A must-hear. [May 2005, p.138]

A sprawling, 17-song, 64-minute monster that is without a doubt the finest music these three artists--vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and bassist Jeremy Davis--have ever made.

A quantum leap above not only Brand New's prior work... but beyond anything that any band in this scene are currently creating. [Jan 2007, p.129]

[They] satisfy largely by serving up more of what made their debut so good. [Dec 2003, p.142]

For an elite cadre of sound warriors, the disc perfectly bridges Slayer's demonic metallic riff majesty with the maniacally convoluted dynamics of French prog-rockers Magma. [Dec 2005, p.216]

Simple Math is a perfect interpretation of an imperfect man's life, and hopefully just another chapter in the larger story Manchester orchestra have yet to reveal. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Finally, Coheed have made an album worthy of repeat listens, rather than a monster you skim through to hit the interesting parts. [Nov 2005, p.218]

Not many albums make you smile so much your face hurts. [Oct 2005, p.156]

Revelations is Muse's best work yet primarily because of the fluid balance it keeps between excess and restraint. [Aug 2006, p.220]

A devastatingly beautiful collection of songs, and in some circles, it could be the best album released this year. [May 2005, p.124]

As with everything in Tool's oeuvre, 10,000 Days packs enough beauty, heartache and triumph that it will be dissected, studied and envied by younger bands for years to come. [Jul 2006, p.196]

A massive instrumental effort, as skilled and musical as it is on-the-fly improvised and messy. Seamlessly blending sonic experiments with live group interactions, godspeed saunter through these four extended pieces with ease. [#150, p.94]

It’s incredible just how good Dreyer is at making you connect with his characters, and how equally good his band are at backing him up.

This Is For Real is the album Aerosmith might make if they were back on the sauce. [Jul 2004, p.146]

Hot Chip strip down their influences, reworking scores of sound into new, distinctly original machinations. [Aug 2006, p.222]

The Queens have officially given us the first legitimate Album Of The Year candidate for 2005. [May 2005, p.130]

All invention and no indulgence. [Jun 2004, p.110]

Every track on Basement is a highlight. [Nov 2004, p.150]

Two masterpieces. [Dec 2004, p.158]

It may be one of the least "punk" albums a pop-punk band will make this year--but it's probably one of the best, too. [Feb 2006, p.113]

They care not a whit about market share, EDM remixers or having annoying YouTube stars and/or rappers guest on their sessions, choosing instead to light up psychic votive candles for Joe Strummer, Desmond Dekker and Lemmy in order to capture the very same spirit those artists conjured all those decades ago.

One of the brightest and catchy offerings for Sub Pop all year. [Nov 2006, p.188]

Lound insanity is sexy; quiet insanity is sexier. [Sep 2003, p.118]

Like most good thematic albums, or films or books, for that matter, it's hard to put the pieces together on Album Of The Year, and just when you think you've got the narrative unraveled, you'll rediscover another lost passage or double entendre. [Sep 2004, p.122]

The Mars Volta have created the first great record of 2008. [Mar 2008, p.145]

[They] clearly sound alive with the possibility of redefining punk song structure by writing 11-minute flamboyant guitar dirges that have as much in common with My Bloody Valentine as they do with '70s arena rock. [May 2005, p.170]

As edgy as singer-songwriter pop gets. [Oct 2005, p.158]

The irony police already have an APB out on these dudes... but in reality, the old guard are just jealous because they didn't think of it first. [Dec 2005, p.206]

It's the urgency of [Dizzee's] brash Brit patois that dares you not to decipher it. [Jan 2005, p.114]

The Dolls' music... is as gripping as ever. [Jun 2006, p.188]

As is the case whenever [Kurt] Wagner's velvet croon wraps itself around a night that ends so late it's already morning... there really isn't a critic in the world who can touch him. [combined review of both discs; Mar 2003, p.94]

Long live the king of hip. [May 2005, p.132]

The words are as bleak as ever, and the songs still cut like coal-black shards of anti-pop bitterness. [Apr 2006, p.204]

Reznor sets his machinery on "kill" and points it toward authority and herd mentality. [Jun 2007, p.158]

“Without Any Words (Only Crying And Laughter)” harkens back to the magnificent Gun Club, while “This Life Is Old” will have Jack White wondering who the hell these guys are, anyway. Because Scogin and drummer Michael McClellan bring the noise in the most righteous ways. ... Two Parts Viper is the best record of the year.

