A fluid record packed with full songs. [#10, p.88]

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

Rather than trying to funk up and freak out the tunes with oddball sonic contributions, the fivesome rely heavily on the strength of their three-part harmonies and the head-bouncing guitar hooks. [#10, p.90]

Might well be his most brilliant yet. [#10, p.86]

While there are a few slow points on The Trial Of The Century... the album is leaps and bounds away from One Time Bells, production and songwriting-wise. [#10, p.96]

It hurts, but like another ferocious beast said, it hurts so good. [#10, p.94]

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

Yes, there are the makings of an ambient symphony... but the more prominent strains of folk instrumentation--accordions, banjos and glockenspiels--suggest to us that maybe it's not all gloom and glum. [#10, p.91]

While Hannon's aesthetic/literary weltanschauung is rather haughty, it succeeds by sheer force of intellect and style. [#11, p.95]

You want to praise them for their attempts to define a unique voice, but a unique voice isn't necessarily an interesting one. [#11, p.96]

The new songs are some of the best they've ever recorded, and just finishing this collection is a big testament to their staying power. [#10, p.89]

Enigmatically beautiful, yet stinging with bitter cold. [#10, p.90]

Not since Cornelius' Fantasma has the element of surprise manifested itself as fully as on this record. [#9, p.110]

A choice specimen of audio sophisitication. [#9, p.106]

Music for smoking and looking bored has rarely ever been this decisively brilliant. [#10, p.98]

It's passionate. It's thoughtful. It's catchy. It's their breakout moment, their best record, and... it will be one of the best albums of 2004.[#9, p.100]

It's hard to believe that a guy so apparently bombed out of his head... can concoct such well-crafted pop songs. [#11, p.98]

Drones with the grit of a band that means it this time. [#9, p.103]

A massive concept album that is so gluttonously huge-sounding that it makes The Wall sound like a Sebadoh record. [#10, p.94]

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]

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

The worst record [Homme's] name has ever graced. [#10, p.89]

With honeyed vocals and the tender touch of acoustic guitar, he is already showing signs of songcraft perfection on his second LP. [#9, p.109]

Sound[s] like a poppy hodgepodge of My Bloody Valentine, Elliott Smith and Sonic Youth. [#9, p.106]

The formula seems tired, or at least stretched too thin to be effective. [#9, p.101]

Raw, crunchy beats and ugly, monster flows delivered in a punk album format. [#9, p.110]

By not making sense as we know it, cLOUDDEAD creat music that is open to interpretation. [#10, p.96]

An unflinching major label debut, as well as a straight rock album that straddles confidently that tricky space between rawness and posturing. [#10, p.95]

Schizophrenic, stark, and even with its pretentious theatrics, this is an amazing record. [#9, p.104]

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]

Relentlessly sultry, with lush arrangements framed by slamming dance beats. [#9, p.102]

It’s hard to tell if the band wants us to revel along in their psychosis or throw up our hands with disgust.

Alternating from quietly meditative numbers to aggressive drum ‘n’ bass backdrops, Between Darkness And Wonder treads carefully between insight and superficiality, but ultimately ends up... closer to the former.

A double album slough of easy listening instrumentals. [combined review of both discs; #9, p.108]

Gone are the fun hooks of [Nixon], and the genre jumping majesty of 1999's What Another Man Spills. [combined review of both discs; #9, p.108]

Has a slick slutty electroclash vibe. [#9, p.102]

An album awash in evocative warmth. [#9, p.111]

Possesses a rare beauty and a singluar honesty. [#9, p.111]

If all goes well, people will forego the bad songs and concentrate on the really good ones, and Starsailor will get the message to go subtle and tight. [#8, p.102]

Stereolab don't stray too far from their formula, and for once that's a really good thing. [#10, p.88]

She dives into a murkier, less-definable world that is part acoustic neo-soul, part spoken word and dreamier than you might imagine. [#9, p.102]

Unhurried, deliberate and raw.

