An album whose scope, diversity, wit and heart make it instantly the best album of 2002.

While there is nothing new on Alice, the songs he develops are well-structured, elegant and as bawl-worthy as ever.

The Notwist are, for me, the band New Order never had a good enough singer, or a creative enough programmer, to be.

Shins fans will find this a solidly enjoyable album.

Sure it's a stereotype of all the things the South is. At the same time, it is a clearer-eyed view than has been offered before.

Rarely has a record balanced such quality lyrics with such pretty music; it is also a rare occasion when a record can be both deeply sad and uplifting at the same time.

For people friendly to western pop traditions, there is little or nothing in the music to dislike, and lots to sing along with.

This is a magnificent album.

Even at its worst, Don't Give Up On Me is never anything less than elegant.

Central Reservation ... is ambient too, but not so much in terms of beats as echoey space and unobtrusive production. The focus here is on ballads, sweet and slow, and every string of every strum can be heard.

The whole album is as musically stirring and creative as anything TMBG have ever done, and that’s saying a lot.

If the young, brooding Waits had done this score it would have been too much--too miserable--but our older, wiser Waits possesses the perfect combination of cynicism and idealism to pull it off.

Where The Soft Bulletin was an intricate assessment of rock's potential, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is merely a rough sketch of a new musical direction.

“Weeds,” an excellent tune which compares the English working class to this type of plants, is only one of the various epic, melodramatic tunes in the key of Scott Walker (who produced the record) present here that use elements of nature to symbolise aspects of modern society and the human condition itself.

Think Tank is an uneven album that only those with a very open mind and a big love for the band will be able to stomach.

A summery pop journey, complete with mellow melodies and gentle guitars.

The Rising is a tiresome battle between the sheer spirit that Bruce and his sidekicks invest in their work and the material itself, which is underwritten and overproduced.

For the first time in their careers, Sonic Youth are willing to stand for something and give it to you, no frills. No more hiding behind black shades and pretending you're Lou Reed, no more “let's try to make the scariest noises possible from our guitars” sessions, no more poses. Sonic Youth have grown up.

The same studio experimentation that makes much of Ugly Casanova's music interesting also results in a handful of throwaway tracks enough to prevent Sharpen Your Teeth from becoming a wholly cohesive album.

Without the emotional resonance of Martin's voice at its most free, Coldplay's brilliantly minimal musical foundation has nothing to support. So it falters.

Lucky for him, he has Lisa Hannigan on board on several tracks in this album--her breathtaking vocals almost manage to make this take of epic heartbreak to the backdrop of Irish lullabies worthwhile. Almost.

Untouchables ends up heavy on stadium rock bluster, with precious little of the musical texture and intricacy that made Follow the Leader one of the few transcendent albums of its genre.

Sea Change is different (and, in a way, less interesting) than everything Beck has previously done, but he has a rare gift that he shares with precious few artists, Prince and Bob Dylan amongst them: no matter what he does, Beck will always be interesting.

Somewhere within the radio-friendly, xylophone-banging tracks, Badly Drawn Boy finds space for artistic experimentation and growth.

With The Sea and Cake, the question is never whether the album is good or bad, but whether the album is good or excellent. One Bedroom then is a good album.

There's no way you won't be listening to this CD on repeat for anything less than two weeks straight.

Having covered so much territory, the album leaves you completely fulfilled--like any nightclub act--but ready to do it all over again the next night.

Summer Sun is full of beautiful melodies that fail to excite for the sole reason that, for the already initiated, it seems like old hat.

Frankly, this is total yuppie shit--competent and unobtrusive.

God Loves Ugly ends up as the worst kind of inconsistent album--inconsistent not because of any lack of knowledge, creativity or heart on the part of the artists, but because they can't decide whether they want to use that knowledge to showcase their own voice or mimic someone else's.

Magic & Medicine is hardly a record that will catapult The Coral to the next level; but at the same time, it's also far from being an embarrassment.

