Despite its lapses and awkward moments, The Outsider feels like the turntablist’s attempt to loosen up and venture away from a recognizable aural framework. [#15]

Songs like 'Who Do We Care For?' and 'I Hate My Friends' have great hooks but are low on substance. [Year End 2008]

With the increased polish and sheen, one can't help thinking that some of the charm is lost. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.103]

Language can feel tepid and assuring at the same time. [Jun 2012, p.151]

Much of this album is a wash. [Fall 2008, p.75]

The Tennessee boys that used to hang on your back, shouting in your ear with whiskey on their breath have grown up, and now preach wound-down wisdom with an arm around your shoulder. But the charm wears thin over the course of a full record.

If the rest of the album were as strong as those three songs ["A Good Sadness," "Astro-Mancy," and "I Love You Too, Death], this would be a masterpiece and a powerful growth for the band. As it stands, they can at best serve as a taste of what's to come.

What was once fresh and eclectic is now repetitive and the same record the band's been making since their debut. [Year End 2008, p.86]

Ooh & Aahs just feels like a transitional record. [Winter 2009, p.74]

The all-female group's full-length Slumberland bow rarely bests similar DIY bands (Miko, Vivian Girls) [Holiday 2009, p.80]

So the question becomes, is Born to Die more good than bad, or vice versa? Let's err with the former, hype be damned.

Not so much a staler rehash of So Much For The City [as] an exact rehash of So Much For The City. [#7]

While the guitars shimmer, and there’s a pretty little keyboard solo, the vibe he’s attempting to rouse ends up stale. [#15]

The romantically intertwined duo make easy listening music that is neither challenging to listeners nor especially objectional. [Spring 2008, p.83]

Try as they might the songs just aren't there. [Feb. 2011, p. 71]

Impossible feels weirdly adroit. [Jun 2012, p.160]

The MC never feels particularly inspired on this disc, his momentum crashing after the first few tracks. [Jan-Feb 2013, p.93]

Musically, the 17 songs here are mostly dark and sweeping, Amos hesitatiing to provide the big melodies to latch onto, rather roping the listener in with a feelinga and entrancing with her lyrics. [Summer 2009, p.64]

The problem is that there is too little to dig into, to revel in. In many senses, Too Much Information is ultimately not enough. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.73]

A bland instrumental and production aesthetic... clips the wings off her good-intentioned melodies. [#11, p.113]

MNDR resides somewhere in the territory between a less quirky Grimes and Charli XCX. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.119]

Haiku From Zero is fine filler for a late-night dance party, but we can't fathom reaching for this album as often as those prior-too much of it borders on forgettable

Requiem for Hell doesn't engage this canon with an evolved musical lexicon and its familiarity leaves you flat footed.

The record practically bludgeons the listener with playfulness, becoming the rarest of indie-rock birds:a record (and a band) that begs for more self-seriousness. [Fall 2008, p.78]

This is an album in short supply of great songs. [#11, p.110]

There's some gold in this wonky album, but you'll have to muscle through a lot of muck to find it. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.93]

There's enough creative progress here to prove that the band isn't in a holding pattern, though they're shrewd enough to still be easily recognizable to the audience that formed around their debut.

At least Pixies didn't try to fake their way into recreating every aspect of their former glory. But the music here is so unfortunately forgettable.