Today, yet another album filled with introverted hip-hop instrumentals--even one with occasional moments of beauty radiating from the murk--is doomed by comparison to the more innovative work the label has been offering lately. [Mar 2006, p.138]

More power to those who can do it, but from this perspective, it's nearly impossible to enjoy Man Man's Six Demon Bag while sober. [Apr 2006, p.222]

A bit too cleverly loaded with cultural critiques, winks and nods. [Apr 2006, p.207]

For Matchbook Romance, Voices is adventurous. [Mar 2006, p.122]

The Life Pursuit is less confused than the three albums that precede it, but it's also just as forgettable. [Mar 2006, p.124]

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]

[An] interesting album. [Apr 2006, p.204]

Occasionally get[s] a tad too close to Jamiroquai territory. [Nov 2005, p.226]

She's gone from being an indie rocker's wet dream to sounding like the most NPR-friendly singer-songwriter your parents haven't discovered yet. [Mar 2006, p.124]

Contains three best-of-year-brilliant songs. [Mar 2006, p.124]

Lewis still sounds like she's trying to figure out where she belongs. [Feb 2006, p.118]

Tortoise sound remarkably un-Tortoise-like on nearly everything... [and] Oldham's stunning vocals are rarely allowed the space they deserve. [Mar 2006, p.126]

Contains all the usual suspects: a few great songs, a few throwaways, a bunch of head-scratching song titles and indie rock's best take on the Who. [Mar 2006, p.124]

Sounds rather pedestrian. [Jan 2006, p.142]

Could pass for a set of lo-fi synth demos Sir Paul McCartney cooked up one long weekend for shits and giggles. [Feb 2006, p.130]

Hypnotize isn't a radioactive pile of suck, but had the Down boys offered some genuine hairpin turns in their aesthetic, there might be more reason to pursue a more meaningful dialogue that transcends the tired notion of "System just being System." [Jan 2006, p.127]

Sound[s] equally as interesting, but rarely as essential, as the studio material from which it's drawn. [Feb 2006, p.120]

Rogue Wave now resemble a more earnest Flaming Lips. [Dec 2005, p.204]

It's not that Hey People! is bad, because it's not--but it's not that good, either. [Feb 2006, p.126]

Strange Geometry is a comely piece of old-fashioned melancholy pop, but it can also quickly turn into sonic wallpaper if you have a wandering mind. [Dec 2005, p.202]

There are enough interesting moments... that each spin reveals a new nuance that makes this genre roundrobin worth signing up for. [Nov 2005, p.218]

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

dios (malos) is missing something--namely, guitarist Kevin Morales. [Dec 2005, p.212]

Even [Haines'] coos about war can't make Live feel urgent or save its slanted art-rock outbursts. [Dec 2005, p.214]

Bianchi's hackneyed lyrics... often overshadow the music's subtle pleasures. [Oct 2005, p.170]

A bit too jammy at times, but this is another solid effort for both artists. [Oct 2005, p.158]

Organic improvisational acts instinctively know which sonic snippets to expand--Lake Trout need to rediscover this ability. [Oct 2005, p.156]

The cohesion that made their previous records so captivating has been significantly diminished. [Dec 2005, p.204]

The band ultimately lose the pop craftsmanship and hook-filled bite that distinguished their debut. [Oct 2005, p.166]

Disappointingly forgettable. [Nov 2005, p.218]

A confident and bold album... [but] it unfortunately expends so much energy being spooky and otherworldly that most of the anticipated enchanting beauty is nowhere to be found. [Sep 2005, p.156]

The least imaginative album of their career. [Oct 2005, p.158]

Pop's dirty-bassed rock may expand T.'s audience, but it's diminished his art. [Sep 2005, p.170]

Vanderslice's detached delivery of this riveting material, combined with the somnolent string arrangements, makes Pixel Revolt feel like a chilled-out remix of a book-on-tape recording. [Sep 2005, p.158]

Idlewild undeniably sound like a once-great band helplessly slipping into their confusing middle years. [Sep 2005, p.164]

Most of the songs... aren't nearly as interesting as the album's title, offering only random snippets of truly engaging music. [Sep 2005, p.156]

Too often, Kasher is lost in his screamy, overdramatic posturing. [Sep 2005, p.154]

Second-rate Shins. [Aug 2005, p.164]

There's some decent stuff in the second half. [Sep 2005, p.164]

Bland and undistinguished. [Aug 2005, p.178]

Fire's beauty often feels distant and untouchable. [Sep 2005, p.164]

Electrified certainly isn't the most original album you'll hear this year, but crunchy pop like this doesn't have to work very hard to impress the indie set. [Jul 2005, p.176]

Too many tunes struggle to remind listeners of their catchiness. [Aug 2005, p.166]

There's nothing on Everything Ecstatic the likes of Madlib haven't already done better. [Jul 2005, p.186]

May be the weirdest record Malkmus has made since Pavement's Wowee Zowee. [Jul 2005, p.174]

Overall, the band seem to be running long on ambition and short on ideas. [Jul 2005, p.172]

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

Doesn't make many lasting impressions. [Jul 2005, p.182]

Considering how strong a songwriter Bazan has proved himself to be on the last few Pedro discs, the results here are mildly disappointing. [Jun 2005, p.164]

Their uncalculated sound puts them a step above their shamelessly careerist peers like the Von Bondies. [Jul 2005, p.182]

For the wide-awake, it's a crashing bore. [Aug 2005, p.164]

Plays out like a sequel to BF5's last album... with one key element missing: humor. [May 2005, p.172]