It's a bit all over the map, but you have to admit there's some good music there. [#8, p.102]

A modern day West Coast classic. [#7, p.90]

It literally sounds like the Strokes, but it lacks heart. Which means it replicates the first album in form, but not substance. [#8, p.100]

Ultimately pretends to be more adventurous than it really is. [#8, p.107]

The Stills manage to sound quite a bit like Wire Train or House Of Love, all jangly, mournful guitars and sparkling melodies... oh, and lots of reverb. [#8, p.106]

No explosions, no chiseled features on the album cover, and no glossy syrup in the mix. Just a classic gift for combining word and melody, a simple but rare recipe. [#8, p.105]

Complete hit-or-miss studio play. [#8, p.104]

An occasionally haunting, more often inspiring and riveting collage of the group's complex avant-melodics given more human characteristics by the inclusion of familiar sounds. [#8, p.108]

"Autumnal" is the word everybody wants to use to describe this record, but that's wrong.... Out of Season has much mor eto do with winter than it does with anything so tame as the fall. [#8, p.106]

Though With The Tides is undoubtedly the document of a band in transition, it gracefully lacks the awkwardness that usually marks the cost of evolution. [#7, p.92]

The flows may be lacking in precision, but precision isn't always necessary when you've got a bazooka growing out of your grill. [#7, p.88]

Think piano, think cabaret, think somber. [#8, p.104]

One of the most successful sonic experiments this side of "Let there be light." [#6, p.82]

Some of the most grandiose music this side of ELO. [#8, p.108]

Coomes' slide work is effective and expressive. [#7, p.93]

The music is so completely absorbing and evocative... it's possible to virtually recreate the film in your head. [#7, p.93]

There is something so honest about My Morning Jacket--something fresh and something Skynard. But in a good way. [#7, p.91]

Even though it's more than good, you eventually find yourself thumbing through your CD piles in search of that first record. [#7, p.87]

Acoustic guitars, violin, vibes and brush stroked drums all help maintain this steady mellow tone that's about as comforting as a warm bath after three sleepless days of jetlag. [#8, p.106]

[The Ravenonettes] help to remind us what makes harmless romantic music like Bobby Fuller and the Ronettes so perfectly dark. [#6, p.88]

Gorgeous. [#7, p.92]

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]

They remain simple and cerebral. [#7, p.91]

The best song is track 13, "Apology in Advance." It is still not that good. [#6, p.86]

Despite their penchant for over-the-top tribute, Kings of Leon recycle classic rock 'n' roll with such earnestness and ebullience, that it's hard not to sing along. [#6, p.88]

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

What was once so fresh is now a little tired. [#6, p.80]

This album's genuinely passionate without any sort of cheesy emotional transparency. [#6, p.81]

Sweaty, funky and thump-inclined. [#6, p.82]

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

Tricky hasn't planted his flag on any new territory, but he has gotten a stronger grasp of what has made him such an intriguing and important artist in the last decade. [#6, p.90]

From a technical standpoint, it's astounding.... But from a purely aesthetic standpoint, it's just downright unmusical. [#5, p.86]

Special moments are few and far between. [#8, p.109]

Her countrified songs often begin as gothic lullabies, swallowed up in darkness and longing, as if the instruments themselves were suffering heartbreak. [#6, p.82]

On Shootenanny!, they take a solid first step toward crafting their opus a la Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Soft Bulletin. [#6, p.81]

Too painful to be background music. [#5, p.89]

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

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]

There's greatness there somewhere but Harcourt needs to spend more time feeling, not doing. [#5, p.91]

Broder has created his own brand of amalgamated Americana: moody, mixed up and damn beautiful. [#6, p.85]

Though not perfect, the New Pornographers are getting closer. [#5, p.87]

This is a rapturous, badass art-punk record that swaggers with as much heart as it does cockiness. [#5, p.87]

The split personality of [Night on My Side] begs the question: which is the real Gemma Hayes? [#5, p.91]

May be one of their best. [#5, p.90]

Disturbing, intense and emotionally stark. [#5, p.89]

Bizarre and punkish and freakish and good. [#5, p.91]

It's sleek and distinctly studio-based, with live instrumentation taking a backseat to plush soundscapes that could only come from some fancy knobwork. [#5, p.92]

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

The best element... isn't the driving guitars or relentless percussion, it's the ability to step up and actually better their sound. [#5, p.91]

The album is overflowing with modern day punk-pop anthems, dressed up with technological marvels and justifiably bleak outlooks. [#5, p.89]

Coherent and musically mature even as it kicks you around a bit. [#5, p.88]

They don't stray from what they know and they don't tarry from their blueprint. It's just that they don't know much and their blueprint was done in crayon. [#5, p.92]