This is relaxed, realized, and startlingly gorgeous. [#16, p.92]

You & Me has a panache that hearkens to an earlier era, acting like a rich veneer. Layers of energy, intimacy and meaning rise to the surgace to become a deeper part of you and me with each and every listen. [Fall 2008, p.91]

Crowded House guys can confidently say their time on Earth is currently well-spent.

All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu is Wainwright's most personal album since Poses. He makes pain sound beautiful.

Banga finds the artist more robust than ever-ageless, even.

While there’s nothing as instantly catchy as Howl Howl Gaff Gaff’s hits, the sweeping grandeur of Our Ill Wills is infectious, with every song benefiting from just the right amount of orchestral glow.

It's a roots record unashamed of its roots, derivative maybe only because it's so unabashedly traditional. [#19, p.102]

A seeping, heaving summer album through and through.

The results are expectedly familiar, fantastic and welcome.

Surprise and relief are the words that best describe an initial reaction to Embryonic. [Fall 2009, p.90]

As simple as the instrumentation is on the album... they use it to maximum effect. [#11, p.98]

More soulful and funky than any of Dangermouse's previous efforts. [#20, p.101]

Misery doesn't step forward so much as expand outward; roughly half of the album... sounds as if it could've been lifted off of Melody. The other half is purely visceral. [#10, p.91]

New York's experimental sonic collective continues to make challenging and rewarding music on Eye Contact.

Here, the band has returned from the cold with a tight, extraordinary album that is lush and satisfying--yet still in the corners just a little bit sad.

Her tragic musings finally receive the perfect accompaniment. [#14, p.105]

The Chemical Brothers have always been kings of collaboration, and this album is no anomaly. [#14, p.96]

Dulli and Lanegan, two of today's greatest underappreciated frontmen, are hypnotic; narcotic. [Winter 2008, p.96]

The production work throughout provides a head-bobbing, arm-waving backdrop to Kweli’s lyrical genius, exactly as it should.

Dark isn't a huge departure from the previous record, and it doesn't mark some major step in Hot Chip's evolution either. But there's something to be said for holding your liquor, keeping momentum, and showing the world that this whole ride is as wicked-fun as you thought it would be. [Winter 2008, p.92]

The best live music doesn’t attempt to just mirror the recordings, but expands upon them, highlighting a performer’s chemistry with the band and audience. When Waits does that, the illusion works; when he doesn’t it’s like seeing the cards tucked up a magician’s sleeve.

Another outstanding entry from the electro-enclave, Brooklyn-based Bear in Heaven's I Love You, It's Cool is a slick ride.

Ultimately, Viva Voce get away with incorporating (and occasionally copping) such disparate influences because around each hairpin turn runs the unique voice and vision of the artists. [#22, p.98]

AFD finds the band perhaps at their most serious... and perhaps at their most bestest. [#21, p.102]

The entire album segues from one loopy thrill to another. [#15, p.100]

This is beautiful, intense music, trapped in their tiny, distraught world. [#16, p.93]

An astoundingly complex, deeply evocative pop record. [#13, p.98]

A brilliantly subtle string section and sparkling production make this walkabout even more visual and complex. [#17, p.102]