The songs are thoughtful without thinking too much of themselves. [Feb 2011, p.64]

A night spent listing to In A Safe Place still begs one question--"Why didn't I just play Agaetis Byrjun instead?" [#7]

The collective boasts no shortage of remarkable musical talent and vision, and one longs to love the album based on this alone, but Peacock Pools is simply too middling to merit such passion.

Unfortunately, without the kinetic energy that spurns the creative process when dealing with such an implicitly sultry concept, it's like Lewis and Rice are merely coasting on their own strengths, leaving the record to fall short on meeting its full potential. [Summer 2010, p.78]

Au Revoir Simone might want to explore organic instrumentation further--the vocal harmonies would flourish--although the lyrics could wilt in the exposure. [Summer 2009, p.64]

Few bands make their effort appreciated but not felt; Clogs don't squeeze the music too hard, they let it exist on its own.

An uneven album of some great songs interspersed with mediocre, uninspiring tracks. [#10, p.106]

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.

It's disappointing that this epilogue couldn't have been crafted with more care. [Spring 2008, p.82]

It's not an oeuvre that appeals too many people, but Live At The South Bank will be rewarding if you favor plenty of experimentation in your music. [#39, p.74]

Its ultimately about serving the power of the jam, an aesthetic of which Grails have a solid grap. [Year end 2008, p.82]

As the album progresses, a unique melodic sensibility comes to the surface. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.102]

Execution-wise, it's perhaps a little too disjointed in nature. [Apr - May 2015, p.88]

Though the closing bass and drum solos aren't essential listening, this slate of recordings provides a welcome addition to the slight catalog of a band that deserves to have been name-dropped by punk historians for years. [Feb 2011, p.74]

Olenius and Krunegard have created pop soundscapes that bridge the organic with the synthetic, focusing on vocal melodies and harmonies often over electronic or spacey backdrops. [Jun 2012, p.157]

Autolux's evolution isn't quite complete, but Transit Transit is an album made by a band ready to keep heading down the road. [Summer 2010, p.76]

Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, his fifth proper album, is perhaps Banhart’s most frustrating album to date. [Fall 2007, p.78]

I Was Born Swimming tinkers around the edges of feeling without always plotting a clear way in. It's never an unpleasant experience, often moving. But the dots don't entirely connect.

Crazy For You may not break much new ground, but it's a fine record that fits nicely into the escapist beach pop melieu presently ranging in indie rock. [Summer 2010, p.77]

By using fewer overdubs, Sunset Rubdown is actually undermining its strengths of expectation-defying structures and lavishly decorated arrangements. [Summer 2009, p.69]

Think of Here Comes Science as the gateway drug for a new batch of TMBG fans. It's kind of amazing nobody thought of it sooner

The whole thing is a little cheap, but clever, making it so much fun to be on the receiving end.

The intention is to go for the cheese on Do It Again, but the impact is so much stronger when restraint is exercised.

There are likeable moments. ... But even for the most effective songs, the impact is largely due to familiarity. [Apr - Jul 2023, p.82]

The album starts off gamely enough towards the same agenda [as 2018's Endless Scroll]. ... Sadly, though, much of the album is given over to high school level observations. [Dec 2021 - Feb 2021, p.151]

There’s still plenty to stir your senses, even if it more often than not has a generic hip-hop beat running beneath it. [#17, p.83]

This is a rootsy album of pedal steel guitars, orchestral flourishes, and rather sweet songs of a happy life. When an artist has given us soundtracks to our youth and failings, we afford them an enormous amount of goodwill and do not begrudge their good fortune. Natural Rebel is not without it's shine.

The problem comes when Lykke Li steps out of her range musically. [Feb. 2011, p. 65]

What becomes clear quickly is that... Beck still makes a better Beck album than anybody else. [#12, p.94]

A pleasing (and punishing) noise-rock excursion. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.103]

After the monochromatic haze of his first few efforts, Williams flirts with nuance here, writing songs that go beyond three chords and a cloud of fuzz box dust. [Summer 2010, p.81]

One can always count on [Walter Schreifels] for ample moments of songwriting gold and guitar rapture. [Feb. 2011, p. 67]

All in all, an enthusiastic effort, but... one wishes the band had embraced the trippy mindfuck of dub at its best, rather than the simple lockstep 4/4 on display here. [#13, p.84]

Despite its lapses and awkward moments, The Outsider feels like the turntablist’s attempt to loosen up and venture away from a recognizable aural framework. [#15]

Make Another World falls off dramatically after the solid first half. [#17, p.91]

There is too much treading of water to say that The Coral has broken through their shtick to deliver on their considerable promise. [Fall 2007, p.78]

Disappointing, however, are the intrusive flashes of electronics. [Fall 2008, p.89]

It's interesting, at times catchy, but should be avoided if klezmer and mariachi aren't your bag. [#9]

There are some good tracks... but after 10 years and now their sixth full-length, you would think the band would just get bored making so much of the same music. [#11, p.109]

Kudos for trying to expand a tried and tested formula, but a lot of La La Land sounds like dozens of fragments of tunes crazy glued together in a hurry.

