While not essential to casual listeners of Segall, $ingle$ 2 is a fun compilation that avid fans will undoubtedly want to add to their library. [Dec 2014, p.67]

Galaxie 500 greatly benefits from the studio effects and overdubs on their two official releases, but the spontaneity and off-the-cuff elements of the guitar tones and phrasings in the live setup are certainly enjoyable. [#12, p.94]

While the successful execution of her solo pop record is admirable, and Mantaray stands favorably poised to be the next shining example of British “quality” pop music....Artists of their ilk are always more exciting and satisfying when they and their music are a bit freakish. [Fall 2007, p.81]

This is mainly just sunny, disintegrated, low-stakes rock music. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Unoriginality issues aside, this zealous band knows how to have fun.

Yet for all the lost time, the duo;s sound is virtually unchanged from 2003's Hold On Love, or for that matter their 2001 self-titled debut. [Summer 2010, p.77]

Melodies are often masked by the instrumentation, and there are very few, if any, big sing-along choruses. But every Guided By Voices album has a few true gems, and English Little League is no exception in that regard. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.92]

Paper Dolls is highlighted by more drum machines and more synthesizers than any previous Brunettes release, yet features some of the duo's most intimate and delicate work. [Winter 2010, p.68]

A playful record full of pop textures, light nostalgia, and occasionally cartoon-ish dynamics that does a great job undermining many of the tropes of contemporary dance music.

While McCaughan retains a lot of his vitality, he can't completely shake off the specter of comfortable maturity. [#11, p.116]

Garden of Arms lacks the shuffling melodies and stark homemade craftwork of the band's debut. [Oct. 2011, p. 108]

Antidotes is a great dance-rock record, but Foals still have a few lessons to learn before they reinvent the genre. [Spring 2008, p.76]

For fans, You Gotta Go... is just different enough from what came before to keep ears interested. For everyone else, this will seem like more of the same. [#5, p.103]

It's difficult not to be a bit disappointed with the slight change in direction. Still, the songs remain angular and tight and grow on you once you get past the tempo changes. [#14]

Crush is a definite left turn from those well-publicized left coast roots, and at times it's so dense it's almost too much, but it reeks of ambition and a very conscious choice to evolve. [Fall 2010, p. 66]

What Hatfield lacks in lyrical grace--she makes up in conviction. [Summer 2008, p.82]

Inessential but pretty darned good. [Oct - Dec 2022, p.86]

Isn't intense enough to demand listener attention, isn't wandering enough to be hypnotic, and isn't melodic enough to be immediate. [#7]

With Phosphene Dream, The Black Angels can seem like they're too often pulling in two directions at once -- unable to leave behind their bearings yet subtly alluding to a desire to move forward. [Fall 2010, p. 66]

Heavy Ghost manages to give a pleasant trip off the grid. [Winter 2009, p.76]

Teeth Dreams isn't a failure. But it's an album that doesn't play to its creators' strengths. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.72]

It features Crocodiles' most accessible work to date. [Jun 2012, p.146]

A fairly specific album--great when you are similarly sullen, but somewhat tiresome when you aren't. [#8, p.112]

Penny Sparkle has strong bookends. [Fall 2010, p. 66]

If the band's self titled debut marks a letdown from the heights of its early work, it's because the new material has hardly expanded High Paces' musical vocabulary. [Fall 2008, p.75]

Slaraffenland's Beirut-by-way-od-Sonic-Youth atmospherics are considerably more hit than miss--even if vocals occasionally threaten to pull them down. [Fall 2009, p.66]

It is fun to hear the songs re-imagined [on Disc 2], no doubt, but the first disc is sketches of invention with the seedlings of genius. [average of scores of 7 for Disc 1 and 5 for Disc 2; #8, p.108]

Their records have failed to capture their live verve and bile, too often bogged down by a sludgy production aesthetic. That is, until Ignore The Ignorant, the band's fourth and best album to date. [Holiday 2009, p.78]

You've got the soundtrack to a fun night out...but little more. [Jun 2012, p.147]

The great moments aren't enough to carry a convincing musical thread throughout the record. [#12, p.92]

There is much here to be thankful for, but there is nothing as immediately thrilling as some of her past pop gems. [Jun 2012, p.150]

