Despite these sawed-off edges, Nouns is an extremely accessible album. [June 2008, p.135]

Wig Out is full of so much life and melody that it stands as a refreshing alternative to the increasingly homogenous state of indie rock. [Feb 2014, p.91]

O finds Tilly And The Wall perfecting the art of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses--without losing their inherent sweetness or zest for music's restorative qualities. [July 2008, p.150]

The real enjoyment of any Girl Talk album stems from picking out the first hint of a song, mentally scanning your iTunes and figuring out what it is in time to fully enjoy it before it's gone. Or, you could also just stop thinking and enjoy all of it.

This self-titled is a true beauty. [Jan 2013, p.84]

Is The Is Are nails all of nostalgia's sonic signifiers, without any of the retrograde guilt. [Mar 2016, p.100]

If it’s a retread you want, American Beauty/American Psycho isn’t for you. Because it’s the sound of a band boldly challenging themselves and their fans to let the past be just that, while embracing the weirdness and uncertainty of the new and the next.

The fantastic Ghostory actually sounds more realized than their previous two full-lengths. [Mar 2012, p.98]

[A] charmingly naive and magnificent record. [Feb 2011, p.86]

A hint of what Pet Shop Boys would sound like with guitars. [Apr 2003, p.72]

Both soothing and exhilarating. [Jan 2002, p.84]

The album creeks through 13 unlucky tracks that range from minimalist, Leonard Cohen-esque piano dirges to demented waltzes with equal aplomb. [Nov 2009, p.109]

With Lions have always gone big, and with Holy Shit, they succeed in being anthemic without sounding overblown. It's a difficult balance to strike, but they've had the time to figure things out.

These are some of the most challenging songs in the band's catalog, yet they're more approachable than ever before. [Aug 2012, p.88]

Chicago's The Atlas Moth have taken definite and deliberate steps to flesh out their wall of sound on album No. 3, accentuating their sludge roots with waves of psychedelic counterpoint. [Jul 2014, p.96]

Tells the story of musicians creating something brilliant and new with the well-worn pieces of their punk-indie-hardcore legacy. [Oct 2003, p.124]

[Rave Tapes is] some of the prettiest work they've recorded. [Feb 2014, p.92]

Shall Noise Upon is the first album to consistently contain songwriting equivalent to their technical prowess. [Oct 2008, p.152]

Seventeen years and eight albums into their career; The Grand Theatre Volume One is a welcomed second wind.

Where "Hexes" reveled in a sludgier sentiment, all the while anchoring Wasif's emotional yearnings, The Voidist opts, for the most part, not to disguise anything. It arrives bare-chested and howling

Full of hopelessness and destructive defiance. [Mar 2004, p.94]

A raging slab of beats and sick samples accruing at a rate that may well cause motion sickness. [Dec 2002, p.86]

With some new explorations entwined, Act IV exhibits all facets of the band's alluring brand (extensive instrumentation, orchestral theatrics and experimental whimsy) in impressive form.

Finds [Chasny] in peak form. [Aug 2006, p.224]

Listening to singers Torquil Campbell and Amuy Millan is like watching two dancers perform an urgent ballet: Their equally lovely voices merge and seperate, always working in unison and sometimes soaring above the other. [Jul 2010, p.127]

Autumn represents Pinback's strongest album to date. [Oct 2007, p.162]

The Irish singer/songwriter demonstrates both his versatility and magnificence by wrapping his voice around 10 delicate but different songs. [Feb 2014, p.92]

Bassist Jeff Matz and double-kickdrum killer Des Kensel flank Pike at every turn. The album-opening title track establishes a menacing, mathematical momentum, and the trio never falter.

The kind of album that functions as both background BBQ beat and windows-down sing-along. [Jul 2003, p.112]

With Lovebox, they do another about-face, dirtying up and slowing down their song-structured house tracks into a grimy soul/funk/house/hip-hop amalgam. [March 2003, p.94]

If you fancy darkness, BDM have upgraded their harrowing sound to embody the concept completely. Tracks like “Matriarch” will remind you what got you into melodic death metal in the first place, while “Jars” and “As Good As Dead” put the band’s diverse influences on display.

