The doggedly retro approach ultimately muzzles the Noise COnspiracy's radical bite. [Nov 2005, p.136]

Thompson's pure, effortlessly soaring vocals feel undimmed by time. [#9, p.156]

The best songs have concise melodies and a likeable punch. The worst just sound like sketches, riffs a more traditionally ambitious group would have discarded. [#8, p.116]

The bonus disc of dance remixes merely piles another layer of fastidiousness atop the already epically fussed-over tracks. [2007 Aug, p.120]

Think 1993's hit "Regret," but with tougher guitars, rockier grooves and a more up vibe. [Oct/Nov 2001, p.113]

Even though there's nothing new, the album offers enough in the way of big-beat guitar and sing-along choruses to keep Smash Mouth on the charts for another two years. [#4, p.123]

The results range from stupid to sexy to irresistably stupid. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.103]

Occasionally overblown... [Aug/Sep 2001, p.132]

Most of the tracks don't quite rise above their obvious influences, Radiohead and U2. [#10, p.118]

Continues Cash's no-fun, high-literary period. [#15, p.121]

The soundtrack is faultlessly authentic, though you might wish it weren't so damned reverent. [Mar 2004, p.130]

Paired with the Kids’ fidelity to verse/chorus pop, Pryor’s boyishly confident, hopeful delivery can sound pro forma, even mindless.

For an album almost four years in the making, it's frustratingly half-finished, like a series of preliminary sketches. [#27, p.142]

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

Exactly zero songs on Spirit come close to matching 'Bleeding Love.' On the album, she fares best when not allowed to overindulge in her sterling voice as on the haunting electro kiss-off 'Take a Bow' and the svelte power ballad 'I Will Be,' co-written by Avril Lavigne.

Occasional flashes of brilliance transcend the deja-vu pastiche. [Apr 2005, p.113]

The songs aren't strong enough to hold the disparate influences together. [#13, p.91]

This Is Not A Test lacks feeling--besides beats, what else what does she care about? [Jan 2004, p.102]

A letdown after Chicken-N-Beer. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.111]

While their new album never thrashes, it at least keeps its pretty bare feet on Mother Earth.

Negativland's chugging cacophony seems a fitting and grisly tribute to human road kill. [#11, p.138]

Split[s] the difference between guaranteed hook appeal and a decent simulation of emotional truth. [Oct 2004, p.129]

The title song is killer, but built of such familiar musical materials that when it comes around the third time, it’s plumb tuckered out. The track is one of three standouts that run over five minutes, and all three are too long.

Unfortunately, the ticked-off one breaks up the most consistently grooving album of his career with too many well-meaning but intrusive conspiracy-minded skits. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.110]

Osborne clearly believes that her love for this material gives her the right to make it her own--which she does, convincingly. [#10, p.125]

Brainwashed suggests that Harrison's last years were largely comfortable, slow-paced and unaffected by any worries about his relevance. [#12, p.144]

An instrument-juggling, one-man-band approach that recalls the romantic, psychedelic pop of the Zombies and the textured electronics of Radiohead.

His flat baritone suggests he’s still new at this whole “getting angry” thing, but the dude’s got the damaged part down.