He still packs dense short stories into each track, but without the humor the drama sometimes falls flat.

Tin Can Trust stands as a solid piece of work from the band. [Summer 2010, p.88]

High Hopes, being promoted as his 18th officially, is a mixed bag of covers, re-workings of songs that have appeared elsewhere, and previously unreleased material written for other projects. With some of the tracks, there's even overlap among these divisions.

The New York collective continues to produce intelligent music with its seventh album. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.103]

Ultimately Do to the Beast lacks that gritty, seedy bite that defined The Afghan Whigs' greatest moments.

Those expecting a fresh haul of output are likely to be left disappointed. But for those not so close to the ins and outs of a band that's managed to stay effortlessly hip through the ages (despite creating The Powerpuff Girls theme tune), there's enough here to warrant renewed intrigue.

Musically, this is the most ambitious album they have undertaken, and they preform admiraby on songs like 'Share of Men.' [Summer 2007, p.73]

Synths dominate, furthering industrial flavors, with less propulsion and less editing. Both are missed, but still: a decent trip. [Winter 2009, p.78]

Trend spotters will likely label this as glitchy hypnagogic pop but Bundick's attention to pop melodies is almost as razor-sharp as his closest contemporary, Neon Indian. [Winter 2010, p.70]

One wishes for Clark to let loose a little more, and allow Byrne to mold his galloping rhythms to her punchy guitar lines. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.109]

So This is Goodbye often proves too single-mindedly hip and aloof for it’s own good. [#15]

Rafter's latest EP is innovative dance music that will appeal to indie-rock kids who also like to shake their asses on the dance floor. [Fall 2008, p.88]

The buzz never quite lasts. Cuts such as "Neon Dad" and "Acidic" are less thriller, more filler; each is executed with admirable precision, but unable to reach the peak of cranium-dismantling album closer "Crapture."

Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s pet project has become the musical equivalent of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. And unfortunately, barring a few standouts, most of the guests add little spice to the proceedings, assuming they are even detectable at all.

There's a sharp, crisp quality to most of these songs, Kenny keeps them short with a simple, often elegant presentation. [May 2011, p.82]

The minor downfall of the album is a handful of songs that seem too laconic, too chilled. [#7]

So, yes, album number two is a step in the right direction, but once again the journey doesn't always feel worth the effort. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.70]

Moon might be a bit of a victory lap, but it's a fun ride nonetheless. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.106]

Their flow and their confidence argue against them being just a novelty act. [#5, p.114]

Even if it's a temporary diversion from the primary concerns of these artists, Ursprung is still more earnest exploration than working holiday.

The results are compelling, though a few cuts are more sound collage than song.

Sounds like a flashback to the early eighties that at times is an adjustment to modern-shaped ears. [#5, p.101]

Forth is the sound of a band shaking off ten years worth of rust. [Fall 2008, p.85]

Barlow's content in his own skin now, and he captures this stability with grace and poignancy throughout Goodnight Unknown. [Fall 2009, p.56]

Some of Rowe's work here calls to mind Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen, though his gifts suggest that those names will remain references rather than long shadow to escape. [Feb 2011, p.73]

Overall, the ambition and freedom of earlier work found on The Last Resort and Into The Great Wide Yonder is reigned in, and the melodic palette is less variegated and more darkly shaded, leaving you a little uptight. [Aug-Sep 2016, p.76]

As ever, there is risk run by too many tracks and fatigue sets in while listening to AIM. The idea of taking any one of M.I.A.'s albums and trimming its excess to 12 of the most colorfully resonant offerings is tantalizing to imagine. The same goes for this one.

To hear this album is to feel like things are falling down on you, and although that can be wearing after a while, there's not much to complain about. [#7]

Unlike older albums, most of the songs on Daughter lack the same punch as even the songs on the similarly-textured Real. The album has its moments.

There are some duds, but overall it's a fun divergence for this group, now enjoying a year full of divergences.

