Has enough regret, sadness and self-loathing to power a Trent Reznor comeback. [#61, p.96]

The Civil War uses familiar Matmos techniques to craft unfamiliar electronic music. [#61, p.103]

Some songs here make more sense than others, and the musicianship, while spirited, isn't quite accomplished. [#61, p.92]

Spoon and Rafter proves that sometimes refining your focus is just as enlivening as radical departure. [#60, p.108]

There hasn't been a set of pretenders this convincing since Interpol. [#61, p.107]

The previously skimpy instrumental backing has been beefed up at times with synthetic horn parts: a good idea. [#61, p.102]

By keeping it simple, Bowie has avoided the stupid, said more with less and made the clearest record of his career. [#61, p.88]

The group has dropped folky fingerpicking and bucolic string melodies in favor of episodic compositions full of complex horn and percussion textures. [#60, p.117]

Quasi has finally crafted a studio work that exudes the same whiff of spontaneity that's always been evident in performance. [#61, p.105]

As confusing as it is ultimately compelling. [#61, p.89]

Sadistically fun. [#60, p.97]

On [Her Majesty...], the whimsy and multicolored narrative threads that represented the best of the Decemberists' terrific first album are given room to breathe. [#60, p.96]

Riff-worthy, down and dirty and occasionally idling down Americana's lost highway. [#60, p.92]

Tepid, predictable.... It's sleek and stylized, the spastic, jittery punk replaced by impassioned, searching guitar lines. [#60, p.110]

The endless Anglophilia gets boring, especially when Pulp, Blur and the Auteurs have all done it better. [#61, p.86]

A full-length valentine to the Jesus and Mary Chain. [#60, p.110]

Even the most seriously depressed songs here have a lightness that's been missing in the past. [#60, p.111]

A catchy rock record steeped in intelligent social and personal commentary that incorporates pedal and lap steel with great cowpunk results. [#60, p.119]

Its most accomplished album. [#60, p.97]

Aside from a few fleeting moments of watery prog and lumpen rock, the album's 15 songs have a slow-growing charm and understated grace, something that gradually becomes powerful in its own right. [#60, p.102]

The Kings of Leon sound like Molly Hatchet locking horns with the Gun Club. [#60, p.105]

Golightly brings out rock'n'roll's original transgressive spirit. [#60, p.98]

Oh, big breathy bombast, they name is Sense Field. [#60, p.113]

Think a minimalist A Tribe Called Quest. [#60, p.110]

The problem with Answers is the grooves are slathered in all that useless skill. [#60, p.119]

Part prog, part punk and part reefer haze. [#60, p.106]

Faced with conventional, if not threadbare, tunes, Sylvian becomes grand in comparison, humming and mumbling through the subtlest opera of tweaked, quaking noises. [#60, p.117]

Sounds like musicians so thoroughly bereft of ideas and energy that they've resorted to lifting melodies from their record collections wholesale while crossing their fingers for luck, hoping no one will notice the difference between inspiration and theft. [#59, p.88]