Simply a great record. [#14, p.95]

Welcome to the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain of our modern indie times. [Filter Mini, Oct 2005]

Ignore whatever purist backlash you may encounter. In Channel Orange, we have been granted a truly classic document, perhaps the very first that feels synchronized with the present decade.

Four decades on, and there has yet to be anything that hits on this kind of organic, brain-melting, structured psychosis.

Another Day... slithers easily into the company of his greatest releases, with jaw-dropping melodies and flawless, Passengers-era production, creating a soundscape as ethereal as Another Green World. [#16, p.90]

One of the most inspiring and triumphant projects of the year, and perhaps the last 30 years. [#13, p.89]

The landmark proto-punk album is refined at a decibel-defying rate while the outtakes highlight the grating guitars and Iggy's guttural vocals that trademarked the group's sound.

As an artistic achievement, it ranks incredibly high on the list of great postmodern statements. Here is a piece of music (but oh so much more) that proves that something new can be done, and it can be entirely engaging. [#21, p.92]

Achtung Baby is the last great U2 album and one of the best records ever made, but is this $150 six-CD, four-DVD 20th anniversary edition worth your time and money? Short answer: F--k yeah

Everyone--yes, everyone--should buy this version of London Calling, because in this form, audio and video, it acts as a veritable design for living. [#12, p.96]

New Moon is Smith at his musical best: quiet, humble, and most of all, honest. [#25, p.96]

Z is a great record--more expansive than its predecessors and less tunnel-visioned too. [#17, p.94]

A record that leaves the listener teary-eyed, standing and utterly, breathlessly inspired. [#25, p.92]

No matter who appreciates or appropriates this music, who likes it or where you discover it, it is a testament to its power more than its populism.

Enigmatically beautiful, yet stinging with bitter cold. [#10, p.90]

Songs like these are why Nirvana was king and this show proves why the band was peerless. Suddenly Nirvana is everything to me all over again. [[Holiday 2009, p. 92]

A hefty team was assembled to do this right... and do it right they do. [#21, p.93]

There aren't many dull points on this two-disc collection. [#16, p.93]

There's something about this album... that takes listeners by the hand, smacks them into reality and reminds them they're still alive. [#24, p.90]

From a technical standpoint, it's astounding.... But from a purely aesthetic standpoint, it's just downright unmusical. [#5, p.86]

With the promise of 12 fully-completed, untainted studio recordings that have otherwise gone unheard by the public (and even the most inventive of bootleggers), I arrives with considerable significance to all things guitar-worthy.

With his grandest album to date, mark the return of Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam a triumphant one, packed with romantic tales of small towns, countrysides and the expansive sea.

What Dr. Dog and its principal songwriters McMicken and Toby Leaman have done is carry on a tradition of soulful writing and musicianship. [Summer, 2008, p.90]

An Album this deep-hearted and digestible call out for mass-consumption. And the more people who hear this record, the better. [Spring 2009, p.90]

May be the band's greatest achievement yet. [#20, p.90]

Attack & Release is a great accomplishment for both The Black Keys and Danger Mouse, who have proven good things can not only last, but sometimes, actually get better. [Winter, 2008, p.91]

These lovingly remastered and richly expanded editions of the Smashing Pumpkins 1991 debut Gish and 1993's mainstream breakthrough Siamese Dream soundly prove that the band's place in rock history is firmly cemented.

This box mingles an abundance of demos, alternative takes and other previously unreleased iterations of Big Star tunes amid sparsely retained original album versions. [Fall 2009, p.92]

Each consecutive [song] is stranger than the last. [#19, p.88]

This is the best Grandaddy record thus far. [#19, p.92]

Cave's themes remain unchanged, but his songcraft prowess continues to grow, aided by the finest instrumental backing and production of any Bad Seeds album to date. [Winter 2008, p.90]

You want this album. [#21, p.98]

That this album eviscerates the armies of shoegazer-come-latelies is a trifiling accomplishment compared to the fact that for 74 minutes--with an overall tone of foreboding bordering on the haunting and disturbing--this album is impossible to turn off. [Spring 2008, p.92]

