Lesser Known sounds, not nostalgic, or even cleverly kitschy, but utterly predictable--emphasizing influences over innovation. [May 2011, p.89]

With a few great epics, some nice ear candy, and an abundance of mood, they're serving up the usual like bartenders. [Oct 2011, p.108]

While the quartet’s earlier efforts maintained a shoegazey vibe, that’s mostly been abandoned this time around in favor of more straightforward (and less interesting) songwriting. [Year End 2008]

Through it’s lean 39-minute run time, You & I holds strong to a keen sense of melody. [Winter 2009]

Clever lyrical barbs aside, far too much of the album is the kind of sexed up party fare that grows tiresome on repeated listens. [Fall 2008, p.88]

David Vandervelde's latest full-length, Waiting For The Sunrise, is a a warm, comfortable, '70s AM radio throwback, layered with organs, reverb, and smoky heartbreak. [Fall 2008, p.84]

Lack of pop structures be damned, the Norwegian duo have created a freewheeling, pleasant affair--even if we get the feeling we've heard it all before.

As with Born Ruffians' previous albums, there is nothing especially bad or even enjoyable about Birthmarks. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.91]

Mainly I Heart California is a series of love songs to California that play out like taunts to people who live in other places. Although, at times, it seems I Heart California is taunting itself. [Summer 2010, p.82]

All in all, the two albums prove that even Friedberger’s secondary musical thoughts are worthy of attention. [Summer 2006]

They wrongly assume dark tones will lead to increased substance, a mistake that sees Stills burn out in a banal fog of distortion. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.102]

Stick around and listen again, and the songs will reveal themselves as something distinct and remarkable that shrug off any nostalgia for past work. [#10, p.106]

Never afraid to cop a new style or try something that might not work, Architecture in Helsinki has thrown listeners for a loop yet again.

Another 11 driving, sun-faded jams, occupying that headspace somewhere between early Flaming Lips and Traffic. [Mar 2012, p.87]

More like an album of B-sides than an original work. [#7]

A whole album featuring Astbury or Clark would be spectacular, but the remainder of War Stories sounds like paint-by-numbers remixes. [Summer 2007, p.85]

The result is Schrödinger's cat: simultaneously interesting and dull until you listen to it. Then it's just a bit dull.

It's a slow-grower, worth applying oneself too. If one can disregard the brashness, drop the record a few times, and get over the weird for weird's sake, it is possible to embrace the complexities buried beneath in this offering from a group of post-punk, avant-garde cobblers.

True to its title, Flashy is heavy on sheen, and bombast that blinds like glitter on a dirty bar floor. [Year End 2008, p.82]

Dead Petz isn't inherently ugly; in fact, there are many gorgeous moments. These moments tend to not go anywhere, though, and they are surrounded by mostly superfluous and even boring songs.

Ultimately though, All of Us, Together is a slight affair, with Teen Daze desperately clinging to genre hallmarks when he has the potential to be so much more.

Explore plays more like the examination of a single idea than the fleshing out of an artistic vision. [Oct-Nov 2012, p.133]

Alternately suffers and benefits from "too many cooks" syndrome. [March 2012, p.77]

Chances are most of these tune lack the staying power of those that inspire them, but a few are real gems in a way that transcends the mischief. [winter 2010, p.68]

Nothing here is must=-hear, but true fans will enjoy sorting through of Montreal's influences and musical thought process as they prepare for the next full-length album. [May 2011, p.85]

At least with Content some dots connected to the band's groundbreaking heyday, and while What Happens Next isn't too far removed from the former, the shift has left familiarity behind. That's not all bad, but the chosen direction isn't anything revelatory.

There is always an intimacy and an emotional immediacy to what they do as a band, but more often than not it stays too much in that one place, their comfort zone. It causes an album like this to come across like a collection of demo tracks by a very accomplished band that lays out their aural plan, but doesn’t ever fully color in all of the spaces available to them. It doesn’t evolve into what it could be.

The familiarity may be pleasing, but you may ultimately be disappointed when you realize that the original somngs they're emulating are so much better. [Winter 2009, p.81]