The studio can't really capture their awesomeness, and wile there are some killer songs on Our Own Masters, they might have been better preserved as a live album of all-new material. [Jul 2013, p.106]

Sainthood was produced by Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Howard Reddekopp, allowing the album to take on aspects of both its predecessors while still feeling new, and per usual with this duo, impressively skillful. [Dec 2009, p.114]

Dulli is in peak form here. [Jul 2006, p.194]

They continue to exercise more craft i their work than newbies a third of their age. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Overall, Witching Hour abounds with sugary swirls of Cocteau Twins melancholia retooled for a post-electroclash world. [Dec 2005, p.218]

Their songs have a weight beyond the bell and whistles, retaining your interest once the shock of new sounds and the novelty of genre-hopping is gone. [Apr 2008, p.152]

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]

Dark is one of the first great records of 2008. [Mar 2008, p.146]

Deerhoof's 13 years of experience have honed their sound to near perfection and is pleasing even to the most critical of ears. [Mar 2007, p.136]

Shows signs of nuance and restraint--relatively speaking. [Oct 2006, p.214]

This should be in everyone's stereo this spring, as it may go down in the history books as the Pet Sounds for the aggressive-rock world. [Apr 2003, p.82]

Compared to hearing 2001's instantly gratifying I Get Wet, listening to The Wolf is like getting mindblowing sex on a first date, only to have that person get a job at the Vatican the next day. [Oct 2003, p.136]

Feast delivers the meal Waste fans expect. [May 2012, p.81]

It's stylish, poppy and striking from songwriting to production. [Jul 2013, p.100]

Where a lot of new bands drop the ball is not quite capturing the state of bliss that made so many of those hippue classics what they were. But that's not a problem on The Ruminant Band. [Sep 2009, p.104]

It's 22 minutes of thoughtful, intricately expressed vexation like never before. [Jul 2014, p.103]

Stickles seems more into channeling his inner Mick Jones, making Local Business sound weirdly like lost sessions from Give 'Em Enough Rope. [Nov 2012, p.94]

The pair of albums don't feel at all like a gimmick, but more like a labor of love that gives each of frontman Will Sheff's characters the appropriate amount of time to shine. [Oct 2008, p.152]

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

These songs are silly without being cloying. [May 2005, p.134]

MMW charge brazenly past cries of Jimmy Smith worship into territory rarely covered by artists either acoustic or electric. [Jun 2002, p.80]

Kittenz is stocked with decadent electro-house grooves, slinky synth burbles and Ms. Kittin's glammy, deadpan vocals that sound like Madonna on Quaaludes. [Mar 2002, p.80]

There are a number of joyous moments of six-string clang and rhythmic dynamism... that are positively invigorating. [Aug 2004, p.104]

A tour through three decades of sonic recalcitrance, Renegades is the genome map of seditious sound. [#151, p.90]

The songs are getting samey. [Sep 2003, p.102]

The Brag And Cuss gently pulses with tasteful power. [Jul 2007, p.168]

This disc is more fun than leafing through a schizophrenic's case history and twice as loud--and this reviwer can't wait for the sequel. [Oct 2008, p.158]

From start to finish, Leveler is exhilarating. [Jul 2011, p.106]

overflowing with slick hooks and dynamic nuances, Twelve Years masterfully balances cathartic restraint and melodic aggression. [Jun 2012, p.80]

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

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]

At times lushly orchestral and at others achingly stark, Migrant is the masterfully actualized first chapter in the true story of the Dear Hunter--the band. [May 2013, p.88]

This is the stuff that draws people in and this is the record that should bring a whole passel of new fans into Seaway’s world.

There's confidence in the slower tempos and meatier hooks that add as sense of foreboding to these 11 songs. [Apr 2016, p.99]

The Home Inside My Head cements Real Friends' place as new-school pop punk's lead dogs. [Jun 2016, p.102]

This set [is] their best yet. Every member's in fine form here. [Nov 2016, p.88]

Bitter basement anthems have never sounded this sweet. [Apr 2017, p.80]

It's DM's ability to make you dance and look over your shoulder--sometimes simultaneously--that makes them relevant. [Dec 2005, p.212]

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

How about just plain old "unbelievably goddamn gorgeous?"

[A] divine disc. [Apr 2006, p.207]

It all comes together to create a perfect album for those sleepless nights when you need help to combat the loneliness. [Apr 2016, p.100]

For all the offbeat touches... Dawson's wide-eyed hope and wonder are the album's most affecting qualities. [Jun 2006, p.180]

[Cassadaga] finds Oberst cultivating a sophistication usually found in records made by people old enough to be his grandparents. [May 2007, p.150]

If you're a fan of the British installment of the Nuggets collection, this album was made for you. [Oct 2005, p.166]

Denali sound more comfortable in their skin. [Dec 2003, p.140]

A foot-stomping, bum-shaking good time from beginning to end. [May 2002, p.80]

Should please sophisticated pop connoisseurs. [Nov 2001, p.85]

What... is immediately evident is the extent to which McKay has grown as a musician. [Feb 2006, p.130]

If alt-country were truly alternative, it might sound more like Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, especially on 'What Is Not But Could Be If,' where Silver Jews leader David Berman's booming vocals run as deep as anything this side of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen in their prime. [July 2008, p.151]

Noisy pop-punk that's bratty with pogoing entitlement. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Sure there are some lulls; but the face-melting trash that surrounds these tunes proves the band still have it in 'em to, well, slay. [Dec 2009, p117]

