Angels just rocks. [Winter 2008, p.108]

This album, like its predecessor, is stunning. [Fall 2007, p.91]

Krug's non-stop croaking yells get old quickly, and the few highlights are hardly worth sitiing through an hour of Renaissance Faire-y meandering. [Fall 2007, p.108]

Cease To Begin is a fine, fitting return to familiar ground. [Fall 2007, p.91]

A few demerits are warrented for pointless and distracting tempo changes in two of the album's most satisfying songs, but otherwise, the off-kilter, kichen-sink production works. [Fall 2007, p.101]

The fact that Comicopera is a masterpiece proves it all right nicely. [Fall 2007, p.113]

The band manages to harness the immediacy of being a three-piece without sacrificing sonic depth or complexity.

New Seasons is a reverb-drenched, genre-hopping gem, the culmination of a 10-year, eight-album journey that promises to bear even more riches farther down the road.

There's much more to this band and album than the throwback aesthetic. [Fall 2007, p.98]

Tunng has taken one analog-age lesson very much to heart by making Good Arrows nice and short; it's 11 songs clock in at 43 minutes, and only one is an outright dud. [Fall 2007, p.108]

By maintaining his intimacy while armed with a full palette of colors, Beam sets himself far apart from the rest of the hush-and-shush crowd. [Fall 2007, p.98]

The more he pushes these various personas, the less sense we expect him to make and the more rewarding he becomes. [Fall 2007, p.90]

For all his anger, the most convincing songs on Washington Square Serenade are about love, devotion, messing up and simply wanting to be heard. [Fall 2007, p.93]

Not Stars’ best, and far from their worst, but an album’s worth of the usual string-laden drama-pop seems a thin substitute for what today’s kids are seeking.

Gonzalez is a romantic at heart, given to an array of lyrical possibilities even as his music ripples with the taut simplicity of someone strumming alone in his bedroom. [Fall 2007, p.96]

While Poison Ivy's impressive design become shtick after a while, it's nevertheless adorable. [Fall 2007, p.105]

Matt Pond PA shows it can rock out tastefully. [Fall 2007, p.102]

Magik Markers' simulations are dutiful, but they lack even a hint of the revolutionary spirit, menacing explosiveness, creativity, musicianship, savvy, wit, humor, heart or charm oif their heroes [Sonic Youth]. [Fall 2007, p.101]

The members of The Cave Singers seem intent on scraping away their previous bands' noise and bluster to find a music that's no less nervy and riveting. [Fall 2007, p.92]

The LP is an unpredictable and often euphoric collection with plenty to, well, love. [Fall 2007, p.90]

This heady mix of stratospheric rockers and inventive, smart and slyly revolutionary lyrics yields Les Savy Fav's best album yet. [Fall 2007, p.101]

The Western Lands offers more bang for your buck. [Fall 2007, p.96]

Ultimately, only a churlish, dead-eyed cynic would refuse to be moved by this inspired mix of riotous noise and feel-good vibetasticness. [Fall 2007, p.93]

For much of Happiness, Bays slurs his way through the best music Hot Hot Heat has ever made.

Like much of Francis' most compelling work, the album is a mediation on a muse. [Fall 2007, p.96]

The only misteps are when Oakley Hall drifts into more straight-forward terrain. [Fall 2007, p.106]

For the first time, they’ve refined that obsession into something listeners can sink their teeth into.

Other than the crowd noise, you’d have a tough time distinguishing the two albums. This is a good thing, as applying studio sheen to the Black Lips’ primitive mix of acid-damaged psychedelia and beer-fueled garage rock would be akin to putting lipstick on an orangutan.