Despite some genuinely striking imagery, Forget The Night Ahead can't help but feel like a disappointment after the band's thrilling debut. [Fall 2009, p.67]

All the typical Kings of Convenience ingrediants are here, but they don't add up to quite the right recipe. [Fall 2009, p.59]

There is plenty of good poetry waiting below the poverty line; R.A.P. Music ain't it. [Jun 2012, p.161]

The band betrays itself on the album as a one-trick glam rock pony. [#7]

The quieter moments on Mountaintops work best....Because this is primarily a direct, uncompromising collection, the weak songs stick out like sore thumbs. [Oct 2011, p.105]

The Orchard has one virulently catchy song, "Too Dramatic." Too much of the album, however, is immediately forgotten, an issue the band didn't encounter on their excellent The Rhumb Line.

Has the unmistakable sound of a sophomore slump. [#10, p.107]

Up All Night is far from terrible and often a pleasant listen, but there’s nothing particularly enchanting about singer Johnny Borrell’s “vox,” and if anything seems to be lacking here, it’s perhaps a sense of musical identity. [#15]

Whereas the previous three Tilly & the Wall albums always featured a certain pop-wise innocence, despite whatever eccentricities they might also feature, Heavy Mood is mostly devoid of such.

There is a palpable sense of indifference throughout the first half of the record. [#15]

Despite spiraling further into outer space with each release, the pysch-punk band that calls Long Beach, California home keeps the drone thick yet tailored and the raucous guitar-and-drum blitzkriegs-which drive tracks such as "By the Sawkill" and "Seance"-concise.

Tape Recorder is an apt name for its unvarnished sophomore LP, which resembles a demo.

Elephant Shell is very appealing in a middle-of-the-road way, but for those hoping to be electrified, we'll have to wait on another arse. [Spring 2008, p.81]

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

Catchy melodies abound, but there is too much insistence on melody, and not enough on thoughtful instrumentation or profundity, for this album to rise as a pop classic.

It's hard to imagine many people reaching for this album even for times of pensive reflection when there's such a preponderance of terrific mellow music out there.

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

This feels a little lazy, like an ugly electronic quilt, its patchwork of half-assed electronic explorations hitting the mark every so often. [Fall 2007, p.72]

Less than the sum of its parts, here's hoping that whatever Gough is thinking for part two includes hiring an editor to help him provide form to all this meaning. [Fall 2010, p.58]

Master of My Make-Believe lands with a bit of a thud in contrast; lots of filler propped up by a few far-out pop jams, possessing as many ups and downs as her 2008 debut record.

An uneven affair. [#17, p.85]

She fluctuates between disturbingly brilliant to aggravatingly irritating at regular intervals--sometimes even during the course of a single song.

There are moments peaking around 'The Wind And The Dove' with its gauzy Wurlitzer and "Thief Of Baghdad arrangements. Later, 'Rococo Zephyr' and 'My Friend' start in interesting places but slowly dissolve into the album's clunky tail section. [Spring 2009, p.65]

So if you’ve always wanted to hear U2’s frontman lead a hook-filled classic country/rock band, Cardinology is for you. If, however, you’re waiting for Adams to deliver the classic album his prodigious talents seem capable of, you’re stuck waiting until his multiple personality disorder wears off and he remembers who he is. [Year End 2008]

The album is slow and steady without ever finding its pinnacle.

The only problem with 1372 Overton Park is, strangely Ben Nichols' lead vocals, which in this recording, feel unusally mannered. [Fall 2009, p.75]

If you don't yet know NYC bands like The Witnesses or The Natural History, this album is worth a try. [#5, p.116]

Unfortunately, the record's too all-over-the-place to build any sort of engrossing atmosphere. [Mar 2012, p.87]

Elliott's softly vulnerable voice gives everything a modest approachability. [Spring 2008, p.87]

The reverberating sitars that kick off K 2.0 signal that it's business as usual chez Kula Shaker.