There simply aren't as many full-bodied, satisfying songs. [Winter 2009, p.72]

The Open Road finds him doing what he does best: blues-based American folk/rock. [Winter 2010, p.70]

Overall, Adult Baby is an inconsistent album that can be a wistful and sluggish electronic experiment but also shows flashes of brilliance with a genuinely entertaining mix of dream pop and electronica brought to life with a beautiful voice.

All the flashes of brilliance on Dead Blue are instrumental and aesthetic. The cohesive mood is only brought down by the lackluster songs.

Sun isn't likely to land among the singer-songwriter's best records. It's clear, however, that her heart went into it. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.110]

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.

It's not a great record by any means but it's a hell of a lot of fun and should serve as a grand excuse to get them out on the road again and into a live setting where their exciting silliness excels.

The results are assuredly in Crocodiles' wheelhouse with the occasional surprise.

It's "Pale Snow" and "Learning to Be" that take us furthest in this listening experience. These two dark, sparse ballads ground us; they're the Suede we know and love calling to us through the mists of this parallel twilight where they're setting up camp. One hopes further listens will reveal the rest of the songs somehow doing the same.

A terse concept album. [Jan-Feb 2013, p.89]

Has God Seen My Shadow? collects Lanegan's solo work, but makes it more apparent that when left simply to his own devices, there's a dynamic missing. His voice is so powerful, in fact, that it needs something to set it apart, or to duel with it.

Whilst there are flashes of intriguing and exciting music on here, these moments aren't enough to convince anyone listening that the project is a complete success.

There a few moments on Inflorescent where the tone changes lightly. The downbeat "Cry Wolf" still slinks along atop a funky bassline, but its minor key momentarily pivots the focus from dancing your problems away to just straight up crying about them. These mild digressions never quite cohere into anything substantial though, and for the most part it's just a lighthearted rush. Needless to say, it's an album best digested in morsels.

While it's less a painting than a promising sketchbook, these Crush Songs are still perfectly lovely sketches.

As it is, there are a handful of worthwhile singles worth mining, but unlike Monroe’s work to date, as a whole the album doesn’t coalesce as it could have.

The bulk of The Great Escape is polite and pleasant, but lacks something indefinable. It would be foolish to expect Stamey to come on like a snarling punk-rock dervish, but this record, while having a certain charm, doesn’t really linger long in the memory.

Everybody's A Good Dog has as many personas as it has tracks. [Aug-Sep 2015, p.61]

It's all moodily pleasant but never immersive. House of Spirits is a slow-burner that ultimately chokes on the ashes of its own grayscale lethargy.

Ultimately, there's too much of it and not enough of the tracks here are anything other than mediocre, indie singer/songwriter tunes that are as easily discarded as they appear to be easily written and produced.

For big Prince fans, Originals will be an essential peek into his methods as a musical mentor. For anyone else, it's a curiosity worth checking out but certainly not recommending over any of the dozen-plus better records he released during his lifetime.

The problem plaguing The Age of Fracture is inconsistency; the filler material is unmemorable and a little bland.

The album ends up feeling more like a patchwork of ideas than anything, resembling a puzzle with all of its pieces scattered. In a way, it’s the album’s greatest strength and its biggest downfall. Parker and Ritchie let us in to inspect their psychological state across 11 tracks, providing a sonic amalgam of their lives in these uncertain times, but the real question is whether or not the end result gives us enough room to truly explore.

"MFN" the only track which approaches the off-kilter energy of a classic like "Birthday Cake;" too much of the remainder dissolves into one another, and little else captivates. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.70]

All these connections Lorde is trying to make: her strange pastiche imagination of the ’70s, that random spoken word interlude by Robyn about climate change, and the themes of “sun healing,” never fully reach each other. Often, they come off as disingenuous and out of touch more than they read as brilliant, or comical. Whether the album is one big prank, or just one majorly failed experiment, the gist of having the “privilege to ignore” is lost in translation. All you are left with is just a handful of pretty alright songs.

You could view these 24 tracks as value for money but Original Machines is an overwhelming and inconsistent listen; less a professionally-minded album, per se, than a sheer outpouring of the entire Keely vault.

Eels have always shied away from the mainstream, and followed their self-indulgent tendencies. But while The Deconstruction gets off to an energetic start with tracks that rock and inspire, ultimately there's too many tracks that don't rock, so it falls a bit short of what Eels are capable of.

Tame by their own high standards of disorder, this record's roomier, rootsier approach lands The Men at the left of the dial. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.73]

Highlights like "Shake It On" and "Nights Out In the Jungle" introduce a fresh, Random Access Memories-ian electric disco vibe, but too many others--particularly the repetitive "Summer Girl"--feel like tired, recycled outtakes from the band's heyday.