It's a unique psychedelic experience only the most headstrong will be able to handle. [Aug 2004, p.122]

Most of Boroughs feels like they're sampling themselves. [Aug 2004, p.120]

The Fall rock with scalding fury, as if it were 1981 again. [Aug 2004, p.116]

This Is For Real is the album Aerosmith might make if they were back on the sauce. [Jul 2004, p.146]

The band only falter on Fuss' slower, boring numbers, which consistently lack the zest and vibrancy of their uptempo counterparts. [Jul 2004, p.146]

Sonic Nurse is better than 90 percent of new rock, but with younger combos like Lightning Bolt and Liars stealing their thunder, these well-meaning vets come off as old and in the way. [Jul 2004, p.134]

Solidly entertaining. [Aug 2004, p.122]

The songs have the urgency and vitriol we've come to expect from the band, but there's one major problem: the spit shine production. [Jul 2004, p.128]

Without the usual suspects, The Slow Wonder just seems like a well-produced demo of songs he's readying for Electric Version's follow-up. [Aug 2004, p.116]

Often reaches back to the unfettered rawness and earthy seduction of earlier albums like Dry. [Aug 2004, p.116]

At times, borders on unlistenable. [Nov 2004, p.146]

[Weikel and Summers] positively push forward, blissing out with an educated northern soul and a highbrow glide-guitar jones that finds them creating their own space in time. [Aug 2004, p.106]

If bastard of ceremonies Nic Offer would shut his piehole, Louden Up Now! would improve 50 percent. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Riff-roaring and exuberant, this album funnels the sprawling noise of the band's previous discs into one direct aural javelin aimed for your brain. [Jan 2005, p.112]

The duo have crafted a disc that grafts underground rawness (garage rock, no wave, electro, classic '80s goth) to their taut dance grooves. [Sep 2004, p.140]

Most of Maritime's debut feels incredibly boxed in. [Aug 2004, p.106]

The band's music is comparable to early Police material that everyone mistook for punk. [Jul 2004, p.146]

Acoustic without being folksy, poppy without being pandering, and quirky without being annoying. [Oct 2004, p.144]

The disc's bread and butter is Auf Der Maur's smoking riffs. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Imagine a pagan Danielson Famile on magic mushrooms, or a folk-rock cLOUDDEAD. [Aug 2004, p.122]

They lard The Printz with rote Aggressive Rock Radio fodder. [Jul 2004, p.148]

A heartbreakingly brilliant album that unravels itself slowly if you just stop and listen. [Jul 2004, p.132]

Their noisy attack has downright melodic elements, and the album exudes an energy that was mostly sporadic in their previous material. [Sep 2004, p.140]

Plays out like a tepid, second-rate version of Iowa, which pretty much makes it a third-rate anything else. [Jul 2004, p.142]

Delivers huge hooks, metronomic riffs and driving drumbeats, all of which enhance the Kadanes' amplified whispers. [Aug 2004, p.108]

Seattle's answer to Funhouse. [Jul 2004, p.146]

There are a number of joyous moments of six-string clang and rhythmic dynamism... that are positively invigorating. [Aug 2004, p.104]

When Red Bedroom ditches the choppy guitar riffs... the results are as much of a buzzkill to Bedroom's jumpin' vibe as cops busting up a raging house party. [Aug 2004, p.116]

The music you'd imagine might play as you ascend to heaven--or the soundtrack to the WB's next teen drama. [Aug 2004, p.118]

RJD2 possesses the rare ability to transform moldy samples into fresh-as-tomorrow compositions. [Jun 2004, p.110]

Admittedly, Emblems begins to drag towards the end, but the album succeeds on a visceral level. [Jul 2004, p.136]

Even without a high-profile knob-twiddler [Walla] this would have sounded like their version of Husker Du's Metal Circus--a document of grace on the way to greatness. [Jul 2004, p.138]

If you read The Wire, you probably already own [Kesto], but if you don't, don't bother. [Jul 2004, p.148]

An acquired taste. [Sep 2004, p.124]

Has as much to do with Ray Davies as it does with hip hop and garage. [Jul 2004, p.148]

What separates Cut Copy from the retro-electro-pop pack is the mixing prowess of French house maestro Philippe Zdar. [Oct 2004, p.146]

A progressive work with plenty to offer the open-minded. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Beautifully melodic, quietly clever and painfully smart. [Jul 2004, p.136]

Ultimately unremarkable. [Jul 2004, p.134]

He's brought classical melodic sophistication and beauty to this recording while retaining the post-punk edginess Gang Of Four disciples love. [Jul 2004, p.148]

Full of the most intense guitar rock to come out of L.A. since Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking. [Jun 2004, p.104]

MOB have managed to preserve their legacy without tarnishing their origins. [Jun 2004, p.92]

For fans of Sigur Ros and Mogwai, this is a godsend, but those who feel like those bands just incessantly mine one-chord riffs would do better to stay away. [May 2004, p.96]

The Beta Band have added muscle to their rickety rock chassis without losing their past work's wood-fairy charm. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Ratatat seem harmless, but these melodies will seep into your brain. [Jun 2004, p.111]

An accurate representation of the prolific group's career. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Finn employs an arrhythmic delivery... sounding like Jello Biafra covering Talking Head's "Once In A Lifetime," or a snake-oil huckster participating in a poetry slam. [May 2004, p.96]

Accessible enough for people who learn about new music from [NPR] and sonically interesting enough to appeal to hardcore electroheads. [May 2004, p.110]

Where Starsailor failed at morphing Britpop with orchestral flair, the Veils soar. [Aug 2004, p.118]

About as riveting as a glass of water. [Jun 2004, p.97]