Lust Lust Lust, the fuzzed-out, starry-eyed return-to-form by The Raveonettes, takes you there and then kicks you out at sunrise. [Winter 2008, p.94]

The Boy With No Name instantly gets Travis back to the business of being Travis. [#25, p.102]

The mood is undeniably American, and Bonnie (or Oldham) seems incomprehensibly at peace with his hallmark solitude. [Winter 2009, p.91]

La Radiolina emerges as a delicious bouillabaisse of gypsy punk, reggae and countless indigenous sounds, expertly stirred by a band of brawling pirates who plunder each port for musical spices and then add them to the cauldron.

There's an organic component that coexists along with the machines, giving them a warmth few acts have been able to unearth. [#11, p.93]

This album's genuinely passionate without any sort of cheesy emotional transparency. [#6, p.81]

This is one of the quintessential L.A. albums, for its fireworks of fame and celebrity are stripped naked and left to wander. [Spring 2008, p.94]

Manages to artfully encompass all that sucks about post-pubescent life... within an exquisite ball of heady poetry, cold composition, and the kind of warm brilliance that comes from only the most inspired of collaborations. [#15, p.96]

It's passionate. It's thoughtful. It's catchy. It's their breakout moment, their best record, and... it will be one of the best albums of 2004.[#9, p.100]

This is the best album Trail of Dead has ever made. [#13, p.94]

The results are compact, near-pop micro-anthems. [#17, p.93]

One might be a bit startled by how much, well, more broken this new [album] sounds. [#17, p.92]

While disc two rounds out the duo's footprint upon several documentaries, what makes Cave and Ellis' scores unique is their doppelganger ability to stand alone without the films, while the films largely lean upon these audible landscapes as a means of storytelling. [Fall 2009, p.91]

A patient, assured album where nearly every sound feels appropriate. [#22, p.93]

Even when they’re forging new ground (which is often) or mixing it up with any of the aforementioned conversation points, they still manage to sound exactly like themselves.

Decades beyond the point at which most of his peers peaked, Paul Simon is still discovering new ways of writing and conveying amazing work and discovering beautifully unexpected and often spiritual language, as well as new rhythms, melodies and instrumental textures.

Gonzalez has crafted an admirable paean to fuzzy memories, nostalgia, melancholic rumination and pop experimentation, imploring the listener to become the stories and places that populate dreams.

In comparison to... Ta Det Lungt, Tio Bitar trades much of the immediacy for multi-dimensional empiricism and fringe atmosphere. [#25, p.98]

[Mudhoney] are as furious, as weird, and as tuned-down as ever. [#19, p.101]

The seasoned professional executes discipline on a record that seems entirely natural--layered to the top, but never giving in to excess. [Winter 2008, p.92]

Beck’s willingness to raid just about any genre works wonders when coupled with Mlle. Gainsbourg’s ability to inject matter-of-fact sexual energy into just about anything.

Explode[s] with musical vitality. [#15, p.97]

Berninger sounds smart and witty; but above all else, he sounds like he really went for it this time. [#15, p.105]

There is an unhinged, maniacal desire to cross on over into the cosmos on Comets on Fire's (frankly) totally awesome new record. [#21, p.100]

It’s a nice cross-section of material that highlights why Pavement was such a darling of the alt press, but Quarantine fails to truly capture the greatness.

So it turns out Cuomo was whispering apologies to his own artistry at this album's close -- it was his love of music he would let suffocate in a jar. No wonder he sounded so sad.

The balance across the album (as opposed to the drop-off second half of Feels) makes it their most forward and enjoyable work to date.

They make heavy duty sound collages that rock, roll, and exemplify the increasingly small chasm between bliss and confusion. [#25, p.90]

What makes Tamborello so special is the fact that his music can stand as comfortably in a Kompakt Records compilation as it can in a room filled with indie nerds. [#25, p.102]

There’s a melancholic beauty in the melodies of Zach Condon that conjure a cinematic romanticism.

Stop bitching about never hearing anything new or different and pick this up. [#22, p.94]

Wilco has constructed their most straightforward release in recent memory, which relies heavily on the inspired intricacies of a full-hearted band.

