Deradoorian's demands on Eternal Recurrence are likely too heavy for any casual listeners, but appeals as an abstract expression without any longing to connect.

The hazy pop backing and too-similar melodies lend a rather homogenized sound. [#10, p.112]

Sea Lion is all over the map. [Spring 2008, p.84]

As it stands, everything is cranked to the same volume, creating a wash of sound that's neither punchy enough to move the rockers, nor benign enough to satisfy the stoners. [Spring 2008, p.82]

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]

For better or for worse, the rest of the music world has caught up with them. [#9]

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.

Joyride feels like an album that has had anything adventurous about it focussed-grouped away and its hints at conceptual ambition are quickly abandoned after the opening two tracks for run-of-the-mill R&B. Tinashe is a good singer and a great performer, with the looks and work-ethic to be a star, but she sounds bored on this album.

The lack of a cohesive album sound and memorable melodies are real problems. [Summer 2007, p.88]

The familial rock trio sadly hit jaded ears. Blame the '90s or The Strokes. [Winter 2009, p.78]

While the production sustains its vitality, Congleton's narrow singing range--hidden in the more bizarre, cinematic numbers--gets exposed nonetheless.

The music is challenging to be sure, but cannot be disregarded outright due to several moments where everything seems to click. [Spring 2008, p.88]

'Dust And Daylight' showcases Mark Spencer's beautiful pedal steel, while 'Dynamite,' with its doleful accordian, recalls early Springsteen. [Summer 2009, p.74]

Lyrics Born is capable of a game-changing album, but Everywhere At Once seems like a step backwards. [Spring 2008, p.85]

An abrasively divisive record in that you're either going to get down with the sound, or you're going to immediately turn it off. [#9]

Overall, Every Step's a Yes, which was released in 2010 overseas and is just now getting a stateside release along with six bonus tracks, is mellow psych-folk that largely eschews the more bombastic and eclectic statements of the band's past recordings.

Josh Ritter returns with a sloppier, less streamlined record. [Summer 2007, p.91]

While soul-bearingly intimate, at times Regan can veer into sappy regrets that wear on the listener. [#39, p. 75]

A strong, consistent album, the band succeeds in creating a dreamy air, so much so that it makes me want to nap. [Summer 2008]

I'm From Barcelona is going through its adolescent, introspective phase. [Fall 2008, p.76]

Where "Loney, Noir" held together, Dear John is more of a patchwork. [Winter 2009]

The follow-up to 2007's "Boss" is an uneven album that is full of good ideas but often misses the mark. [Spring 2009, p.76]

Furman's outright ramshackle approach has lost its charm as his songs have become messy and overbearing. These songs are fun but confusing. They lack the allure of the straight-talking, catchy riffs which made his name.

Sadly, Sex With An X feels force, and while it isn't a bad record per se, when held up to the lofty standard of such a great back discography, it just feels staid and inoffensive. [Summer 2010, p.81]

While there's something comforting about the way this cult college-rock band never seems to age, it's frustrating that a group that releases so little can repeat itself so much. Mister Pop, then, is for Clean diehards only.

On their fourth album, they're still churning a space age mix of electro, rap, and sadly some Guitar Center-like rock. [Fall 2009, p.75]

Some restraint could take this band a long way. [#12, p.97]

Sweet Sister isn't as saccharine as one might expect. [Winter 2010, p.71]

Despite the promise of first single "Prayers/Triangles," most of Gore sits in the latter category--a hillock of doomy pop that cowers beside the band's formidable peaks.

While the songs on Dream River aren't what anyone would consider pedestrian, they don't feel particularly daring or weighty. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.87]

Most of the songs play like invertebrate retreads of Flaming Lips and Grandaddy-styled pomp. [Summer 2009, p.65]

At a time when their former opening band (Phoenix) is gaining notoriety for their sexy blend of madcap lyricism and airtight songwriting, Air come across as flat and middling. [Fall 2009, p.56]

The sluggish vibe on The Fall was obviously part of Albarn's intention in creating a meandering sonic travelogue, but you end up wishing he'd pressed the gas pedal a little harder.