Dark and compelling. [May 2004, p.104]

String arrangements--plus frontman Dan Eastop's expressive vocals--save songs like "SF" from falling into rehash hell. [Jul 2004, p.146]

A dozy dud. [Jun 2004, p.98]

If Lush hadn't died, it might have wound up in the same solemn, yet provocative, place. [May 2004, p.104]

Most of Neighborhood Watch is uncompromising proof that hip-hoppers, like rockers, can move units and still stay true. [May 2004, p.106]

An impeccable album that makes good on the promise he's shown in the past. [May 2004, p.102]

If Good News... isn't the pillar-like masterpiece Modest Mouse fans have waited years for, it's proof that things haven't completely fallen apart. [May 2004, p.92]

A fantastic musical landscape that's practically carnivalesque. [Jul 2004, p.136]

This heart-cleansing vulnerability renders much of Final Straw's latter half monotonous. [May 2004, p.96]

Absolution's chaotic choruses feel like the triumphant culmination of some earth-shattering undertaking. [Jul 2004, p.146]

The instrumentals falter. [Jun 2004, p.97]

An organic burst of music and melody that is Matranga's best work yet. [Apr 2004, p.84]

An appreciation for the heart, humor and no-bullshit directness of the very best hip hop is all that's required. [May 2004, p.108]

Excellent. [Jun 2004, p.111]

A great album, crammed with hooks and harmonies, goofball lyrics and the left-of-center melodic twists any indie-rawk geek would fly or die for. [Jul 2004, p.148]

So authentic, you'll think songs like "Bad Dream Mama" were put to tape 25 years ago. [Jun 2004, p.108]

Beam may continue lacing his ragged acoustic with your heartstrings while quietly whispering about a growing understanding of self, but he isn't sitting beneath a pink moon quite yet. That's surely on its way. [May 2004, p.94]

There's not much left for the Vines' frontman other than his music, which on Winning Days seems more like an afterthought--if not the work of an unbearably bad Oasis record. [Apr 2004, p.98]

All invention and no indulgence. [Jun 2004, p.110]

Gen-Y stoners who'd trade their favorite bong to inhale a hip-hop Pink Floyd, the exchange line starts here. [May 2004, p.108]

The unpredictable edge that's helped made the series a standout is gone. [May 2004, p.108]

Aveo's songwriting isn't as intriguing as their sound. [May 2004, p.94]

What used to feel timeless now just feels tired. [Jun 2004, p.107]

A barrage of unfocused fragments that prove this album should have been condensed into a seven-song EP. [May 2004, p.96]

There's enough patented 'Pusher weirdness here to tingle your noggin. [Apr 2004, p.100]

Closely approximates what Tears For Fears' The Hurting would have sounded like if Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith had grown up in Georgia. [Apr 2004, p.84]

At times monotonous, Heart's strongest tracks are those augmented with vocals by female guitarist Marcie Bolen and basist Carrie Smith. [Apr 2004, p.96]

Unfortunately, many of the tunes wear out their welcome, overextending a single inspired idea. [Apr 2004, p.88]

His arrangements are floral and handcrafted and warm. [May 2004, p.102]

The first great rock album of 2004. [May 2004, p.102]

Easy like a Sunday morning, and just as dull. [May 2004, p.110]

Their most complete-sounding disc to date. [Mar 2004, p.91]

Loose continually festers with a blistering intensity and creativity that's not for the closed-minded or faint of heart. [Feb 2004, p.88]

Channels the spirits of no wave via clinks and clanks, doomy vocal chants, ominous tribal thumps, abstract guitar scraping and jarring haunted-forrest samples. [Mar 2004, p.110]

They've beefed up their bombastic prog-rock guitars and grandiose, Teutonic synth motifs to new levels of virtuoso excess. [Feb 2004, p.93]

Moves from intense free jazz to gamelan to Boredoms-like (Ger)manic trance rock to fusionoid Tortoise-style meanderings-as played by psilocybin-gobbling aliens. [Feb 2004, p.93]

A batch of lazy mid-afternoon pop songs that only sound better when his friends from Wilco show up to sing along. [Apr 2004, p.86]

Xiu Xiu nail their nebulous mix of new wave and post-punk gloom, but also lace their tunes with uncompromising experimentation and emotion. [Apr 2004, p.88]

All Night Radio broadcast more personality than [Beachwood Sparks]--and frame it with a maniacal smile. [Apr 2004, p.88]

The album's middle drags, and as original as they sound on their own, the songs become monotonous by the album's end. [Mar 2004, p.96]

As is the case whenever [Kurt] Wagner's velvet croon wraps itself around a night that ends so late it's already morning... there really isn't a critic in the world who can touch him. [combined review of both discs; Mar 2003, p.94]

As is the case whenever [Kurt] Wagner's velvet croon wraps itself around a night that ends so late it's already morning... there really isn't a critic in the world who can touch him. [combined review of both discs; Mar 2003, p.94]

Blixa Bargeld's singing voice lacks distinction, but Mobile's emotional intensity, cinematic grandeur and eerie beauty render that a moot point. [Mar 2004, p.110]

Medicine is certainly a cohesive and mature outing, but it isn't nearly as fun as the band's previous shenanigans. [May 2004, p.102]

For better or for worse, Grohl replicates each band's musical style with remarkable accuracy. [Mar 2004, p.98]

The Church's languid melancholy sedates rather than seduces. [Feb 2004, p.88]

At times their odes to the long-gone era of '60s psychedelia get lost in their lofty ambitions. [Apr 2004, p.84]

Full of hopelessness and destructive defiance. [Mar 2004, p.94]