Most of Stars ends up feeling like a sleight of hand; pay no attention to the lack of accessibility, but instead be distracted by the unecessarily grandiose 'I'm Not Ready to Love.' [Summer 2007, p.86]

The Cribs are doing an admirable job of copying garage bands, but that is all it is, a facsimile. [Summer 2007, p.79]

Several tracks fade in a different instrumental passage at the close,m including some containing ideas that are incongruous with the preceding music. [May 2011, p.94]

Too much here feels incomplete. [Apr - May 2015, p.89]

A very professional but almost inconsequential set... flat and ultimately uninspired. [#17, p.88]

This new approach does not work consistently, however. Occasionally it sounds unfulfilled, like melodies drifting off into nowhere only to find their way back and repeat, lost in a gloomy haze of steady rhythms.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala are fantastically talented musicians and arrangers. But until they rein in their astronomical pretension, they'll always look more important than they truly are. [#9]

The issue here, though, is that the band seemed more than capable of leaping ahead of their radio-friendly indie counterparts, but slip right back into the abyss with their least ambitious LP to date.

Essentially, Dirty Pretty Things sound like a sober and well-rested version of The Libertines… which honestly takes somea little of the fun away. [#15]

Big Echo is a challenging album that coheres in bits, but searches more often than it finds. [Winter 2010, p.64]

At its best, the albumit does achieve an interesting hybrid of jazz and electronic music. At its worst, it’s simply boring. [#14]

The title number is exemplary epic...Others like 'Drum Song' and 'Dibango' unravel too loose and spill all over an otherwise immaculate canvas. [Spring 2009, p.78]

The emotional immediacy of a jilted lover has been replaced with a series of tired metaphors, and as a result The Winter Of Mixed Drinks falls significantly short of its predecessor. [Winter 2010, p.82]

The duo takes on Italo disco, going by the numbers to create uncharcateristically mixed results. [Winter 2010, p.63]

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]

Basses Loaded is an intriguing study into the influence of different bass players on a legendary band's sonic dynamics, and offers isolated moments of creative triumph--but it's a record overwhelmed by its creators back catalogue, and not one you could imagine having any kind of longevity.

Two of the last tracks, “Bertney” and especially “Retphase,” end up succeeding where most of the album is lacking in finding the perfect balance between left-field beats and compulsive rhythms. Too bad the rest of the album doesn’t hit the same mark. [#15]

Flashes of brilliance remain, but consistency has not yet been achieved. [Summer 2009, p.68]

The Black Sabbath worship continues from the trio of Israelis while singer Ami Shalev hams it up on the microphone. [Year End 2010, p.75]

Despite the proficiency and accomplishment of the arrangements, the album is simply too understated, repetitive, and blandly written to do much more than hold your attention. [Summer 2006]

Murphy's unfailing rich darkness pervades Ninth but this can start to drag at times. [May 2011, p.80]

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]

It's easy to lay the rap on Banhart's drifting towards the middle of the road with the fuller, whole-band sound he's embraced, or the bigger labels or the greater notoriety, but the fault clearly lies with Banhart himself, who has become a lot easier to understand. [Fall 2009, p.56]

While this particular brand of retro-ish pop is pleasing in small quantities, over the course of a whole album, things start to sound familiar. [May 2011, p.88]

Ultimately the effort is mighty, and Little Dragon is still clearly at the top of the electro R&B pile. But Ritual Union is a mixed bag, its feet uncomfortably divided between the dance floor and the couch.

Sadly lacks the emotion and, frankly, the catchiness of his previous release. [#10, p.111]

While the sound may be a reflection of the state the planet is in, it is not helping in lifting the spirits any. [Spring 2010, p.74]

He remains in the club for his passable sophomore effort. [Jul 2011, p.91]

Throughout A Hundred Miles Off the songs are almost blistering, almost gut-wrenching, but almost is never enough. [#14]

The Kooks churn out the occasional winner, but all too often they end up recycling the best bits of better bands. [Spring 2008, p.76]

This album shows that they know what they're good at and that their latter-day acoustic balladry and epic wanking were getting tired. [Fall 2008, p.77]

While it's clear that Nash's skills have advanced light years since Made of Bricks' bang-it-out musicality, one can't help but wish she'd finally figure out what the hell it is she's trying to say.

