With vocals creeping into the closer "Happiness," not once does Cooper put a foot wrong, creating an album that borders on perfection. [Jun 2013, p.96]

It's the most solid album in the group's discography, haunting with moments of near perfection. [Mar 2008, p.140]

Points to a genius that should overtake the world of IDM like a funky tsunami. [Jul 2002, p.81]

It truly does feel as if they've been holding this emotion back since the day they parted and now unleashing everything in an explosion of creative energy, delivering a magnificent record that while fresh and exciting, could only be the work of far. [Jun 2010, p.102]

MMW charge brazenly past cries of Jimmy Smith worship into territory rarely covered by artists either acoustic or electric. [Jun 2002, p.80]

There might be no other band working that so effortlessly transcends its myriad of influences, creating something authentically new, disturbing and beautiful. [Jul 2017, p.80]

On their fourth full-length, the Used have delivered not only the definitive album of thier career, butarguably one of the best records you'll hear in 2009. [Sep 2009, p.109]

It’s fast; it’s honest, and it’ll probably make you tear up more than once.

That's why artists like RJD2 are important: They're brave, they're risk takers, and modern music needs more of them. [Apr 2007, p.192]

The ambitiousness, imagination and craftsmanship on display place Weightless in a class all of its own, stridently redefining the parameters of heavy music in 2011,. [Dec 2011, p.120]

Their most accessible and uncompromising album.... !!! deftly balance adventurousness with fun--a potent combo that too few bands achieve. [Apr 2007, p.192]

Thanks to a vintage church organ, a sizzling saxophone and a little recording expertise, Pickin' Up The Pieces' deceptively analog sound has all the crackle and warmth of the music pouring out of an old AM radio. [[Sep 2010, p.109]

A righteous wallop of club-crawling, rave-slumming fun. [Oct 2002, p.83]

This is the most imaginative and urgent FNM have sounded in years--not to mention the most relevant. [Jun 2015, p.96]

Their stripped-back and organic-sounding punkish indie rock recalls early Jimmy Eat World, Texas Is The Reason, the Appleseed Cast, Penfold and the Weakerthans, and this album sees them stand toe to toe with any one of those bands, which is admirable to say the least.

This is an album of spontaneous originality and should be appreciated as such. [May 2009, p.114]

Lazaretto finds him simultaneously unbridled as a player, yet meticulous as both mad scientist and personal diarist.

Whereas the Beckster tends to wriggle cheekily along to his funk, and Badly Drawn Boy does his own thing in spite of it, Gorillaz don't give a rat's ass about acting funky; they just are. [July 2001, p.68]

They may not be reinventing the wheel, but when a band play with this much riotous excitement, who needs reinvention? [Mar 2010, p.98]

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]

The whole glorious mess creates a dramatic Wagnerian opera that's (barely) held together by Congleton's yelping. [Aug 2006, p.206]

A bold, uncompromising debut. [Feb 2016, p.100]

Instant Gratification cements the band's veteran status and solidifies what we've always hoped: Dance Gavin Dance will never die. [May 2015, p.98]

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

Thankfully, the electro-bleeped post-punk "All Night Disco Party" and buzz-band piss-take "Heard About Your Band" aren't just dead-on scenester satire; they're damned entertaining too. [Jan 2006, p.142]

Not The Actual Events is everything we would expect from Reznor and Ross, offering textures we’ve never visited and contexts with conscience.

Full of power and their trademark delicate storytelling, Shipping News' latest is their greatest. [Dec 2010, p.116]

A collection of stylistically diverse tunes that is cohesive and refreshing. [Jul 2002, p.76]

Their songs have a weight beyond the bell and whistles, retaining your interest once the shock of new sounds and the novelty of genre-hopping is gone. [Apr 2008, p.152]

Spin stacks up with just about anything in the Tigers Jaw canon, with melodic and memorable highlights with detailed flow and cohesion that invitingly solicits frequents listens. [Jun 2017, p.82]

The Blood Of Gods strips away unnecessary studio wizardry and presents GWAR in its rawest sonic state, opting for a rough-and-tumble attitude. Nearly every beat and riff on the record screams for listeners to pay attention.

