The Libertines just don't live up to the hype. [Jan 2005, p.113]

Sounds like every other disc Matador has released by them. [Oct 2004, p.134]

Overall, the Beeps still seem like a work in progress. [Nov 2004, p.140]

Either the worst or the best thing I've heard all year. [Dec 2004, p.152]

The ladies aren't ready to carry an album by themselves. [Oct 2004, p.146]

It's a deathfest of sound and fury, quietly melancholy and fiercely apocalyptic. But it's a tale that grows wearier with every listen. [Sep 2004, p.122]

On some songs... the cutting-and-pasting fails to produce anything new, but a handful of others blend their textures beautifully. [Sep 2004, p.122]

A decidedly hit-or-miss affair. [Nov 2004, p.148]

Weak. [Sep 2004, p.140]

They make OMD sound like Joy Division. [Aug 2004, p.124]

A novel idea that falls flat due to poor execution. [Dec 2004, p.162]

It's important that albums like Ghost exist--but unfortunately, those albums don't always make the most enjoyable listens. [Aug 2004, p.116]

Offers few intriguing instrumental twists and only the faintest percussive pulse. [Aug 2004, p.106]

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

Sonic Nurse is better than 90 percent of new rock, but with younger combos like Lightning Bolt and Liars stealing their thunder, these well-meaning vets come off as old and in the way. [Jul 2004, p.134]

The songs have the urgency and vitriol we've come to expect from the band, but there's one major problem: the spit shine production. [Jul 2004, p.128]

Without the usual suspects, The Slow Wonder just seems like a well-produced demo of songs he's readying for Electric Version's follow-up. [Aug 2004, p.116]

At times, borders on unlistenable. [Nov 2004, p.146]

Most of Maritime's debut feels incredibly boxed in. [Aug 2004, p.106]

They lard The Printz with rote Aggressive Rock Radio fodder. [Jul 2004, p.148]

When Red Bedroom ditches the choppy guitar riffs... the results are as much of a buzzkill to Bedroom's jumpin' vibe as cops busting up a raging house party. [Aug 2004, p.116]

The music you'd imagine might play as you ascend to heaven--or the soundtrack to the WB's next teen drama. [Aug 2004, p.118]

If you read The Wire, you probably already own [Kesto], but if you don't, don't bother. [Jul 2004, p.148]

An acquired taste. [Sep 2004, p.124]

Ultimately unremarkable. [Jul 2004, p.134]

An accurate representation of the prolific group's career. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Finn employs an arrhythmic delivery... sounding like Jello Biafra covering Talking Head's "Once In A Lifetime," or a snake-oil huckster participating in a poetry slam. [May 2004, p.96]

About as riveting as a glass of water. [Jun 2004, p.97]

A dozy dud. [Jun 2004, p.98]

This heart-cleansing vulnerability renders much of Final Straw's latter half monotonous. [May 2004, p.96]

The instrumentals falter. [Jun 2004, p.97]

The unpredictable edge that's helped made the series a standout is gone. [May 2004, p.108]

Aveo's songwriting isn't as intriguing as their sound. [May 2004, p.94]

What used to feel timeless now just feels tired. [Jun 2004, p.107]

A barrage of unfocused fragments that prove this album should have been condensed into a seven-song EP. [May 2004, p.96]

There's enough patented 'Pusher weirdness here to tingle your noggin. [Apr 2004, p.100]

Unfortunately, many of the tunes wear out their welcome, overextending a single inspired idea. [Apr 2004, p.88]

Easy like a Sunday morning, and just as dull. [May 2004, p.110]

Channels the spirits of no wave via clinks and clanks, doomy vocal chants, ominous tribal thumps, abstract guitar scraping and jarring haunted-forrest samples. [Mar 2004, p.110]

The album's middle drags, and as original as they sound on their own, the songs become monotonous by the album's end. [Mar 2004, p.96]

Medicine is certainly a cohesive and mature outing, but it isn't nearly as fun as the band's previous shenanigans. [May 2004, p.102]

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

The Church's languid melancholy sedates rather than seduces. [Feb 2004, p.88]

At times their odes to the long-gone era of '60s psychedelia get lost in their lofty ambitions. [Apr 2004, p.84]

Unlike more polished bands with little to say after two releases, the Walkmen sound like they're gradually striding into some big shoes. [Mar 2004, p.106]

James Walsh does have a beautiful voice, but unfortunately, it's not enough to illuminate Starsailor from the shadow of British bands like Travis and Coldplay. [Feb 2004, p.90]

The recording quality is awful, but the glee with which these legends dust off forgotten gems like "Never Been In A Riot" easily makes up for it. [Feb 2004, p.76]

[Dalley] repeatedly dilutes Leave Your Name with empty atmospheric exercises in barely-there vocals and shimmery keys. [Feb 2004, p.80]

Cellar Door is clearly the work of a musical mastermind who has never met an instrument he didn't like--or a song he couldn't ruin with it. [Mar 2004, p.96]

