Steal This Album is still not the perfect SOAD album, but it's by far their most realized yet.

He's proven that he can do some beautiful long players, but this just sounds like someone else's greatest hits. Which isn't to say it's not one of the top 20 albums of 2002, because it is. But it shoulda been Top Ten.

We Are Science is strikingly gorgeous and powerful. It's also just a little bit cheesy (but in a good way), as though you were watching Patsy Kensit star in Breaking The Waves.

A brave and inventive album that refuses to be held down by conventional barriers of genre or style.

Moments of greater emotional color might have turned what is an exemplary post-breaks exploration by a master into something brilliant.

Like The Dismemberment Plan's Emergency and I, this seems to glide from one high-energy song to another, each one unique and fascinating by itself, echoing the sparse tones of The Police here and there, or INXS's Kick-era attention to beat in other places.

Bridging the gap between Trio and British pub rock, Stereo Total seem to possess an endless supply of minimalist studio creativity to complement the direct but infectious style of their melodies.

Jurassic 5 is sophisticated and mature, yet it's energetic, fresh, and still knows how to have a good time.

One of the best indie rock albums you're going to hear this year.

Hitchock's hand is fairly evident on here, and it generally sounds a bit more early-Hitchcock than it does late-Soft Boys.

This disc is much more solid than Acoustic Soul.

It's rich and multi-layered, yet straightforward and deliciously chilly.

A beautiful album -- and it's a double live set, dammit! Brilliant.

Gorgeously produced, beautifully instrumentated and infused with assurance and purpose, album number four by Australia's wonderkids is simply excellent.