Everybody is ultimately a misguided abandonment of what made the band's earlier work so essential. [#17, p.87]

While many moments on the new LP are arguably musically as good as much of his back catalogue, it no longer has the same visceral, evolutionary energy of something truly new. [Dec 2014, p.88]

Old Money is as trippy and fantastical as Rodriguez Lopez's work with Mars Volta without the beat-you-over-the-head prog fury and yelped vocals intensity that causes much of Volta's music to bend under its own pretentious weight. [Winter 2009, p.77]

The songwriting quality here isn't far removed from the rarified echelon he aspires to, which suggests he may discover his own singular voice soon. [Spring 2010, p.71]

Oberst's unmistakable voice, songwriting style, and melodic tendencies ground the album, but you have to wade through generic instrumentation and glossy production to find it.

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

Maybe How to Replace It is a tentative return to recording and the baby steps will be replaced by giant strides.

When it's good, it's great.... However, when it's bad, it borders on boring. [#9]

He's still not the smoothest MC in the world, continuing to hurt his flow by cramming too many words into his verses, but his rhymes are sharp and his references prove he did his homeowrk. [Fall 2007, p.87]

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

Darnielle's increasing love of full band arrangements--which aren't memorable--pushes him perilously close to earning the "soft rock' label. [Winter 2008, p.83]

Essentially, the music is crafted, beatific but ultimately characterless. [Mar 2012, p.88]

It’s not hard to grasp the appeal of their music; it’s just hard to understand why it’s eliciting such a strong response. [#14]

Everything's going just swell on Hissing Fauna--from moody to hyper hip shaking to stand-still hipster pose--until Barnes stops it all with the twelve minute "The Past is a Grotesque Animal." [#16, p.93]

Elton John has always has a country streak to his songs, and most of the choices on this compilation fit this repurposing like a hand in glove.

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.

It's a beautiful--if somewhat predictable--affair. [Mar 2012, p.80]

With The Deep Field, Wasser proves herself a compelling songwriter in American music whose ambition never eclipses her striking talents. [May 2011, p.85]

You can't accuse Young of not wearing all the appropriate badges, flags, and emblems, but the message has become more than a little threadbare over the years. Fortunately, Crazy Horse sounds as reliable as it always has even if no new ideas are borne out.

Where previous releases used Lekman's idiosyncratic worldview to paint a universal picture of love and loss, here he just seems... cute. [Oct. 2011, p. 111]

Journey To The West begs to be paid attention to and listened to in one sitting, a remarkable feat for what would in lesser hands feel like a lessoon in culural history. [Fall 2008, p.77]

This is grandly executed wallpaper music. [Mar 2012, p.88]

Sure, there is nothing new in these tracks, but it is surprising how well the songs stand up after so many years.

This is supposed to be dance music and with that in mind, this is some rather bumping stuff. With headphones on, however, you can't help but wonder where Souleyman's music really wants to go.

The result is another ambitious chapter in the career of a a man who doesn't appear to be quietly going away. [Dec 2014, p.90]

The band, composed of members of Arcade Fire, The Luyas, Snailhouse, and The Sway Machine, is a good fit for fans of any of the aforementioned acts or anyone looking for some new instrumental music for homework or housework. [Spring 2009, p.70]

Throughout it all, Ryan Sambol's creaky vocals sound anguished and aged. [Winter 2010, p.72]

Freeman's folk-pop tip of the hat is so sweetly earnest that you just might feel moved to blow the dust off your own acoustic guitar. [Jun 2012, p.153]

The State Of Gold showcases the veteran indie rock frontman's prowess as a lyricist. [Aug-Sep 2015, p.79]

You get a sense that The Pains Of Being Pure At heart are only kind of serious and it;'s this half-seriousness that makes the band's brand of wounded-bastard-twee-pop so very irresistible. [May 2011, p.86]

High and Inside is a fun album filled with good melodies and fine playing. But if such names as Bobby Ojeda, Ryne Duren, John McNamara, Mark Fidrych, and Tony Conigliaro don't mean anything to you, the album might have limited appeal.

Even though In Love is fun, Peace doesn't break any new ground. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.98]

Good times are to be had, but don't go looking for anything deep. [Summer 2007, p.90]

Still--stumbles aside--you could hardly ask for a better summertime LP.

