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

Charming, unpretentious and effortless, the singer presides over a party whose pace never flags and whose soul is fun-loving and wholesome. [22 Aug 2004]

OutKast's duo have made a cohesive statement that not only cries at the boundaries of rap music but vaults over them to a place where the music sounds like neon colors and the only rule is that you must free your mind. Your ears will follow.

[Bono] explores epic themes, from faith to family, with such indelible grace that the CD stands with "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" as one of the Irish quartet's essential works. [21 Nov 2004]

Freed from the more formal sound and circumstances of his previous work, Smith indulged without being indulgent, and the revelation here is the exuberant, instinctive, playful and daring sonic pilot who was hidden inside the meticulous craftsman of such albums as "XO" and "Figure 8." [10 Oct 2004]

Demanding and artful, he just may be this generation's Joni Mitchell. [5 Dec 2004]

"Smile" emerges as a beautiful and cohesive work, at times deeply moving, at others oddly whimsical, at still others eerily disturbing but celebratory. [27 Sep 2004]

An album with the simmering glow of a masterpiece.

The biggest advance is that the Kills now wrap their songs, from the enchanting "The Good Ones" to the especially anxious "I Hate the Way You Love," in melodies that are disarmingly sweet and seductive. [6 Mar 2005]

This is metal that swings, heavy with a deft touch. [24 Apr 2005]

The heart of the CD is filled with the compassion and craft that have made Springsteen such an invaluable figure in rock. [24 Apr 2005]

One of the most fascinating things about the Stripes' fifth album is that on first listening it is likely to baffle fans of the Detroit duo as much as it will eventually delight them. [5 Jun 2005]

The tone of subdued romanticism is balanced by a fine, seductive sense of melody and arrangement. [3 Jul 2005]

[An] even more ambitious, superbly crafted follow-up. [28 Aug 2005]

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]

Wilson delivers a knockout as she serves up enough of the rowdy tunes to keep the jukebox pumping most of the night — most powered by a lively mix of ringing guitars, spunky fiddles and powerful backbeat. [25 Sep 2005]

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

The sheer brazenness of this collection is refreshing after years of timidity in the upper echelons of the pop world. [6 May 2006]

It overflows with the kind of music the Chili Peppers do best: a physical, often psychedelic mix of spastic bass-slapped funk and glistening alt-rock spiritualism. Only they've never sounded this good as musicians.

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

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]

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.

It's almost too much, really, but Waits doesn't release albums very often, so you can make it last.

Murphy succeeds by stretching in two directions — finding a new musical center, and showing his humanity beyond the laughs.

The music doesn't always live up to the demands of the journey, but Oberst's trembling, vulnerable voice carries through to a rewarding conclusion.

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.

"Year Zero" is a total marriage of the pop and gamer aesthetics that unlocks the rusty cages of the music industry and solves some key problems facing rock music as its cultural dominance dissolves into dust. It's easy for even Reznor appreciators to overlook this accomplishment, because "Year Zero" also works as pure pop.

This latest LP is manna for rap purists.

Not since "Mechanical Animals" (1998) has he stared within so unblinkingly; the focus pays off in conflicted, nuanced singing that makes some of his past rage sound rote.

The album hits hardest by embodying the process by which certain voices are bottled up and distorted within the global noise of what M.I.A. calls "Third World Democracy."

Now, like an intermittent short-wave transmission that suddenly catches a clear and vivid frequency, Radiolina comes into sharp focus, defining a mature sound in a mesmerizing collection of 21 new tracks.

It's the way Springsteen injects his American bible stories with the air of disbelief that makes Magic a truly mature and memorable album.

Odd Couple is every bit as musically inventive as "Elsewhere."

This is adult contemporary music that's enough fun for the kids and true-blue country without any trace of flag-waving or bigotry.

His melodies curl to drive the stories, while his lyrics illuminate the road with a sometimes dazzling light.

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

Believe it or not, though, they've got the right stuff.

Dear Science, the third album from the Brooklyn-based art rock band TV on the Radio, is a vivid, angry, sensual soundtrack to the haunted life.

No one intones like the stentorian Warhol muse -- and then she breaks into vibrato-driven song, throbbing and strong.

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.

On her latest full-length collection, Marianne Faithfull, the queen of torch songs for the damaged soul, reteams with producer Hal Willner for another beautifully haunting tour of a landscape littered with the detritus of shredded hearts.

There's a sense of timelessness rooted in rural America, along with a stripped-down musical ambience, that makes this a worthy companion to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand," for which Buddy was part of their touring band.

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

A record that not only tops any solo offering that the late James Yancey released during his lifetime, but also rivals Slum Village’s “Fantastic Part 2” and his own “Donuts” as his finest full-length effort.

There's no joke here--just mountains of chest-rattling primal rock designed to reassert the elemental power of the four-piece rock group. Mission accomplished.

For those who like their pop delicate and unapologetically deep, this is one for turning up loud and wallowing.

The lightness and dexterity of the playing throughout Backspacer, and of Vedder's hard-driving, often playful vocals, come from Pearl Jam's members taking this music seriously, honing in and nailing it.

Their contributions serve only to enhance Rosanne Cash's renditions of songs that Johnny Cash understood to delineate cornerstone facets of American culture.

