All the elements anyone would want from the band are adroitly balanced. [No. 136, p.59]

the "new" Neubauten is a stronger unit than it has been in the entire latter half of its existence.... Silence Is Sexy is brilliant, and Einsturzende Neubauten remains without peer. [#46, p.75]

Blame current remastering techniques or the prescience of its makers, each of these collections sound future-forward (then) and very now (wow). [No. 133, p.53]

This is an album of mostly beatless soul whose heart nevertheless pumps vividly and loudly throughout its 17 tracks. [No. 136, p.61]

It's like somebody took all the great elements of FM anthems--the indelible choruses, the melodic tenacity and the rush of invincibility--and cut out the fat. [#64, p.110]

There's a candor here that hasn't always touched the Icelandic singer/composer's electro-dreamscape output. [No. 118, p.52]

Like Bazan's best work, Blanco is simultaneously uplifting and melancholic, hopelessly hopeful and beautifully dented. [No. 133, p.55]

Recommended for those who long to hear Radiohead make a post-aughts indie-pop record, A Different Ship is without a doubt one of the most impressive and enjoyable efforts of 2012. [No.87, p.60]

For all its listenability, Centres is still wildly inventive. [No. 133, p.55]

The best punk record you'll hear all year, articulate and amped all the same. [#58, p.86]

The music remains solidly Southern, using all three chords, but the lyrics reach for new levels of cussedness and vulnerability. [No.99, p.57]

This time out, he brings all his influences together into an LP that may be his most musically diverse offering yet. [No.96, p.56]

These quiet, stripped-down songs are so narcotically enticing that when an occasional burst of moderate-volume guitar noise pops up unexpectedly, the effect is excruciating, like wires burning in the brain. [#52, p.102]

The result is a modern dream-pop classic, a victory more major than minor. [No. 133, p.59]

Shooting through the proceedings is a relentless, apocalyptic jitteriness that leaves you teetering on the edge of your chaise. [#58, p.84]

There isn't a moment when Arthur Lee is anything less than Arthur Lee: brilliant, unpredictable and relentless in his drive to reinvent himself. [No. 116, p.59]

This is a record that fans of Juliana Hatfield, Lightning Bolt or King Crimson could fall in love without compromise. [No. 96, p.60]

[A] momentous sixth LP. [No. 96, p.60]

As he continues to spin funny, poignant, depressing and eminently melodic tales of woe, it's clear McCaughey is a staggering genius aging as superbly as a fine bottle of hooch. [#71, p.106]

This collection wraps its three decades' worth of maudlin magic in one neat black bow. [No.142, p.51]

The trilogy's scarred, scary travelogue defines '70s Berlin as much as it does Bowie in uncompromising recovery mode. ... Brilliant. [No. 147, p.52]

On the band's latest, they continue the move toward the tighter concision found on 2009's King Of Jeans, but unlike Pissed Jeans' previous efforts, there isn't a seven-minute dirge on Honeys. [No. 95, p.51]

Colder achieves a startling freshness on its second full-length that few post-punk bands can even hope to approach. [#70, p.89]

A soundtrack that hits with the force of a well-timed punch and soothes like the ministrations of a doomed romantic poet. [No. 142, p.56]

The Sword continually updates ridiculously classic rock tropes in the most wonderful ways. [No. 123, p.60]

On this enthralling sophomore effort, Spaltro continues to refine her skill set and approach without sacrificing any of her signature adventurousness or decidedly un-lamb-like power. [No. 118, p.59]

They take genre conventions and flip them inside out. [No. 96, p.57]

The set is exhaustive, but it's not an overdose. [No. 144, p.60]