It is a decent debut, with a lot of room for growth. [Feb 2011, p.66]

On Sky Full of Holes, Fountains of Wayne is what we thought they were: some of the best songwriters this side of Big Star, who occasionally indulge their less populist impulses.

Sure, appearances by resident clever sad boy John Grant and Belgian singer Gustaph stir the pot a little (particularly on the catchy lead single "Do You Feel the Same?") but ultimately the final package ends up fading into rhythmic background music.

It would seem that Earlimart have elected to frequently and blatantly mimic their spaced-out friends Grandaddy... and--to a lesser extent--the tightly wound apartment-rock of The Postal Service and Plus/Minus. [#7]

This record grows predictable. [#9]

What's disappointing about Somebody's Miracle is not so much a matter of genre, tone or production sheen, but that Phair has made herself indistinguishable by falling in line. [#11, p.112]

Several tracks do reclaim some of Björk's past glory and inspire a bit of wonder, but the majority of Biophilia meanders weightlessly into space.

Century moves the band into the 2000s, while still featuring the occasional nod to '60s songcraft. This change, ironically, strips The 1900s of much of its distinctiveness.

Vapours doesn't offer listeners much of anything new. [Fall 2009, p.64]

The album is at best ignorable and at worst irritatingly tranquilizing. [#39, p. 71]

With Welch's most forgettable set of melodies and tasteful but well-trod arrangements adding up to a generally disappointing return. [Jul 2011, p.92]

Where every track on The Flower Lane felt essential to the whole product, most of the material here feels like warmed-up leftovers.

This album is, surprisingly, a steady, droning psychedelic experience.

The album is full of airy beauty and precious melodies sung in an angelic voice. However, there is not enough here to counter its delicate nature. [Year End 2008, p.83]

It feels kind of like these three, and this group of songs, would have been just as effective apart. [Spring 2009, p.74]

Overall, Barking is a hit-and-miss situation. [Summer 2010, p.89]

The results are mixed. The first four tracks are the most rewarding.

It is, quite frankly, a bland album. [Winter 2010, p.69]

Without the production pizzazz that made Slowdive so compelling, Goswell is left somewhat adrift. [#7]

Where artists such as Elliott Smith or Jeff Tweedy manage to express their unique creative personalities while they wield the traditional tools of the trade, Rouse's songwriting lacks a similar sense of urgency or drama, too often stumbling into amazingly trite cliches. [#9]

The issue with Dreams Come True is not a lack of talent but a lack of time and focus.

Zeitgeist fails to capture not just the spirit of the cultural times, but of the true Smashing Pumpkins. [Summer 2007, p.84]

The end result is a record that feels phoned in. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.114]

Some tracks come close to capturing that cozy, Superwolf magic, like the easygoing “Resist the Urge” and “My Body Is My Own,” but in too many there seems to have been an urge to make the songs larger and bolder than necessary. It makes those tracks more abrasive and loud than what many would probably expect from this unexpected follow-up.

Basically, what it comes down to is whether you can get past the thematic and lyrical silliness. If so, Warp Riders is a hell of a trip. If not--and truth be told, it's difficult--wait until The Sword's next album.

Their latest is a decent entry into their quintessentially Canadian discography that casual listeners will tolerate and fans will like.

Unfortunately, Night Driver's opening and closing tracks either fade together all too quickly or wade too far into an unpleasant '80s pool. [Jan/Feb 2016, p.57]

Some of the droning vocals are hypnotic, but There Were Wolves doesn’t have enough movement to be very satisfying; more like a series of snacks than a full meal. [Summer 2008]

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

In Virus Times isn’t going to be anyone’s release of the year, but it’s unfair to judge it by that criterion. The recording is a time capsule, cathartic for its creator and a candid audio tour through the living room of one of alternative music’s best ever guitarists. He just doesn’t sound like it here.

2005's Waiting for the Sirens' Call is nobody's favorite New Order record, and it's fair to guess not many people were waiting with baited breath for an outtakes album from an apparently dreary and unimaginative recording period.