Riskier but not totally out of character; it's the more holistic right brain to Wide Awake's rational left brain. [Feb 2005, p.81]

There isn't one song on Elevator as undeniable as "Bandages"... No, there are 12 of them. [May 2005, p.172]

This revisitation of the band's canon burns brighter than a thousand nuclear-rector accidents. [Nov 2005, p.218]

A full-on party record. [Nov 2005, p.201]

The band update a tired synth-pop sound with purring guitars and just enough punked-out drum and vocal flourishes to give texture to what might otherwise have become new-wave wallpaper. [Nov 2003, p.114]

Walker has gone as far into the atmosphere as one can travel while still being earthbound. [Jul 2006, p.210]

The duo have crafted a disc that grafts underground rawness (garage rock, no wave, electro, classic '80s goth) to their taut dance grooves. [Sep 2004, p.140]

Sing The Sorrow soars with the kind of melodies hit singles are made of, yet it somehow persists with AFI's esoteric darkness. [Apr 2003, p.69]

The eight tracks here defy formula, instead feeding off of one another in a cannibalistic frenzy of samples and constantly shifting beats... This is a deceptive and brilliant album. [#147, p.98]

Equally adept with paradiddles and software plugins, these digital-age surrealists have birthed a musical hybrid all their own. [Nov 2003, p.100]

Indestructible is the document of a band retaining their energy and refining their vision to be honest to themselves and their fans, while spitting venom in the eyes of their detractors. [Oct 2003, p.115]

Elan Vital is easily the band's most adventurous disc to date. [Jun 2006, p.178]

A raw portrait of a 20-something disenchanted with his city, his country and his life. [Feb 2005, p.81]

While some bands might try to ignore the pressure that comes with a raised profile, Touche seem to have embraced it, producing their most frantic, panicked, passionate and best album of their career. [Oct 2013, p.81]

Remarkably cohesive. [Aug 2005, p.176]

One of the few albums that deserves its Pitchfork-generated hype. [Jul 2006, p.204]

Some of the most evocative music of this century. [Dec 2002, p.97]

Z is their OK Computer, an album of scope and resonance that lasts far longer than its 40-minute run-time. [Oct 2005, p.162]

Absolution's chaotic choruses feel like the triumphant culmination of some earth-shattering undertaking. [Jul 2004, p.146]

Once again, A Perfect Circle have quietly produced a masterpiece that challenges the very nature of testosterone-fueled angst. [Nov 2003, p.110]

A gimmick-free indie-rock record that's both instantly gratifying and that seems destined to join the timeless-pop pantheon. [Dec 2005, p.202]

This is Calexico at their finest. [March 2003, p.86]

Oracular may be a complex effort, but the verdict is simple--it's brilliant. [Feb 2008, p.115]

Blue Record truly depicts a band at the peak of their powers. [Nov 2009, p.106]

Home Acres is rooted in stunning energy that tells the tale of a Midwestern dream falling apart. [Apr 2010, p.122]

Manchester Orchestra are no strangers to reinvention, but this is a bold step. It’s a grower of a sound: folky yet enormous, like Fleet Foxes at their most widescreen, and with no immediate hooks (“The Gold” is close, though). When they do emerge, they’re not easy.

A melodic masterpiece of regret. [Oct 2003, p.122]

On Nothing Violates This Nature, the Boston hardcore mob demonstrate once and for all that they’re far more than the sum of their parts. It is also one of the angriest and most violent records you will encounter in 2013.

Even in its darkest moments... [This Too] remains grounded in a beautiful humanity. [Mar 2007, p.136]

Bits of experimentation still poke through, especially on the dissonant, heart-rendering "Rabbit Foot," which neatly stitches up Defeater's past while pointing toward fresh dynamics and future chapter to come. [Aug 2013, p.86]

Performing some of thre best party music for smart people this side of Black Lips, the rest of the band match Reis' powerhouse vocal eccentricities with a perfectly calculated degree of rock 'n' roll swagger, blasting ahead like the Wipers one minute and settling into a slow-burning Bo Diddley groove the next. [May 2008, p.128]

The album is a triumph, a huge step forward for a band that should be regarded as one of the best in the genre.