Offend Maggie continues Deerhoof's winning streak and displays a band running at peak performance. [Nov 2008, p.154]

Power and passion haven't sounded this vibrant in a while.

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]

We Are Wolves', third album, Invisible Violence, features a bevy of captivating numbers and is a triumphant display of the Montreal trio's versatility. [Mar 2010, p.98]

The rich--and sometimes gorgeous--glitch-folk of Elephant Eyelash certainly does the trick. [Nov 2005, p.226]

Some songs' lyrics feel a bit too rote ("Makeout Party," "Lazy Bones") but that's when you realize Green Day never really had all that much to say in the first place, and they function at their best with hook-filled songs that are typically three minutes or less. Luckily for us, ¡Dos! is full of those tracks, and is definitely the highlight of the band's ongoing trilogy to date.

Sometimes, the hype is right. [Jul 2007, p.170]

For new fans, We Disappear is a solid entry point into the Thermals' world; for longtime fans, the new, calmer side of the band emerging is fresh, but still packed with the same spirit and punch that has endured for a decade-and-a-half. [Apr 2016, p.100]

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]

I See You [reveals] a more mature sound, one where the songwriting is top-notch and the intertwining vocals are more polished and mesmerizing than ever. [Feb 2017, p.82]

Noisy pop-punk that's bratty with pogoing entitlement. [Apr 2005, p.124]

The result is another unique and captivating record, one that melds dancehall reggae, hip-hop, Haitian percussion and a dozen other styles as if they were always meant to be together. [Jun 2014, p.111]

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

Thankfully, there's enough variation in tempo, nuance and arrangements to stave off monotony. [Oct 2012, p.92]

It's the perfect addition to their ever idiosyncratic and unpredictable repertoire. [Apr 2013, p.86]

The proof [of the band's maturity] is in each one of the songs: Every member is playing with a richness and depth that can only come from spending all this time in the studio and onstage together. [Jun 2015, p.95]

Luminous certainly wears its influences proudly; however, the record boasts undeniable energy and urgency. [Jun 2014, p.107]

Coxon rocks it in a class of '77 Brit-punk style that'll make record-collecting fetishists in search of Adverts and Chelsea demos soil themselves. [Dec 2006, p.198]

More proof that sophomore efforts don't have to be sleepy. [Oct 2006, p.212]

The infectious All Or Nothing takes all the right things about their debut and improves on them. {Oct 2008, p.161]

For a band who ultimately decided to soldier on, the album can feel unbalanced, but still delivers all the belting feel-good choruses that made you fall in love with the Arizona crew back in 2009. [Mar 2016, p.100]

It's clever, literate and pretty, but also boring as hell if you don't flip off the lights, clamp on your headphones and concentrate. [May 2002, p.88]

Most songs keep to a more humble pace, unfurling slowly and often with surprising beauty. [Aug 2012, p.86]

Think the Postal Service, but with more instrumentation and experimentation. [Feb 2005, p.94]

Sure, this sound has been kicking around in various forms since the early 2000s Drive-Thru and Vagrant Records eras. But rarely has it been done so well.

Mostly it works. [Mar 2009, p.113]

Spoon deliver everything with a calm, classy Motown-pop feel, but the disc still crackles with punk intensity... [#154, p.97]

Unbelievably catchy hipster synth-rock. [Sep 2004, p.136]

There's more energy on Um, Uh Oh than in Say Hi's entire back catalog, creating wonderful tension with the songs' downcast sentiments. [Feb 2011, p.89]

Thinking-person's Britpop. [Oct 2005, p.166]

[They] still fuse rock with techno with more nonchalant poise than nearly anybody else, but they've also crafted some of their most gorgeous tunes here. [Mar 2007, p.137]

While these songs are closer the band's beer-in-the-air beginnings, greater sophistication and songcraft are evident from the crisp melodies and infectious choruses to earworm anthems with direct, bumper-sticker sentiments. [Feb 2013, p.88]

Central Market could prove to some that contemporary classical music can be more epic than post-rock, more dangerous than metal, and have more to say than the most verbose MC-even if most of his songs don't have any words.

