Doves have delivered, with honesty and affection. All other guitar bands this year will seem like a scratchy sideshow. [Jun 2002, p.110]

This is much more than the usual retro-action.... DJ Shadow remains elusive to the end. [Jun 2002, p.127]

Enon inhabit a multi-coloured Seventies soaring pop universe but with... emphasis on crunching guitar breaks, electronic textures and skewed lyrics. [Sep 2002, p.118]

This sees David finally jettisoning his twee heritage for a filmic kitsch. [Jun 2002, p.116]

The first six tracks of pared-down techno loops give way to the ambient sound-and-speech collage of "InterZil" before the metallic funk jackhammers of frenzied current single "Krekc." [Jul 2002, p.106]

Behind the hype and the swagger, he's still baring enough of his soul for The Eminem Show to be compelling theatre. [Aug 2002, p.118]

Terrific stuff. [Aug 2002, p.122]

Another fiercely fashionable and languidly ambitious collective. [Apr 2002, p.108]

Frantic is packed with potential singles, as if he's decided it's not crime to enjoy himself, to embrace foolish things earthier than Avalon. This is classic Ferry, but full of surprises. [May 2002, p.92]

Sounds like the product of a sloppy but inspired band enjoying the straightforward art of making a noise. [Jun 2002, p.114]

A weird and wonderful record. [Jul 2002, p.120]

A mostly thin and needlessly morose album. [Jun 2002, p.108]

They mix wistful, hook-laden rock songs in the vein of Counting Crows, Five For Fighting, The Gin Blossoms, The Posies and Pete Yorn with the proto-emo sound of Sunny Day Real Estate. [Aug 2002, p.104]

The album's undisputed highlights are "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)" and "Genius." [Album of the Month, July 2002, p.100]

Waits does nothing predictable here, and the structure of even the most forlorn tear-jerker is ambitious and avant-something-or-other. [Co-Album Of The Month, June 2002, p.106]

Waits -- now in complete mastery of his unique art -- knows what he's doing, and the stark, unforgiving brutality is leavened, or granted grace, by passages of purple pathos. [Co-Album Of The Month, June 2002, p.106]

This is inventive and witty stuff. [June 2002, p.126]

If it all seems a bit contrived, the end result is harmonious and -- remarkably -- never kitsch. [Aug 2002, p.99]

Gomez's clattering eclecticism has won endless plaudits, but now seems like a red herring when their exploratory approach remains fixated on Dixieland, Seventies soul and hip hop. [Apr 2002, p.100]

Light and airy, pretty in parts, but devoid of muscle, grit or originality. [May 2002, p.96]

With a bit of self-pruning, a bit MORE risk and space in the production, he might have TRULY self-reinvented. [May 2002, p.90]

Eitzel makes the songs his own, re-working them with a degree of affection and passion usually lacking from the covers-album genre. [Jul 2002, p.104]

Six albums on and Luna have never sounded better. [Jul 2002, p.112]

A record that grows on you slowly but surely. [May 2002, p.104]

The most common description of this much-discussed album over the past few months is that YHF is Americana's Kid A. In truth, it's more successful than that. [May 2002, p.112]

The gentle spectres of Sparklehorse and Elliott Smith are always near, but [Davey] Von Bohlen's mix of bleary wonder and self-deprecation is charming, and his grasp of melody sure. [Jun 2002, p.122]

As with Daft Punk's Discovery and Playgrou's eponymous 2001 debut LP, Handcream For A Generation puts fun back on the agenda, offering a blurry picture of marathon socialising and the frazzled warmth of the morning after the night before. [Album of the Month, May 2002, p.88]

The album stands or falls by the seductiveness of its atmospheres and the memorability of its hooks--and here, it must be said, Release fails to imprint itself, leaving an impression mainly of dejected weariness. [May 2002, p.95]

Musically, it predictably alternates between relentless, driving guitars and agonisingly slow dirges, but Bazan's gift lies in lyrics. [Oct 2002, p.112]

It is really his unsurpassed ability to access tracks that time forgot that makes this album so great. [May 2002, p.96]

Crow sounds as if she's trying too hard to show us that all she still wants to do is have some fun. [May 2002, p.91]

Where there was once ragged glory there is now only a sort of bludgeoning earnestness which, as in the nine-minute "Goin' Home," blusters a lot to little effect. [May 2002, p.108]

Silver Lining finds her on top form as guitarist, writer and interpreter. [May 2002, p.108]

Either annoyingly sweet or refereshingly well-adjusted, depending on your mood. [Oct 2002, p.107]

Goes back to basics with a blinding mix of anthemic post-punk rockers and pretty mid-tempo ballads. [Jul 2002, p.107]

It's a rootsy affair that evokes the spirit of the MC5. [Jul 2003, p.112]

Isn't quite the show-them-who's-boss return that JSBX should have come up with. [May 2002, p.110]

Only when she reels off her thank-yous at the end- a list as interminable as an Oscars speech - does she sound remotely happy. [July 2002, p.120]

Think the Chemical Brothers meet Flaco Jiminez and you'll get the idea. [Jan 2003, p.119]

Maas isn't confident enough to strike out in any single direction, and the LP feels too consciously aimed at crossing over to the pop charts. [May 2002, p.98]

Mind you, you're still left wondering why they made a covers album. [Mar 2002, p.96]

Beneath the opulent layers and studio tweaks, however, lie some very orthodox, very average Eighties indie songs. [Mar 2002, p.96]

Occasionally, N*E*R*D edge a little closer to staccato nu-metal than fans fo their inventive music might appreciate. [May 2002, p.105]

Both sublime and ridiculous. [Jun 2002, p.114]