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

Tom Petty, another classic rocker, has assembled an impressive collection of his live work with his band the Heartbreakers that's similar in spirit to Young's remarkable anthology if not quite as expansive.

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

The Sea is a remarkable accomplishment. It's a step toward something--Rae's inner peace, and her next artistic breakthrough--that has its own considerable rewards.

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

She goes deep, as deep as any artist working today, into the loud forest of stories where our ideas about love and the self are born. Her trail of crumbs isn't always obvious, but you can follow her there.

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

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.

The Promise album, with gems like the Crystals' homage "Ain't Good Enough for You" and the lilting ballad "Candy's Boy" (a far cry from "Darkness' " aggressively lustful revision "Candy's Room") showcases the danceability, catchiness and even sentimentality Springsteen had to rein in to create "Darkness."

The double in the room on Let England Shake is the whole modern world. PJ Harvey has given us a righteous scare.

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

The Beasties' irreverence is what made them stand out in the first place; that their willful chaos continues to charm and mutate so many years on is the big surprise.

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

What a beautiful record. Truly gorgeous, the kind that wins both hearts and awards--perfect for a dinner party, a drive along Pacific Coast Highway, or a good, healthy cry.

Embedded in a world of crashing, pounding pop music, Adams' solo rawness brings with it sweet release.

Sometimes, a CD scratches an itch you didn't even know you had, and El Camino is that record.

A few private recordings have surfaced from the early 1960s, but none capture her essence like 1966.

Accelerando is a rambunctious yet nimble celebration of the groove that turns as much on the fulcrum of drummer Marcus Gilmore and bassist Stephan Crump as it does on Iyer's restlessly inventive piano.

It is one of the best of his career.

Ace producer and longtime champion of underground hip-hop El-P walks a fine line on Cancer 4 Cure, crafting aggression with militaristic precision.

It's essential 2012 listening for anyone interested in popular music as art.

While hearing the band tear through early takes on pillars from the trumpeter's electric period such as "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and "Spanish Key," it's hearing the band upend some of Davis' older material that may be most striking.

Awash with beats, rhythms, electronics, the occasional guitar and Yorke's soaring if still mostly unintelligible tenor, Amok is a record to get sonically lost within, a work whose every measure teems with a quality and a precision that only musicians at the top of their game can touch.

They've captured a sound as tangibly uplifting as pop music gets. The Mavericks are back and indeed, just in time.

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.

Doris features instrumental interludes, expanded mid-song diversions and enough surprise to warrant repeated--obsessive--evaluation.

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

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

It's an album we'll be looking at in December when it's time to single out the most powerful works of 2014.

Brash, polarizing, fearless and filled with a purity of vision that would make Col. Kurtz blanch.

Mandatory Fun is a stone cold masterpiece.

You want immaculate structure and production, there are plenty of albums available. You want the sound of life, of a voice summoning all its powers to shake a room and be heard, this recording is waiting.

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

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.

Rife with the kind of sublimely loose grooves achievable only through instrumental precision, Black Messiah is as vital as it is sublime.

His voice raw, pitchy and quivering, Dylan croons his way through elegantly crafted songs with seeming disinterest in flawless takes or perfect pitch. Yet it's profound, thematically devastating and so well curated as to feel essential.

For anyone remotely interested in how great art is made, [the deluxe edition] is the equivalent of an audio master class as Dylan works, reworks and reworks again the song until it sonically captures the energy, defiance, outrage, empathy, celebration and liberation embedded in the lyrics.

Producing the album themselves, he and the band also zero in on a perfectly period musical and sonic vibe for this outing.

The Nashville-based, label-defying group has cooked up eight effervescent originals and added its stamp to a couple of Yuletide chestnuts. ... Boogie-woogie, Tex-Mex, heart-melting pop, retro blues--it’s all here in one irresistible package.

Remarkable... a lovingly assembled production that rarely goes where you expect it to — but, like Solange herself, always puts across a clear sense of place.

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.

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.

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

What’s inarguable is that she’s become one of the finest songwriters of her generation, with a lyrical and melodic flair that encourages an emotional investment in her music well beyond whatever it reflects of her real life. On “Chemtrails,” her singing reaches a new peak as well. ... But if the sound is familiar — think of the very sweet spot triangulated by Sandy Denny, k.d. lang and the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album — the scenarios can still flatten you, as in the gorgeous “Wanderlust.”

Wild and ravishing “Renaissance,” which came out Friday and immediately reshaped the conversation about 2022’s most important music. ... “Renaissance” is miles ahead of the competition. ... It’s like a carefully curated library, this whole thing, with an astonishing depth of knowledge regarding rhythm and harmony that puts Beyoncé as an arranger and bandleader on a level with Prince and Stevie Wonder.

This swinging, sometimes mournful, often tender set of 10 songs proves an easy album to, well, love. [25 Aug 2006]

The first time I listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows, I loved it, no holds barred.

The new box set does indeed help shed new light on the music and the entire project by way of the various bonus features that now accompany the original album... To paraphrase Rod Stewart, every album may indeed tell a story, but some stories are dramatically more compelling than others. The story of "Graceland" is one of the most compelling in all of pop music.

A confident, brash, inventive collection featuring songs that lock into the psyche after only a few listens, the White-produced creation is lyrically and musically challenging and filled with many fresh avenues of exploration, even as it nods to key tones and ideas from throughout the history of pre-rap American music.