Like vintage B&S, this Glasgow group's sound ranges from full-blown orchestration to tunes on which a lot of musicians make very little noise. [Mar 2004, p.94]

As full of empty bluster as its title. [Mar 2004, p.110]

Phantom Planet are shooting for something a bit less sunny here than their last outing. [Mar 2004, p.106]

Granted, the Offspring have always dabbled in lyrical goofiness, but on Splinter, this approach seeps into the music as well. [Jan 2004, p.93]

Hit or miss. [Dec 2003, p.154]

Even Westerberg knows that he can do better. [Jan 2004, p.108]

Muddy, swamp rockabilly. [Jan 2004, p.108]

Succeeds only as an inessential novelty. [Jan 2004, p.98]

There's little sign of life here, only gently unassuming arpeggios and blanketing softness. [Jan 2004, p.98]

You'd be hard pressed to find a more confessional album released this year. [Dec 2003, p.142]

Unfortunately, the tinny stutters and retro keyboards... drag when they're not amped up on desire. [Dec 2003, p.158]

Yes, it sounds like Yes, and, no, I don't mean that in a good way. [Nov 2003, p.99]

Chris Conley's metaphorical lyrics remain earnest enough, but because of studio trickery, his vocals sound annoyingly nasal. [Oct 2003, p.120]

This husband-and-wife team have made the same album for the third time. [Nov 2003, p.100]

Repetitious choruses and monotonous, middling tempos make the songs blur together. [Oct 2003, p.126]

It's virtually impossible to listen to Show Me Your Tears from start to finish; but individually, each song is a dark, delightful peek at Black in the throes of therapy. [Nov 2003, p.108]

Mostly stuck in a low gear. [Dec 2003, p.156]

The only thing glossier than the production on these high-school hallway-gossip tracks is the shimmery snottiness that permeates [their] lyrics. [Aug 2003, p.106]

They're so busy crafting the perfect pop song... that they've made a uniformly dull album. [Sep 2003, p.102]

[A] slickly produced holding pattern. [Jul 2003, p.122]

Sadly, much of Welcome Interstate Managers is bogged down by forgettable midtempo slush. [Aug 2003, p.104]

Educational and motivational. [Jul 2003, p.126]

How many times can rock return in one year? [Jul 2003, p.122]

Alternately maddening and enlightening. [Jun 2003, p.110]

There are enough sparkly pop moments here to suggest Rooney could become, like the best Hollywood exports, a guilty pleasure. [Aug 2003, p.105]

After four very similar albums, they seem to be in danger of painting themselves into a corner. [Jun 2003, p.93]

If vocal distortion is to indie rock what the vocoder is to commercial pop, then Pleasure Forever's Alter is Sub Pop's answer to Cher's "Believe." [Jun 2003, p.97]

For every great line on the album, there are three throaway verses. [June 2003, p.96]

All Around doesn't take you anywhere, but it does make where you are a little bit brighter. [Aug 2003, p.105]

There's nothing bad here, but also nothing new. [June 2003, p.103]

While their occasional reliance on wide-eyed sloppiness isn't endearing, when the band clean up, they have some irresistible pop nuggest in them. [Apr 2003, p.80]

Much of Dust is nearly indistinguishable from the British trip hop Muggs' tripped-out productions helped inspire. [Apr 2003, p.82]

Asstoria radiates a childlike glee and naivete you'll wish you still had. [Apr 2003, p.70]

A solid album, but a must-have only for Tweedy completists. [Apr 2003, p.82]

Comatose-inducing. [Mar 2003, p.94]

Musically, it doesn't seem like Chan has gone anywhere. [March 2003, p.88]

Far from essential, but... a good jazz starting point for the unitiated. [Mar 2003, p.90]

Unfortunately, as with many Verve albums, Bar's dreamy tempos and strung-out riffs, while fragile and beautiful, start to fade into a middling mess of sameness around the middle of the disc. [March 2003, p.98]

The problem: Semi-masked in the Healers, he's short an originality chromosone. [Feb 2003, p.70]

Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" loosens up into a glittery anthem, while the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" should have stayed a karaoke favorite. [March 2003, p.94]

Sounds like a good Wallflowers record. [Mar 2003, p.98]

It's not an album that will change your life, but it could alter the way you look at bits of it. [Feb 2003, p.64]

Unrewardingly dark. [March 2003, p.90]

Sadly, the electro-plated Evil Heat is neither evil nor particularly molten. [Jan 2003, p.99]

Bad news for fans of either party who'd expected the union to generate something revolutionary. [Dec 2002, p.85]

Nothing Hill works best when Adamson keeps his mouth shut and focuses on crafting moody instrumentals. [Oct 2002, p.76]

The CD's air of politeness pushes this pleasant pop music into the background. [Oct 2002, p.92]

Only one or two tracks capture that combination of venom, wit and old-time Northwest angst that made Mudhoney one of the grunge movement's standouts. [Oct 2002, p.88]

It feels like the afterthought it most likely was. [Oct 2002, p.77]