For all their merits, Frausdots suffer from the same affliction that plagued Beachwood Sparks. They mimic the sounds of the past and do little to improve upon them. [#7]

The record doesn't veer far from the template Mann has established over the last decade. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.122]

Tombs doesn’t smack of inauthenticity--you just find yourself wishing that she’d had gone whole-hog into her Nashville play. [Summer 2006]

The Best Day is a little backloaded, and after the dour first 25 minutes, things pick up.

It's heady, it's heavy, and it's classic Cursive, now in twin territory.

The only cohesion is in the artist, which is reason enough for some, but for most, this is a "collector’s only" item. [Year End 2008]

The sum total is a modest success punctured by stumbles, reinflated by longer strides. The foundations have been reinforced, variation is creeping in, and all is well.

He may employ very few elements, but Schnauss does a good job in keeping your attention. [Jan-Feb 2013, p.94]

Purporting to be brash and exciting, DIOFYY? offer up an album of decidedly non-offensive electro-pop. [Spring 2008, p.88]

At this point the band has mastered its studied simplicity. [Fall 2009, p.57]

A pleasant, if uninspiring listen. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.88]

Dust off your dancing shoes. [Spring 2009, p.79]

A very pretty album [but] it's difficult not to see it as a mere specter of School of Seven Bells' potential. [Mar 2012, p.86]

Frontwoman Dee Dee's vocals are largely an impressionistic wash, just anther instrument buried in the mix, yet her delivery is impeccable. [Winter 2010, p,62]

There is a half-hearted attempt at dusting the instrumentation so it doesn't have as much of the grittiness we're used to from The Raveonettes. But not a whole lot of polish is applied so the end product is still essentially grainy. [May 2011, p.86]

The LP feels more casual than previous ones, but that's by no means a negative. [Aug-Sep 2015, p.79]

All too often, though, it's an attempt at this exact same sound that lacks any ideas; not so much directionless as without destination.

A stripped down album, Lanois' production is pristine and the contoured soundscapes here should be digested as a whole, rather than consumed as individual tracks.

The Calcination Of Scout Niblett is the Portland songwriter's most challenging album to date. [Winter 2010, p.69]

Sure, Candy Salad sounds right, but it doesn't always feel right. [Jun 2012, p.156]

Athlete often can't help but sounding formulaic. [#10, p.115]

As a while the songs feel less adventurous and more in line with what you'd hear from the larger crop of rustic indie rockers. [Jun 2012, p.156]

It may not match the transcendent bird-flipping of those early albums, but Mudhoney are still as pissed and giddy as ever. [Summer 2008]

They retain much of the glam rock frivolity and bombast of their debut, with a diaphanous bubblegum pop sheen tacked on courtesy of producer Bernard Butler. [Spring 2009, p.76]

There is a frustrating, anticipatory quality to Person To Person: always promising, but often dropping you off short of ecstasy. [Summer 2009, p.65]

Out Of The Game is a pretty mellow affair, and although it's hard not to miss Wainwright's "ponderous, pseudo-genius" extravagance, one can't help but be charmed by how lucid and relaxed he sounds. [Jun 2012, p.156]

Occasionally, the band misses its target. "Fever Dreams" is danceable and slick, and "Drunk Kids" sounds a bit too much like it's sung by one of the kids the title references. However, all in all, Apparitions is an ambitious and satisfying debut.

There's not a whole lot of variety, but what they do, they do well. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.93]

Uhlhorn has composed an ambitious single piece with Fin, Eaves, with songs effortlessly segueing into each other. [Summer 2010, p.78]

It's a wide-ranging, covers-all-its-bases album and, like their last release, it's arrived just in time for summer. [Spring 2009, p.67]

Relying on the same classic keyboards and Ric Ocasek's flat-affected vocal eccentricities, Move stands up surprisingly well next to the band's best '80s albums. [May 2011, p.88]

Highlights are too rare here, and not entirely impressive in and of themselves. [Nov-Dec 2014, p.68]

While definitely an acquired taste, ultimately it's an auditory adventure worth taking that neither wow the listener nor will it disappoint. [Apr - Jun 2017, p.84]