Shows exactly what a great, reliable pop entity they have become over the past decade. [Apr 2006, p.82]

Beck at his best. [Apr 2005, p.100]

It's less angular than Fear of Fours but just as convincing--tiny music that thinks very, very big. [Jul 2003, p.93]

Instead of just blowing the dust off of relics from his childhood closet, he's embraced the neon ehtos of the era and produced and actual New Wave album that still sounds eerily contemporary. [#90, p.118]

There may be no safer bet than an Amanda Palmer’s bleeding-heart album--her built-in fan base will eat it up the same way they voraciously devoured Tori Amos’ open wound a decade ago--but the Palmer Show is strong enough to sustain much more daring theatrics than what’s given here.

Discerning heads will notice that the stellar rhyme schemes and heartfelt storytelling resonates much louder than the accent.

[An] outstanding album. [Mar 2005, p.110]

[A] remarkable return to form. [Oct 2005, p.75]

Swift is likely to turn some more heads with this one. [Mar 2007, p.101]

At once apocalyptic and born again. [May 2007, p.96]

An impressive album that points to a most promising future. [May 2004, p.84]

The album is a more straightforward, breezier Sparklehorse, and effortlessly replayable. [Oct 2006, p.130]

They have a clever way with words and pleasantly surprising musical depth. [May 2005, p.92]

A perfectly pleasant and unoffending offering. [Mar 2006, p.116]

Somewhere between the Plimsouls and The La's, this should keep your top down throughout the summer. [Jul/Aug 2005, p.109]

Even though the “fast forward button” will be needed here and there, The Stimulus Package is still a solid release that is easily the top hip-hop release so far this year.

While it almost goes without staying that every band’s aspiration is to ingeniously pique the interest of their listeners by reinventing old elements and coupling them with new and creative tones, it seems this record’s goal is not necessarily to go without saying, but say it all in the fewest possible breaths.

There are points during the disc when you wish the rollercoaster would relent, but that is beside the point: Fol Chen are pop experimentalists, deft song-writers and immaculate producers who have a lot to say – so hang on!

One answer, really...bass. Or, lack of bass. Having tested the disc on several systems, I can only determine that someone at Daft Punk central, or Virgin Records decided to master this disc like a pop record, the mids jacked to high heaven while the sub-bass, the stuff that actually makes you move, is completely erased.

If you're over 25, then expect to find yourself peering at your old teen angst like some sort of barely remembered dream. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.95]

An album as colorful as his stage show. [Apr 2006, p.96]

This could be the second half of Menomena's debut. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.81]

The party album of the year has arrived. [Aug 2003, p.87]

So even as Tortoise integrate guitar surrealism and edgier motifs into their palette, they also progress their unique relationship to electronic music and hip-hop. [#82, p.139]

The record falters only when Ace recounts a gangster parable about shady dealings with a certain Fats Belvedere. [Sep 2004, p.116]

Lerche has a pop manual the size of the OED, and he's not the least bit bashful about using it. [Apr 2004, p.86]

Pierce has broken down another barrier between elusive genius and sheer pleasure. [Jun 2005, p.79]