Much of the album is comprised of moiody, softly undulating numbers whose beauty is offset by a frictioness drift which prevents them from truly taking hold. [Dec 2009, p.108]

Doo-wop-inspired harmonies lend a barbershop charm to the Chicago quintet's earnest and energetic pop-punk sound, though the retro styling of World occasionally comes off as more tired than inspired.

Maybe if Keith had spent more time on his lyrics and less time watching reality TV, this would be a better album. [Dec 2008, p.152]

A scappy but lovable collection of power pop. [Oct 2008, p.152]

For the target audience, such education lines as "K is for kid fart/L is for long and loud farts" will leave house apes wondering what the fuck they ever saw in "Wheels On The Bus." [Oct 2008, p.153]

Either way, previous Academy Is... fans will surely dig the tunes, but Fast Times is probably not the album that will see the band expand their scope too far out of the high school/Warped Tour crowd.

Without the extra bells and whisteles--which alwways saved the weakest Faint songs in the past--most of Faciinatiion is largely dispoable. [Sep 2008, p.160]

The ominous charm that had fans nose over tail is not completely lost in Agony & Irony. [Aug 2008, p.156]

When the twins harmonize, the results are sweeter than sugar-dipped honeysuckle. What they really need, though, is some fire in their bellies. [July 2008, p.151]

The Fratellis may have simply have heightened our expectations by sounding too good too soon. [Aug 2008, p.170]

While Boo! is far less indulgent than JOA's most experimental records, it remains a far cry from Kinsells's earliest work in the mid-90s emo forefathers Cap'n Jazz. [June 2008, p.131]

What sounds like leftovers from Miller's last solo effort and bizarre surf-rock-inspired numbers rear their ugly heads, leaving these Lone Star Staters in jeopardy of repeating the grade. [July 2008, p.158]

The result captures him turning into an old-fashioned troubadour, one fueled by big issues and a country/hip-hop hybrid that's never sounded catchier. [June 2008, p.131

Speakers and Tweeters is an admirably varied effort from a band whose Two-Tone jones is just the starting point. [June 2008, p.137]

It's a fun album, full of off-kilter, electro-tinged grooves. Trouble is, backpacker/conscious/positive hip-hop is every bit as cliched as the most unthinking gangsta rap. [Apr 2008, p.163]

Pyramids can sound like several songs playing at once, a psychedelic instrumental played backward, or the muffled recording of a session two rooms away. [July 2008, p.155]

Youngster is only temporarily satisfying. [June 2008, p.135]

This doesn't say the labum doesn't have its moments, but when you consider the amount of time and patience it takes to get to tthat point, it's hardly worth the payoff. [Apr 2008, p.153]

There is a breadth of influence throughout, even if the energy level rarely falls below absurdly scorching and the sonic approach remains a fuzzy haze. [Apr 2008, p.150]

Crystal Castles is gloriously danceable and hopelessly chic. But really, it's... hearing only...judging is... you know? [Apr 2008, p.162]

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]

Del wisely keeps things simple on the audio front, lubricating many of his basic, old-school beats with the good old P-Funk bottom of his early years. [Mar 2008, p.147]

The effortless pop smarts are appealing, but the Ruffians will need to vary the delivery if they're expecting a career. [Mar 2008, p.144]

The album may have neen best served as an EP; it's an uneven mix of energetic jams and unfocused duds. [May 2008, p.132]

It's smooth going down but lacks any real notable songs. [Apr 2008, p.153]

Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is a collection of alt-country songs that alternate between darkly funny and deathly serious, cleverly coy and crappily dull. [Mar 2008, p.140]

It's about as close a facsimile of the fractured and foreboding scattershot thoughts that haunt most of us at night as one can capture on record. [Feb 2008, p.115]

It's nice Walla's doing his own thing, but it's also clear from Field Manual that in terms of his main band, credit has always been given where credit was due. [Mar 2008, p.141]

Frustratingly, Jukebox takes a more soft-focus tack. [Feb 2008, p.114]

Between the bloated song lengths and repetitive arrangements, What Angels & Airwaves really need for LP3 is an editor. [Dec 2007, p.184]

Avenged Sevenfold is so all over the map musically and lyrically, it's difficult to decipher whether it's pure genius or the most convoluted mess of music you'll hear all year. [Dec 2007, p.178]

You either listen without prejudice or deem it the most pretentious, boring swill on the planet. [Dec 2007, p.176]

Coheed's fourth album simply doesn't deliver on the suspense that's been loaded into it. [Nov 2007, p.155]

The band takes a few sucessful detours on Chase This Light, but by and large, it's more of the same. [Nov 2007, p.172]

Krug tests the patience of even the most tolerant listener via a convoluted and self-indulgent mess of music that occasionally--and seemingly accidently--stumbles across moments of brilliance. [Nov 2007, p.163]

There's very little here to grab the listener. [Nov 2007, p.162]

Much of the disc is business as usual. [Oct 2007, p.169]

It's still a blast to listen to Hot Hot Heat when they sound like they're having fun, even if they have to fake it. [Sep/Oct 2007, p.169]

While the album has occasional moments of brillance, most of these songs sound like underwhelming sketches instead of finished products. [Oct 2007, p.160]

Longtime Black Lips fans will notice a more polished production compared to past albums, but it also seems apparent that these boys have barely begun to scratch the surface when it comes to showing us what they've made of. [Nov 2007, p.170]

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 quite a bit slicker and sonically feels as if it could fill an arena--but lacks personality. [Oct 2007, p.172]

Fans will love it, but if you're not already on board, this album won't change your mind. [Oct 2007, p.169]

