A stellar set. [Nov 2005, p.135]

Disparate dance genres mesh with impressive (and infectious) ease. [Oct 2004, p.113]

If David Lynch were to direct a remake of the Victorian romance Wuthering Heights, he wouldn’t need to commission a soundtrack; Secret Machines have recorded it.

Celebrity shines brightest when the group matures enough to forget about its image and focus on the tunes. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.126]

She's been kicking around the industry a few years--she cowrote Britney's 'Gimmee More'--but she still comes across as fresh on her long-delayed debut.

Creatively cast, bonkers as ever--it’s a bright spot in the Bobby Digital series.

Flaunts their va-va-voom and their depth. [Aug 2004, p.139]

Michael never shies away from going pop, and the results are spectacular: Every hook on his stellar debut is instantly alluring.

Despite a new set of producers... this vivacious, club-friendly sophomore set merely tinkers with her old recipe. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.83]

Lord’s voice is breathy and sweet without being tiresomely innocent or fragile -- it’s Candyland by way of Troubletown.

She has deepened and darkened her sound without sacrificing her platinum-plated melodies. [#27, p.141]

Kasher is back to the microscope and black light, using willful musical twists to tear apart his own thirtysomething hypocrisy on this ambitious, kinda-grossly-titled sixth CD.

Overall, this is the grimiest and grimmest of the band's Bob Rock productions. [#17, p.145]

Girls isn't as pop-friendly as 1998's From The Choirgirl Hotel, but Amos's take on Depeche Mode's starkly beautiful "Enjoy The Silence" is irresistible. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.120]

It's fun to hear here negotiate the contours of Top 40 pop for the first time since "Like A Prayer," without any European house music hose-head gumming up the pleasure and catharsis with mediative schmaltz. [May 2008, p.73]

Bedingfield’s second U.S. release sticks mostly to love odes and peppy self-help bromides, which occasionally veer close to Colbie Caillat’s lake of goop. It would be irksome if not for the uniformly strong pop and R&B songcraft.

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

A folk-rock anti-Midas, he reduces everything he touches to a molten core of sadness. [Dec 2005, p.151]

Even when he tips the sensitivity scales too much... Rice’s innate, anti-lite-FM intensity saves him.

Travis may have grown serious, but at least it hasn't gone to their heads. [Nov 2003, p.122]

Chinese Democracy's non-existence is so well-known and ingrained, the source of so many jokes, that its actual existence can only be a letdown. That is until you hear it. Then, somewhat astonishingly, 5,475 days, at least $13 million, fourteen studios, twenty or so musicians (including five guitarists and a harpist) seems just about right.

A set of piano-based chamber rock so tense and acidic they need to let off steam every two or three songs. [Apr 2005, p.124]

[OK Go's] sophomore album rocks most amiably when wordy frontman Damian Kulash loosens up. [Sep 2005, p.135]

E=MC2 is Carey's most-fun album, and her best.

He took three years to produce this follow-up, and the labor shows, for good and ill. [August 2007, p.117]

It's done two good things for the Stills: sharpened their songwriting and returned them after a dull Album No. 2. to the crystalline guitar minimalism of their debut. [Sep 2008, p.84]

These are big songs, and Moore's voice fills them out spectacularly, without turning the enterprise into a retro stunt. [Nov 2003, p.117]

There's a little too much goop here. [Mar 2006, p.113]