A gorgeous and moving album. [Oct 2013, p.86]

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

It's truly an incredible piece of work that excavates the very core of human existence. [Sep 2015, p.95]

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]

Each of the dozen tracks on his debut is a fully realized vignette that makes a particular locale startlingly vivid. [Sep 2006, p.230]

The disc may be too weird for people who like their music categorically cut and dried, but adventurous listeners will want to bang Liars' Drum often. [May 2006, p.178]

Show Your Bones is the sort of second album that, rather than being a sophomore slump, makes you anxiously wonder what albums three, four and five will sound like. [May 2006, p.176]

Velociraptor! is an energetic, upbeat, gleeful pastiche of almost every form of English pop devised over the past four decades. If you're gonna be a dinosaur, might as well be a fast one.

While they're not all winners, tracks like the lonesome, devastating "Shiver and Shake" prove Adams remains as powerfully evocative a songwriter as ever. [Mar 2017, p.80]

The band are able to overcome the production errors through Gourley's elastic vocal counterpoint, bassist Zachary Scott Carothers' pocket-groping lines and licks so gooey they recall a time when Keith Richards could speak in complete sentences. [Aug 2009, p.110]

While Matssib certainly isn't breaking any new ground on his follow-up to 2008's "Shallow Grave," the songs reign supreme and his emotive tenor mixes perfectly with his worn-down acoustic guitar, all captured in perfect lo-fidelity. [May 2010, p.108]

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]

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

The emotional tension between his folksier-Damien Rice brogue and her crystal-clear lilt, especially on 'The Verb,' keeps the listener enamoured, even if the singers no longer are. [Dec 2009, p.117]

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

Shape Shift With Me doesn’t offer a lot in the way of answers, but watching her fumble her way through the questions is a pleasure, regardless.

A collection of stylistically diverse tunes that is cohesive and refreshing. [Jul 2002, p.76]

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

A brilliantly sorrowful effort: for isolated immersion only. [Apr 2014, p.92]

With brief nods to Black Sabbath and slower Slayer, Sever rolls 40 years of metal and hard rock into a big joint and smokes it all. [Mar 2011, p.92]

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.

The Black Parade is MCR's whole raison d'etre rolled up into one mega-decibel calling card. [Nov 2006, p.179]

A more ambitious, punchier take on that electro-pop retro fetishizing at which Brits excel. [Mar 2006, p.138]

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.

Sure, their label debut feels slightly more hooky and accessible in places. But Darker Handcraft is mostly the same humble, misanthropic band, playing relentlessly, vicious, rapid metallic hardcore with their requisite flashes of D-beat, grind and thrash influence. [Apr 2011, p.122]

Beat The Champ takes you on a walloping emotional journey that proves great songwriting can compliment any subject matter. [May 2015, p.98]

Chapter Two boasts more dance-music artists than the first volume did, which allows greater leeway for the DFA to build glitteringly gritty club epics that don't stop till you get enough. [Nov 2006, p.206]

Cinder proffers the majestic sweep of a nature documentary. [Nov 2005, p.208]

You appreciate his delightful little melodies and quirky rhythmic tics more because you have to strain to hear 'em. [Aug 2003, p.110]

A little too close to the mainstream for comfort. [Jan 2003, p.91]

Often reaches back to the unfettered rawness and earthy seduction of earlier albums like Dry. [Aug 2004, p.116]

Rickly pulls off rock-god histrionics and urbane cool, as the band shore him up with a melodic roar that should convince the world to finally stop caring about U2. [Oct 2015, p.97]

Life Without Sound is rife with memorable hooks and earworms--and the substance to make them meaningful. [Feb 2017, p.80]

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]

The focus on time and its ravages may seem to place this in 35-and-over territory, but Sexsmith's songs are timeless. [Mar 2007, p.136]

It's clever, literate and pretty, but also boring as hell if you don't flip off the lights, clamp on your headphones and concentrate. [May 2002, p.88]

Bemis successfully came out of the other side on In Defense Of The Genre, producing an opus that musicians more than twice his age could only hope to create. [Dec 2007, p.185]

There’s a lot to appreciate, whether you like screamo, face-punching hardcore, pop-punk, or some combination of all those sounds and more.

The band's desire to branch out from the pop-punk scene has served them well in working to develop their sound, and Tonight Alive have certainly made some strides. [Oct 2013, p.82]

Studio wizards [Fred] Deakin and Nick Franglen conjure dreamy electronic vistas that teem with languorous grooves, lush ambience and euphoria-inducing melodies. [#153, p.82]

Everything from the swirly, '90s guitars to the harmony-laced background vocals just scream a band gazing far beyond their genre trappings. [Jul 2014, p.102]

Stagnant Pools' combination of overdrive and understated make this a surprisingly alluring album. [Sep 2012, p.94]

Well paced and thoroughly engaging, the Braxton-less Battles have accomplished the seemingly impossible with Gloss Drop: They've actually gotten better. [Jul 2011, p.107]

Wires is the type of disc that takes you on a journey--an example of how brilliant instrumental music can be when done right. [Oct 2007, p.172]

One bedroom is vaguely European, warmly mechanical and just off-kilter enough to be consistently interesting. [Feb 2003, p.74]

