Concept or not, American Idiot is still decent fodder for a mosh pit, a luagh and a sob session. [Nov 2004, p.136]

At times, i turns dangerously slow and arty.... But for the first time, [Merritt's] lethargic croak also emits a few degrees of human warmth. [May 2004, p.124]

The music is by turns atmospheric, quirky and joyous. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.126]

An accessible art-punk collection. [Apr/May 2002, p.112]

The Kings sound huger, less moonshine-slurry, even more romantic.

Their 14th studio album is a fierce nostalgia­fest full of cascading jangle, candied power chords, lonesome harmonies, Southern-gothic protest poetry and roundhouse drum bash.

Since avant-punk often has more “limits” than its creators recognize, respect and then some to No Age for keeping theirs interesting.

The Darkness play old-fashioned metal with such elan that at times they ascend to pop music's Olympian heights. [Nov 2003, p.110]

May demand close listening compared to the boisterous immediacy of most dance efforts, but it proves utterly entrancing. [#10, p.120]

The group's unreconstructed P-funk would sound tired were it not so irresistibly spry. [May 2006, p.105]

Arcade Fire never babbled about “horse-shaped fire/Draggin’ stereo wire.” These guys make it seem like an Olympic sport.

Glorious, distorted drill-press guitar riffs. [#13, p.103]

Muscially adventurous and fun. [Nov 2003, p.114]

Recalls the Beta Band with the "wacky" knob mercifully turned down, and the wild musical eclecticism tempered by an endearing warmth and a wealth of gorgeous melodies. [#11, p.126]

Simon wasn't born to sing over drum & bass. [Jun 2006, p.148]

Will Gregory’s sparkling webs of acoustic guitar, synth and strings allow the more slender melodies to slide into vaporous prettiness, but Goldfrapp’s voice remains extraordinary, as witchily sensual as Kate Bush’s, as otherworldly as a theremin.

These B-boys are as forward-thinking as they get. [Oct 2004, p.122]

The mood is so uniformly droopy it seems to be affecting Wainwright's drowsier-than-ever vocals. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.113]

From the way gently twanging guitar builds to toxic fuzz on 'Man Made Lake' to the whistling in 'El Gatillo' that nails the stranger-in-town vibe, the band’s best stories are in their music.

Even the loudest moments reverberate with warmth. Bridwell sounds determined to build a new world for himself, one gorgeous ballad at a time.

GGD’s career has been a gradual climb out of primordial noise muck and toward beats, and album four is their most propulsive.

Musically, his furiously gear-shifting punk-pop, full of horn blasts and arty production tricks... never fails to rock the sermon. [Aug 2006, p.107]

[Their] constant shifts in perspective aren't distracting, they're divine. [Oct 2004, p.126]

Non-devotees may prove tougher to convince, but nothing here overstays its welcome -- and Phish fans once again have a reason to live. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.102]

At once intimate and far-off... like a beautiful broadcast from a room down the hall. [Apr 2005, p.125]

The result is music that is excitingly in and out of time. [Aug 2008, p.88]

There are few high or low moments--which might put some listeners off--but texture and content, rather than pulse-raising histrionics, have always been Q-Tip specialties.

Where once he growled his rhymes through gritted teeth or abortively gulped them down altogether, now the beats let him breathe. [Jul 2007, p.113]

Crimson features enough syrupy string swells, maudlin piano filigrees and layers of production sparkle... to choke an army of purists. But these credibility-destroying effects only enhance the pure pop kick. [Jul 2005, p.114]

There are long, gloriously messy instrumental passages, and Coomes pulls off a bunch of swaggering guitar solos. [Oct 2003, p.126]

Unrushed, spacious, and duller than a four-hour hayride. [Mar 2004, p.130]

Lively and ingenious combinations of glockenspiel, theremin, tuba, accordion, strings and mariachi horns promise more emotional depth than Nick Urata's world-weary tenor warble delivers. [May 2008, p.75]

Brand New took a huge step forward in 2003 with Deja Entendu, tossing away everything predictable about emo. But the leap on their third studio album is even bigger, and gutsier too: using rock’s earthly forces to amplify the heart’s greatest loves and fears, and in the process summoning the kind of grandeur that blows minds in bedrooms and raises fists in stadiums.

