Poison excels at using retro flourishes without drowning in nostalgia or irony, and it never forgets the future is brightest. [Jan 2009, p.130]

Breezy, flashy, and fun, but emotionally bereft as well. [Jul 2002, p.81]

Some of [Daniel's] stripped-down material sounds gaunt. [May 2005, p.166]

Yeah, they've been putting out pretty much the same album for the last 10 years. [Jun 2007, p.158]

The songs themselves are sturdy and powerful, with the right mix of ebb and flow, and ample chug-chug parts for the pit monkeys.

Both participants' artistic weaponry [is] set for "stun" instead of "kill." [Dec 2005, p.216]

The only problem is that in making way for all the MCs, Dilated's tracks seem too peripheral, keeping Expansion from sustaining the momentum its MCs command. [Jan 2002, p.80]

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

Occasional missteps keep X.O. Experience from being a bottle of the top-drawer stuff, though it'll still leave you with a good buzz. [Aug 2001, p.91]

Herren's gift for finding order--and even melody--amid such chaos is too strong to allow this collection to be written off as self-indulgent. [Apr 2006, p.224]

It peaks on 'Coffee,' a wonderfully weird, ska-tinged duet with the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle that flat out rocks. [Oct 2007, p.170]

It's meticulously arranged and inoffensive, but well-played enough to keep you from falling asleep. [Aug 2002, p.80]

At its best, Arms is a pleasant album, one that sounds good on the surface or as background music. For most bands, that's perfectly acceptable. But for a group like Band Of Horses--whose ambitions have always intersected with being meaningful and transcendent, too--somehow just being acceptable makes Arms fall short.

Despite some missteps, Icky Blossoms would fit on a playlist between Archie Bronson Outfit and Bloc Party. [Aug 2012, p.90]

IWABO prove there's some actual technique beneath their gimmickry. [Aug 2011, p.118]

This is some subversive fun. Baffling, however, is a nearly note-for-note sonic reproduction of the Queen hit "Bohemian Rhapsody." [Mar 2013, p.93]

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]

Despite the obvious problems with continuity and flow (not to mention the general concept of time, as in the amount of actual time it takes to comb through 99 tracks), there's still a lot of good music on Occupy This Album.

There are good cop/bad cop phrasing, well-placed electronic glitches and enough predictable, djent-ish riffing to keep the pit going. [Sep 2014, p.104]

An album that hangs together surprisingly well. [Oct 2002, p.90]

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

If the album has a flaw, it's a lack of structure and differentiation; as the music progresses, songs become less distinct and less compelling. [Mar 2015, p.90]

It's a great album to have on hand for a wild party, but piping it through your headphones will have you skipping tracks. [Feb 2011, p.89]

Their fourth effort is sabotaged by a weak second half spent on played-out '80s darkwave fascinations. [Nov 2012, p.94]

Though the music on Revelling/Reckoning ranges from brilliant to mediocre, DiFranco's bold, descriptive lyrics (as usual) redeem any shortcomings. [#155, p.75]

As eleventh albums go, Siren Charms is a more than respectable collection. [Oct 2014, p.98]

Nothing on Sixes & Sevens quite lives up to the giddy brillance of the "Juno" soundtrack, but the music will still inspire you to draw hearts around your crush's name in your fifth-period notebook. [May 2008, p.134]

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]