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

The band's fifth studio album mostly keeps the BPMs brisk and retro-minded programming colorful. [Jul 2012, p.94]

The freakiest freak-folk is rarely as freakish as the more disorienting triumphs of Strawberry Jam, a neo-psychedelic mind-fuck from Animal Collective. [Oct 2007, p.160]

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]

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

The majority of this disc expertly locates that elusive bull's eye between art and accessibility. [Nov 2009, p.106]

Beautifully melodic, quietly clever and painfully smart. [Jul 2004, p.136]

Clinic have evolved from a set of brilliantly mixed parts into a distinctive whole to be reckoned with. [Apr 2002, p.71]

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]

Here And Nowhere Else is Cloud Nothings' best effort yet--and that's saying something. [May 2014, p.90]

A document of one amazing night of music. [Mar 2005, p.124]

The album demands a lot from our short-attention-span culture, but it's not time you'll feel like you've wasted. [Sep 2015, p.98]

On their self-titiled debut, there isn't a dud in the bunch. [Mar 2009, p.101]

While it may seem as if Geneva is all over the musical map, the opposite is acually true--the map's just been redrawn. [Nov 2009, p.114]

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]

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

What could have been a sterling six-track EP is still a solid album to blast until the weather matches its summertime mood. [Feb 2010, p.97]

Their noisy attack has downright melodic elements, and the album exudes an energy that was mostly sporadic in their previous material. [Sep 2004, p.140]

A righteous wallop of club-crawling, rave-slumming fun. [Oct 2002, p.83]

Appealing on any level, this digs deeper than the studio albums to glimpse Smith's raw brilliance shining. [Mar 2016, p.99]

There's nothing here as flat-out beautiful as "Tired Climb" from 2010's Spiral Shadow, but Ultraviolet is both expansive and rockin' in equal measure. [Jun 2013, p.96]

None of these tracks are throwaways. [Apr 2015, p.92]

His low-riding G-Funk has morphed into a faster, catchier brand of soul that's often a dead ringer for early Prince. [Jun 2006, p.192]

With repeated exposure it becomes clear that these songs belong together, adding an extra dimension to the record, and those who to succumb to its charms could ask for nothing more.

They... seem to be getting better at distilling their myriad of influences into dreamy, quietly elusive four-minute pop songs. [Jun 2006, p.178]

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

Finally, the coolest guy in rock makes a record worthy of his reputation. [May 2011, p.92]

Occasionally, it wears out its welcome, but at its best it's not just homage, but legacy-worthy. [Sep 2012, p.88]

Covering Ground, is Ragan forging his own lonely--yet hopeful--path. [Oct 2011, p.112]

23 Live Sex Acts is the perfect culmination of where this band sit today: at the top of their songwriting and live-performance game. [Oct 2015, p.96]

Koala contours his cuddly cuts for the ADD set. [Nov 2003, p.118]

While at times a bit plodding, Sunshine's dizzying musical excursions become more exquisite with each listen. [Dec 2002, p.74]

A fantastic musical landscape that's practically carnivalesque. [Jul 2004, p.136]

The high points are among the most fun songs Walker's recorded.

A fully developed, worthwhile offering of Killswitch Engage's monstrous metal. [Apr 2016, p.102]

Jamie Stewart lyrically references previous Xiu Xiu material, masterfully turning over the stories to find more nuances within. [Apr 2012, p.99]

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]

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]

Calexico is back in the desert with Carried To Dust. Which is not to say it feels like a retreat, Dust is far too confident. [Oct 2008, p.152]

Essex Green do a fine job of staying on retro's good side. [May 2006, p.162]

Although his output as City and Colour is drastically different from the visceral post-hardcore of Alexisonfire, his following is huge; both his previous C&C albums have gone platinum in Canada. With his third effort, Little Hell, it's easy to hear why. [Jul 2011, p.107]

Dymphna's genre distinctions are more sophisticated and nuanced. [Dec 2008, p.152]

Even if you can't fully grasp the disc's existential subject matter, Happy Hollow is still a pleasure on the ears. [Sep 2006, p.207]

Hold this band close to your temporal lobe.

Somehow, this record sounds like it's skipping or running at the wrong speed, yet completely natural all the while. [Jul 2014, p.100]

Sounds Phishy enough to satisfy the masses and fresh enough to reach those without a predisposition for patchouli and patchwork. [Jun 2002, p.76]

Balancing a DIY mentality with a good ear for catch hooks, the Cool Kids have the ability to please both sides of the fence--which is exactly what the hip-hop world needs. [Aug 2008, p.174]

Often dark, but strangely triumphant. [Oct 2013, p.92]

Jayne shrouds his more subversive content in Laughter's Fifth's tambourine-tapping, upbeat numbers. [May 2005, p.164]

Their colorful tapestry of indie/alt/emo inspiration is distilled far more subtly then before. [Oct 2013, p.84]

It all makes for a remarkable, incredibly moving piece of work. [Sep 2014, p.106]

Much of Sisterworld has a decidedly seasick feel punctuated only occasionally by angular blasts of carnival-esque speed. All told, it's more than enough to satisfy and just enough to keep you guessing. [Apr 2010, p.126]

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