It harnesses Circa's best qualities and adds a sense of direction previous releases somewhat lacked. [May 2010, p.105]

They've honed their sound perfectly, hitting every mark they set and making Because Of The Times kick so much ass that it demands you respect them as new rock royalty. [May 2007, p.152]

What elevates Jim from faux-soul Jamiroquai ghetto is the effortless exuberance and keen reverence that Lidell brings to the vocals and arrangements, hand-crafting dusty grooves as fresh as the first drop of the needle. [July 2008, p.162]

We All Belong is phenomenally consistent.

There’s so much depth to absorb here, yet it’s also instantly rewarding, and it happens time and again on Oh, Common Life; as adventurous as the album is, there’s nary a misstep to be found.

Seamlessly picks up right where 2003's Transatlanticism left off. [Nov 2005, p.208]

P.O.S. has raised the bar again. [Mar 2009, p.114]

The band have transcended to a newfound comfort, creating the most natural music of their career. [Jun 2015, p.97]

A record bubbling with fresh sounds and creativity, one that proves Alias has not only not lost his touch--he' s improved upon it. [Oct 2008, p.162]

It's an album without pretense or misstep. [May 2014, p.88]

Thermals don't aim to shock. They don't aim to please, either, and their dynamic punk spirit is as smart and infectious as when they began in 2002. [May 2013, p.92]

The songwriting is daring yet tightly focused, catchy yet crushing, but executed with a level of skill that’s an obvious reflection of the band’s greater experience.

This album truely is a collection of gems. [Oct 2007, p.162]

At times, the effect is akin to hearing Tortoise and Animal Collective covering the Steve Reich and Devo catalogs in tandem; but such reference points barely do justice to an album that just halfway through 2007, is already topping the year's best-of list in multiple genres. [Jun 2007, p.151]

The sextet take glitchy electronics, nerdy psychedelic rock and various forms of hip-hop to create a completely over-the-top concept album--and it works perfectly. [Dec 2006, p.208]

Shed's a wonderfully rough and ambitious re-introduction from Title Fight that occasionally belies the band's youth. [Jun 2011, p.111]

Unlike most of his contemporaries, singer-songwriter Gough is willing to explore all sorts of styles while allowing himself to be as playful or serious as he wants. [Dec 2002, p.74]

The Dream Walker tempers its aggression with songwriting nuance and emotional clarity.

A blissed-out menagerie of subtly morphing beats and elegant melodies within a dub framework. [Oct 2002, p.88]

What really impresses on the quintet's sophomore stunner is the way Black Mountain effortlessly shift from devastating to devastatingly beautiful. [Feb 2008, p.117]

Everything is organic, unforced and so subtly constructed that much of the time you don't so much hear the songs as feel them. Beautiful. [Feb 2014, p.91]

Feels like a jam session--bluesy keyboard lines and guitar riffs busk with soul-inflected harmonies, world-music percussion and complex, exotic rhythms. [Apr 2002, p.68]

The album's primary footholds--those downstrokes; that kick drum; those poker-faced paeans to wizards and wenches--are as true, and as sinisterly black-and-blue, as doom metal gets. [May 2008, p.136]

The hope was that Beach Slang would be the next great melodic punk band; with this album, that's no longer in question. [Nov 2015, p.96]

It's an album that holds nothing back. [Apr 2017, p.82]

Smartly packaged pop that's as slick as Stereolab, but human enough--thanks to Coyne's earnestness and sincerity--to malfunction in all the right places. [Sep 2002, p.77]

With Gilbert's powerful pipes and his bang-on production values, Shai Hulud have never sounded better than on Reach Beyond The Sun. [Mar 2013, p.89]

Dave Fridmann's grand production touches enhance BMSR's otherworldly aura, adding dazzling glaze to this fruity cake. [Jun 2009, p.108]

Shit rules so hard. [Oct 2009, p.108]

What ultimately makes Similes so wonderful is that with every listen it seems to peel away the world around you, immersing you in its warmth, and for 43 minutes, it makes it so hard to believe that everything that might be wrong in your life actually matters at all.

They've given their songs a spine. Stark and deliberate, menageries of vocals ricochet irresistibly between reverb, piano and floor toms and stripped-down Americana. [Apr 2009, p.135]