Sounds more like a greatest hits collection than a singular artistic statement.... Drukqs is unparalleled in its production and undeniable in its brilliance. [Nov 2001, p.73]

A work of exquisite, afterparty brilliance. [Oct 2002, p.84]

Whatever drops some intense audio warfare that (dis)colors tech-house with fierce new wave, electro, industrial and punk hues. [Nov 2001, p.72]

A deep, dark and dirty affair. [June 2002, p.88]

One of the year's best drum 'n' bass albums. [Dec 2002, p.74]

Armstrong's arrangements have the emotional resonance to move your mind to more serene locales. [May 2002, p.78]

His most refined sound to date. [Jul 2001, p.80]

The most poignant artistic statement of his career. [May 2002, p.70]

It's his lyrical earnestness that makes his decidedly British experience so universally appealing. [Nov 2002, p.76]

Come With Us transcends the duo's once-signature style, using a diverse palette of sounds and rhythms to create songs most applicable to the big-room dancefloor. [Jan 2002, p.73]

For the most part, Geogaddi only hints at new directions. But then, if it ain't broke, why fix it? [Apr 2002, p.78]

[Eminem's] three solo offerings... are the strongest cuts from a very strong album. [Jan 2003, p.84]

Manages to be simultaneously more minimal and more menacing. [Nov 2002, p.79]

As good at home as in the clubs, the Beings don't compromise integrity for catchiness, managing to offer healthy helpings of both. [Sep 2002, p.76]

The album's edgy urban vibe, psychedelia and reggae find the Armada merging all of their varied influences into a collection that pounces with monster grooves and purrs with low-slung downtempo tunes. [Jan 2003, p.72]

A diverse, versatile selection of tracks. [Apr 2002, p.94]

With its soaring guitars and crashing drums, Tweekend sounds more like a rock album than an electronic album. [Aug 2001, p.77]

An engaging, challenging listen. [Apr 2002, p.77]

Maybe the stint scoring music for the acclaimed film The Virgin Suicides helped them segue their too-atmospheric-for-the-room lingerings into something more tangible. [May 2001, p.76]

[Emerson's] absence has liberated rather than weakened Hyde and Smith. [Sep 2002, p.74]

The textured ambience is a simple, sumptuous recipe that is not wholly unprecedented, but certainly welcome. [Dec 2002, p.80]

A freakazoid musical pastiche. [Oct 2002, p.83]

The sophistication of its upbeat electro-pop construction allows Kylie to fly while her contemporaries simply float. [Apr 2002, p.77]

Undoubtedly the toughest music yet from the six-member crew, Phrenology may also be their best work, characterized by a powerful, head-nodding groove that carries through the entire album. [Nov 2002, p.78]

While not weighty or moody or even all that original at times, you can say one thing: Leroy's Beck-cum-brit-pop at least knows how to entertain better than most of what Carl Craig's put out lately. [Jul 2001, p.82]

By using his hip-hop chops to express some next school emotions, Shadow comes up with something that doesn't just sound new, it feels new. [Jun 2002, p.86]

Daybreaker is Orton's ultimate heartstring-pulling concoction. [Jul 2002, p.80]

The album's sole fault (if you can call it that) is a tendency to stick with sure-fire classics. [Aug 2002, p.78]

Anyone interested in thoughtful, moody downtempo instrumentals will definitely enjoy this. [Dec 2002, p.76]

The duo's ingenuity and willingness to push the envelope shines as brave and completely commendable. [Apr 2001, p.90]

Expertly produced with perfected lyrical skills. [Oct 2001, p.84]

Atmosphere creates hip-hop that is more than the sum of its parts. [Aug 2002, p.82]

Multi-hued melodies flow like lava and threaten to swallow foothills of funk. [Nov 2002, p.78]

Lots of rock stars have proclaimed their kinship for DJ culture, but Perry Farrell's passion seems to be one of the more genuine. [Jul 2001, p.82]

Groove Armada's most mature and settled work to date. [Sep 2001, p.83]

Embraces edgy live instrumentation that adds a preferred rawness to the trio's unique brand of urban jams. [Jan 2002, p.73]

The best sex-obsessed album since Prince's Dirty Mind. [Nov 2002, p.78]

Offers a little bit of everything, but stays deeply rooted in stoney, catchy house music. [Jul 2002, p.79]

An eyes-closed, head-bobbing masterpiece. [Oct 2002, p.86]

A hip-hop record brimming with soul and artistry. [Jan 2003, p.74]

Minimalist yet incredibly expansive. [Jan 2003, p.74]

Darker and edgier than their past venture. [Oct 2002, p.80]

One of the most thought-provoking hip-hop albums in recent years. [Dec 2002, p.75]

It's amazing that a band renowned for studio wizardry can succeed at duplicating, much less eclipsing, its magic onstage. [Jan 2002, p.76]

As endearing as early Ween. [Jan 2002, p.76]

The sonic equivalent of a stolen gun with its numbers sanded off: sexy, groovy, mysterious, scary. [Apr 2001, p.94]

Clever and catchy at every turn. [Jan 2003, p.74]

An album of sheer brutal force. [Jul 2002, p.79]

Their sound is remarkably fresh, for the kaleidoscope of samples from as many eras as vinyl has existed not only add musical credibility, but also add a depth to this extremely fun album. [May 2001, p.80]

Channels the voices of Gary Numan and Missing Persons through the mouths of Black Box Recorder and Laurie Anderson. [Jun 2002, p.87]

