This predominantly slow, somber album ultimately overstays its welcome.

Sound quality is spotty throughout, doubtless a result of contents being culled from original limited-run pressings, but readily excusable given the time-capsule value of the compilation.

If their classic records sounded like Newcombe on uppers, then this is the reverse: the whole record sounds protracted and dripping in molasses. Slow isn’t always bad, however. Psychedelia has a tendency to seem unhurried while keeping a tempo it can’t quite enjoy, and he hones in on a progression that works.

Sometimes it sounds like a deathly serious joke. Other times, it sounds like nothing more than a nicely produced notion that happened to cross his mind one day.

Tight as a unit, and apparently determined to create music that will, in one way or another, appeal to everyone, My Chemical Romance are in danger of forgetting that hooks, riffs, and yes, aggression, are also needed to stay on top of their game.

Major League is a volatile act with a subtle streak. If the lyrics can catch up to the tunes, the band will be tough to ignore.

Halcyon Digest is, to my mind, the best we've seen from Deerhunter, and a hint that their best is still to come. It's a fascinating document to study, but I'm not sure that makes it all great music.

Not everything hits the target, even with her hands gripped tightly around the controls, but she’s offered us something intermittently wonderful that proves she can still black us out even when she’s on the up and up.

Ultimately, Forever Endeavour is a slight piece of work but its modesty proves both charming and refreshing overall.

Love Is Dead is not a bad album, it's just that this felt like CHVRCHES' time for a great one. Love Is Dead is not that, either.

While the disc is slowed by a few bouts of inconsistency, the foundation on which Holsapple and Stamey have long built their work (a tremendous sense of melody, almost familial harmonies) is ever-present here, suggesting that the pair remember what made them great, and that audiences will too.

Despite its strokes of mass appeal, Mayday offers not only a taste of the quintessential Boys Noize sound, but also some fresh novelty that devotees can easily appreciate.

In the end, the two directions don't come together in an enlightening way.

Misleading title, dopey sequencing and occasional "Just crap"-ness aside, The Best of still offers much masterclass in perfect pop.

As it stands, Lemon Memory is an improvement upon their debut.

There's another classic Joker EP in here. It's just a shame we couldn't get our first classic Joker album.

Most of Places Like This doesn’t live up to its potential. Breathless, innovative changes and endless instrumentation are what the band do best, and for the most part, it’s not here.

In the end Oceans Will Rise strikes the listener as solid, appropriate, but not really that exciting

In all, this is an album that you might want to really like, but ultimately you'll probably feel a bit cold and aloof at the general lack of variance in the band's sound.

White People, at its worst, acts as sort of a middling appendix to So, Where's Your Girl?.

He didn’t want a rock-influenced hip-hop record. He wanted a rock record he could rap over. It’s no surprise, perhaps, that this works as often as it does.

Granted, the lyrics are somewhat cumbersome and heavy-handed, further detracting from the possibility of ensuring these songs will ever be considered of the hummable variety.... The Monsanto Years may not be an album for the ages, but there’s never a moment of doubt that the conviction is clear.

Ultimately, Landline is a small step forward for Laswell that won't result in super-stardom.

Riggins' talent for shape-shifting, his ability to play comfortably with both Common and Paul McCartney, carries over to Alone Together. Riggins is full of ideas, and he wants to share them.

When Kanye West went through a similar transformation from 808s to the absolute perfection of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he laid a roadmap for what artists could do once they’ve hit that “acceptance” stage. Purple Reign hasn’t followed this template well, and the music comes across as flat because of it.

Red Carpet Massacre sounds like a remix of a great Duran Duran album, and for that it’s merely good.

The Foundling is certainly Gauthier's least showy album, which is saying something. It's also a notch or two down from her best, due to a handful of songs (mostly in the album's latter third) that aim for Gauthier's typically hard, simple honesty and instead land in the territory of gloomy repetition of aches and pains one would expect from this type of project.

While all of this might come across as an indictment of the album, it’s really not a colossal failure at all--because regardless of its inability to live up to the admittedly lofty expectations of the ensemble cast, it’s clear all involved are having one hell of a good time.