The obvious touchstones here are Gary Numan, Magazine, and Kraftwerk... [March 2001, p.73]

Sparhawk and Parker's boy/girl vocals, Low's overall light instrumentation, and their minimalist approach to compostition all blend to produce an exquisite lethargy that's as haunting as Damon & Naomi's music. [#153, p.78]

Parts of the result feel overly defensive and overly techno-y, but "Bang! Bang!" will blow your drawers off... [#155, p.85]

Pleasant, if not very gripping... [March 2001, p.70]

In addition to writing stronger songs, the trio seem much more comfortable and focused in the studio. [#153, p.85]

There's not much sonic discovery or eviscerating emotion here to elevate godhead outside the Pro-Tools realm of co-headlining tours with Stabbing Westward. [#151, p.82]

Their strongest and most distinctive effort to date. [#151, p.71]

An exhilarating album... [March 2001, p.88]

They've honed their craft to incorporate increased nuance alongside blunted force. [#153, p.83]

Hiller's sense of humor and eclectic tendencies make this recording a deep listening experience. [March 2001, p.81]

A tour through three decades of sonic recalcitrance, Renegades is the genome map of seditious sound. [#151, p.90]

Building on the same base that made his early material brilliant (a love for both odd sounds and cheesy pop), Warren has painted himself into a musical corner: knowing its hard to get any listener to swallow the same thing repeatedly outside the mainstream market, but also wanting to indulge his muse. [#151, p.78]

Tracks like "Terra Firma" evoke every new-age-groove cliche imaginable, from Gregorian chants to pan flutes to politely understated hip-hop beats. [#152, p.74]

Once the chuckle factor (unavoidable with kitsch) wears off, Pizzicato Five are guilt-free--non-rockist, non-tech-head--perfect 2000-01 listening. [Jan. 2001, p.98]

The Offspring once again demonstrate this knack for incorporating flavor-of-the-month flourishes into their sound in tongue-in-cheek fashion.... These embellishments aside, the Offspring hone in on the dyed-in-the-wool cheetah-paced punk that is their true bread and butter. [Jan 2001, p.81]

Records like this deliver atmosphere and little else, and most of Pelo's 10 tracks make a point of ending two minutes later than they logically should, but still, feel-good artsy pop has never felt bubblier or more confident. [#151, p.72]

Their flows are slower, their observations more profound, and their subject matter drifts further inward. [#154, p.83]

Shimmering guitars haunt tormented tunes, dark gravel growls vie with Thom Yorke-y high notes. Unquestionably, Coldplay could not have existed without an awe-stricken respect for Radiohead's The Bends, but they are also capable of escaping its shadow... [12/2000, p.94]

With a deeper, more mature sound, Halfway sounds like the work of a producer in mid-career crisis making music inspired by the dancefloor, but not shackled to it. [12/2000, p.89]

Not much on Magnetophone's debut really distinguishes them from the legion of bedroom-based nerds playing with the same breakbeats and software as they do. [March 2001, p.83]

Experienced, acclaimed groups rarely make albums as bold and confrontational as Stankonia, because they have too much to lose. OutKast don't care.... The Atlanta duo coalesced the political and societal challenges of hip hop's past into what is one of the genre's most artistically unortodox releases so far. [12/2000, p.108]

As the follow-up to 1997's III, Effector succintly incorporates that disc's pristine sheen and futuristic atmospherics, while moving into more quirky, funk-laden territory. [12/2000, p.94]

High Llamas make the trendy retreat into their parents' soundtrack-filled record collection, and on Buzzle Bee, they use a film editor's aesthetic to cut, splice and dissolve their Pet Sounds-based pop into scenes from the celluloid past. The result is as atmospheric as Air, but not as danceably substantial. [#152, p.81]

More Light... burns with a raw intensity, albeit sandwiched between moments that recall Mascis' acoustic and goofy backwoods major-label work. [Jan 2001, p.94]

On Disco Volante, [David Gedge] sometimes becomes as tedious as a typical pick-up line. [Jan 2001, p.86]

Though nominally house music, Unreasonable Behavior's tracks expend as much energy on engaging the listener's mind as they do on moving the body. [Dec 2000, p.86]

Everlast hints at a hip-hop amalgam of Johnny Cash and Howlin' Wolf, but only when being chased. [Jan 2001, p.88]

Vapor Transmissions is a hymnal for brave new citizens who have adopted The Matrix as a religion while using artifice as deception for their sinister subtexts. [#146, p.81]

Sing When You're Winning is as powerful as you want, as lovely as your dreams and as subtle as the best practical joke. [12/2000, p.121]

Musically, he's a little more conventional than one would hope. [12/2000, p.90]

Embraced by trance, breakbeat, and house DJs alike, Maas has been heard in almost every sort of dance setting, so he's earned the right to his own compilation. [2/2001, p.85]