While Layo & Bushwacka! could have pieced together a compilation of their bountiful peak-time material (and easily sold it), they chose to expand their artistic scope by revisiting the art of the proper artist album. And in those terms, Night Works works wonders. [Sep 2002, p.76]

A wobbly collage of sampledelic disco dementia. [Jan 2003, p.73]

The boys are as competent on straightforward dance tracks as they are on Verve-esque pop-rock cuts. [Jul 2002, p.80]

The album straddles old-school R&B, hip-hop, adeep house and anything else that illuminates Jeff's mad production skills. [Aug 2002, p.79]

Admittedly, the album drags in parts, but Out Where is still a success. [Oct 2002, p.88]

Fans of Squarepusher's trademark schizophrenic d'n'b beats will enjoy the title cut.... Other tracks completely disintegrate into severe experimentalism, changing from music to art-sound installations. [Oct 2002, p.81]

David has composed 10 songs that work together as a concept album. But for everyday listening? Well, that's a somewhat different story. [Jun 2002, p.87]

It's safe to say that if you liked Em's last two albums, you'll like this one. [Aug 2002, p.80]

More Michael Caine chill than Sean Connery cool, but equally suave. [Oct 2002, p.88]

The album will wear thin on short-attention-spanned listeners who need their dance albums dosed with a bit more variety. [Aug 2002, p.79]

Some songs do morph into mere mood pieces... but Charango remains a fine return to form. [AUg 2002, p.80]

The album is witty and fun and will appeal to a wide variety of people. [Apr 2002, p.82]

Release slowly unfolds with a sparse elegance, resonating as the detached dance-popsmiths' finest complete album in a decade. [June 2002, p.90]

Unrestrained by the limits of producing a radio-friendly album, Mirwais produced an excellent album that can be appreciated by both fans and critics of Madonna. [Apr 2001, p.92]

When US aren't dipping into other musical genres to "keep it fresh," the classic blippy sound shines through on "Love Song" and "Punk Club." [Aug 2001, p.82]

Riding a delicate balance of acid house and electro, Machine Says Yes is as cold as it is hot. [Dec 2002, p.76]

It is good to see such experimentation by an artist in a field usually associated with being so genre-specific. [July 2001, p.82]

Ultimately, Evil Heat is more evocative than innovative, but why rewrite the book when it's already a compelling read. [Dec 2002, p.80]

Intelligent, rugged and moving, Lost Tapes is everything Stillmatic should have been. [Dec 2002, p.76]

Everybody Got Their Something has something for almost everybody... [Jul 2001, p.86]

The cuts resonate with more creativity and originality than most stuff on the shelves. [Apr 2002, p.82]

Suicide have rounded the edges on their metal machine music and jettisoned some rubbery retroisms. [Nov 2002, p.77]

He has come into his own as a tech-savvy songwriter who can make the sampled-bits, live horn sections and real string arrangements speak for him, not louder than him. [Nov 2002, p.79]

You get the impression that the sound is simply a synthesis of all the things he has listened to and enjoyed. [Nov 2001, p.76]

The crunchy guitars that underpinned some of the tracks on X are now up front, giving the whole collection the feel of early Manchester bands like Happy Mondays. [Feb 2002, p.74]

Isn't as ambitious or effective as the trio's genre-smashing debut, but it should still keep dancefloors and mosh pits sweaty all year. [Jan 2002, p.74]

Not for the masses, but a treat for those turned on by the erratic tendencies of free jazz. [Sep 2002, p.75]

This kind of sonic bravado is truly impressive. [May 2002, p.72]

It's all ground we've covered before, but Jamiroquai do it so well and with such style that it is still worth a tumble. [Sep 2001, p.86]

Their most consistent, simplied effort. [Feb 2002, p.76]

A work that displays more forward-thinking musical maturity than any diva in her league. May 2002, p.72]

In stark contrast to his previous experiments with computer sound artifacts and process-driven minimal click arias, Commers barrels out with harsh walls of thrashing interference and feedback in track after track. [Aug 2001, p.78]

A pretty solid IDM-goes-funky effort. [May 2001, p.78]

Get Ready succeeds in feeling like a New Order record despite all its new flavors. [Sep 2001, p.86]

If you liked previous Nightmares On Wax material, this one won't do it for you, as Evelyn's music has grown more vocal-based and less "stony."

What Cruelty Without Beauty lacks in originality it more than makes up for with sheer wit. [Oct 2002, p.81]

Erasure transforms each number into something tailor-made for a staged musical. [Jan 2003, p.74]

Quite an experiment in not only the limits of drum 'n' bass, but listenability as well. [Jul 2001, p.81]

As a document of solid, if not always spectacular, post-modern hip-hop that dips into soul and R&B, Trinity is worth the money. [Aug 2002, p.82]

Ultra Sex represents everything that's great about electro. [Nov 2002, p.78]

Some compared Simian's debut to the Beta Band, but this is much more retro, raw and rockin'. [Jan 2003, p.76]

The tracks are often tuneful, but they're too downtempo for anything but the chill room. [May 2002, p.74]

As perfectly all-over-the-place as Air's Moon Safari and as stick-to-your-ribs as any electro record this year. [May 2002, p.76]

Its simple structures create memorable and identifiable songs. [Sep 2002, p.76]

The result is confused, equal parts avant garde, rock and electronic. [Sep 2001, p.90]

This record is neat and all, but Buzzkunst doesn't add to the collective legacy of Shelley and Devoto. [June 2002, p.88]

The disc comes across like the best B-sides compliation you've never heard. [Nov 2002, p.77]

[A] slick, street-smart album of sassy party tracks and sensitive slow jams. [Jan 2003, p.73]