Extremely loud, snarling and exciting, it takes the duo's signature mash-up of '80s metal, '50s girl-group and '70s arena-rock sensibilities and cranks up the tension to Adderall-overdose levels.

The only drawback is, of course, that the songs that do this best are better than the ones that don't...but there aren't many of those.

It’s less catchy than Wolfgang but also more creative and more satisfying.

The attempt to cross unbridgeable distances, whatever the outcome, defines The Whole Love.

While Auerbach may or may not be keeping anything removed from sight, what he's revealed so far will keep us coming back for more. [Winter 2009, p.92]

Have One On Me is Newsom at her best: precious without being cloying, subtle without being indecipherable, beautifully written and sweetly played.

Its sounds are equally rich and emotive, just not as goblin-esque [as Contino Sessions]. [#5, p.91]

Who else but Madness could pull off covers of the Supremes and the Kinks on the same record? [#17, p.94]

There's a chunk of empathy lodged between the many splurges of drool-dripping, volume-blasting guitar wankery. [#5, p.88]

The effort drags a tad in its center, but the heaviness of The Drones' material has never been devalued by a bit of lag. [Winter 2009, p.106]

It's simply one of the best rock records of our so-far shallow year.

The irony is that the closer Reed gets to his present material, the more alive it becomes. [#10, p.87]

There are some raucous shout-alongs (with pots and pans!), but the band keeps it cohesive as singer Van Pierszalowski steers them through thoughtful waters--standing boldly triumphant in the face of the rempest. [Spring 2008, p.89]

Easily their best, most cohesive album yet, No Color shines brightly-continuing to push the band to new levels of musicianship and songwriting.

Hospice accomplishes volumes by the addition of drumer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentlist Darby Cicci, creating an expansively profound album addressing life's most transitory and fragile states. [Summer 2009, p.94]

It's the perfect record to listen to while you sit and wait for the next comet to pass, as Mascis sounds long shy of extinction.

Electric Arguments makes a gravity defying leap from his supine position atop past laurels with an album showcasing incredibly raw rock, complimented by totally-not-cheesy electronic production. [Holiday 2008, p.98]

It's easily the most focused album of Schneider's career.

Yeah, it's good: vintage rock. [#20, p.92]

Autolux crawls through sophomore album Transit Transit, paring the exquisite agony of rush hour traffic with Lynchian surrealism.

This should be playing in every thump-and-hump club in the world. [#5, p.92]

ET streaks the gauntlet from breaks to hip-hop to trance and downtempo with seamless, soothing fluidity. [Oct 2003, p.90]

The progression into synthetics and New Order-isms seems so natural, it's almost hard to imagine the Dandys could ever have made music any other way. [#7, p.86]

Some of the songs get a bit sleepy, though, and at times it's like listening to a less insightful Leonard Cohen. [#5, p.92]

The Antlers maintain the poignancy that becomes them and the result is an album bursting with richness.

The songs are accomplished and take surprising turns, shot through with a mellow fury that's endlessly appealing.

Here's to Taking It Easy rests in the lines between love and heartache, celebration and mourning-and all of it is draped in a muted, silo-high production that cuts the hard edges off the record's darker moments.

Kaputt's allure fills up glasses with the finest Chablis in a Nagel print–filled room, and lets Bejar's newfound status as King of Hi-Fi unfold in all of its cryptic finery.

With Before Today, Pink achieves congruence in the album's construction, but does so without sacrificing his peculiar flair. [Spring/Summer 2010, p.104]

They've evolved into a new complexity here. [#11, p.94]

The downer record of the year. [#24, p.92]

Papercuts' fourth album and Sub Pop debut, Fading Parade, is nothing like this overwrought, overwhelming assault on the senses.

Visions refuses to rest on its laurels.

A crisp-sounding, very coherent, vocally comprehensible collation of shapely, spirited power-pop-punk nuggets. [#11, p.93]

It's retro-pop in the way that makes roller-skating suddenly less ironic and just plain fun. [#15, p.103]

Emmaar finds the desert-blues group returning to the crackling electric sound that is their trademark, but here the implicit knowledge of conflict lingers like a fog.