Arguably their best effort since jumping to the majors... Golden Lies hums with chunky metal chords, suspicious scents of Beatlesque psychedelia and wah-pedal freakiness. [12/2000, p.102]

Only the blindly in love will fully appreciate Suitcase, which is chock-full of bruised and blemished tracks, though it's not all throwaways. [#147, p.94]

The music on Selmasongs brings Bjork's penchant for haunting melodies, cinematic imagery and ambient percussion fully to bear.... Though composed for a film, the music is 100-percent Bjork and may well be her best work yet. [12/2000, p.91]

Wrap Cracknell's voice around a sweet, soulful confection and she remains the embodiment of all modern pop dreams and desires. [Dec 2000, p.94]

A laser-sharp collection of songs written with two things in mind: rocking hard and having fun. [12/2000, p.110]

A massive instrumental effort, as skilled and musical as it is on-the-fly improvised and messy. Seamlessly blending sonic experiments with live group interactions, godspeed saunter through these four extended pieces with ease. [#150, p.94]

As perfect pop goes, the Januaries hit all the right exotic buttons. Their songs bubble with Stereolab's bop-ba-bop melodies, glide effortlessly on Saint Etienne's dance-savvy '60s pop, and float on Air's variety-show timelessness. [12/2000, p.99]

Dominated by sparse instrumentation and lyrics that are merely good... relatively lifeless tunes. [12/2000, p.115]

Decidedly mellow and acoustic in nature, 'Excuses' continues [Neil] Halstead's love affair with country, folk, and pop.... masterfully written, recorded, and played. [#147, p.103]

He's created a bona-fide pop album--smokingly soulful, sure, but armed to the teeth with hooks and refrains, radio-ready and simultaneously transcendent. [#147, p.84]

The upscale bars and clubs of the world will undoubtedly toast these two for The Mirror Conspiracy, and you should, too. [#147, p.110]

While The Menace isn't as coruscating as Primal Scream's funk-noise plasma wall, Exterminator, it does offer enough twists, turns and fractured sensibilities to make listening to music an active experience again. [#146, p.88]

The best songs are, as usual, the weirder ones... Elsewhere, Balls spends too much time riding the same quirky-dance autopilot that has fascinated Sparks since the late '70s. [Jan. 2001, p.102]

While it doesn't flow with the breathless ingenuity of their earlier albums, it's still a cut above 90 percent of today's electronica. [#147, p.109]

The first De La Soul full-length lacking a consistent vibe throughout... [#147, p.81]

In place of Morcheeba's poetic brooding is a poppy, chorus-hook-chorus songwriting style that will probably irk a lot of their fans.... From the sounds of it, Morcheeba are going for the teen-pop market... [#146, p.104]

A scattershot bagful of wild rides and demented ditties and an album of maniacal depth and vision. [#146, p.86]

Bow Down... was developed alongside a movie script and works as vivid NYC filmic music and an electic-by-default modern concept album. [12/2000, p.96]

[Stephin] Merritt likes to sing about dancing--'I'm Lonely' gives us good reason to join him on the floor. [#147, p.92]

It's almost silly to accouse An American Movie of being overproduced, because string-driven flights of fancy and studio gloss are simply what successful well-adjusted nice-guy bands do on their third album. [#146, p.89]

You may be surprised to learn that the roadside corpse does more than twitch; it gets up and positively rumbas in places ("Girls of Summer"), while "New Birds" heaves with the same fidgety agitation that occasionally made Joy Division seem special. [#147, p.83]

Warm, lush soundtracks bathe the ears in the same bittersweet symphonics that marked out the latter-day Verve. [#146, p. 82]

Closest in style to 'Systemisch', it lacks the sublime glow of 'Diskont94', but it updates the former's chugging wash with a more varied tonal palette. [#146, p.97]

La Luna's overall style is ambient industrial, with a hypnotic, grinding pulse and pounding kick drum, embellished by sporadic rhythmic tappic, guitar growls and strange electronic squiqqles... and while Czukay's industrial groove is righteous, 47 minutes of it is excessive. [Jan 2001, p.87]

The album sounds, not surprisingly, overproduced, lacking even a hint of the earthy quality of 'I Do Not Want...' and leaving little space for O'Connor to stretch out vocally. [#146, p.96]

It all combines for an enjoyable listen... provided you block out the lyrics. [#146, p.102]

The tunes are as melancholy rosey as ever, the confessional as soul-stirringly honest and open. [#147, p.83]

Volume 2... is an equally resounding success.... [it] draws on darker material, and thus yields more aggressive vocals and frequent minor keys. [#146, p.86]

10 tracks of alien grooves, percolating beats and shimmering atmospheres that are engaging, sophisticated, and mature. [#146, p.101]

The eight tracks here defy formula, instead feeding off of one another in a cannibalistic frenzy of samples and constantly shifting beats... This is a deceptive and brilliant album. [#147, p.98]