It'll be of concern to Queens purists that Villains pulls from sounds that expired a decade ago and beyond. Dwelling on better times of a bygone era is a fundamental pillar of escapism, but it's disconcerting when one of the most uncompromising, forward-thinking bands in the rock pantheon leans so heavily on what worked in the past that they forget that the onus is on them to innovate.

Most of what's here are, predictably, mid-tempo mopers, as opposed to the more agressive, distorted side that's driven some of his best work this decade. [Holiday 2009, p.80]

[These marquee name guests] might be the source to what is wrong with Heglioland. Usually, Massive mainstays, 3D and Daddy G, are able to bring somthing previously not experienced out of their collaborators. This time, nothing is connecting. [Winter 2010, p.69]

Noctunes, unlike his previous records, is a work suspended in time, amorphous and entrancing, but ultimately too shapeless to hold its own weight. [Aug-Sep 2015, p.60]

They're easy to classify, to drop on your "Sounds Like Sarah Records" playlist and, thus, a little derivative. But that doesn't stop them from being a fun time.

Although an album of undoubted breadth and invention, Gossip In The Grain may only serve ultimately to send fans back to the stark beauty of "Trouble." [Fall 2008, p.76]

A few missteps prevent this from being a really good album. [Winter 2008]

Hidden, the young British group's sophomore full-length, was made much in the same vein as 2007's Beat Pyramid, but at times it's even less coherent.

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

Little Boots is consciously following pop music's torchbearers. Unfortunately, she's not ready to carry one herself.

Coastal Grooves is easy enough on the ears, but the bulk of it doesn't really connect, and it lacks the melodic gifts and pop sensibilities Hynes so magnificently displayed on "Dinner." [Oct. 2011, p. 79]

While it's clear that Learning has a lot to say, it sorely lacks variety of structure, arrangement, and melody, leaving the record with a bit of a stale aftertaste and merely the promise of something greater in Perfume Genius' future.

The Terror is a record that feels high on concept, but short on songs. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.92]

The quality of the songs quickly fades as the album spins on. [#14]

There are a few diamonds here, but there’s also a lot of stray buckshot. [Summer 2008]

This is good. And some of it is very good. The trouble being that, production-wise, these songs want more power than they're given.

Too often on Muna she falls back to silence, when she should be singing and playing with force.

An underwhelming collection that lacks focus and rarely lives up to the lofty aspirations of these two titans of modern music. [Fall 2008, p.79]

Costa has always been more a purist, but Justin Stanley's feline production inflates her torpid lyrics. [Fall 2008, p.86]

Most of these songs, while energetically played, have a disposable quality that the band's enthusiasm can't overcome. [Spring 2009, p.77]

Pure candy at its highest moments, but perceptibly hollow at others. [March 2012, p.80]

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.

The band's ferocity seems subdued here, and the road burn a little more pronounced... Regardless, plenty of it does the trick. [March 2012, p.81]

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

There's something here, but it's not totally revealed and unfortunately, the record feels more like a notebook of unwhittled concepts than an assertive statement.

The remixers seem bent on matching Battles' creativity, though the end result, while at times admirable, may leave listeners longing for a full airing of Gloss Drop.

The Diet's overall mood is scattered, littered with contributions from countless session musicians. These details eventually weigh down The Diet, and it wears down into a sluggish affair.

It is Foals-by-the-numbers, though, and the band's apparent lack of energy renders it cold and forgettable.

Meshing his [Schaaf's] loop-rich bedroom pop with a live band sound yields uneven results: the thickly-layered, self-harmonizing vocal loops are one of the project's most compelling characteristics, and they're sometimes lost in the indie pop instrumental trappings that just aren't as distinctive. [Mar 2012, p.81]

Ultimately, The Sounds probably won't change your world, but they sure can be fun to dance to.

Tomorrow's Modern Boxes is similar to The Eraser in its electronic aesthetic; it's cohesive but hardly the most compelling album he's released.

Such restraint should give way to immediate rewards, but gems like the colorful "Reign" and cleverly disheveled "Haggle" are all too often negated by the tedium of tracks like "Clean."

The wide-eyed soundtrack to an afternoon-stoner daydream. [#8, p.106]

For the most part the performances stick too close to the originals for the musicians to put their own mark on the proceedings. [#13, p.89]

The fault lies mainly in the lyrics. [#11, p.106]