It's impeccably crafted with a rich selection of subtle sonic touches--executive producer Butch Walker's undoubtedly due some credit--for bringing the songs to life. [Feb 2011, p.87]

It's proof the evil genius remains a damned fine chef. [Feb 2005, p.94]

Dense, chaotic and ugly, every track challenges the listener to make it through the stormof noise in one piece, refusing to do anything the "easy" way. [Aug 2013, p.84]

Their best record in years. [Apr 2006, p.218]

He further hones his flamboyant jazz chops while elevating his melodic and rocking abilties to new heights. [Jan 2008, p.131]

The sextet deliver delightfully, dingy, wholly impressible rawk. [May 2012, p.75]

It comes was a welcome surprise that their sixth full-length contains the most visceral, overtly hostile and sinister music of their career. [May 2010, p.102]

From Death To Destiny also features a better Avenged Sevenfold song than that band's ever written in "White Line Fever," and some genuinely affecting strings on “Run Free.” Even if Worsnop refuses to grow up, his bandmates seem to be trying.

Warm acoustic guitars and spookily ethereal vocals add up to understated soundtrack music for a road trip through the Scottish countryside. [Jan 2007, p.134]

The freakiest freak-folk is rarely as freakish as the more disorienting triumphs of Strawberry Jam, a neo-psychedelic mind-fuck from Animal Collective. [Oct 2007, p.160]

Though not as striking as True Devotion, it still tugs earnestly at your heartstrings. [May 2012, p.85]

Sonically, there’s something incredibly otherworldy and fantastical rooted in Phantom Anthem, making the album translate like an epic poem rather than a collection of songs, both enticing for its cohesion and at times tedious in its redundancy.

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]

If Magnificent City is occasionally over-friendly-sounding... well, so what? [Mar 2006, p.138]

It's the succinct pop of a punkier Squeeze or a sloppier, edgier Beatles that makes Sword a treasure. [Sep 2001, p.94]

Change may be audibly bigger-sounding -- in a slick, professional way -- than previous efforts, but the new angle just drives the point home: The Dismemberment Plan deserve to be huge. [Jan 2002, p.82]

They are definitely good enough to keep fans of modern heavy music pleased with the genre's continued vitality. [Aug 2013, p.83]

The collaboration is far from perfect... but the players take plenty of risks, ultimately emerging with a new sense of discovery and a whiff of greatness. [Feb 2006, p.120]

Mentioning these ASG cats in the same breath as riff-rockers Torche or Queens Of The Stone Age is not only misleading, it might even be an understatment. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Jayne shrouds his more subversive content in Laughter's Fifth's tambourine-tapping, upbeat numbers. [May 2005, p.164]

This smartly sequenced album casts a cumulative spell. [Oct 2005, p.156]

The Connecticut-based band have truly outdone themselves. [Feb 2013, p.92]

What makes this disc so intriguing is its embracing of the latest electronic substrata within the context of chief songwriter Martin Gore's well-crafted pop tunes. [#155, p.67]

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

They hold their own with the noisy, angular and often bluesy rock found on Harmonic. [Jun 2012, p.82]

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

Only odd detours like a Russian oompah instrumental break the rhythm of the album; Rouen is an otherwise textured and engaging disc. [Nov 2005, p.222]

Celebration represent the Baltimore trio's arty fringe-rock obsessions in sleeker, more resonant forms. [Feb 2006, p.120]

Producer Dave Bottrill has molded Chiodos’ vision into a cohesive arc of power, finesse, quirks and accessibility in equal measures.

Goldfrapp’s skill at adopting and fully embodying different styles is what makes them distinctive, not necessarily one signature sound. If the album seems somewhat slight, it’s purposefully so: Head First is a love letter to the frothy, fleeting, but very vital joys of pop music.

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

A bewitching fusion of orchestral prettiness and exploratory electronics. [Aug 2003, p.108]

Suicide Silence's third full-length maintains the visceral brutality that has characterized their output, even as it builds upon their unsettling strengths. [Aug 2011, p.120]

A miasma of retro cool. [Sep 2003, p.116]