The group still moves within the same sphere as LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture, but if you're not fed up with indie-electronic-dance-rock just yet, !!! is still among the best in the hybrid genre.

With an intense, brooding sound, Phosphene Dream is the perfect album for those who want to take a trip to the dark side.

I can already sense the love-it-or-leave-it polarization for listeners over Michael Angelakos's dizzying falsetto range, but one thing's for sure--it's a match for the far-out music he's making. [Spring 2009, p.97]

Our hero of Whiskeytown has returned. [#25, p.89]

Apollo Sunshine has finally created the audio beast we've been waiting for--a feast of emotions, sounds and additional weirdness. [Fall 2008, p.98]

This fourth album, the devastatingly visceral Mosquito, does indeed find them trawling the more lugubrious recesses of their psyches and sonic proclivities.

Sex Change channels all of your Jan Hammer and Harold Faltermeyer dreams into dystopian perfection. [#24, p.92]

With nary a glitch or bloop in sight, the blend turns out as playful Sascha funk(e) a la Drei Auf Drei dipped in Postalesque lyrical pop bliss. [#21, p.100]

With Rat A Tat Tat, there's plenty of unforgettable melodies to make this his strongest and most accessible work to date. [Winter 2010, p.96]

The quartet's cycle of jam band guitars and lamentable retrospectives os a smidge repetitious but there's comfort in the routine. [Fall 2008, p.97]

Their new self-titled album is both more refined and more expansive.

It feels less like an overly ambitious second album, as might be expected, and more like a pivotal and dramatic step forward into relevance once again.

The music hasn't changed, but times have-and for that, the bard deserves an apology from the legions of doubters who thought he lost his marbles because, as this live record confirms, the man truly remains ahead of the curve.

Unlike other bands in the Woodsist family, the handmade quality has become less perceptible and more meditative with Sun & Shade, allowing noisier elements to puncture subtly through the foursome's songcraft.

The simple brilliance that Gold Panda is capable of delivering with this crisp and intricate album stands in sharp but good contrast to the previously released Quitters Raga.

Though the songs and tone may be different, there is a distinct, familiar sound that makes this undoubtedly a Black Mountain record-and that's a wonderful thing.

As usual, though, the group are at their best when trying to come to terms with grace and beauty.

The words would be perhaps somewhat unremarkable without the grandiose sweep of sonic majesty that surrounds them.

The Con is a startlingly dark, yet characteristically vibrant offering, featuring a band that’s learned to harness the energy-highs, while tempering pretty (even pastoral) pop-folk with a new, deeply-affecting brand of melancholy.

A beautifully wrought collection of ballads for the brokenhearted. [#11, p.96]

A marked improvement upon the blank and boring pop they pulled out of the Monkey House in 2003. [#17, p.95]

The year's finest agitprop. [#20, p.96]

When El Perro Del Mar provides cinematic sadness, she's at her best, which is thankfully for the bulk of this album--a record that is in the end, a heartbreaking listen. [Spring 2008, p.103]

The most direct album the band has ever assembled, Fade functions like one of the darker, LOL-averse episodes of comedian Louis C.K.’s eponymous show.

At a meager eight tracks, the enigmatic duo makes an audacious statement to its peers: quality usurps quantity every time.

Each song on The Spine is characteristically intelligent, observant, and poppy as all hell. [#11, p.94]

All Things Unwind is a cohesive trek that leaves the listener enraptured by Worden's talent and undeniable magnetism.

With Day & Age, it would appear The Killers have figured out the music they want to create. [Holiday 2008, p.91]

Baby 81 is the offspring of all three albums. [#25, p.96]

The two come together to create something more than an album of contrasts. [#19, p.95]

Within and Without feels tentative and restrained; Greene has toiled in the chillwave hinterlands to finally release a beautiful debut, and he's good enough to let it ride.