Walks the fine line between indie and lo-fi rock, encompassing the best elements of both genres. [Mar 2006, p.136]

Good Charlotte are multi-platinum scene superstars, but Cardiology might just be their best effort yet. [Nov 2010, p.112

On this disc, which collects tracks from three limited-edition singles and adds a few bonus cuts, the group shows their range even more effectively through carefully (and wisely) chosen covers.

Hymn's soft-loud spectrum stretches uncommonly far, yielding rare rewards at each end. [May 2009, p.114]

They're still delivering more aural discovery and attitude than both their weary, uninspired colleagues and the legion of fumbling neophyte upstarts combined. [Jul 2009, p.130]

"Bring Me Home" showcases a bit more of the band's mid-paced rock sound, very much coming across like when Face To Face try to mix punk and rock, which sometimes works and sometimes falls very short. Millencolin make it work, although when they're punking-out fast and hard (like on the awesome "Sense & Sensibility”), things work even better.

Heaping handfuls of sound are shaped into a dizzying array, landing somewhere between a heavy Queen, even heavier '70s British prog and a more interesting Dream Theater. [Jul 2015, p.96]

It's nothing short of their highest point to date. [Nov 2006, p.188]

Wolf's delivery is more restrained as he refrains from his usual outbursts of energy. [Oct 2009, p.115]

Philadelphia sideshow punks Man Man have reached a newfound crispness with the production guidance of Bright Eyes' Mike Mogis on their fourth album, Life Fantastic.

While the pair should have more fully explored such detours from the norm, Revolutions Per Minute is arguably the finest hour for both Kweli and Hi-Tek.

Frustrated longtime followers will love that the XX-chromosome half of the brother-sister duo plays it mostly straightforward on her totally charming, engagingly breezy solo debut. [Aug 2011, p.114]

The Fall rock with scalding fury, as if it were 1981 again. [Aug 2004, p.116]

The Stills succeed where other time-travelers fail by emphasizing substance over style. [Jan 2004, p.108]

The raw sound of Stomachaches is just further proof that it all arrived from someplace honest and deeply personal. [Sep 2014, p.103]

His earnest vocals and easygoing spirit evoke both nostalgia and excitement for what may lay around the next bend in the road--a difficult feat he makes sound effortless. [Mar 2012, p.98]

Longwave aren't so much groundbreakers as they are purveyors of haunting, earnest pop. [Apr 2003, p.80]

What We All Come To Need finds Pelican mastering their post-metal craft while indulging the ambitious curiousities that hinted at on 2007's "City Of Echoes."

While Everything You Ever Loved feels a shade top-heavy, there's little denying how much Make Do And Men have improved their craft over the years. [Jul 2012, p.96]

It's apparent it takes deft skill to sound this simple. [Jun 2007, p.159]

Invicta is a real treat. [Feb 2012, p.84]

It's an album that's easy to overlook, but careful listeners will be rewarded with a world of sound. [Apr 2011, p.122]

Free All Angels is punchy guitar pop in extremis, sliding so breathlessly from anthemic chorus to soaring hook that it's hard to believe any band could actually want to have this much fun and sound this important. [Aug 2002, p.69]

Successfully blends the Detroit and California states of mind, with energetic indie-rock tunes that coo as much as they crow. [Sep 2002, p.96]

Cat finds the band still evoking the Flaming Lips and Neil Young during a journey filled with dashed hopes and the desire to get away. [Jun 2006, p.188]

While Hyperview has less interesting moments, it's an overall push toward the total renewal that adds another chapter to the band's fascinating evolution. [Mar 2015, p.92]

in•ter a•li•a isn’t about capturing a zeitgeist as much as it is about jumpstarting some urgency in a rock scene that desperately needs more wild abandon and psychic plasma.

The band's skill with their classic source material remains intact: the chord progressions, melodies and arrangements are familiar, but rarely boring or overtly derivative. [May 2013, p.90]

The contrasts of light/dark, father/son and sinners/saints never sounded so danceable. [Mar 2011, p.92]

The album maintains a brilliant balance between uplifting and confessional, playful and serious. It's the most real, honest and self-aware record FIR have released to date. [May 2017, p.80]

All in all, Levalle's got a solid effort on his hands with Night. [Jun 2010, p.108]

After the Party stacks up with the Menzingers' best material. [Mar 2017, p.82]

There's just incredible depth to The King Of Limbs, and if you're impatient, you'll miss it.

