The Sparks' performances are so understated, their arrangements so mechanically soothing, that it's easy to miss Rennie's brutal, elegant twists on folk cliches. [Jul 2006, p.99]

Tighter and freakier than her debut. [Jul 2006, p.102]

Pleasant at a distance, the stealthy Son is downright mindblowing at close range. [Jun 2006, p.142]

Sung in his almost icy, stentorian cry--and outfitted with mega-choruses--the tracks feel as epic as Havok's themes. [Jul 2006, p.97]

Sweaty, sloppy and desperately quick. [Jul 2006, p.102]

The Drift is like a nightmare you look forward to repeating. [Jun 2006, p.148]

This album has some of what was missing from Home: fire, ugliness, resentment. [Jun 2006, p.135]

A fierce, arty mix of melody and brute clatter. [Jun 2006, p.141]

Artfully arranged songs about planets and beasts and bittersweet harmonies recall British folk-rock combos like Fairport Convention and Pentangle without coming off as retro or twee. [Jun 2006, p.137]

Pink is their fastest, most instantly gratifying album.

At their most thrilling, they fuse the spiky cool of Elastica with the witty self-consciousness of LCD Soundsystem. [Sep 2005, p.131]

It's brave, and it's needed. [Jul 2006, p.95]

This is virile, excited music. [Jun 2006, p.146]

Dawson's as self-assured as she is sensitive. [Jun 2006, p.137]

Their new boss's hooks are often slicke rand less arresting than the minor-key grit they thrive on. [Jun 2006, p.142]

The riffs blast as if it's 1971 all over again. [Jun 2006, p.148]

A widescreen goth-punk stunner. [Jun 2006, p.144]

[A] snarly caffeine jolt of a debut. [May 2006, p.109]

While it can tend toward the tuneless, the upside is language that differs plenty from a Jay-Z or Eminem but stands beside them in terms of power--a flow that, once you get used to it, becomes its own form. [May 2006, p.110]

Most of the album is more fun than a folkie could stand. [Jun 2006, p.147]

An amped-up grotesque of torchy vaudeville and European parlor songs that starts as high-concept camp and winds up strangely illuminating. [May 2006, p.105]

The barn-burners are still grimy with brawling guitar, but more than ever shot through with delicate light... and the pithy ballads are crisp as cold beer. [May 2006, p.108]

It plods before revealing its considerable sonic luxuries and melodic charms. [May 2006, p.105]

The music is as sexy as it is horny. [May 2006, p.105]

It's an "important" record... But, more crucially, it's an enduringly entrancing listen. [Apr 2006, p.123]

Folding in lean funk, tender arias and as many catchy tunes as West Side Story, Ze makes his cryptic polemic perfectly enticing. [Jul 2006, p.105]

While their protest cries tilt feebly into goofball psychedelic funk, a lush poignancy bubbles up on the more ruminative tracks. [May 2006, p.110]

Longtime devotees may miss Morrissey's Smiths-era vocal histrionics, but his supple croon has matured into a thing of beauty. [May 2006, p.103]