Most of the songs are brutal, chugga-chugga workouts, with Phil Labonte barking like a roid-raging Masshole spoiling for a fight while the band riffs away behind him. [Nov 2010, p.108]

It's not bad, but it's no zobie romance, that's for sure. [Mar 2009, p.113]

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]

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

Ultimately unremarkable. [Jul 2004, p.134]

It's not bad, but it is slightly disappointing. [Jul 2013, p.102]

You may be surprised to learn that the roadside corpse does more than twitch; it gets up and positively rumbas in places ("Girls of Summer"), while "New Birds" heaves with the same fidgety agitation that occasionally made Joy Division seem special. [#147, p.83]

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

A middle-of-the-road OTC record heavy on angelic vocal harmonies and light on innovation. [Apr 2002, p.84]

The first De La Soul full-length lacking a consistent vibe throughout... [#147, p.81]

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.

With primarily organic instrumentation and warm, low-fi production, nothing is forced--although in some instances, the tracks feel a little too barren, and overall there's not much to distinguish between the songs. [Sep 2009, p.108]

In comparison with many imitators, Tanaka does what he does well... [Aug 2001, p.88]

The record tends to fade into the background and become something so indistinct that it's forgettable, even after multiple listens.

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

At its best, the disc forges a middle ground where trebly guitar power is fortified by the electronics, resulting in a new propulsion. At its worst, the disc is as meaningful as "superstar DJ" sets, designer drugs and having your picture taken by the Cobrasnake. [Feb 2009, p.99]

Title TK isn't awful, but it's too zoned out to draw you in. [Jun 2002, p.71]

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

Unfortunately, the pretentious spoken-word ramblings, corny hooks and unremarkable trance put Maas, along with Paul Van Dyk and BT, in a less illustrious category: top-notch DJs with second-rate albums under their belts. [May 2002, p.90]

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

Choosing to keep the songs dark and dreary bogs down Mini Mansions. That criticism aside, the band know how to craft a song, letting it build and drop when necessary. [Dec 2010, p.114]

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

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

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

The band have thankfully corrected course for their self-titled sophomore full-length, but Forever The Sickest Kids is still a frustrating listen at times.

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

It's ultimately Costa's expressive, bluesy vocals that set her apart from other singers and make Something such a promising debut. [Jul 2001, p.63]

These offerings feel uncharacteristically flat. [Apr 3015, p.92]

The abundance of derivative electronic tricks diminishes Beautiful's successful updates of Garbage's sound. [Nov 2001, p.73]

If helium-filled kitsch 'n' synth tunes float your boat, this CD will satisfy. [Sep 2002, p.87]

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

The dozen synth-and-drum-machine-laden tracks that make up Hologram Jams range from percolating to breezy to nostalgic to inescapably annoying as hell. [Apr 2010, p.123]

A disheveled collection.... Westerberg's muse seems to switch on and off, from inspired to bored. [Jun 2002, p.90]

Frontman Colin Newman's pointed lyrics can be gloriously dry and the measured melodies of the songs are fine. [May 2015, p.102]

If Love Drunk's overall enthusiasm and high-energy pop doesn't win over even the snarkiest of reviewers after a few listens, then they probably don't have a heart. Everyone else will love it anyway. Pop-rock like this is popular for a reason.

Lonely Road thrusts RJA away from being categorizeed as a "scene band," instead jouneying deep into the realm of radio-oriented modern rock. [Mar 2009, p.110]

The lyrics can be heavy-handed--images of greed, violence and the apocalypse dominate, with varying levels of success--but the danceable beats and grungy atmosphere make Corpus the ideal soundtrack for debauchery in the face of economic depression. [Mar 2009, p.112]

Octahedron will appeal to elderly prog fans immune to attention deficit disorder, who have the patience to let its charm gradually unfold. [Aug 2009, p.111]

This disc contains some intriguing moments. [Apr 2002, p.74]

Arguably anything Morello releases is worth listening to and The Fabled City, while not perfect, is no different. [Oct 2006, p.153]

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]

Banks is a dense (and sometimes prickly) listen that's not immediately accessible, although it rewards those who give it time. [Nov 2012, p.86]

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]

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

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

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

It seems silly to declare Time To Die too well put together, but it's not always the shapest knife that gets the most use. [Oct 2009, p.110]

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]

There is little on Golden State to differentiate it from its predecessors. [Dec 2001, p.76]

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

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]

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

World Peace is a frustrating experience, moving too quickly between temperaments and overstaying its welcome by a good 20 minutes.

Here, vocalist Yuki Chikudate's stacked, reverberating vocals sparkle like the glint of light off of fresh morning dew. [Apr 2009, p.134]

They focus too little on well-made songs and too much on creating an angst-ridden atmosphere. [Jul 2002, p.78]

With a deeper, more mature sound, Halfway sounds like the work of a producer in mid-career crisis making music inspired by the dancefloor, but not shackled to it. [12/2000, p.89]

The crossbreeding makes for a difficult listen, even thought it sharpens the Oscar Wilde-like wit Momus brings to the endeavor. [#155, p.86]

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

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

With Ancient Melodies, Built To Spill are concentrating more on developing a single idea rather than worrying about the patchworking of the past. This fails to play to Built To Spill's strength: their firm handle on alt-guitar dynamics. [Aug 2001, p.78]

[Stephin] Merritt likes to sing about dancing--'I'm Lonely' gives us good reason to join him on the floor. [#147, p.92]

There’s a good deal of filler on In A Warzone, to be sure, but fortunately there are still some rewards awaiting those who stick it out.

While the musicianship is first-rate, the middling tempos and docile, homogenous instrumentation quickly grow boring. [Oct 2002, p.94]

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

Farm isn't the kind of Dino record that has a keeper single like 'Start Choppin'' or 'Feel The Pain.' Instead, it boasts some of Mascis' biggest departures under the Dino name. [Aug 2009, p.110]

Though their sometimes generic juddering occasionally dulls the impact, it's still clear the Color Morale are trying to be more than just "another one of those bands." [Apr 2013, p.88]

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

Merely okay. [Apr 2007, p.194]

Young New England may not define Transit, as it's wildly uneven and sometimes oddly raw, but there's enough good here--the missteps, you'll listen and forgive. [May 2013, p.91]

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

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