The boldest album of their career. [Mar 2005, p.141]

The hooks come off-kilter and all killer.

Micachu has made one of the strongest debuts of the year.

Heartbreakingly beautiful. [#17, p.140]

Anyone expecting Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons to torch their formula--multiple vocalists drop by and trip the light fantastic--will be disappointed; but their best record since the '90s proves they don’t have to.

Sparxxx is no producer's creation. His lexicon is deep, his diction clear and his words resolute. [Sep 2003, p.130]

Maas translates this superclub-oriented sound -- all tectonic bass and whooshing stero-panned effects -- into home-friendly music. [Apr/May 2002, p.115]

Amerie's heat is irresistible, in large part because it's subtle. [Jun 2005, p.108]

Beans's themes may be everyday, but thankfully his wit isn't. [Nov 2004, p.129]

Roars like Led Zeppelin, churns like King Crimson and throbs like early Santana. [#17, p.138]

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

The genius of Sexsmith’s seventh and best work is the way he surrounds (or, depending on your perspective, atones for) the empathy overload with deftly assimilated, gloriously ascendant pop hookcraft.

[Annie] masterfully fus[es] synth-pop rhythms with her own feline coos. [Jun 2005, p.108]

Baker... somehow makes them sound more outrageous--and more convincing. [Dec 2005, p.148]

The lighthearted genre-hopping suggests nothing so much as a Broadway smash about a restless country star, borrowing from many styles, beholden to none.

Another assault of angular, Sonic Youth-style guitar and earnest anger that's more leftfield than most punk, and more engaging than many of their post-rock peers. [Feb/Mar 2002, p.110]

Blink-182 have found a new, angrier way to never leave junior high. [Dec 2003, p.135]

These rough, bitter, ruminative songs are slower, longer and wordier than those on Decoration Day. [Sep 2004, p.139]

With innovative, funk-influenced beats and engaging rhymes, Lif brilliantly avoids the pitfalls of vacuous bling-drones and 'real hip-hop" whiners alike. [#10, p.124]

With On and On, Johnson pushes past those folk- and root-distressed interiors and glides into cool new musical areas. [#16, p.122]

Transcends their last album with lean hooks that trade urban melancholy for a surprisingly pastoral warmth. [#11, p.136]

The demo versions... sound like an incompetent Clash cover band rehearsing in a sock.... If you're considering buying this glorious record for the first time, save 20 bucks and go for the basic version. [Oct 2004, p.136]

His rage is mostly disguised within the most anthemic music he's made since the '80s. [Nov 2007, p.143]

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]

The music is dizzying, even mesmerizing.

Saadiq is a romantic who stays true to the deliberate simplicity of such titles as 'Sure Hope You Mean It' and 'Just One Kiss.' But his adaptable baritone is always crisp and cocky--he never threatens to assume the fetal position if he doesn’t get the extreme cuddling he craves.

A great record to play at 3 A.M. [#10, p.112]

The big-screen sweep and high-definition melodies (suggesting Weezer’s sluggish pep buoyed by the Flaming Lips’ hallucinatory orchestrations) make this “malfunctioning android”’s anthems of depression extra vivid.