This shining-up of the Sgt. Pepper grail is gorgeous. [No. 144, p.51]

It's a treasure trove of listening pleasure. [No. 94, p.51]

The music is a 10; the curating, something rather less. [No. 115, p.51]

At the remove of three decades, this album remains as fresh and unconventional as the day the songs were first committed to tape. [No. 147, p.60]

A 65-track, six-CD boxed set featuring several mixes of 1969's studio album, live recordings from San Francisco's Matrix and a disc of VU's never-released fourth album.... This disc is worth the price of admission. [No. 116, p.51]

A ground-breaking debut, an original game-changer, a true, flawless, 24-carat triumph. [No. 94, p.60]

Sound System could well be a life changer, containing, as it does, the collected works of hands-down the greatest rock 'n' roll outfit the UK has produced in the last four decades. [No.102, p.51]

The most trad of Williams trad-rock classics, as instantly recognizable as Sgt. Pepper. [No. 106, p.60]

While the album justifies the lavish bonuses, if you get caught up in the myth, you might miss what a weird, wild work it is. Beyond all the beautiful sadness, there's joyful nonsense, a noisy screed against the GOP and the most unabashedly erotic song R.E.M. had released up to that point. [No. 149, p.60]

These recordings are the sound of a man back in the game and ready to pounce. [No. 100, p.52]

This portable section of the Library of Congress plays as well as it reads. [No. 104, p.56]

[A] lovingly curated set. [No. 119, p.57]

This remains the Gallagher brothers' finest hour, and one of the great debuts of the last 20 years. [No. 109, p.57]

This collection wraps its three decades' worth of maudlin magic in one neat black bow. [No.142, p.51]

Gentlemen could be the best album of the alternative era, and the new deluxe double-disc reissue loaded with demos, b-sides and rarities just confirms out opinion. [No. 116, p.53]

No, we haven't heard this Cave before, and though magnetic, emotive and tenderly merciful, one prays for his sake that we never hear it again. [No. 137, p.51]

Some of the most compelling, essential rock music of the era, period. [No.90, p.61]

A gravity-defying 23-minute take of "My Favorite Things" shows how far Coltrane had come in such a short time. [No. 116, p.57]

No one made damnation as appealing as Ira and Charlie Louvin. [No. 82, p. 57]

Cinema finds Czukay ins subtle freeform space-jazz jam mode without ever being tasteless or proggy. [No. 150, p.51]

A classic totem of those times, given just enough new life to merit a repurchase for original fans, and an exploration for those who weren't there. [No. 142, p.60]

It's all here - all seven studio albums, which, despite the hype, remain truly fantastic. [No.91, p.54]

This lavishly packaged box, comprising either 12 CDs or 13 LPs, observes Bowie's blossoming into a chameleon, ready to shed personae and styles the minute they strangle his artists needs. [No. 136, p.52]

The whole bloody history of England's greatest cult act unfolds, rendering obscurity ultimately noble and rewarding. [No. 118, p.61]

Orphans plays less like a career capstone than Waits' one-man Library of Congress field-recording project. [#74, p.93]

Through the dark, Cohen smartly questions everything from the prickly possibilities of future romance to, quite possibly, the sacred Zen Buddhist religion where he once solidly and stoically placed his faith. [No. 138, p.51]

Including essential ’70s albums like Zuckerzeit, Sowiesoso and two classic Eno collaborations, this killer collection shows Cluster refining its minimalist, electro-acoustic, programmed, studio-pop improvisations in urban and rural environs. [No. 131, p.53]

It's what the British Invasion might've sounded like had it come after punk rock. [#58, p.109]

11 somber-yet-empathetic songs on Rifles & Rosary Beads. [No. 150, p.56]

Higher!'s real value is in its depth: Stone needs four CDs to display his breadth, and this comp is full of funky fun. [No. 101, p.59]

Even a listener deeply familiar with these records--no, especially that listener--will enjoy a high reward for the outlay. [No. 124, p.60]

The bona-fide masterpiece that Stevens' career has culminated in, and likely the one that will come to define his career. [No. 119, p.58]

