All in all, an admirable comeback. [Nov 2004, p.108]

That gloriously stupid clod-hopping mash-up formula remains. [Nov 2004, p.99]

Often recalls 1992's Automatic For The People in its sobriety of purpose. [Nov 2004, p.100]

[An] intimate, woody collection of fractured folk. [Nov 2004, p.120]

Waits is still taking more risks than most US 'singer-songwriters' of his generation, and parts of this album rock righteously. It's just that some of Waits' musical modes... have been done before, and much better. By him. [Nov 2004, p.110]

It is definitely deserving of the cult status that it will inevitably earn. [Dec 2004, p.138]

The heart of The Lost Riots is drowned in bombast, and Sam Herlihy's vocals are nowhere near strong enough to compete with the melodramatic, if prosaic, arrangements they're pitted against. [Sep 2004, p.107]

At times thrilling and at times frustrating. [Feb 2005, p.83]

Revels in its own thudding nastiness but brings few new ideas to the table. [Dec 2004, p.138]

Weirdly affecting. [Dec 2004, p.151]

Much of the album lacks cohesion, and even seems lazy. [Nov 2004, p.109]

A unique and unlikely moment of retrieval, restoration and renaissance. [Nov 2004, p.98]

It's hard to believe there will be a better record than Last Exit released this year. [Jul 2004, p.102]

Grae cruises eloquently over booming, soul-sampling backdrops that recall Jay-Z's recent triumphs. [Dec 2004, p.150]

They've burrowed a slick, haughty electro-pop slot between Propaganda and [Gary] Numan. [Sep 2004, p.108]

A strong and lusty country-punk album placing him in Tom Waits or Neil Young territory. [Nov 2004, p.104]

Fans will be relieved to know that although it pulls few lyrical punches, slam-dancing is still possible. [Nov 2004, p.119]

A less full-tilt affair than their first effort... but no less fun. [Jul 2004, p.95]

A guilty, gleeful indulgence. [May 2004, p.93]

The superior [of the two albums]. [Dec 2004, p.142]

You're left wondering quite what point she's trying to make. [Nov 2004, p.122]

Its fizz fades fast. [Dec 2004, p.142]

Pristine production renders this as vital as anything by Justin Timberlake. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Only the urgent title song stands out amid nursery-rhyme emotions. [Jun 2005, p.110]

At times their lurid romanticism can be an acquired taste... But there's an ambition and articulacy here. [Mar 2005, p.104]

She's all suffocating style, no sweat. [Nov 2004, p.99]

It is music whose scope, erudition and vitriol makes everything else in this year of exceptional musical timidity seem puny. [Nov 2003, p.106]

It only reveals its strengths after a dozen or more plays. [Nov 2004, p.112]

It's terrific, lively fun--soulful, even--as long as nobody tries to tell you there's something radical about it. [Sep 2004, p.101]

As ambitious and compelling as psych-tinged pop gets. [Nov 2004, p.122]

Gena Olivier's pallid vocals sound frozen stiff rather than disaffectedly cool by the halfway stage. [Feb 2005, p.78]

The Libertines is a record of such raw autobiographical honesty that it carries a weight few others in 2004 can match. [Album of the Month, Sep 2004, p.94]

It's frequently lush and lovely. [Dec 2004, p.150]

The Radio Dept. recall that giddy moment before sounding like the Stones was considered revelatory. Only these Swedes re-tweak the formula, sounding, if anything, better than Ride, Slowdive, Lush, Boo Radleys et al. [Sep 2004, p.100]

Hones the Southern harmonies and guitar-pickin' crosstalk of the brothers Good. [Nov 2004, p.116]

The Mooney Suzuki are NYC's retro-homage to America's spandex pop-metal scene. [Sep 2004, p.98]

As a send-off... it's not quite the full parade. [Sep 2004, p.104]

[Happy People] is a cunning, crackling, can't-keep-still classic. [Nov 2004, p.120]

Another delirious half-hour of, mainly, mannered asthmatic psychobilly. [Sep 2004, p.95]

Despite the air of contemplation, there's plenty of energy. [Sep 2004, p.98]

Lyrically, it's riveting, tapping into a unique Southern storytelling tradition. [Nov 2004, p.118]

They've managed to retain everything that was oddly beguiling about them in the first place while boosting their mass appeal with a production that is all West Coast sleek and radio-friendly lustrous. [Feb 2005, p.80]

Terrifically thorough. [Nov 2004, p.131]

[A] disappointing move into bland, dinner-party-backdrop territory. [Nov 2004, p.106]

Thrashes to the classic American assembly-line rock of Springsteen and the choppy pop of early Nick Lowe/Joe Jackson. [June 2004, p.88]

A sleek and satisfying sixth album--their best since 1994's Snivilisation. [Jul 2004, p.110]

It's a departure from previous Lanegan solo LPs... This time, Lanegan is looser, open to both experimentation and, once more, full-on rock. [Sep 2004, p.96]

There's a commitment here to melody as much as left-field wrapping. [Nov 2004, p.105]

Carr's ambitions outrun his abilities. [Sep 2004, p.98]

Like Bread produced by The Neptunes. [Jul 2004, p.110]

For better or worse, this is love songs for grown-ups. [Aug 2004, p.94]

There are flashes of sublimity, but too often hideous flashbacks of Jethro Tull and ELO. [Jul 2004, p.102]

There's an effortless clip... that suggests renewed confidence. [Mar 2005, p.93]

