Maladroit feels like a bloodless quest to write the perfect song. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.100]

Julian Raymond's production gives the good-timey guitar-and-bajo sound a sharp kick in the butt. [Sep 2008, p.78]

Expert, tuneful and profoundly inoffensive. [Dec 2004, p.134]

A pretty wild ride, but it's not always clear where they're headed. [Feb/Mar 2002, p.112]

Dignified and confident but slightly starved for ideas. [Aug 2003, p.125]

In the tradition of thorny newbie bands that get scarily too big (Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer), they’ve followed their funny, catchy debut with a less funny, less catchy second record to prove how little they trust the good times their music obviously inspires.

His songwriting isn't a strength, and his ballads often drown in their own inanity. [Apr 2004, p.132]

Solid, sometimes brilliant. [#11, p.146]

ven the weaker material is nothing worse than pleasant, but it outweighs and obscures the better-than-pleasant; the middle of the album dissolves into an anonymously sweet haze.

Get past Roth’s pinched-sinus tone and penchant for overpronounced internal rhyme and he is a different animal [than Eminem].

JSBX still crackle like firecrackers soaked in kerosene. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.114]

McGrath sounds both sexier and more gentle, sensitive and more irresponsible. [#17, p.143]

While yet another geography gimmick song ("The Mesopotamians") might try the patience of anyone older than 8, goofiness also inspires them. [August 2007, p.118]

Full of hard beats and soft sells. [#11, p.136]

This is feel-good stuff, the sound of a rejuvenating artistic vacation. [#12, p.136]

This is the hip-hop equivalent of an all-stops pulled, Oscar-ready performance: mushily sentimental, self-righteously indignant and constantly in your face. [Nov 2004, p.138]

Glasvegas are often compared to the Jesus and Mary Chain, another great Scottish band that worshiped Phil Spector and the whammy pedal, but Mary Chain’s appeal was a chilly remoteness. Glasvegas make it cool to care.

Brilliantly restrained throughout, ESG's sparse, mechanical funk remains unique and vital. [#12, p.142]

The good news is that practically nothing has changed. That's also the bad news. [#10, p.133]

It's in the quieter moments that Sparta truly shine. [#9, p.154]

The male affinity is so intense, it approaches homoeroticism. [#27, p.138]

Buffeted by big guitars, her thin, untrained voice occasionally sounds listless. [May 2004, p.118]

The crisp acoustic production is too unerringly tasteful... but that's forgiveable. [Mar 2004, p.120]

It's a perfect set for folks who think Oasis are too humble, that Pink Floyd lacked ambition. TSOOL lay down Stonehenge riffs and cosmic mumbo jumbo so earnestly and expertly that nearly every outfit they raid from the classic-rock closet flatters them.

Filter adhere to the blueprint laid down by the breakthrough power ballad "Take a Picture"... with such anguished arena sing-alongs as "The Missing" and "The Only Way Is the Wrong Way." [#9, p.146]

Let's face it: Foo Fighters are dull. [Jul 2005, p.117]

As groups like Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem are making analog programs ring clear as Marshall stacks, Williams makes them sound mysterious, creepy and sexy again--even when geeking out on a cover of Bow Wow Wow’s big hit, 'I Want Candy.'

He has nimble delivery and a pleasing Nelly-esque hiccup to his voice. [May 2008, p.78]