A record that still manages to seamlessly blend doom, ambient, noise and post-rock. [No. 135, p.61]

Even My Woman's back half, which features Olsen's two longest, most challenging songs to date in "Sister" and "Woman"--though neither come anywhere near "White Fire" levels of morose--succeeds largely due to Olsen's remarkable ability to make her loneliness sound like so much more than just that. [No. 135, p.61]

In truth, Springsteen himself might not be able to pull off the grit and glam of Pretty Years, but Cymbals Eat Guitars makes it look easy. [No. 135, p.55]

Shape Shift With Me has catchy anthems, heavy rock songs and speed rants; it's yet another excellent, and complicated, Against Me! album. [No. 135, p.52]

They plunge once more into a spontaneously generated maelstrom of corroded noise and spasmodic rock action, letting the music flow like lava oozing destructively through the streets of your town. [No. 134, p.55]

Vacancy has a more organic, "big indie rock" real feel to it as opposed to something automatically designed to blast from convertibles and iPods in high-school lockers. [No. 134, p.53]

Cameron's vocals have a dramatic quality hat crosses the detached phrasing of David Bowie with Nick Cave's tortured rasp. [No. 134, p.55]

Her first solo LP in a 40-year career is as diverse as it is good, and plenty of Bagsian punk fury is in evidence. [No.133, p.53]

Rigorously minimalist like a rock in the road is--a lump, emotionalessly excavated from nature's chaos. [No 134, p.55]

"No Future V" and "Stable Boy" benefit from amping up the electricity and volume, which makes S+@dium Rock a solid TMLT companion piece but not a primary choice. [No. 134, p.61]

Occasionally, Tremain struggles to find a home amid the Collis' calm chaos, though his restrained and sustained bass lines are a non-cluttering foil demonstrating the importance of song dynamics, which isn't always a priority with math rockers. [No. 134, p.61]

The album features covers of songs they love, with folky, stripped-down arrangements that feature Amanda's smoky alto and Jack's rich, bass voice. [No. 134, p.59]

They play rustic country/rock that constantly struggles to keep upright as it stands on the poly-genre curveballs that the musicians toss Schneider's way. [No. 134, p.59]

The Avalanches bag production, they roller-coaster; got to be jokers, they just do what they please. [No. 134, p.51]

Blood Orange moves swiftly, wipes clean his chill-pop slate and goes for stark, ham-handed topicality hop and loss as applied to menacingly atmospheric tones. That Hynes does this without losing his sense of pop and tunefulness is a sweet accomplishment. [No. 134, p.52]

The success of the Amazing in general--and Ambulance by proxy--is the band's uncanny ability to touch on a wealth of styles without flying any specific philosophical flag, thereby remaining unique in tone and execution. [No. 134, p.53]

Songs like "Driving School," "M Train" and the deathlessly compelling "Crazy" sound unerringly alive and modern, making this an excellent archival release. [No. 134, p.59]

Kinsella's mastery of pop melodicism in the service of heartbreakingly beautiful and unvarnished sentiment is again on full and perfect display. [No. 134, p.59]

The songs have a somber, ambient feel, even on tunes with uplifting subjects. [No. 134, p.57]

If Factory Floor emobodied a dynamic tension between paralysis and movement, claustrophobia and cathartic release, this outing functions similarly but tips the scales slightly toward the former categories. [No. 134, p.57]

Hypercaffium Spazzinate finds the band reenergized and more characteristically succinct. [No. 134, p.55]

Bonar sings with a bright pop voice that creates a startling contrast to her dark, disturbing tales. [No. 134, p.55]

Its busy arrangements, brimming with the atomic energy of colliding guitars, synths, bass lines and drums, largely belong to no version of the band we know, instead a succession of growth markings scrawled in graphite. [No. 134, p.61]

The result is the most dynamic LP of Russian Circles' career. [No. 134, p.61]

Things start strong, with some of Barnes' tightest tunes in ages. [No. 134, p.58]

Her witty wordplay and ironic humor offers a bit of relief from heartache and confusion that colors the record, but it's those shattered emotions that are the most impressive. [No. 134, p.57]

Although one of his most accessible, it's not constrained to formula. ... It was worth the wait. [No. 134, p.54]

It's hardly revolutionary, but Episodic is an immediate, righteously enjoyable half-hour. [No. 134, p.57]