It's a fascinating document, well worth a look from fans of any of the above [Offa Rex, Trembling Bells and Eliza's Carthy's Wayward Band]. [No. 145, p.61]

It's a furious, loud, unbridled, relentless album. [No. 117, p.60]

Serious fans will appreciate the sessions recorded with John Peel for BBC Radio 1 and the highlights culled from a 1982 performance at Boston's Opera House. [No.89, p.56]

At 30 years of age, it's only better than it was... It gets zero help from unnecessary remixes and wee heft from an era-appropriate Madison Square Garden concert recording. [No. 143, p.58]

It's towering tuneful stuff. [No. 126, p.54]

Hunt manages to turn in his most intense and provocative album yet, a stunning mix of prog, punk and soul that can challenge even the most jaded listener. [#81, p. 57]

Touchstones like "No Depression" and "John Hardy," Farrar shows flair and dynamic skill, while Tweedy works the band's rocking formula on "Train" and guilelessly narrates small town life with "Screen Door." [No. 106, p.51]

The album proper already excellently spoke for itself 20 years ago. [No. 103, p.51]

It's neither better nor worse than any other Clientele album, but it's an excellent primer. The real treat for fans, though, come sin the deluxe edition which includes a 10-track "lost album" from 1994, The Sound Of Young Basingstoke. [No. 125, p.53]]

A treasure trove of unheralded, largely unheard, completely unselfconscious pop music that bravely led post-punk out of the gloom and into its rose-colored romantic future. [No. 117, p.51]

As impressive as Savage Young Du is as a musical release--69 remastered songs over nearly three hours--it's equally impressive as a historical document. ... One of 2017's essential releases, no matter how you cut it. [No. 149, p.61]

Diehards may crab about these more experimental sounds, but it's hard to find fault with the James gang for not only climbing out of its rut, but also leaving it far behind. [#69, p.104]

It's still heavy as fuck, but it's also textural, emotional, diverse and defiant as fuck, too. [No. 148, p.52]

With Rounds, Hebden has found the secret meeting place for man and machine; he uses his cunning to exploit it and all of its startling possibilities. [#59, p.94]

The songs contained within make fellow travelers such as Dr. John or Tom Waits sound like eunuchs. Marvelous stuff. [No. 116, p.55]

Another fine showcase for her savvy and adventurous approach to both song selection and interpretation. [No. 147, p.59]

The long held notion of Stone and Co. as purveyors of funky pop (or poppy funk) touched by harmonic roar of choral vocals and the lyricism of sociopolitical consciousness is all here. [No. 122, p.61]

There was more to the melody of Unwound than just a few simple, catchy primitive riffs. [No. 107, p.61]

Beguiling and brilliant. [No. 89 p.51]

The playing is imaginative, the ideas vibrant and shimmering and the band's considerable melodic gifts sabotaged by either willfully obtuse compositional tricks or outright punk bratiness. [#55, p.84]

These are the quiet, beautiful songs that made Belle & Sebastian seem so monumental for a short time. [#68, p.88]

This is 46 tracks of certifiably bonkers brilliance. [No. 111, p.55]

On his own throughout this compilation, he sounds like a ghost haunting the dream house of his youth. Simply gorgeous. [No. 105, p.61]

A monumental record from a towering talent. [#59, p.103]

A better record than the Shins' first--a sonically bolder production with fewer effects and more hooks per square inch than a flyrod factory. [#61, p.109]

A brave, provocative and thoughtful addition to the Tuckers' canon. [No. 136, p.51]

A thoughtful pop aesthetic that few others even shoot for. [No. 101, p.55]

This is Radiohead's deepest, darkest pool of devotion and doubt in a career marked by almost nothing but. [No. 133, p.51]

What we're witnessing is a woman bowing down to nothing but her own muse. [No. 149, p.61]

The anthology does yield insights, especially where Mar is concerned. [#82, p.51]

It's bolder, more focused and just all-around more rocking [than 2008's Party Intellectuals]. [No.98, p.59]

Less, in this case, proves to be much more; Jurado's songs just cut closer when unadorned. [#58, p.95]

