounds more like a loner--intense, precise, impervious to fashion--than ever. [Jul 2007, p.102]

The core of the album lies in a cluster of gorgeously restrained, piercingly evocative pieces built mostly from acoustic instruments. [Jun 2007, p.94]

Worth catching. [Jun 2007, p.87]

The results will gladden devotees of fractured, footsore indie-rock. [Jul 2007, p.127]

Overall the record has the pleasantly hobbyish but inessential air of a gap year vanity project. [Jul 2007, p.103]

Those bel canto melodies will still be a little syrupy for some. [Jun 2007, p.94]

there's a bit too much scene-setting and not enough storyline, but overall this is some rollicking debut. [May 2008, p.113]

It's complex, uncompromising stuff. [Apr 2007, p.106]

Possibly [his] best album. [Jun 2007, p.84]

A slight disappointment. [Jun 2007, p.88]

Decidedly heady stuff. [Jul 2007, p.100]

If it's a little predictable, it's still easy on the ears. [Jul 2007, p.127]

Witty like Loudon Wainwright, doleful like Jonathan Richman, Hamilton emerges as a distinct presence throughout, and it's this you warm to. [Dec 2006, p.102]

Repeated listens--it's a grower--reveal a number of meatier, surprisingly hard-rocking songs. [May 2007, p.99]

She's rarely sounded more alive. [Jun 2007, p.92]

Aggressive bursts of noise and fantastic harmonic singing make this record sound like the result of a happy accident rather than a long-pondered academic exercise. [Apr 2007, p.94]

While what was lost with Smith is immeasurable, what he left was amazing, and New Moon is an appropriately spectacular monument. [Jun 2007, p.112]

Amiably lightweight. [Jun 2007, p.115]

Sometimes, in hunting a mid-point between noise maelstrom and Espers-style chamber psychedelia, Fields come out sounding merely ordinary. [May 2007, p.90]

Tigers... sees the brain of the Manics reunited with their strongest qualities: their heart, humanity and soul. [Jun 2007, p.102]

The third outstanding album of his career. [Mar 2007, p.103]

American Doll Posse sounds like a return to more conventional songwriting form. [Jun 2007, p.87]

BRMC seem invincible; or back to their searing best, at any rate. [May 2007, p.87]

It's a darker, deeper affair. [Jun 2007, p.94]

All the elements are there, but somehow 5:55 doesn't gel as it should. [Oct 2006, p.124]

An album that shines light, albeit dimly, into hidden corners of the soul. [May 2007, p.100]

Several of the songs seem performed out of affection rather than any sense of artistic adventure. [May 2007, p.90]

Favourite Worst Nightmare is a near-triumph, a far superior Album #2 than Meat Is Murder, The Libertines, or Second Coming. Yet some doubts nag, partly because of the subject matter. [May 2007, p.84]

No doubt Oyamada has a fine ear for sound design, but he handles his tunes with antiseptic gloves. [May 2007, p.88]

Surprisingly invigorated. [May 2007, p.89]

Why, when Dragonforce are doing this for real? [May 2007, p.96]

Bristl[es] with wit, energy and nifty hooks. [May 2007, p.99]

Unsettling stuff--but weirdly life-affirming, too. [May 2007, p.103]

A successful fusion of tradition and modernism.

This treads the thin line between appealing whimsy and finicky, smartypants noodling. [Jun 2007, p.111]

Nothing sounds more dated than an ageing futurist, and it's only when Trent cuts loose... that we get a glimpse of the world-beater we know he can be. [May 2007, p.103]

These 11 new songs will do little to dispel the view that the band are fatally addicted to self-indulgent navel-gazing, but it's still beautifully recorded, and played with exquisite tact and precision. [May 2007, p.88]

The Grinderman hat seems to have tilted the basic Bad Seeds stance brilliantly on its side, bringing out a new humour and a grumpy-old-rocker gravitas. [Apr 2007, p.102]

Cassadaga is fulsome, epic, and swirling, by far Oberst's most sophisticated, seamless effort. [May 2007, p.89]

Things grow richer and stranger as the album develops. [May 2007, p.87]

This is a larger-sounding, less homespun set than thte sisters' previous two albums. [May 2007, p.102]

Outside of fashion, and as exciting as The Bunnymen's second, Heaven Up Here. [Oct 2006, p.133]

[The first half is] all dismayingly unconvincing and lacklustre in execution... Then something changes.

Cements FOW's status as the savviest modern-day practitioners of both Beatlesque pop and Steely Dan's cool precision. [Jun 2007, p.94]

It's all certainly a lot more complex, if a little less immediate, than anything they've done before. [May 2007, p.104]

Amid all the dirty, clanging glam, there are unfinished moments. [Apr 2007, p.119]

The Endless Not sees the whirring tape-loopsof old replaced by iMacs, but not at the expense of sheer abrasiveness. [May 2007, p.113]

Mesmerising stuff. [Jun 2007, p.99]

Steingarten combines clipped, Kompakt-style 4/4 funk with a massy dub sensibility reminiscent of Adrian Sherwood's Tackhead productions. [Apr 2007, p.114]

It's strangely joyless. [Jun 2007, p.115]

It's bombastic, but you can't fault its ambitions. [Jun 2007, p.115]

Klaxons bristle with energy and ideas. [Feb 2007, p.77]

Smith sounds revitalised (and often very amused), delivering his most emphatic vocals in years. [Mar 2007, p.76]

Their second album manages to be full of surprises, while never straying too far from what you'd expect. [Mar 2007, p.80]

Gimmicky moments are plentiful, but it's the box-fresh pop songs like "Misery" and "The River" that benefit most from their renewed sense of purpose. [Apr 2007, p.100]

Hampered by Gray's dial-a-diva rasp, Big is nowhere near as good as it should be. [May 2007, p.92]

[It] strikes a finer balance between ['Year Of Meteors'] and the magic folk realism of her earlier work. [Apr 2007, p.116]