On Who We Touch there is barely a sign of The Charlatans. [Fall 2010, p.66]

Chain & the Gang sounds something like a slightly saner Captain Beefheart, a less arty Bongwater, or a whiter James Brown. [Feb 201, p.73]

In the end the memorable moments of this fans-only effort are largely drowned out by the all encompassing sameness of the remainder. [#17, p.96]

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

While there is nothing unpalatable on "Let's Rock", the majority of the tracks are missing that intangible ingredient from the music with only a few songs being a flawless merging of instrumental dexterity and fashionable spirit that allow these artists to explore their blues side while indulging their rock tendencies.

Russian Circles returns with this album of sprawling instrumental songs that vacillate between churning heavy riffage and redemptive passages. [Fall 2009, p.72]

Rarely gets its head above water. [#11, p.112]

The meat-and-potatoes musical approach keeps the path clear for the word to have the primary focus, meaning that you probably won't be humming much of The Gathering in the shower. [Feb 2011, p.73]

Only the most diehard Bauhaus collectors need The Bela Session in their shrine.

A whole album of this sort of thing, however, feels like sprinkling white sugar on a supermarket layer cake--it's excessively appealing to only one sense and though it's quite filling it doesn't manage to be nourishing.

If you like your rock tight, shrill, and speedy, this one could be for you. Problem is, as rendered, Jaguar Love's spastics are at war with groove and less than supportive of their progressive ambitions. [Fall 2008, p.86]

Sing Along is both a frustration and incorporeal mood waiting to be coaxed out of hibernation. [Fall 2009, p.65]

It's a tense, fierce, relentless piece that delivers sections of quiet space, brutal groove, and beautiful cacophony. But, like looking at a sculpture online or watching a prerecorded broadcast of a play, the element of danger and excitement is lost without the heat, sweat, and movement of a live performance.

Playland breaks no new ground. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.77]

Not Music is one of those albums of extras that disappointingly lays bare why these tracks were excluded from those that initially found a release.

Heart-On, despite its snarling, strutting riffs, feels disappointingly lightweight. [Year End 2008]

A little too straight--a little too synthetic--to be truly memorable. [#10, p.114]

Rewolf may be a rerecording, but it lacks another crucial "re" word--"revelation." [Holiday 2009, p.78]

This album feels and sounds like a tossed-off collection of odds and sods instead of an album of A grade tracks. [#15]

The Worm's Heart is a curiously pointless release and coming so soon after the first version does it no favors at all.

The one word that comes to mind when listening to Wait For Me is quiet--no matter what the number of sounds or sound sources. [Summer 2009, p.72]

The lack of distinctive arrangements eventually diminishes the songs' individual merits. [#9]

For the aforementioned first group of fans [who own every album], Outbursts, will meet all expectations—particularly since this type of low-key, overly emotional, sentimental musing is what they want from Turin Brakes. For the second group, they never knew there was a Turin Brakes to begin with and Outbursts is not going to change that.

Rotating guest producers help enhance her arrangements, and when she nails one, you'll revisit it. Other tracks, though, have a tiresome, hook-by-committee vibe that's entirely disposable. [Winter 2009, p.78]

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]

The loose mood throughout spills into the playing, which at its best moments strikes a sprightly spontaneity, but also lands elsewhere like a weak punch to the shoulder. By Friday Night's end, you've had some fun, just not enough to make it that memorable.

Long Live the King, the collection of leftovers from that album [The King is Dead], continues that same stripped-down trajectory with mixed results.

Elizabeth Ziman's voice compares well with the mainstream flavor of a Sara Bareilles, while her songs mine deeper states of self-examination. [Year End 2010, p.75]

The backing members of Magnolia are perfectly competent, but sound justly uninspired by the material. [#8, p.115]

The elementary laments on "Peccavi" conjure a shrug at best. Lines like "Skeptics, eat shit" won't help either (see "End of an Era"). The early Madonna mood of "Tell Me" is the album's finest instrumental moment, but even this feels borrowed.

Style-wise, Shapes isn't marking a great departure from Gomez's jams. Rather, it highlights certain aspects the group includes in their music. Plus, the album allows Ottewell space to breathe. And he has never had as much oxygen as he does on Shapes.

