Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' triumphs far outweigh its failures. This impressive expanded edition drives that point home by giving insight into the record's rich gestational process.

This is not Cave's best work by any means, but these songs do showcase his impressive range as a lyricist, performer and musician. [#12, p.100]

This is one of the quintessential L.A. albums, for its fireworks of fame and celebrity are stripped naked and left to wander. [Spring 2008, p.94]

Try as you might, there's no pushin it out. [#12, p.101]

Cave's themes remain unchanged, but his songcraft prowess continues to grow, aided by the finest instrumental backing and production of any Bad Seeds album to date. [Winter 2008, p.90]

The collection has aged remarkably well.

From the propulsive 'What Would Wolves Do?' to the dub-styled 'Brace Yourself,' the album seems like something to play while driving across the desert at sunset, especially with all the wolf cries in the background from Islands’ Nicolas Thorburn.

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

Truly, there isn't anything here that comes close to achieving the anthemic, stomp-along, bombast of Funeral's best works. But this is a different album, and a different Arcade Fire playing to their biggest strength: emoting. [#24, p.88]

These lovingly remastered and richly expanded editions of the Smashing Pumpkins 1991 debut Gish and 1993's mainstream breakthrough Siamese Dream soundly prove that the band's place in rock history is firmly cemented.

PJ Harvey always explodes possibility when she shreds convention and tradition. Thankfully, she does just that on this Anglo-centric head-trip.

They make heavy duty sound collages that rock, roll, and exemplify the increasingly small chasm between bliss and confusion. [#25, p.90]

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

There's an organic component that coexists along with the machines, giving them a warmth few acts have been able to unearth. [#11, p.93]

Butler and company have crafted a brilliant tribute to the glorious euphoria of getting down in the big city. [Summer 2008, p.96]

It may be a bit heavy-handed, but it will no doubt thrill fans that probably assumed this day would never come.

He forges yet another new vision: one that involves psych rock, quirky funk and bossa nova as much as it does hip-hop and electronica. [#19, p.104]

Attest[s] to the group's pummeling might off vinyl. [#16, p.87]

Although the songs carry recurring tropes of eagles, devils and the sea, as well as her signature intricate guitar picking, the most haunting aspect is--considering this accomplishment--realizing the potential that is yet to come.

Bradford Cox's jagged, swirling atmospherics reach an apotheosis on this hazy but blissful offering.

That the group could go from the sneering jauntiness of 'Girls And Boys' to the paranoid anxiety of 'Song 2' with no drop in hook-effectiveness is startling in itself; that it managed to continuously and effortlessly navigate th incomprehensible expanse between The Kinks and Brian Eno is an utterly singular achievement. [Summer 2009, p.94]

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.

The urgency of the music and the quality vocal and guitar hooks make this one of the best rock albums of the year. [#13, p.98]

Not everything on Present Tense is a success, but the highs are truly high, even when they’re sad.

While Boxer lacks a knockout punch like last album’s 13th round uppercut “Mr. November,” all scorecards still have the National besting David Berman to remain indie rock’s “Great White Mope.”

The band may have switched the formula, but the solution still adds up.

The Knife’s sound and vision--and the members’ unrelenting oddness--seem to slightly buckle under the weight of their idealism.

Bush's return to recorded music is unexpected, sometimes distancing, weird and obdurate.