The treat here, as with all of his Bootleg releases, is the rarities. [No. 149, p.54]

While every cut is identifiably Spoon and the album will satisfy hard-line fans of the band, a fiery R&B element is now a significant component. [#55, p.88]

There's aren't a whole lot of songs here that really stand out on their own.... But the members of Tam Impala possess such boundless energy and obvious, puppy-like enthusiasm that it would be downright churlish to dismiss them. [No. 92, p.81]

The set is exhaustive, but it's not an overdose. [No. 144, p.60]

His boldest, most impressive statement to date. [No. 114, p.55]

An airbrushed return to the imagination hinterlands of an expressive impressionist. [No. 126, p.57]

Fleet Foxes' full-length debut showcases a gift for folk-adjacent mini-epics that evolve in unexpected directions yet never lose their organic center. [Summer 2008, p.102]

What a glorious sound it is--the highs and lows (sonically and emotionally) are crisper and better defined. [No. 150, p.50]

It’s one of his best, a stunner that knocks you out without raising its voice. [No. 129, p.55]

Kudos to producer Tony Visconti and the tight jazz team around them for making Blackstar dynamic. If Bowie indeed knew time was tight and death’s release was imminent, this treatise to magic and loss is a gorgeous way to say goodbye. [No. 129, p.52]

The noise that's here is lovely, heartbreaking, expansive and raw. [No. 97, p.58]

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]

The members of Fugazi exercise a controlled intensity that exudes grace, their concise-yet complex songs experimenting wisely. [#52, p.87]

This is an album of mostly beatless soul whose heart nevertheless pumps vividly and loudly throughout its 17 tracks. [No. 136, p.61]

The playful Dig!! Lazurus Dig!!! stands among his most mature albums. [Summer 2008, p.98]

The music remains solidly Southern, using all three chords, but the lyrics reach for new levels of cussedness and vulnerability. [No.99, p.57]

beyond his original albums lies three newly cobbled CDs of magic realist pop and frisky showboating folk that are endlessly fascinating. [No. 101, p.54]

Too Bright highlights the moments of buoyancy that dotted his first two outings--both of which sounded nothing if not dour on first listen--and setting the stage for Hadress as one off the most compelling new American songwriters of the last half-decade. [No. 115, p.61]

Another step in Hood's continually compelling sonic evolution. [#52, p.89]

Low is the heaviest band in rock. [#48, p.100]

Seven bonus cuts from the same project make it more than worth picking up even for those who've worn out the original. [No. 101, p.58]

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]

There's a candor here that hasn't always touched the Icelandic singer/composer's electro-dreamscape output. [No. 118, p.52]

It's that rare sort of just-about-perfect record that demands to be played over and over again. [#53, p.82]

This is they type of sublime, maximalist treasure that should kick positive inspiration downstairs into the emperor-in-his-birthday-suit, for-the-sake-of-it, substance-free charlatan safe room that the experimental/abstract realm of contemporary underground music can sometime seem like. [No. 148, p.55]

Musically, Honeybear is more polished effort than Fear Fun, with more production and horns to fill out the songs and an even bigger experimental streak. [No. 117, p.56]

All of it bears his precise touch, but the spectrum of moods he's able to conjure just got a lot wider. [No. 103, p.56]

As is the risk with such serious-minded albums, a few songs err on the side of heavy-handedness... but Arcade Fire's raw passion and heartfelt ambition remain intact. [#75, p.90]

Every track here honors the spirit behind her perfromance style first and foremost. [No. 121, p.51]

Underneath it all is a specificity of sound that threads all of the album's tracks together like beads on a string. [No. 121, p.55]

It's the best album Fulks has ever made, period, and even if you can't quite make out the twister that swept away all that old anger, it's easy to hear the sweet, sad emptiness it left behind. [No. 102, p.56]

Vernon's gorgeous falsetto and vice grip on melody hold it all together beautifully. [No. 137, p.52]

This five-LP/four-CD set collects all of its albums and a ton of extras, and paints romantic picture of a band that possibly could only have existed when it did. [No. 116, p.53]

I can't help but think we've all been here before. [#75, p.102]