Truly, there isn't anything here that comes close to achieving the anthemic, stomp-along, bombast of Funeral's best works. But this is a different album, and a different Arcade Fire playing to their biggest strength: emoting. [#24, p.88]

Might well be his most brilliant yet. [#10, p.86]

This is a sprawling album of warmth, stuttering electronics and rural psychedelia. [#24, p.96]

Though he has never had just one sonic home, and Modern Guilt is no exception to this rule, Beck is somehow more aware while puffing out his waves of broken poetry as opposed to the casual seed-spitting he has been known to turn to. [Summer 2008, p.91]

An instant classic for lovers of sentimental quality. [#22, p.96]

With the stunning Everything in Between, Randall and Spunt's emergent sonic juggernaut, No Age is continuing to build, brick by brick, a bulletproof reputation for thunderous virtuosity-all without leaning on worthless crutches like Auto-Tune, capitalized formula, compromise and other fakery that divides pretenders from those who set fire to the dustbin of musical history.

There is real joy and loss within these unwieldy song titles. [#16, p.88]

Never cluttered, Drowaton is as compelling as it is complex. [Filter Mini #10, p.13]

An entire record of scorching wordplay, groovy soundscapes, jaw-dropping cadence and Aqua Teen Hunger Force cameos. [#17, p.93]

Relentlessly sultry, with lush arrangements framed by slamming dance beats. [#9, p.102]

Part romantic, starry-eyed shoegaze pop and part paranoid explosions of sound. [#14, p.96]

The only downside to this album is, ironically, its accessibility. [#5, p.90]

An impeccably selected hodgepodge.

Large and epic, but tense and claustrophobic as well, and gratefully, it's as close to Elliott as we've ever been. [#12, p.92]

This is My Morning Jacket's shining moment. [#22, p.94]

Feels more timeless, more effortless. [#11, p.91]

One for the ages, this 19-song compilation reminds us how cool the future sounded back then, when Was Not Was still was. [Winter 2010, p.102]

In context, Rubies [is] just another piece of the puzzle, but it's the finest jewel yet. [#19, p.99]

These lovingly remastered and richly expanded editions of the Smashing Pumpkins 1991 debut Gish and 1993's mainstream breakthrough Siamese Dream soundly prove that the band's place in rock history is firmly cemented.

On Cassadaga, classic sounds are resurrected in a satisfying swirl of country, gospel, cinematic pop, and of course, electro-folk.

These are fully fleshed-out pop songs, rendered weird in the best possible way by an unfaltering ear for found sound and unusual arrangement. [#16, p.92]

This is a rapturous, badass art-punk record that swaggers with as much heart as it does cockiness. [#5, p.87]

Just as strong as anything on The Beginning Stages Of.... [#11, p.92]

A glowing psychedelic pop opus. [#21, p.102]

Le Voyage is as thrilling and replete with the unexpected as one might imagine a trip outside the Earth's atmosphere would be.

Ships is the best explosion of greatness yet from one of our most unique voices. [#20, p.100]

The U.K. sensation weaves her tales of wizards, horses and magic in a warm bearskin coat of Kate Bush sensibilities, piano playing that’ll bring you to tears and instruments that only real musicians understand, like the harpsichord.

The one-man result: breezy soul tracks with pop structures, chill vocals and a grab bag of flourishes recalling everything from McCartney to Prince.

A massive concept album that is so gluttonously huge-sounding that it makes The Wall sound like a Sebadoh record. [#10, p.94]

Familiar yet thrilling, Blunderbuss is a masterful introduction to a man we've known all along.

[The Ravenonettes] help to remind us what makes harmless romantic music like Bobby Fuller and the Ronettes so perfectly dark. [#6, p.88]

For now, via tracks like 'High Noon' and 'Mother Nature,' they continue to ride high in the saddle on much the same sine waves they engineered in the previous millennium. [Summer 2008, p.100]

While Boxer lacks a knockout punch like last album’s 13th round uppercut “Mr. November,” all scorecards still have the National besting David Berman to remain indie rock’s “Great White Mope.”