The subject matter may be a bit heavy, but the beats keep it bouncing along. [Jul 2001, p.73]

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]

Has an infectious energy that keeps things from growing stale. [May 2002, p.84]

III/IV is the director's cut of a moment in Ryan Adams' all-too-prolific career. It adds dimension in some areas, but may be too much information for causal fans of the singer/songwriter.

The feeling isn't sucked out yet, but the focus is. [Sep 2002, p.92]

Sometimes it works, other times it just sounds bitter and gratuitous. [Jul 2013, p.96]

The Postelles flash moments of this talent, but often come off as a pedestrian version of a banal sound.

Rather than try and move these songs into new territory, everyone involved seem hellbent on remaking Lewis into something closer to Sheryl Crow or Shania Twain. It’s a weird place for her to be in, yet one that she looks to be acclimating to quite easily.

If you’ve long hoped for a more mainstream direction and always wanted to hear just how sweet a singer Krauss is, Bitter Rivals could be your favorite Sleigh Bells yet. But if you’re wishing they could’ve evolved in a way that didn’t involve quite so many ballads and especially not at the expense of what made Sleigh Bells so great, this might not be as essential as you presumed it would be.

Unsound falters on ragged tune such as "Sectionals In Mourning" and "Semi-Pseudo-Sort-Of-Plan;" these songs feel far too much like half-finished rehearsal takes that could use some tightening. [Aug 2012, p.92]

Much of the album is comprised of moiody, softly undulating numbers whose beauty is offset by a frictioness drift which prevents them from truly taking hold. [Dec 2009, p.108]

While the album has bright spots, overall it feels a bit dull and without the spark that made 1998's "Midwestern Songs Of The Americas" so fresh and exciting. [Dec 2008, p.132]

In place of Morcheeba's poetic brooding is a poppy, chorus-hook-chorus songwriting style that will probably irk a lot of their fans.... From the sounds of it, Morcheeba are going for the teen-pop market... [#146, p.104]

The album's best moment is "You've Got So Far To Go," which is straightforward without sacrificing nuance or energy. If only the rest of Damnesia could have been on that same wavelength. [Aug 2011, p.112]

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

Somewhat mirthless and at times downright android-sexy, The Eraser is what many Radiohead fans have come to expect from Yorke in recent years. [Sep 2006, p.228]

There's nothing that leaps out as brilliant, just like there's not a single example of the band trying something genuinely risky and new, and falling on their collective face.

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]

Like a football running back, it's when the band put their heads down and sprint straight ahead that they score. [mar 2009, p.113]

The trouble is, not much sets this new album apart from their career benchmarks, like 2002's Nothing or 1998's Chaosphere.

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]

Bruiser is at its best when its tempos are insistent. [Apr 2011, p.114]

The simple, muscular rock and folk are matched in directness by lyrics that keep returning to troubled relationships, and risk the occasional awkward line to make their point. [May 2009, p.121]

My Morning Jacket no longer sound like a band of curious adventurers perpetually at odds with their former selves, and consequently deliver an album that plays like a sort of kid-in-a-candy-shop, take-a-little-of-everything thrill ride. Predictably, results vary.

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]

They're playing a style of politicized pop-punk with snotty vocals that's too similar to a vastly superior band. [Aug 2011, p.114]

Although it sounds pristine, Youth often drifts along aimlessly, mostly because of shapeless songwriting that stresses atmosphere and sound sculpting over structure. [Jan 2014, p.95]

Stag for the most part rocks with biting fierceness and vibrant energy. [#155, p.81]