“Rough and Rowdy Ways” rolls out one marvel after another, with killer playing from the singer’s road band.

This latest LP is manna for rap purists.

It's a near-perfect piece of art, a level of accomplishment Harvey achieves with amazing consistency.

Genre jumping aside, it's the patterns as much as the riffs that are beguiling here.

With The Guitar Song, he's made an ambitious work that goes down easy. Johnson may masquerade as a throwback but what he really aims for is timelessness, and he usually hits his mark.

Combined, the result is a dynamic, human album, one that's easy to fall in love with. Highly recommended.

A complex and fascinating portrait of a young woman's emotional process after enduring abuse.

If you've ever fallen in love with a Costello record, be prepared for a new obsession.

The music remains ageless and weird, fueled on chaos and clarity, but these are songs, not sound experiments for their own sake.

Every song on this exhilarating debut... is almost as good as its first hit, "Crazy." That's saying a lot. [6 May 2006]

The sound is sterling, Richards’ guitar soaring effortlessly over the nimble rhythm section work by bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts.

As music, it's simply exquisite--more controlled and considered than anything Antony and the Johnsons have done and sure to linger in the minds of listeners for more than a season.

Here, he and Johns are working with a faultless batch of songs.

A bluesy, psychedelic witches' brew that feels like one long, complex incantation to keep us safe, to make us see there is indeed some kinda way out of here.

Bombino and his band have released a killer document not only for fans of North African guitar music; anyone who has ever appreciated a master player make magic on a Fender while a band, which on Nomad is augmented by a few Auerbach’s go-to session men, organizes structures behind him, will find comfort in Bombino’s music.

Chasing allusions is half the fun of listening to Dylan's music. On Together Through Life, the other half involves plainer pursuits, shaking a tail feather and shouting along.

The songs zing with the excitement of two music nerds caught up in a game of "Top This!" [16 May 2006]

What makes "The Black Parade" so exciting isn't anything rock is quite used to.... My Chemical Romance expresses the next generation's quest by redrawing the boundaries of reality itself.

Following a pair of brilliant EPs, Shabazz attacks with Black Up.

What could have been a random collection of odds and ends--or worse, a nostalgia grab--isn't so much a look at Wilco's alternate-history past as it is a glimpse at ground the band still has to cover.

This is their third collaboration, but neither the casual, light-bodied "Mutations" nor the intimate "Sea Change" anticipated this kind of flowering. [24 Sep 2006]

Mandatory Fun is a stone cold masterpiece.

Parks proves an ideal partner for George, who grew up studying Shakespeare and is married to a film director, Jake Kasdan.

Wringing beauty from her pain, Moorer creates music that illustrates an age-old truism: Without sorrow, there is no joy.

At 18 songs, “No Holiday” is basically a double album, one that sits somewhere along a continuum of epic works that includes the Clash’s “London Calling” and Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville.” The determination, the vision, the energy — it’s real.

If Bob Dylan has been for years our best guide to exploring the complexities of human experience, Young may be the songwriter who expresses most eloquently the simple ties that bind us all. [18 Sep 2005]

Beyoncé’s ambitions outstrip those of her peers. ... Yes, Homecoming is one of the greatest live albums ever. If nothing else, the intention behind her performance makes it so. ... So much action. So many cues and rhythms, so much narrative momentum. Its melodic and rhythmic quotes need footnotes to fully absorb, and her voice resonates with history. Still, calling it the best live album of all time may be a stretch. ... Hell if I know, but it ranks way, way up there. ... So yeah, it’s fair to say that Beyoncé, and this work, is genius.

If you're looking for a freaky good time, Art Official is your ticket.... An exquisite Prince R&B album.