Produced by Erol Alkan, the album's solid. And the band stands a good chance of riding out the vapid waves of its trendy contempories. [Holiday 2008, p.102]

4 shows Dungen has a vision unmatched in music today, and an album their larger peers in rock experiements could only dream of producing. [Fall 2008, p.94]

Completely non-offensive summertime pop. [#17, p.94]

The album is a suprisingly wonderful effort--perhaps even the duo's best in a decade. [Winter 2008, p.96]

While certain tracks such as "The Animator" And "What It's For" seem to get a little lost in themselves, most tracks triumph in the end, becoming thoughtful and often foot-tapping experiences not to be missed. [Spring 2009, p.92]

Consider Sun the start of Cat Power's new musical life.

What's really amazing about Bish Bosch is that all of its myriad components are somehow pulled in to exist on the same insane planet.

With less vocals, more warp and looser production, it's a witchier, Midwestern answer to its London, dub-driven predecessors.

The Growlers’ third full-length album sounds like a sketchy Tijuana pharmacy that’s got a little “something” for everybody.

Hearing Van Etten’s performance on [Your Love Is Killing Me] and several others are downright shiver-inducing.

A solidly good, if not great, effort from a solidly great, not just good, rock band. [#19, p.89]

Fair Ain't Fair offers more humanistic, good-humored songs than his previous records, and expansive numbers such as 'More Clouds' and opener 'Roots of a tree' reveal a man who is letting his talent breathe. [Spring 2008, p.103]

Not since Thee Headcoatees has English retro sounded so cute. [#25, p.92]

Expect talk of his crossover potential, the way he weds a mighty, funny, fresher-than-hell stage presence to the tried-and-true gangsta tropes of stunts and blunts. Expect 2Pac comparisons. Expect, based off this EP, great albums.

By staying so true to Burma's superior style 20 years after it was emulated, it lacks the aura of innovation. [#10, p.90]

For all of the exploring, Shearwater is at their most affecting when they stay at home.

After 25 years, The Melvins are still showing rock's terrible pretenders how it's done.

Apples' Robert Schneider has continued to hack away at the ins-and-outs of the most perfect psychedelic pop formations ever, and New Magnetic Wonder offers proof.

While it does lack the sprawling, cinematic vibes of the previous two Quasimoto albums (and most of the skits), it will appeal to fresh ears for its lack of the sometimes-difficult segmentation and abrupt change-ups in which those records often mired.

Warmhearted and epic, Instinct aims for the moon--and sticks the landing.

It's Cabic's soft-sung delivery and chiming acoustic harmonies that give Vetiver their charm. [#21, p.96]

Gift Of Gab is assured and even-keeled on Escape 2 Mars--never reaching the intensity of Blackalicious' best work, or descending into the mellow lounge -scapes of "4th Dimensional Rocketships."

While his latest may not be as triumphant as his debut LP, Shallow Grave, The Wild Hunt is a worthy effort indeed.

Mission deliciously accomplished, sir.

All swelling organs, Teutonic strings and scathing political diatribes delivered in her winsome, insouciant vocal style.

The true surprise, then, is not the feedback and guitar solos... it's the more pop-oriented structure and melodies. [#14, p.104]

Though the sultry Southern flavor his fans love him for is still very much present, Adams remains an artist who refuses to put out the same record twice-and considering his pace, that is certainly something special.

Some songs are happy songs; some are sad, but the pure joy of melody shines through in every one. [Summer 2008, p.92]

Toggling between scurrying, bleep-spangled instruments and alien FM pop, Gang Gang excels at confounding expectations. [Fall 2008, p.100]

Lacks the robust, full-bodied sound of its predecessor and instead exercises a studied, stripped-down clinic on how to brood and remain upbeat. [#9, p.102]

Reggie Youngblood's honest and witty dialogue of jealousy, loniness, and egotism vents interior frustrations while the other Kids synthesize sulk along the way. [Summer 2008, p.97]]