The gruff, authoritative Chuck and irrepressible second-banana-turned-VH1-ladykilla Flavor Flav know that uplifting kids corroded by gangsta rap means offering something emotionally fierce and reasonably current.

They might sound like Girl Scouts, but these are tough cookies. [Aug 2007, p.117]

Anyone expecting Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons to torch their formula--multiple vocalists drop by and trip the light fantastic--will be disappointed; but their best record since the '90s proves they don’t have to.

Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé employ everything from ominous Christian iconography to slick future sounds to prop up their aura of overarching coolness.

He took three years to produce this follow-up, and the labor shows, for good and ill. [August 2007, p.117]

It's all top-shelf alt-country: road-hardened, literate and dark as ever. [August 2007, p.114]

The best song on Super Taranta! is all about one <i>bad</i> party: the disappointed, outright funny 'American Wedding. [Aug 2007, p.111]

Superproducer Butch Vig is around to help transform Gabel’s strident leftism and occasionally clumsy choruses (e.g., "Protest Songs! In response to military aggression!") into swing-state-ready stadium rock.

[A] tightly coiled second album. [Jul 2007, p.119]

Clarkson has never sounded this depressive or spiteful. [Jul 2007, p.112]

It's the sound of a band not stretching out so much as digging in: burrowing deeper into loamy soil they know well. [Jul 2007, p.109]

This follow-up just isn't as lovable. [Jul 2007, p.110]

Manson's music still evokes decay, but he sounds more fertile than ever. [Jul 2007, p.116]

Where once he growled his rhymes through gritted teeth or abortively gulped them down altogether, now the beats let him breathe. [Jul 2007, p.113]

She's chosen a bunch of fiery roles that even she can't dull up. [Jul 2007, p.114]

Kelly's true genius is the metaphor-laden sex jam, and Double Up has some great ones. [Jul 2007, p.115]

The outfit dispels any virtuoso vibe with their joyous absurdism. [Jun 2007, p.104]

[An] album of sharply assembled rock & roll. [Jun 2007, p.105]

The cocky songs mask a lot of misery. [Jun 2007, p.107]

The songs are more blustery than ever. [Jun 2007, p.108]

Sky Blue Sky often feels like the Dead's American Beauty if Jerry Garcia had taken Paxil instead of acid. [Jun 2007, p.103]

There's no great leap into maturity... They've kept their salient feature--scorching, adolescent tantrums--unchanged. [Jun 2007, p.109]

The Bush-Blair era has damaged these guys, and the results rule. [Jun 2007, p.105]

Even if nobody's made a record that sounds much like this before, she's given her performance here too many times already. [Jun 2007, p.106]

New Moon sounds less like a pile of outtakes than an official album released in a parallel universe.

Texturally, it's a middle ground between her searing early album Under the Pink and the sun-dappled 2005 The Beekeeper. [Jun 2007, p.105]

The elliptical vein opening, restless country twang and surging metal riffage have never sounded more confident. [Jun 2007, p.107]

[The] sense of playful adventure ensures that smooth needn't mean snoozy. [Jun 2007, p.108]