Only By The Night has exposed itself as the weakest Kings Of Leon album. [Fall 2008, p.76]

If this had been an EP of a handful of tracks, it could have been stunning, but it's a record that frustrates and bores much more than it touches.

The album has a hard time being anything other than an experiment. [#9]

Yes, It's True has interesting moments, but ultimately makes for an insubstantial and at times deeply vapid experience.

Though Guillemots have never shied from throwing in any musical ingrediatnt they can find, here that tendency makes for an album that, while strong, comes off a little too unfocused. [Winter 2010, p.62]

The sets recorded here focused on then-new material written after 154, but Wire never even bothered to develop some of thee directionless sketches. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.82]

It's heady, it's heavy, and it's classic Cursive, now in twin territory.

There’s plenty of sloppy guitar too, but this scrubbed and sanitized CSS will probably let down fans looking for more broken-English pop culture lashings. [Summer 2008]

Season's Dreaming is hit-or-miss, much like the first few albums of their greatest influence, but Blind Man's Colour has the talent to figure it out and separate their sound not only from Animal Collective, but the herds of bands with simialr influence. [Summer 2009, p.60]

A Very She & Him Christmas' main fault is that it can so easily fade into the background as the season never would, no matter how hard one might try and avoid it.

The album works its minimal beats and retrograde high to near perfection, perhaps only because of it had the ultimate incubation period. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.118]

The songs here... are much more developed and better arranged than anything she'd done on her own before. [#9]

Much of the record blurs into a monochromatic lull, plodding listlessly despite Peterson's fastidious production. [Spring 2009, p.76]

Ultimately, He Was King is electro-pop on autopilot.

While Highlights still has many moments of unapologetic fun where Emm and Cohen sound like they could write those gorgeous, summery songs in their sleep, they have also rebuffed and polished their signature sound to the point where every attempt at deeper songwriting gets lost in the gloss.

Sober living has brought back Skinner’s musical fire, and it has given him a new perspective that is sometimes fascinating but too often cliched. [Winter 2008]

Ultimately, More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse is a decent and fiery auditory excursion.

Ultimately, a steelier grip might be preferable to their warm handshake. [Summer 2010, p.77]

Hater will hate, but The Weight's on the Wheels is the definition of an earworm. [Year End 2010, p.73]

Always better live than on record, there are few highlights here, and the bulk of the songs presented are lukewarm at best and often borrow topics and musical ideas. [Year End 2008]

The harmonies are tight and the guitar riffs are jangly... but because everything already sounds so familiar, nothing really stands out as an essential track. [#8, p.107]

Stylistically the album is too spread out, with ambient, rave, dance, trip-hop, hip-hop, synth pop and just plain pop, that nothing really sticks, and the album feels like a bunch of randomly produced singles instead of a cohesive whole. [Winter 2008, p.90]

Long's amazing guitar work, evident since his solo album, also does it best to break through, but in the end, can't. [Fall 2009, p.62]

The result is like listening to the next (or any) Mogwai record. [#7]

Work (work, work) is a desolate, urban lullaby, deceptively simple and definitely suffocating, but worth a little immersion.

An oddball experimental pop record... Cheers for sticking with a concept, just a bummer it didn't add up to its aspirations. [Mar 2012, p.88]

Ultimately the result is varying from a group known for its tightness and intricacy. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.81]