Closely approximates what Tears For Fears' The Hurting would have sounded like if Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith had grown up in Georgia. [Apr 2004, p.84]

Although the lovable weirdness seems absent this time around, fans will be in for a solid and consistent rock album from start to finish.

While modern metalcore acts are a dime a dozen now, the fourth full-length from the Devil Wears Prada should lay waste to any usurpers attempting to seize their rightful crown. [Oct 2011, p.107]

Chamberlain and Bowman know where they are going, and it’s a trip music fans should climb aboard to take.

With so much fertile ground to cultivate, though, Wolves Like Us seem less like copycats and more like proud bearers of a new tradition. [Oct 2011, p.112]

They decided that they could completely renovate their brand and rely on their fanbase to follow; lucky for them, it’s working. It’s a new era, and the 1975 are taking you with them.

Murder By Death are tentatively stepping outside their comfort zone, abetted by a new member who already seems to have made them more dynamic and adventurous. [Mar 2015, p.90]

Powerful drum beats user along the sometimes-Jack White, sometimes-Mick Jones vocals, while the guitar croons expressively throughout these low-key, lo-fi songs. [Aug 2003, p.96]

Even with these late-in-the-game flubs This Is War still shines as an artistic triumph for 30 Seconds To Mars. [Jan 2010, p.91]

If Go is any indication of their future, MCS will have plenty to say, five albums from now. [Jul 2012, p.100]

An album of mature pop that's more good-humored than its moping, acoustic-over-electronic arrangements let on. [Aug 2001, p.86]

Smart and adventurous, Wild Flag does not disappoint. [Oct 2011, p.112]

Though some of the songs are more sultry than dark, this overall effect of Lanegan up front and Campbell in the middle distance--angelic, etheral, almost intangible--is the magic that makes their collaboration so memorable. [Jan 2008, p.124]

Art Brut Vs. Satan is compelling for three crucial reasons. First: Black Francis--a guy who knows something about charging guitar rock--produced the sessions. Second: The guitar subterfuge of Jasper Future and Ian Catskilkin, drive home these songs with a renewed enthusiasm. Lastly: Frontman Eddie Argos' sing-speak ruminations are inspired once again. [Jun 2009, p.108]

Diamond Eyes is more concise than 2006's "Saturday Night Wrist" because it streamlines (or disposes) much of that album's sonic excesses while still delivering taut songs. [June 2010, p.101]

At least as good as their first full-length, Connector hits everything we’d want (and a little more).

The arrangements are busier, but Morgan's the key to holding it together. [Aug 2012, p.90]

It's probably the most honest collection yet. [Oct 2011, p.109]

Awakened is the best As I Lay Dying album you can point to as metal both modernized and maximized. [Oct 2012, p.84]

Forget imperfect--this bold reinvention is anything but. [Oct 2010, p.117]

Marriage is an album best served by deep listening on a good pair of headphones. [Mar 2013, p.92]

After the wet noodle that was 2011's Mine Is Yours, California indie purveyors Cold War Kids come back al dente on Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. [May 2013, p.84]

This is the future of metalcore. [Mar 2014, p.88]

With just his voice and an acoustic guitar, he's made these songs his own, and in the process created a most remarkable LP. [#154, p.93]

While he doesn't go too far into weeds with avant-garde tendencies, Aimlessness is still a daring collection of electronic pop. [Jul 2012, p.90]

It's a relief to hear even weirder experiments emerge on Fragrant World--especially the second half. [Sep 2012, p.94]

Hopelessly happy, Grouplove should be required listening in seemingly hopeless times. [Oct 2011, p.107]

A Hundred Miles Off is nearly 100-percent on. [Jul 2006, p.204]

While Release has all the hallmarks of a great DJ mix album, it's a record meant for pop consumption. [Nov 2007, p.176]

Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place is largely proof that what Anberlin might now lack in immediate catchiness, they more than make up for in composure. [Oct 2010, p.111]

It seems that Crooked Fingers have solidified their sound regardless of how schizophrenic Forfeit/Fortune may seem. [Jan 2008, p.124]

All four members are back in the fold and each one sounds like they're playing with purpose and energy. [Jul 2017, p.82]

Ultimately, The Knife is proof he [John Feldmann] still has plenty left in his own songwriting tank. [Aug 2017, p.82]

Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace makes it clear Verse are among the finest hardcore bands existing today. [Aug 2012, p.92]