Another bittersweet, finger-picked confection that shows their chemistry is still there. [Jul 2004, p.101]

Sincerity of intent is one thing. But they've got the music to back it up.... This is Scissor Sisters' first Greatest Hits collection. [Feb 2004, p.70]

This could be his masterwork. [Sep 2004, p.108]

This is sombre and beautiful music.... A Lifetime is satisfying as an encyclopaedia of Low, to be dipped into now and again. [Aug 2004, p.118]

The fastidiously rehearsed dementia is better sustained than on Your New Favourite Band. [Aug 2004, p.91]

Few of the colourful oddities that filled his debut remain, but there's still much melodic guile to admire--albeit increasingly difficult to love. [Sep 2004, p.96]

Retains the tweak and squidge of his experimental, post-techno wanderings, but it's meant for feet rather than head. [Sep 2004, p.98]

DeLaughter is stingier with his pop songs this time, filling out the album with much ponderous, quasi-symphonic ballast. [Aug 2004, p.94]

Mainly, this is brilliant pop music... though Beenie's insistence on asserting his celebrated heterosexuality can grate. [Sep 2004, p.101]

The bulk... is given over to rolling, near-baroque piano balladry. [Nov 2004, p.102]

The first six tracks or so of Stone Love are as good a soundtrack to summer as you're likely to get this year... Thereafter it's an interminable sea of coma-inducing ballads. [Sep 2004, p.104]

This is a thrilling album, one that contains an extremity of sound and emotion that's unlikely to be matched by anyone else this year. [Album of the Month, Aug 2004, p.90]

Whereas the fucked-up, punk attitude [Ryan] Adams feigned on Rock'n'Roll was based on little more than pique, The Heat is all genuine passion, brimming with energy, anger and great tunes sandwiched between the dense guitars. [Jul 2004, p.114]

The best thing to come out of Sweden for a while... apart from porn. [Jul 2004, p.95]

A Ghost Is Born feels like a band learning to be spontaneous and unencumbered, and coming up with their most engaging album yet. [Album of the Month, Jul 2004, p.94]

All tasteful minimalism and soft lighting, this is more Vangelis than adventurous. [Sep 2004, p.108]

At times songs pass by too easily. [Sep 2004, p.104]

Weird, wonderful and life-affirmingly wise. [Aug 2004, p.96]

A valuable addition to his catalogue: the most consistent and sympathetically constructed solo album he's made. [Jul 2004, p.96]

A classic of modern psychedelia. [Jun 2005, p.113]

The music is strikingly minimal throughout, the emphasis is firmly on The Word and the Beastie Boys have plenty left to say. [Jul 2004, p.108]

Great by Smith's standards. Practically genius by everybody else's. [Feb 2004, p.74]

Puts welcome top-spin on a genre fixated on Suicide by reviving Devo, adding the glamour and flamboyance of The New York Dolls, Ziggy-era Bowie and Roxy Music, then whipping the lot along with the Glitter Band's ludicrous stomp. [Jul 2004, p.112]

Modish but strangely clinical. [Aug 2004, p.94]

Fall[s] somewhere between Talk Talk and the Bunnymen. [Sep 2004, p.98]

The Youth sound rejuvenated. [Jul 2004, p.108]

Moments of menacingly forlorn Velvet Undergound-meets-Hank Williams beauty. [Aug 2004, p.98]

You could praise individual moments... but it's the overall weave, the daydreamy drift, that impresses. A 40-minute swoon of a record. [Jul 2004, p.112]

Carried off with an impressive theatricality. [Jul 2005, p.104]

Crisp, tight and fluid. [Aug 2004, p.92]

With its smoothing of rough edges, it's likely this record will split opinion, but there's much to admire for those--like its creator--willing to burrow. [May 2004, p.107]

A big, baroque fusion of sharp garage, paisley pop and '70s sleekness, finished with a coating of Terry Jacks sentiment. [Jul 2004, p.104]

It's hard to deny the emotional weight and beauty of Polly's personal, if comparatively uncommercial, sixth album. [Jul 2004, p.108]

At times it's almost unbearably candid, an unflinching examination of his devotion both to homestead and to God. [Jul 2004, p.112]

Not that there isn't music on Russian Doll that's as lovely as any he's made, but it's brought crashing down to earth by deeply average singer Siobhan de Mare. [Jun 2004, p.86]

It's exuberant dorkiness, as well as fluidity of playing, that makes !!! stand out. [Jul 2004, p.106]

Channels a palpable love of early Fall... and Daydream Nation-period Sonic Youth... into a convincing half-hour that teeters, teasingly, on the brink of collapse. [Jul 2004, p.102]

This is certainly the pair's most immediate record. It's also their least appealing. [Jun 2004, p.91]

Rarely has contrived weirdness sounded so utterly bewitching. [Jun 2004, p.85]

The sort of herky, jerky new wave Molly Ringwald might have bopped to in The Breakfast Club. [Jun 2004, p.95]

Pretty, but pretty vacant. [Aug 2004, p.102]

This is the sound of dashboard-tapping, local radio MOR. [Apr 2004, p.108]

Luddites still unconvinced that digital technology is capable of emotional expression should make this their first stop on the road to enlightenment. [May 2004, p.103]

A wearyingly one-dimensional 45 minutes. [May 2003, p.89]

The Fever are shaping up as America's Franz Ferdinand, taking their cues from Buzzcocks and Wire. [Mar 2005, p.100]