When it's good, it's very good. And when it's bad...well... [Holiday 2009, p.81]

Going organic may have its advantages, but for Stephen Wilkinson it's a move that doesn't come naturally. [Jun-Jul 2013, p.86]

Throughout Ultraviolence, there's a sense of musical haziness that rests in a safe zone that Del Rey either can't or won't escape from.

The songs don't have much teeth in the way of hooks or vigor. [#11, p.108]

Eight years ago this might have been a decent debut for a Weezer-rip-off pop-punk band, but now, even at their best, Weezer too often come off now as self-parody.

Snowflake Midnight continues with the too-clean, too-electronic devolpments of "The Secret Migration." [Fall 2008, p.77]

he overall result is in line with Studio's work or that of some of their Swedish contemporaries. [Feb 2011, p.69]

Restraint dominates elsewhere, but brillance comes when The Drones throw musical sanity to the wind. [Winter 2009, p.78]

Too much of Kavinsky's debut LP is overly repetitive, and little of it leaves any lasting impact. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.100]

PHB are equally comfortable with light rocking as they are heavy popping. [#39, p.75]

[His] trademark unassuming melodic sparseness... only serves to amplify his grating, bone-decaying voice. [#10, p.114]

U&I will only impress if you're already part of Warp's main target audience. [#39, p.74]

The album has a very sterile feel to it, almost as if the members all recorded seperately and then mailed their contributions in to be mixed together. [Fall 2008, p.85]

Glass' distorted barks and coos are a highlight of their first two albums and live sets--but any political message the band intends in III is lost under layers of digital dirt.

Lushly produced bubblegum made less palatable by elementary lyrics. [#10, p.111]

Wilson sounds overly smooth and croon-y on "We Stay Together," while on "Hole In My Soul" the group's cartoonish attempt at modern sounds is strung together with a sickly thread of saccharine.

It certainly isn't breaking any new ground, but the combination of influences does come together in a way that isn't altogether uninteresting. [#13, p.94]

The Fool contains many songs in line behind that first single; put any one of them on at random and you'll think it's a pretty great pop song. Play them in order though, for 40 minutes, and the experience becomes repetitive and empty.

Disappointingly, How Does It Feel has a good dose of the latter [blatant variety of compositions].

I still root for Pearl Jam, and listen to each of their albums with the hope that I'll get the same charge I did from Ten and Vs., and perhaps the greatest testament to Backspacer is that it's the most difficult album in a long time to immediately dismiss.

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

The tunes are imminently enjoyable and the interplay among the DuPrees' voices is always thrilling. [Feb. 2011, p. 64]

His immensely understated fifth release as Owen may not be the sharp turn he needs, but it's a hummable start. [Fall 2009, p.72]

Not particularly memorable. [#5, p.109]

Much of the material is unmemorable, making this feel longer than the album's 46-minute running time.

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.

RZA's chaotic rhymes are still a treat, but they too, are not filling enough. [Summer 2008, p.94]

New record Elysium finds them sounding once again like proverbial fish out of water, only with far less aplomb. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.113]

The yawn-inducing LP starts innocently enough with the charming synthpop number, "Thieves in The Night." [Winter 2010, p.68]

An appealing but ultimately uninspiring work. [#8, p.116]

The artistic forward motion is encouraging and highly commendable, but the results are that of a band with a new lineup in that shaky third album-redefining stage. [#13, p.88]

Arcade Fire are a great band, spurning a generation of indie listeners and have influenced countless groups. Which is what makes listening to Everything Now that much more painful. This is the band as a shell of themselves, an uninspiring slog of half-baked ideas following a "trying-by-not-trying" attitude.

For all the drama, this is auto-pilot-rock. [Jun 2012, p.161]

His last two prominent releases have tread over this same material in more lasting and memorable ways. [Summer 2006, p.90]

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

The Brooklyn's quartet vacillates between Camera Obscura's mawkish indie-pop, Regina Spektor's endearing flirtations and The Clientele's autumnal vision. [#39, p.68]

Among the standout tracks and few ho-hummers is enough good poetry to overshadow that which is overwrought, and enough personification to light a small town.