There might be no other band working that so effortlessly transcends its myriad of influences, creating something authentically new, disturbing and beautiful. [Jul 2017, p.80]

Misadventures is the stuff of time capsules, marvelously embodying everything important this musical subculture offers while enthusiastically transcending its limitations with authentic charms.

You would need massive amounts of time on your hands in order to write, refine and record a debut album as thrilling as The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets.

Where the Tokyo-based quintet's heavier side might normally overshadow Thursday's more sensitively nuanced post-screamo, the transitions here are seemless. [Dec 2008, p.130]

The duo's brand of hip-hop sounds like a mind-meeting between Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton and pimped-out Bay Area rapper Too Short. [Oct 2001, p.91]

An astonishing collection... that should leave Case's peers eating a cloud of Nashville dust. [Apr 2006, p.204]

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

Listening to Portishead has always been like floating through a waking dream, but now the sleek edges have atrophied into a dusty chaos, and it's all the more beautiful and perfect for the change. [June 2008, p.136]

Didn't It Rain may be simplistic compared to its more eclectic and haunting predecessor ['Ghost Tropic'], but it evokes the world-weary tones of Neil Young's 1970 masterpiece After The Gold Rush. [Jun 2002, p.86]

Spoon deliver everything with a calm, classy Motown-pop feel, but the disc still crackles with punk intensity... [#154, p.97]

This Detroit outfit have restrained their post-punk intentions somewhat, playing with more textured compositions rather than blunt assault of their earlier material. This proves to be the perfect swirling yet steady backdrop for frontman Joe Casey to spin his cheap beer-fueled freeform yarns of lost souls and tortured romantics. [Oct 2017, p.83]

This is a test

Feels a bit like Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home--a record where bravery is found with volume. [Apr 2003, p.85]

An appreciation for the heart, humor and no-bullshit directness of the very best hip hop is all that's required. [May 2004, p.108]

There's something for everyone here. [Jul 2003, p.120]

I See You [reveals] a more mature sound, one where the songwriting is top-notch and the intertwining vocals are more polished and mesmerizing than ever. [Feb 2017, p.82]

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]

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

A sonically cinematic experience that will leave the listener feeling at once elated and emotionally drained. [Aug 2003, p.94]

The band's most obviously emo album to date. [Mar 2002, p.72]

Mescaleros Martin Slattery and Scott Shields have yielded a remarkably cohesive set of songs with arrangements that Strummer would have approved of. [Dec 2003, p.135]

What we're left is all the brutality of High On Fire's previous work, but with a razor-edged focus. [May 2012, p.79]

Full of beautifully manicured pop that's often atmospheric and always dramatic, though it certainly wouldn't have hurt to toss in a few truly memorable choruses. [Jun 2005, p.164]

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

This disc is actually a better recap of the Yo team's past than last year's triple-disc best-of collection. [Nov 2006, p.190]

It's what fans have long been hoping for: an alum fill of catchy sing-alongs with substance. [Nov 2011, p.94]

Wrongdoers might surpass its predecessor in heaviness, emotion, mood and pure adrenalin. [Sep 2013, p.86]

Fucked Up aren't the easiest band to like, but they're worth the effort. [Nov 2008, p.156]

With Crimes, the Bloods have built the sturdiest bridge between the hardcore underground and indie-rock elitists. [Nov 2004, p.144]

It might have sucked the first time you went through [the year between high school and college], but here, it couldn't sound better. [Mar 2009, p.113]

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

All beautifully realized, the kind of album critics say they love and then file far, far away. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Every track on the Umea group's sixth album is a story onto itself. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Nearly 30 years into their career, this is one of their hardest and heaviest albums. For younger death-metal bands, the message is clear: "Wait 'til your father gets home." [Apr 2017, p.82]

These guys sound like they don't even understand why punks and classic rockers drink at separate bars. [Nov 2006, p.198]

The beating heart of Newsom's tales, at turns whimsical and melancholic, enchant with a simple calculus: A woman, a harp and a story to tell. [Dec 2006, p.190]

There's no absence of strong material here, although the sequencing feels awkward. [Oct 2002, p.94]

He's singing, not screaming, and the music is genuinely beautiful in a haunted, intensely withdrawn sort of way. [May 2017, p.82]

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.

Hone[s] his twangy, hip-hop Americana to pitchfork sharpness. [Jan 2005, p.114]

His fourth album, This Is Our Science, proves the MC is equally as adept at improvisational freestyles as he is at crafting hooks that will stay lodged in your lobes indefinitely.

This is a dazzling and haunting disc. [Aug 2002, p.74]

An enthralling emotional powerhouse propped up by fantastic post-punk that rips your head off and then gently sews it back in place. [Apr 2003, p.74]

Kaputt expresses equal slyness via gratiutious saxophone and trumpet solos. [Feb 2011, p.87]

Where Music flowed with a pastoral warmth, Geogaddi feels colder and more mortal, bound to the tension between its upper and lower registers. [May 2002, p.78]

On Hearts, riffs exist in cutting words and soulful guitar lines, not glittery axe solos; and every intricately timed punch to the throat is mastery. [Feb 2003, p.64]

These six songs are louder, faster and heavier than the first EP. [Jun 2014, p.105]

On their eighth album, the breadth of Godflesh’s influences are wider than ever, and their capacity for psychological excavation runs deeper.

Bow Down... was developed alongside a movie script and works as vivid NYC filmic music and an electic-by-default modern concept album. [12/2000, p.96]

While Fantasy Empire does sound more crisp [recording in a proper studio] as a result, their music hasn't lost its raw energy. [Apr 2015, p.93]

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

TSSF have created an album that will help young listeners navigate the murky waters of growing up. As for the older listeners? Just appreciate the fact that a band this young are able to write an album this thoughtful and passionate.

