It's an ingenious arrangement, featuring juddering, minimal percussion, spare piano chords and vocoders that soar to the edge of the studiosphere, worth the price of the album alone. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Snotty wit can be heard on the droll "Down On Loving" or the splenetic "Parasites," probably the best examples of the Ramones-via-Replacements sound that defines the album. [Apr 2010, p.90]

The attempt to stir his inner shitkicking garagepunk isn't always successful but a handful of tracks here are creepily sensual. [May 2010, p.85]

Davis tends toward the archly self-conscious, and at times her music sounds oddly dated, but there is promise here. [Feb 2016, p.73]

Harte's voice is sometimes a little thin to carry some songs. [Oct 2007, p.104]

It's a shouty, attitudinal set that connects Ke$ha to Britney Spears and Cyndi Lauper. [Feb 2015, p.75]

If you wish The Hold Steady didn't look so clean, this is the band for you. [Aug 2008, p.113]

It's certainly a bold move that will either send them stratospheric or sink them completely. [Feb 2013, p.71]

"Normal" offers the most accessible punk foot-tapper that races past but leaves you wanting more. [Nov 2010, p.97]

There's still an organic, soaring bluster to the music, too, though a shortage of obvious anthems this time. [May 2008, p.100]

There are epic power ballads, which just manage to avoid faling into Keane/Coldplay territory; there are terriffic, drone-laden stomp-rockers....The use of saxophone, however, is ill-advised, and Lightburn's voice can get a little ponderous. [Dec 2008, p.88]

The pair sometimes get slow and mellow, but the dominant tone is better expressed by the brattish beat explosion of 'Daylight,' the madly bleeping 'Don't Slow Down' or the clatteringly chaotic 'Cutdown.' [Sep 2009, p.86]

In less successful moments, the album idles in a mid-tempo gaze. [Jun 2019, p.30]

This album is uneven, undisciplined and overlong, but much the same could be said or Lloyd's sporadically brilliant career. [Apr 2009, p.95]

This post-genre approach allows them to take cumbia, mambo, porro, carnival music and ceremonial song, and mash it together in unpredictable and deeply psychedelic ways. [May 2018, p.35]

Lurking beneath the placid surface is an undertow, subtly stirring the songs and arrangements. [Oct 2017, p.32]

He can be relied upon to sprinkle a few brilliant tunes on each release, and this is no exception. [Oct 2012, p.81]

Breathless power-pop offset by an innuendo-laden lyricism. [Mar 2006, p.98]

Their approach is eclectic, esoteric, and not easy on the ear, though it does have a restless energy which suggests it might work better live. [June 2008, p.97]

Wilner hits a few gorgeous highs. [Mar 2012, p.90]

The sparser moments are undoubtedly tender, but the reverential glow soon dims, and the cliched cries of empowerment don't help. [Apr 2013, p.74]

An artfully dishevelled, emphatically Gallic racket. [Feb 2011, p.95]

Carson Cox's over-emotive delivery and a bombastic arrangement tip the album's power-ballad finale, "I Will Not Sleep Here," into Night Ranger Territory. Thankfully, the trio is more careful about its point of reference elsewhere. [Oct 2016, p.35]

They sound positively in-your-face rather than isolated on garagey, throbbing stomps. [Jan 2021, p.27]

The faux-naif schtick still grates somewhat, but there's also real substance, wit and heart here. [Nov 2011, p.91]

Sugar, by comparison [to "Wrecking Ball"], feels laboured. [Sep 2010, p.91]

What once seemed an aesthetic springboard for the band to make truly great music now seems rather like retreading old ground. [Jun 2017, p.33]

Though featuring young musicians, this album is antique rathe r than groundbreaking in feel, pleasing evoking a sweet, after hours blues cellar fug, all slide and sax. [May 2010, p.83]