Mount Eerie doesn't work outside of its concept and, to the detriment of the songs, the album is so intensely personal that melody and song structure give way to abstract conceptualism.

It’s a confectionary delight, from start to finish: sometimes intelligent, sometimes emotional, always likeable.

With each successive album Eminem finds new depth and excitement within the same themes and structures he used way back on The Slim Shady LP, so even if new songs contain earmarks of Eminem classics, they still feel reinvigorated.

With this album, the deejay only adds to his rep and further solidifies his place amongst Hip-Hop's elite producers and turntablists.

In the moments when Shaddix's voice and lyrics don't detract from the band's remarkable bluster, Papa Roach soars.

Barricades and Brickwalls paints a broad spectrum of alt.country/ bluegrass/honkytonk music, and that variety is its greatest strength.

Epitomizes everything bad about the already questionable garage rock revival.

For pleasant, albeit unchallenging pop-tunes which will not offend anyone, but may also put you to sleep, Your Majesty is the way to go.

Nocturama is as slight and as pretty as a walk through the snow on a sunny Winter day.

If 2001’s Weezer was a second-rate Blink-182, almost every composition on Maladroit is more strongly developed, whether it is the tight drumming to the point of showboating on the album’s first single, “Dope Nose,” the surprisingly successful intricate guitar work on the crunchy “Take Control,” or the band’s return to form, producing some of the best pop songs since their 1994 debut.

The real problem with Gutterflower is that it doesn't really add anything new to the Goo Goo Dolls repertoire.

The experimentation of tracks like "Off You" and "Put on a Side" show that Kim Deal and co. aren't concerned with reproducing past success, but also shows that they are entirely capable of producing the same interesting song structures and pop pleasures that we have come to expect.

With one album, Alicia Keys jumps up from the most overrated R&B artist since Michael Jackson to the best young talent R&B has seen in a very long time.

Burn and Shiver shows Azure Ray maturing and improving the quality of their craft while settling into their familiar, pleasant formula.

This album is carried by its incredibly poetic lyrics.

What saves her from getting HACK stamped across her forehead is how she chooses to approach the material, meaning she's turned down the notch a couple decibels for the duration of the trip.

A tremendous waste of time for everyone involved.

Most of it is pretty middle-of-the-road female singer-songwriter tripe.

The overwhelming majority of this album is unbelievably annoying dance pop.

Justin Timberlake's solo debut is good.... Was this the same Justin Timberlake from that boy band *NSYNC? Could it be? Better asked, how could this be?

Eve-olution isn't revolutionary but the album is strong, definitely her strongest to date.

The tracks included in Dust are thoughtful, introspective canticles that are best enjoyed under the fog of your favorite incense and the glow of a candle or two.

As usual, Public Enemy's lyrics are relevant, intelligent, unyielding, and punctuated with skillfully crafted accompaniment.

The production on St. Anger is abysmal.

It's like you're listening to the same tempo and volume for 52.5 minutes when you really wanted a variety show.

Not entirely the soul baring effort that one would have expected, nor exactly the breezy Summer album that critics are saying it is, what Sheryl has cooked up here is a highly pleasing stew that is one third smart Pop, one third touching love songs, and one third “look at all my famous friends” posturing.

One of the best hard rock albums of 2002.

It still wouldn’t come off so badly if Moby took his old sounds and improved them, but he doesn’t.

Black Letter Days is a truly special work, and should be treated as such. Don't let the best record of the year go overlooked.

There just isn't enough memorable music here.

Even with all the enjoyable tracks, many of the choices SV makes with their production will keep some fans scratching their heads.

The work is unfocused and sounds as if Buffalo Daughter is trying to be novel.

A new set of hard-driving war cries that aren’t all that different from yesterday’s, but different enough to be entertaining while somewhere short of inspiring.

Not everything about Imbruglia’s second album is as bad as most critics would like to make it.

For most of us, this Air remix album is nothing but a painful experience.