Even as they cherry-pick from seemingly incongruous sources (deep house, hard rock, smooth R&B), there’s a newfound decisiveness, a move toward heavier beats, meatier grooves and warmer sentiments.

Not since the Clash has a band evoked so precisely the grime and thrill of young London. [#15, p.124]

It's all top-shelf alt-country: road-hardened, literate and dark as ever. [August 2007, p.114]

At worst, Matsuzaki's delviery can make this manic style-juggling sound irritating where it might otherwise be captivating. [Mar 2007, p.134]

The perfect introduction to Tindersticks' queasy, cinematic elegance. [Aug 2003, p.133]

If you buried Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks in a graveyard for 200 years and then dug it up, it would sound like this corroded, bottom-heavy music. [#11, p.134]

The songs transform emo's search for truth and its vivid angst into great drama. [#15, p.122]

His wisest and warmest record yet. [#27, p.136]

The Wolf sets up Andrew W.K.'s post-partying career as motivational speaker for the bloody-nose set. [Sep 2003, p.132]

Credit four supportive guys rolling out unkempt riffs at tempos so punky they reveal the guitar line of Joy Division’s 'She Lost Control' for the pop hook it is (with saxophone icing).

The record has the relationship to "genuine" roots music that its titular ratty heirloom implies--it's a perfect fake, dyed to match the sensibility of a skeptic who won't give up. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Sheff straddles the line between precious and brilliant, warbling twisty, appositive-packed tales about life on the road and crumbled relationships over cranked-up, vaguely folkish rock riffs.

Blend[s] limpid Velvet Underground textures, strolling country-rock and wry, cryptically plaintive Malkmus poetry well enough to sound like neo-classics destined for a Wes Anderson film. [Jun 2005, p.111]

Sits squarely in the middle of B&S's comfort zone: never bad but rarely inspiring. [Mar 2006, p.109]

Bubbles with kooky sounds and melodic invention. [Apr 2005, p.112]

Waits returns to spare storytelling. [Oct 2004, p.130]

MMW start with some dirty grooves, then add DJs, horn sections and singers for dissonance and disruptions. [Apr/May 2002, p.115]

Heartbreakingly beautiful. [#17, p.140]

An intentionally ludicrous Eurotrash concept album about the sweet life. [Apr/May 2002, p.113]

This set bogs down when the band flaunts its slow-chug technique at the expense of hooks and jokes. [#27, p.139]

The offhand charm isn't enough. [Sep 2003, p.123]

Effortlessly surges into the stratosphere of his better work--when not slipping into new age-y monotony. [Jun 2005, p.113]

Hypnotize has a little bit of everything: protest, pretension, comedy, brute force, delicacy, compassion, crassness, fury. [Dec 2005, p.143]

The second half drops off badly--the band seem to think that the tonic for a weak lyric is to slow the tempo to a crawl. [Nov 2005, p.130]

Pernice's neuroses sound as compelling as ever. [Jul 2005, p.121]

Sounds routine, obscure without much mystery. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Dawson's as self-assured as she is sensitive. [Jun 2006, p.137]

An ambitious, twangy and faintly psychedelic folk-rock set that still may not convince haters he isn't a twerp. [May 2007, p.102]

The Lillywhite songs are mostly improved here. [#8, p.119]

These songs don't rock; they squirm, shuffle and skulk. [#23, p.111]

Feels positively grand in scope. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.120]

A heartfelt batch of art-pop that never sounds snobby. [Mar 2004, p.117]

Weakened by a slew of club-oriented pieces that drown its personality in repetitive grooves. [Apr/May 2002, p.113]

Though she seems to be done with rapping, her hip-hop loops and restless genre-mixing still save her from vintage-dress purgatory. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.94]

At his best, Berman used to refract sage-with-guitar tropes into dryly perverse insights; but this time he's just smothering them in weird phrases. [July 2008, p.76]

This album takes major steps beyond its predecessor, "Love Is Simple." It adds a streak of joyful African funk, with sputtery rhythms and guitar curlicues.