This record contains the musings of a full-fledged adult who's still young enough to remember the ache of youthful restlessness, indiscretions and uncertainty. [Nov 2014, p.87]

Kaiser Chiefs melt their influences into something entirely non-derivative--and thoroughly fun. [May 2005, p.172]

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

VV naturally still resembles PJ Harvey prepping for a catfight in spots, but her vocals on standout pop nugget "Rodeo Town" reveal vulnerability reminiscent of the original tough cookie, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. [Apr 2005, p.126]

Everything's emotional whole is greater than the sum of its individual musical parts. [Aug 2005, p.176]

A must for electro geeks. [May 2012, p.81]

The tunes are as melancholy rosey as ever, the confessional as soul-stirringly honest and open. [#147, p.83]

It's category-defying: raw and cooked, muscular and cerebral, shifting gears in seconds flat. [Apr 2003, p.70]

It is the best parts of a bar brawl, a naked Twister party and a street race in one cumulative package. [Sep 2004, p.117]

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]

He's free to let his freak flag fly with Destroyer, and Trouble in Dreams doesn't disappoint. [Apr 2008, p.152]

Ultimately, To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere is a small triumph not just in its existence but also in its execution. Second chances don't normally sound this sweet.

It would have been incredibly easy for them to rest on their laurels and placate the faithful. Instead, they took a huge creative risk, pushing the idea of what--and who--they are as a band while still retaining their identity. And damn, does it sound good.

That Cohen and Midgett are still making music after decades of popular indifference and one act of unthinkable tragedy is admirable; that they're still making albums as soulful, uncompromising and evocative as Blood Under The Bridge is close to heroic.

Much of We Were Dead feels like a culmination of the sound that Modest Mouse have spent the last decade or so honing. [May 2007, p.145]

These clattering seat-inducers plow through both rational song lengths and all hopes of a settling conclusion. [Oct 2009, p.110]

II hits like a concussion grenade, and you'll revel in the damage long after the room's been cleared. [Jun 2015, p.96]

The relatively hushed tone of Several Shades Of Why is unnerving at first spin, strictly when considering the auditory atom bomb of Mascis' well-documented projects; but the second go 'round clears the clouds, revealing a vast lo-fi victory. [Apr 2011, p.115]

What Apollo Sunshine may lack in cohesion, it more than makes up for in spirit. [Nov 2005, p.218]

Die! Die! Die! craft a rickety balance between cacophony and attractive post-punk melody. [Mar 2008, p.136]

Standards succeeds by making the most of the intellectual side of Tortoise--their stylistic cross-pollinations, their meta-musical analyses--without ever losing sight of the music's ability to do more than engage the mind. [March 2001, p.94]

If Lush hadn't died, it might have wound up in the same solemn, yet provocative, place. [May 2004, p.104]

Musically, he's a little more conventional than one would hope. [12/2000, p.90]

His arrangements are floral and handcrafted and warm. [May 2004, p.102]

This is a record that cuts deep, but rushes right over to tend to your wounds. [Oct 2012, p.88]

The Heart Is A Monster is not only a stark reminder of why the band have been so influential, but it also underscores their status as modern trailblazers. [Jul 2015, p.97]

An LP of remarkable dynamic shifts, stop-on-a-dime time changes, tribal menace and sinister lyrics. [Jun 2016, p.102]

Like their kindred spirits and labelmates in Turing Machine, Maserati have their headspace programmed to "liftoff" in an effort to take you higher than you've ever been. [Nov 2012, p.90]

This is a knuckle-walking, face-punching, tooth-spitting hardcore/metal album that’ll have you looking around for things and people that could use a good kicking.

What glosses over those small, weird choices is the collective strength and sense of purpose found here.

What keeps this from being a cavernous frightfest is what the members of Ulver bring to the table. [Mar 2014, p.94]

Mastodon prove they keep moving ahead with this rewarding album. [May 2017, p.80]

If You ever needed proof that great tension can be generated without screaming or dialing an amplifier volume knob all the way up, start here. [Dec 2012, p.90]

Really, punk doesn't get much better than this. [Nov 2016, p.90]

There's not a ton of new ground broken, but The Fire is proof that Senses Fail consistently toe the line between singing and screaming better than most of their peers. [Nov 2010, p.116]

You & Me is a consolidation of strengths, intensity and pathos with enough '60s echo-chamber reverb to singe synapses. [Oct 2008, p.153]

On their fierce third album, METZ have ratcheted their cacophony up high enough and still have it be considered rock music. [Oct 2017, p.81]

A sweetass blaxploitation-film score in waiting. [Dec 2001, p.87]

A substantial improvement over the gentle snoozefest that was 2000's Early Days. [Apr 2002, p.76]

A well-crafted ode to cock rock, minus the cliches. [May 2002, p.98]

Deftly balancing country, classical and cabaret, the National are darkly dramatic and deliciously doomed. [Oct 2003, p.124]

This is still some of the most original, passionate and listenable music of the year, but the mood has changed. [Jan 2002, p.95]

[In Kind undermines the mood of the entire album with a series of acrobatic vocal yelps.] It's a shame, because otherwise this is a record of near-perfect beauty. [Sep 2013, p.88]

[Earth Suck] gives off the sense that even the band don't quite know where they're going--but they'll have a fine, noisy time getting there. [Nov 2014, p.98]