It partly works. [Mar 2006, p.110]

The sound is simultaneously terse and expansive--moody and powerful, shot through with singer Chris Martin's grainy delivery. [#9, p.145]

Yanqui U.X.O.'s five long tracks unfold in distinct movements, like symphonic '70s prog, but with rawer, emotional atmospherics. [#13, p.93]

A terrific joy bomb of power chords and power-pop keyboard riffs. [#27, p.142]

The best song on Super Taranta! is all about one <i>bad</i> party: the disappointed, outright funny 'American Wedding. [Aug 2007, p.111]

They might sound like Girl Scouts, but these are tough cookies. [Aug 2007, p.117]

It's protest music gone gleefully psycho. [Jul 2005, p.122]

The recording quality on their debut album is admirably scuzzy; the drums sound like somebody’s banging a cereal box on the floor, which is part of the immediate charm.

Though not as ambitious or original as the [White] Stripes at their best, the VB's indelible punk-rock blues parks a new car in the Motor City garage. [Apr 2004, p.136]

The arrangements pound and lurch through acrid garage-punk riffs with crazy sureness. [Dec 2005, p.145]

Resistance is useless. [Oct 2005, p.139]

Gorgeously understated. [Nov 2006, p.138]

[Moffat's] monotone is offset by colorful arrangements. [May 2003, p.114]

Dulcet R&B hooks are spoonfuls of sugar that make De La catchy enough for a new generation of fans. [Nov 2004, p.132]

This free-wheeling debut has the potential to run and run, carried aloft on the shoulders of the overly emotional. [#18, p.131]

Grand in scope, majestic in sweep and only 57 percent pretentious. [#27, p.143]

The Sparks' performances are so understated, their arrangements so mechanically soothing, that it's easy to miss Rennie's brutal, elegant twists on folk cliches. [Jul 2006, p.99]

The tracks are catchy, meaty and modern. [Sep 2007, p.131]

For the first time in El-P's career, he's realized you don't need to be loud to get your point across. [Apr 2007, p.110]

Their best, most expansive album. [#8, p.112]

It's sharp and in your face, like a scimitar. [Oct 2007, p.110]

Proves they can do just fine without the foggy-hollow reverb they've always used to make their meandering sound mysterious. [Oct 2006, p.139]

Rising Down is tightly focused and appealingly modest in its ambitions.

Singer-guitarist Eric Earley accesses the haunted Americana Wilco nailed on "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," with big nods to mid-'60s Bob Dylan, early-'70s Neil Young and the country Grateful Dead. [Oct 2008, p.78]

Brainy, brooding, classically "indie" guitar music. [#16, p.121]

It flows like a scrapbook rather than a novel, but it portrays them as diligent experimenters and meticulous melodists who have been liberated by embracing restrictions. [Sep 2004, p.155]

The big surprise on the 61-year-old’s follow-up isn’t her knockout voice--it’s the sympathetic backup provided by Lynyrd Skynyrd–worshippers Drive-By Truckers (whose guitarist, Patterson Hood, produced the record). The well-selected, never-obvious covers of songs by writers from Elton John to Willie Nelson are unflinching tales of struggle and survival.

Fans of the TV show will have heard versions of almost all these songs before. The problem is, they've also seen these songs before.