Intellect without soul. [#11, p.115]

Despite Adele's striking vocals--the girl can sing--19 isn't mining any new territory. [Summer 2008]

While endeavoring to find their own sound, Tapes 'N Tapes ultimately come off as somewhat generic. [Spring 2008, p.81]

A squashy gust of falsetto, horns, and strings buttress the swaying keyboard popper "hideout," but like many of these tracks, it's a little too twee. [Summer 2010, p.79]

Suffers from grungy overtones, a muddy sound, and vocals that are somehow, at once, both nasal and guttural. [#13, p.97]

If you're a pre-existing fan, you'll have to scratch at the veneer quite a bit to find any trace of their former grit. [Spring 2008, p.83]

This is an interesting group and I would love to see them take more risks next time around. [Spring 2009, p.66]

Each track possesses a sad beauty, thanks largely to Peter Broderick's heavily arranged bluegrass instrumentation, but Ringle's faint, barely decipherable vocals act like fog obscuring a lush forest. [Fall 2008, p.86]

Basically, Grace/Wasteland is Doherty as strolling minstrel. [Spring 2009, p.71]

The Light the Dead See is a good and, at times, even great album. It just ultimately fails to live up to the standard set by its predecessors.

The problem with Classics, then, is that they call attention to the bleeding sincerity of that bygone era without being able to quite do it justice.

Double Jointer primal high may entertain for a while, but there is an unhealthy amount of reverb deflating this trip. [Spring 2010, p.72]

The directionless nature of the songs leaves them feeling half-formed, perhaps better refined or even left on the cutting room floor than making their way to a full album.

Noisy, hazy, but fairly lucid, Dinowalrus' % sometimes sounds improvised on the spot. [Winter 2010, p.72]

Unfortunately, this deep-sea sequel to 2008's "White Light Strobing" wades in the shallow end. [Summer 2009, p.70]

The end result is a little too loose, maybe, missing the urgency of their previous effort. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.74]

With OK Computer widely available--and more compelling efforts from Calla, Kasabian and Interpol--this one sounds pretty optional. [#11, p.115]

He proves himself every bit the master his reputation promises, especially on those elbow-throwing, drm-snapping beats he does best, yet he's still unsure of himself, too willing to play cloy cat chameleon when he should be honing his own increasingly beguiling technique. [Year End 2008, p.88]

Given both men's positions as post-punk and goth progenitors, Lion sadly isn't up to snuff with the black magic these two have been so capable of creating in the past.

A good start to your evening--but certainly not capable of carrying the whole night.

The album, at its heart, is noisy and self-assured blues-rock with sweeter (read: softer) pop elements dotting the landscape. [Mar 2012, p.83]

While all is not completely lost, too many tracks seem to shoot for the kind of idiosyncratic wonderment that the band perfected on its first two albums, only to come out flaccid. [#13, p.89]

The band seems to have stalled out on the sun drenched idealized California road of love. [#5, p.102]

Coming off their auspicious 2010 EP Color Your Life, Long Island's Twin Sister have delivered a maddeningly ambitious, haphazard, and unfortunately inconsistent debut LP. [Oct. 2011, p. 106]

The erroneously titled debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, plays much like a latter-day Oasis album. [May 2011, p.83]

While At Echo Lake was essentially the same sonic blueprint as its predecessor, the mellower mood here is a marked change from those last two efforts, though it's not always the most successful of shifts. [May 2011, p. 82]

On this debut they often seem too busy trying to charm our pants off. [Oct. 2011, p. 106]

Too often, though the album drags beneath the weight of guest appearances and loses sight of the sonic arrangements below. [Fall 2009, p.74]

Although this balmy, Britpoppy full-length debut offers nothing essential, it's nonetheless loaded with melodically persuasive radio-friendly songs. [#11, p.115]

Certain moments glimmer brighter than others in the murky depths, but the kinetic urgency that hummed under the surface has dissipated and the album mostly just moseys along for 13 tracks. [May - Jun 2016, p.94]

Overall, Civilized occupies a comfortable middle ground too often. [Summer 2009, p.63]

The Goats have noble intentions, but their Biblicval tunes call to mind 7-11 praise music. [Fall 2009, p.59]

Though the mechanics are excellent, the spark of originality is missing. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.91]

Is it funny? If you're a 15-year-old boy, you'll love it as there's enough toilet humor here to stun an Ox. Will it be funny after the first listen? Well, the jury is out. But probably not.

