A whiz-bang jukebox of state-of-the-art West Coast scruff-rock. [May 2003, p.126]

His most relentlessly aggressive album yet. [Oct 2003, p.119]

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

Submit to these tongue-in-cheek disco-rock readymades and it's as if you're hearing irony and an ass-kicking backbeat for the very first time. [Mar 2006, p.112]

Doughty’s fourth and best solo album gives up two keepers: the semi-absurdist 'More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle,' with Stephanie Bischoff’s guest vocals sexier for sure than any synth weirdness Soul Coughing ever confabulated, and the mournfully understated Iraq opener, 'Fort Hood.'

Xzibit reinvents himself as a rapper invigorated by current events. [Nov 2004, p.146]

There's no great leap into maturity... They've kept their salient feature--scorching, adolescent tantrums--unchanged. [Jun 2007, p.109]

Seal remains one of the best half-dozen male pop singers drawing breath. [Sep 2003, p.129]

They sound like just another rock band. The thing is, they're a fine rock band. [May 2005, p.119]

More tuneful and less experimental than their debut. [Aug 2005, p.113]

It's quite a feat: crushing, weighty themes conveyed via music that floats in a netherworld a few steps off the ground. [Dec 2003, p.144]

Their new boss's hooks are often slicke rand less arresting than the minor-key grit they thrive on. [Jun 2006, p.142]

That it doesn't dissolve into kitsch and comedy is a tribute to Mika's gifts. [Apr 2007, p.118]

Sounds like a band back on track. [#8, p.120]

Another brazenly varried set. [Oct 2005, p.142]

Young sounds fresher here than he has in nearly a decade. [Apr/May 2002, p.110]

What's titillating about Damita Jo isn't some easy flash of sexuality, but the varied soundbeds that Jackson and her producers create to house her love games, and the confidence with which she plays. [May 2004, p.116]

Exceptional, exemplary grown-up rock. [#4, p.120]

[An] entertaining album. [Apr 2005, p.119]

He sticks defiantly to formula, hustling a string of synth-heavy, syncopated club jams. [#14, p.134]

There's something about the precision of the gear changes and the crisp efficiency of Rob Schnapf's production that hits the spot, however derivatively. [Apr 2004, p.134]

It’s a steadfast assault, whether he’s brooding over dust in the wind ('If Today Was Your Last Day') or idealizing a girl (“She ain’t no Cinderella when she gettin’ undressed/’Cause she rocks it like the naughty Wicked Witch of the West").

They are still greasy rock & rollers who know how to keep a party going. [Oct 2004, p.120]

Perry’s creative-writing-class punch lines don’t always justify her self-congratulatory drag-queen tone. But she hiccups quirkily enough, and myriad big-name producers (from Dr. Luke to Glen Ballard) keep the new-wave synth hooks hopping

Fans of the Stooges' early-'70s masterpieces wondered what they would have sounded like with a big-league budget. Here's the answer: loud, surly and still barely civilized. [Apr 2007, p.120]