This is Godflesh at their coldest and most mechanistically assaultive. [Nov 2014. p,90]

Kozelek's unique arrangements and breathtaking melodies set him far above his contemporaries. [#154, p.93]

Even if it's probably not a classic, it's still pretty damn solid. [Jun 2012, p.81]

Sister Faith is rich with engaging depth and an inventive accessibility that should put the band on the radar of independent music lovers everywhere. [May 2013, p.88]

With This Is Happening, Murphy remains far ahead of pretenders trying to steal his thunder. [Jun 2010, p.107]

Fresh and interesting. [Mar 2006, p.138]

His bandmates give him one hell of a canvas on which to paint, with enormous hooks that pull from vintage Saves The Day and the Starting Line while still sounding fresh and exciting. [Jul 2011,p.112]

Ten Stories should easily please any mewithoutYou fan, but this is by no means pandering....11 musically and lyrically engaging stories. [Jun 2012]

As dark as Floral Green may be, the album is dazzling achievement, and a total game-changer for an entire genre. [Oct 2012, p.94]

Rarely can sheer, brute force from a pair like Miller and Krauss make everything that comes afterward seem so irrelevant.

To conveniently label it elecroclash would be a disservice to Out Hud's myriad dynamic contours. [Jan 2003, p.96]

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]

Beam may continue lacing his ragged acoustic with your heartstrings while quietly whispering about a growing understanding of self, but he isn't sitting beneath a pink moon quite yet. That's surely on its way. [May 2004, p.94]

The result is a beautifully sad collision of melody-drenched, aggressive art rock that retains plenty of the fast-paced intensity the band's perfected. [Oct 2016, p.90]

The Dillinger Escape Plan are far from dead and te sound they pioneered is only getting stronger. [Dec 2007, p.171]

They came, they saw, they rocked viciously. [Jul. 2002, p.82]

MOB have managed to preserve their legacy without tarnishing their origins. [Jun 2004, p.92]

Far from the emperor with no summertime clothes, the five songs on Fall Be Kind--a mixture of holdovers from the MPP sessions and new material recorded this year--retain the electronics, but add some samples and head in a darker thematic direction.

Of these five tracks, only closer "Thrown Right At Me" is underwhelming, plain where it compatriots are--much like the great plains themselves--full of hidden idiosyncrasies despite outwardly appearing flat and one-dimensional.

"Piano Mantra" is ambitious, but he pulls it all off in an epic way--which could be said for MCII as a whole. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Blood Money's biggest strength is its lyrics, which are rich with symbolism, and which withstand and reward deep analysis even outside the context of the music. [Jul 2002, p.96]

For anyone who misses the era when Tegan And Sara were still crafting fizzy, folky breakup--and makeup--songs, Say What You Mean is the perfect remedy. [May 2013, p.92]

Exposing her honest and disarmed self more than ever, Neko proceeds to open old wounds.

This compilation has something for every fan, and with any luck, Bloodshot has another 20 years to look forward.

The Crane Wife isn't automatic for the people yet, but it's far from green. [Nov 2006, p.188]

While the band might sound particularly confident on Killing Time, this attitude never turns into cockiness. [Mar 2011, p.91]

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

Best experienced as a single piece of ever-evolving music, this is post-rock at its most melodic and dynamic best. [Jul 2013, p.104]

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]

A refreshing slice of acoustic rock from an indie icon. [Nov 2003, p.114]

The album is a kaleidoscopic montage of stitiched-together riffs and motorik propulsion, sometimes sprawling in execution but exhilarating in its reach and reckless abandon. [Jun 2009, p.109]

An impressive and diverse follow-up to an already-impressive debut.

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

This is as good as emo gets in 2015, and one of the most consistently stunning records of any type this year. [Oct 2015, p.98]

Sam Beam has returned with a third full-length that rivals just about anything in his small but illustrious catalog. [Nov 2007, p.162]

It's Death Cab's slowest and most mature recording, and over time, hidden bits of magic reveal themselves brilliantly. [Nov 2003, p.98]

The force of his personal aesthetics--coupled with the assistance of a similarly fearless group of friends-- has made for not only for one of the best albums of the year, but has produced evidence proving real artists simple don't settle, no matter how fast the calendar moves. [Dec 2011, p.122]

His most winsomely loveless lyrics yet. [Oct 2002, p.92]

A nuanced masterpiece. [Feb 2004, p.88]

In the indie universe, rarely do groups making such live spectacles have albums to back up the show--but this charming, smart, lush pop is a notable exception. [June 2003, p.97]

Riff-roaring and exuberant, this album funnels the sprawling noise of the band's previous discs into one direct aural javelin aimed for your brain. [Jan 2005, p.112]

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]

Hyro has much more on his mind than frat-friendly Bic-flicking; he tackles hip-hop stereotypes, the peculiar lure of the bad part of town and the end of the world as we know it in dynamic verses that go from a whisper to a scream without losing intelligence or intelligibility.

The despair in the vocals complements the weight of the music, with just enough melodic hookiness in places (especially “Outside Of Me,” “Sheltered” and “Knew”) to keep you engaged, balanced with some truly epic tangents (see closer “Around The Railing”).

As a listener it’s a thrill to experience the album’s myriad twists and turns. Although it’s almost ominously dense in terms of the sheer amount of notes played, Rescue & Restore’s 11 tracks still seem to blaze by without becoming repetitive.

The reference points may be obvious and the sounds familiar, but Die Knowing succeeds where so many fail: in conveying emotion, engaging the listener and creating an experience. [Apr 2014, p.91]