Much of this flaccid digi-guitar funk sounds like rough ideas Daft Punk rejected for Discovery. [Jun 2002, p.122]

This is surprisingly, refreshingly, "modern" music. [Mar 2002, p.104]

It successfully pins down black American sources, though it's occasionally marred by dated production. [Mar 2002, p.97]

The album runs out of steam halfway through as the songs become over-reliant on the production and Nat veers off into Dido territory. [Dec 2001, p.106]

Three or four songs short of a really strong album. [Oct 2002, p.107]

After a sequence of fierce, squelching avant-R&B, Jerkins makes his excuses and leaves Brandy with some old hacks and their dispiriting, saccharine ballads. [May 2002, p.89]

A cleaner operation than their previous LP, but no less unorthodox. [Apr 2002, p.95]

An album that proves he's worthy of the legacy he cherishes. [Apr 2002, p.102]

Even the core audience may find this somewhere between a gee whizz and gee swizz. [Jun 2002, p.110]

Humour takes too firm a hold as the band play on, creating the probably unfair feeling that this is just a light tribute to old, inspired sounds. [May 2002, p.108]

Chiefly consists of lumpen and joyless AOR rock, with a few rhythm loops to give an illusion of modernity. [Apr 2002, p.104]

Compared to so many noisemongers, TOD understand that restraint enables unleashed firepower to be exhilarating and awesome. [Apr 2002, p.111]

At its most ascetic, Fog sees Broder kicking down the same fence post of convention as Tortoise, the Beta Band and latter-day Radiohead. [Mar 2002, p.111]

Under Cold Blue Stars is a towering achievement. [Apr 2002, p.108]

T&C are more approachable than most, replacing numbing virtuosity with a kind of meditative warmth. [May 2002, p.110]

A bit hard to deal with in one sitting. [Apr 2002, p.93]

Another mature masterpiece from America's finest. [Album Of The Month, March 2002, p.94]

A wicked, weathered stream of sinewy, shadowy songs. [Mar 2002, p.102]

Lost In Revelry's trump cards are its sudden, exhilarating turns of weather, its restless--sometimes uncomfortable--soul-searching, and its knack of throwing up instantly-hummable pocket classics. [Dec 2002, p.131]

More of the same, only more so. [Apr 2002, p.94]

An album of tough-edged, passion-fuelled songs full of real emotion. [Jun 2002, p.109]

A divine marriage of disco with discord that, while blatantly indebted to the mutant guitar funk of PiL, ACR, The Pop Group, Gang of Four, et al, enjoys the best of both disciplines. [Nov 2002, p.116]

An auspicious introduction. [March 2002, p.96]

Too often, all it offers is the rumble of starting engines. [Feb 2002, p.124]

Rather fine. [Mar 2002, p.95]

Point is a quietly beautiful, low-slung beach house record, a chill-out soundtrack to the distant sunrise over Tokyo bay. [Feb 2002, p. 120]

Undeniably the work of a modern underground pop maestro. [Apr 2002, p.113]

[A] moody, edgy album. [Mar 2002, p.104]

It frequently sounds terrific. [Apr 2002, p.104]

The rhymes are gangsta shit at its laziest and most drearily noxious. [Mar 2002, p.111]

His music often lags behind in inspiration. [Mar 2002, p.106]

Brash and enjoyable. [Apr 2002, p.106]

De La still think and sound like no one else. [Feb 2002, p.114]

The shock is that Goddess In The Doorway is really rather good. [Dec 2001, p.114]

Some great moments, but too much filler and too few anthems. [Mar 2002, p.99]

This merely draws attention to the fact that the old songs are better than the new ones. [Jan 2002, p.146]

The music, though lithe and limber in a jazz-fusion-funk bag, lacks melodic distinction, while the vocals are delivered in a variety of electronically treated styles that are irritating at first and increasingly so on repeated exposures. [Feb 2002, p.125]

This is adventurous modern music which uses old rock and singer-songwriter traditions as the raw material to be manipulated. [Album Of The Month, Feb 2002, p.110]

Busta stampedes through a survey of current rap styles with boundless wit, energy and quality rhymes. [Mar 2002, p.96]

Natalie Merchant has made an album of elemental beauty... she's never sounded better. [Jan 2002, p.140]

A vague air of missed opportunity hangs over this frustratingly short snapshot. [Dec 2001, p.124]

Knowing what she's capable of, it's impossible not to feel disappointed. [Feb 2002, p.120]

A hypnotic dream-map of astral drift and spac-age chamber music, textured jazztronica and technoid pulse. [Dec 2001, p.106]

Possibly a grower, this album is certainly better than anything Macca's done for some while. [Jan 2002, p.131]

Air and Zero 7 are perhaps the nearest reference points. [Dec 2001, p.106]

These cuts are fresh'n'funky with a strong Seventies soul influence. [Feb 2002, p.113]

A sublime suite of semi-ambient glitch-pop. [Dec 2001, p.106]

This eponymous effort does little to dispel the notion that he's a bit of a swaggering caricature. [Jan 2002, p.142]

Starts badly and gets worse for a very long time (77 minutes). [Jan 2002, p.146]

A far more ambitious affair as producers Black Dog and Custom Blue underpin her crystalline vocals with subtly pattering lite beats, clever jazz inflections and humming electronic textures. [Dec 2001, p.102]

The music remains a potent mix of stuttering party anthems and post-Biggie street sermons. [Feb 2002, p.114]

Slower than slow, softer than soft, the songs acquire an accumulative resonance. [Dec 2001, p.116]

Occasionally tentative songs and wonky arrangements mar them here. [Dec 2001, p.117]

If you thought they didn't make 'em like this anymore, here's the exception that proves the rule. [Feb 2002, p.112]