Much of the album reflects a tension between melancholia and euphoria that sounds more like an epic battle between Fischerspooner's love for New Order and Pet Shop Boys--but with beefier, disco-fied beats. [May 2005, p.174]

For all of his wild swinging, Jones never fully connects. [May 2005, p.136]

Where, say, Franz Ferdinand can fill dance floors with a jagged, arty sense of danger, the Bravery are more vanilla in their approach (read: They're Duran Duran). [May 2005, p.132]

Unfortunately, everything is so finely polished on Alternative To Love that his brand of rock lacks any grit. [Apr 2005, p.124]

The results are hit-or-miss. [May 2005, p.132]

Sounds anemic. [May 2005, p.138]

They sound like Devo playing Nazi military waltzes. [May 2005, p.138]

Chirpin Hard makes you feel like you're getting chased by a swarm of giant mosquitoes in a scrolling Mega Man hellscape circa 1992, while Church Gone Wild is a nerve-shattering whirlwind of atonal chaos. [May 2005, p.168]

Not as memorable as Tarwater's peers like The Notwist. [May 2005, p.138]

Only the album-ending title track tones down the noise, and even then, it's about as restrained as early Husker Du. [May 2005, p.132]

There's generally more of the same here, but Doves' alternate influences this time around... don't exactly add up to a great band "stretching out." It's more like they're grabbing at straws. [May 2005, p.134]

Both Sole's most accomplished album and his least distinctive. [Apr 2005, p.130]

Taken individually, Damon & Naomi's songs possess distinct personalities.... However, when consumed as a whole, The Earth Is Blue metamorphoses into a thin musical mist. [Apr 2005, p.116]

Most of Ward's quiet, contemporary folk songs are mere sketches, mediocre if not unmemorable. [Apr 2005, p.126]

These impressive vocal arrangements suffer when Ida leave them alone in the spotlight. [Feb 2005, p.88]

His world-music diversions should challenge even those who aren't pedestrian Iron & Wine fans--but that's what EPs are for, right? [Apr 2005, p.116]

Songs like "Electric Chair" show the promise of this project, but unfortunately, the rest of the disc is fan-only filler. [Apr 2005, p.130]

If he isn't a sage yet, he does sound like a future star. [Feb 2005, p.94]

Burn The Maps' muted vibe demands that you turn down the lights, fire up the candles and listen hard. [Mar 2005, p.132]

Coxon's solo career has long suffered from the Bob Pollard syndrome of self-indulgent quantity over quality--a setback that, unfortunately, also plagues much of Happiness In Magazines. [Mar 2005, p.132]

The least pretentious--and most accessible--thing AYWKUBTTOD have ever released. That's probably because it sounds a lot like your record collection. [Feb 2005, p.92]

The Chemical Brothers seem adrift and directionless. [Mar 2005, p.138]

Longtime fans will be comforted by Nightbird, even if it comes off like the fluff Giorgio Moroder might've rejected after a coke bender. [Mar 2005, p.138]

A whole that's less than the sum of its parts, a bittersweet pill that's best taken in small doses. [Feb 2005, p.88]

Although M83's ambitions are often great, there is a problem here: Before The Dawn often drags its feet. [Mar 2005, p.138]

The only thing missing is Gibbard's unique voice--well, that, and the solid songwriting that made the Postal Service's Give Up a classic, rather than just a pleasant listen. [Mar 2005, p.122]

Although memorable hooks are few and far between... there's no denying the album's ferocity. [Mar 2005, p.132]

You'll probably get annoyed after about 30 seconds. [May 2005, p.138]

The Nirvana box set isn't the Holy Grail. The Nirvana box set isn't even Incesticide. [Jan 2005, p.105]

Makes you scratch your head as much as nod it. [Dec 2004, p.162]

Album, boring. [Dec 2004, p.150]

The songs last twice as long as they should. [Dec 2004, p.152]

Unfortunately, the band overcompensate for all the testosterone with modern-rock romps like "Some Say" and with bland ballads like "Slipping Away." [Dec 2004, p.142]

Darker, glitchier and garage-punkier... a gamble that doesn't always strike gold. [Jan 2005, p.114]

Offers yet more fun funk/blues-rock mashups for unpretentious gatherings of all sorts. [Nov 2004, p.156]

A record of bittersweet delights that resonates with the brain and the heart. [Nov 2004, p.149]

If you're confused and bewildered by Power, you're probably not alone. [Dec 2004, p.146]

Good Charlotte have obviously put a lot of effort and imagination into Chronicles, and if it comes off as slightly awkward in parts, well, isn't that part of growing up? [Nov 2004, p.135]

He seems hell-bent on sabotaging his amiable, acoustic-guitar-based songs with the sort of distortion and static that drive most engineers up the soundproofed wall. [Jan 2005, p.114]

Like Merzbow jamming with a broken dishwasher through a short-wave radio. [Nov 2004, p.146]

Contributions from Chuck D... and Dan The Automator... elicit[s] enough blips on the heart monitor to keep the album from flatlining. [Dec 2004, p.158]

Sweet and insubstantial. [Nov 2004, p.140]

Clogging their previously supple grooves with banal guitar bluster and noxious singing, VHS Or Beta don't set the Night On Fire; they just dampen your spirits. [Oct 2004, p.148]

Even if Oxeneers doesn't move you, it'll surely floor you. [Dec 2004, p.157]

Amount[s] to little more than a facsimile of their forefathers. [Nov 2004, p.149]

Often feels like the soundtrack for a party that's running short on ideas. [Oct 2004, p.132]