Bashed-out third-generation dance-punk and Long Island emo. [#12, p.97]

Though at times a difficult listen, the album is at its best when Bozulich's voice is paired with haunting cello. [Oct. 2011, p. 108]

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

With such important and epic thematic material, the band’s historically climactic builds and stream-of-conscious writing are sorely missed. But the record succeeds when it gets gritty and passionate.

Even if Mixed Race plays too much like its influences, there are the identifiable shudders and spookiness that go with the genre-bending multicultural-ness that defines Tricky. [Fall 2010, p. 64]

Nothing here approaches innovation, and while the music isn't offensive to the ears, it provides little to get excited about. [#9]

Oddly, the songs here are actually quite good and are played , well but Black’s nasal voice is at odds with some of the genres he’s exploring. [#14]

One might say it's a composed, mature listen. [Oct. 2011, p. 108]

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

For now, this ambitious album sadly slots into the "for completists only" compartment of Murdoch's nearly unimpeachable discography. [Summer 2009, p.66]

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]

Country Club is a bit too bland of a listen as a whole, with only a few rollicking instrumental Sadies originals to breakup the mostly low-key covers. [Spring 2009, p.78]

Much of the album has a cheesy '80s vibe. [#17, p.93]

The Damien Rice comparisons are unfair because O'Brien is, demonstrably, a much, much better musician than his compatriot. This album shows us that, but it's little that we haven't seen before.

Endless Dream is scaled back and overly minimal in an unenthusiastic way. Drums make up the center of most of these songs, which makes them difficult to endure. None of the songs, with the exception of “Out of Nowhere” and “Reason to Be Reasonable,” have any momentum to carry the band over the top of the mountain and, what’s worse, the band sounds bored, sleepwalking through the motions.

Overall, the experiments on POP ETC fall flat.

The intimacy can become suffocating, but on songs such as the "Blackbird"-esque "Even Rain," Baird's delicate touches hit a nerve. [Oct. 2011, p. 108]

Unfortunately, the all-star collaborators mire Wilson’s primary-colored tunes in pointless excess and self-indulgence. Point being, some albums are lost for a reason and Pacific Ocean Blue is overwrought yacht rock schlock. [Summer 2008]

It does not provide an accessible point of entry for the uninitiated. Like the majority of such collections, it will appeal to existing admirers of the artists work. [Winter 2009, p.80]

Unlikely to be turning on any new fans, this will no doubt please those who have followed King since her earliest appearance on Nas' Street's Disciple, yet there's really not enough here to grab onto to really move the soul and demand repeated listens.

Those fans who were turned on to the band through the aggressive sonics of Ta Det Lugnt might find the approach through most of Skit to be a bit confounding. [Fall 2010, p. 67]

[Fans] will undoubtedly identify those elements that make the band special on this fourth album, though the intensely personal nature of Thorburn's songs and his vocals tend to make this seem at times more like a solo effort. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Experimenting with a change of direction for your third record is understandable, but drifting so far away from the qualities that made your sound so individual? That's a little harder to forgive. [Jun-Jul 2013, p.88]

There are a few highlights, such as the gorgeous "Surfer King," but the rest is reverb-drenched murk. [Oct. 2011, p. 108]

An interesting listen, sure, but one that lacks the necessary direction.

While they prove themselves exceptionally adept at juggling mutiple song dynamics, the melodies and sentiments expressed are surprisingly commonplace. [Summer 2007, p.79]

Their forward (albeit delayed) momentum works on the first six tracks here. The individual elements pop and sparkle. Unfortunately, the post-punk attitude of the band's first two albums is quickly waylaid for nostalgic, sad sack lyricism, and Mercer's hang-ups about being old. [May 2011, p.84]

Magnifique is less than immersive.

At over 71 minutes, the album is overlong, but at least it is cohesive.

They're underachievers who need to try harder. [Winter 2010, p.62]

As the album progresses, it becomes hard to listen to without wishing each song had its own kinetic, creative video. [Dec 2014, p.88]