The band of brothers and sisters (plus one cousin) have made the gauzy shooegazing of 2005's "Room Noises" a lot noisier.... What hasn't changed, wisely, are the soaring sibling harmonies and sense of wonder, which are still best heard in delicate moments. [Oct 2007, p.168]

It's the type of record you rock before bedtime, and that by no means is an insult. [Jul 2007, p.184]

On the whole, the songs are more tuneful and airy and less spastic than previous riot-on-the-stage efforts. [Mar 2007, p.143]

It's not brilliant, and some tracks are just dumb. [Jun 2007, p.156]

Pleasant but edgeless. [Jun 2007, p.149]

Overall, The Boy With No Name has just enough personality to remind imitators like Coldplay and Keane from whence they came. [Jun 2007, p.151]

While Twelve's not an unlistenable record by any stretch of the imagination, it just begs the question: What's the point? [Jun 2007, p.158]

Dumb Luck is likely to appeal more to the indie-rock crowd than electronica purists. [Jun 2007, p.161]

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

At times, the album gets a little precious, but the more inspired moments are truly undeniable. [Jun 2007, p.156]

It's something they've done better before. [May 2007, p.158]

A dispirited, half-baked record. [Jun 2007, p.156]

Good Charlotte have become caricatures of themselves. [Apr 2007, p.175]

Merely okay. [Apr 2007, p.194]

Mediocre. [May 2007, p.162]

The baby-making music never reaches above its already-set guidelines to become something truly special, preferring to explore already charted (and re-charted) territory. [Apr 2007, p.180]

It lacks the spark of the band's classic catalog material. [Apr 2007, p.191]

It's a bit unfortunate that the Irishmen decided to keep their songwriting and musical prowess stagnant. [Mar 2007, p.143]

Too many songs rely on sappy love-song cliches, bland arrangements or saccharine lyrics. [Mar 2007, p.135]

They play things way too safe... which makes for a rather boring listening experience. [Mar 2007, p.142]

Some Loud Thunder isn't without its successes--but it is defined by its failures. [Feb 2007, p.114]

Undoubtedly his catchiest record so far. [Feb 2007, p.122]

The need for The Need is debatable, but it's a nice addition to Anticon's growing catalog of successful experiments. [Mar 2007, p.144]

A sobering reminder of how frustrating it can be when a talented group become tethered to their established aesthetic. [Feb 2007, p.118]

[It] comes off as another Albarn project that's neither amazing or anathema. [Feb 2007, p.122]

[It] feels more put-on than intimate, more tried than true. [Feb 2007, p.109]

The combination of thundering drums with whimsical vocals and melodies can be charming, insanely catchy and headache-inducing, sometimes all at once. [Feb 2007, p.114]

A bit flat. [Jan 2007, p.131]

The gently frenetic interplay between instruments works in the opener "Cut From The Cloth," but tires after nine carbon copies. [Jan 2007, p.134]

The songs tend to meander along without a sense of overall purpose. [Dec 2006, p.188]

The songs sound more like a collection of B-sides than a new album. [Dec 2006, p.206]

There's not a single song that's captivating enough to hold our attention. [Dec 2006, p.188]

It seems like Hinson puts far more energy into conveying some sense of backwoods authenticity than writing songs that inspire any type of real emotion. [Oct 2006, p.200]

A cluttered, derivative mess. [Dec 2006, p.200]

The Lemonheads is the album Dando should have made 10 years ago, and poppy punk ain't what it used to be. [Nov 2006, p.200]

All Amputechture does is test patience. [Oct 2006, p.200]

For a bunch of comedians, the Electric Six sure are talented musicians. [Dec 2006, p.189]

The result: a CD without hooks, impressive guitar pyrotechnics, or anything else, really. [Sep 2006, p.226]

Occasionally, Roderick gets in the way of himself and makes the proceedings more difficult than they should be. [Sep 2006, p.214]

While Personality is all masterful and ambitious, nothing really sticks in the end. [Sep 2006, p.232]

Sweaty and thick, convincingly urgent and highly sexual. [Jul 2006, p.210]

Monochrome is marred by Hamilton's vocals. [Sep 2006, p.218]

Somewhat mirthless and at times downright android-sexy, The Eraser is what many Radiohead fans have come to expect from Yorke in recent years. [Sep 2006, p.228]

Unsurprisingly, he's at his best when he's melding heartfelt lyrics with otherworldly noise. [Sep 2006, p.230]

This restless, rootless disc suggests Cex hasn't settled on his future destination just yet. [Aug 2006, p.222]

It's hard enough to decipher his demented verses without constant interference from squelchy synth-bass farts. [Aug 2006, p.222]

The 10 drone-y songs on Brightblack Morning Light sound more like a soundtrack than a traditional album. [Aug 2006, p.206]

For the most part, the band's jagged guitars and bludgeoning backbeats play by the punk rulebook. [Jul 2006, p.186]

While there are some nice moments of orchestral pop here, that's hardly enough to carry an entire album. [Aug 2006, p.208]

What none of these songs has... is a hook that sticks with you. [Jul 2006, p.204]

The band's anti-everything style can get annoying if you don't have the patience for heavy doses of idiosyncrasy in your rock. [Jul 2006, p.204]

When Last Secrets works, it's awesome... but thanks in part to sequencing, it drags toward the end. [Jun 2006, p.180]

It has a hard time hitting the kind of peaks required to make a singer-songwriter disc truly memorable. [Jun 2006, p.180]

Their newfound nods to pop music... overshadow the expected balls-out rockers. [Apr 2006, p.220]

Everything All The Time is almost pitifully lacking in soul, and it suffers from a few real snoozers, to boot. [May 2006, p.162]