Elbow's lifeblood is equal parts rain and alcohol. [Mar 2006, p.111]

[Kaiser Chiefs] are smug, preening and shallow, and so eager to entertain that they nearly piss themselves with pizzazz and energy. [Apr 2005, p.119]

It's rather straight where [his 1970 debut] was eccentric and charming. [Oct 2005, p.139]

Orton still oversteps the foul line that separates affectingly vulnerable from irritatingly feeble, but this is a step twards something more distinctive. [Mar 2006, p.114]

The Kills have put some machine-generated flesh on their bare-bones style. [Apr 2005, p.123]

Rubin pointed the direction, but credit goes to the band-which, for the first time on record, includes new bassist Robert Trujillo-for recapturing their old sound and reconciling it with what followed.

Would have benefited from more stringent editing... [Jun/Jul 2001, p.108]

The Hives aren't mere jokers, because they mix their novelty-band brio with the genuine anger and disgust of punk rock. [Aug 2004, p.126]

Dan Bejar is in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mode: He's made an album that sounds nearly identical to the one before it. [Apr 2008, p.78]

It's 10 tightly wrapped wads of black bubblegum, not a politicized sci-fi fantasia like "year Zero" or a two-hour drift into instrumnetal blip 'n' grind like this spring's "Ghosts I-IV." [July 2008, p.74]

Is there another "Float On"? It scarcely matters: 10 years into their career, Modest Mouse have stumbled into their best album yet. [Mar 2007, p.137]

The result is a happy souvenir, best experienced among 12,000 of your closest, Ecstacy-popping friends. [Dec 2007, p.144]

His fire-and-brimstone confessionals are as complex as they are venomous. [Mar 2005, p.140]

Regret comes in many shades, but Westerberg never makes it boring or mopey. [Nov 2003, p.123]

The only emotion here is the hothouse loneliness of an overintellectualized mind. [Nov 2006, p.154]

A condensed, highly disciplined work. [#17, p.147]

Streetwise, self-aware and clever. [Aug 2003, p.124]

An unexpected delight. [Apr 2004, p.132]

Ambulance Ltd have good ears and an even better imagination: They run their influences through a filter of solid gold. [Apr 2004, p.126]

The barn-burners are still grimy with brawling guitar, but more than ever shot through with delicate light... and the pithy ballads are crisp as cold beer. [May 2006, p.108]

Whether cranked up high or turned down low, this music has a scrappy majesty. [Jun 2006, p.136]

This new material could benefit from the kind of friction that kept Whiskeytown from being stable for more than a few months. [May 2003, p.115]

[A] patchy, protege-heavy collection that has little in common with its near-classic predecessor. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.85]

Produced by hip-hop head case Danger Mouse, who is half of Gnarls Barkley, Modern Guilt mixes ancient rock--mainly the incense-and-peppermints-flavored ’60s psychedelia of Revolver-era Beatles, the Zombies and Pink Floyd--with the woozy, abstract beats Danger Mouse manages to turn into freaked-out fun.

She still goes into circles sometimes, but you might too if you could roll a phrase around your tongue the way Wainwright can. [July 2008, p.77]

The fourth disc from her Toronto foursome Metric adds brawn, finesse and grandeur to their new-wave drive and Morse-code guitar scrapes.

Refreshingly... [Northern State] would rather rhyme about feminism and softball than about hip-hop's tired polarities. [#17, p.139]

On record five, their lovely, surging melodies suggest a minor-league Coldplay, while singer-guitarist Matthew Caws recalls a lost golden age “when I could fix anything with sound.”