Pretty and pleasant without ever being especially compelling. [#67, p.100]

There's something far too aloof about Again. [#64, p.84]

Rouen is all long jams and breezy acoustics, the telltale signs of a band that feels it's time to sober up. [#70, p.110]

What's missing ... is a sense of perspective, or humor, or anything to leaven Buckingham's monochromatic intensity. [No. 81, p.54]

The emotional mood of At Best Cuckold never breaks away from the spell of his comfortable lethargy. [No. 114, p.53]

Lightning Bolt is only more competent than Foo Fighters, Vedder and Co.'s rival for the planet's straightest rock band. [No. 105, p.57]

By its very generic nature, Seadrum/House Of Sun sounds more like background music than anything the Boredoms have ever recorded. [#68, p.87]

The sum of these elements could achieve greatness if not for one simple-yet-major falw: Beach House manages a memorable sound but not memorable songs. [#74, p.91]

This is about as '80s nostalgic as you can get without voting for Margaret Thatcher and hoovering up a pile of Peruvian flake. [No. 121, p.61]

Fantasy would be far more appetizing as a photo-negative of itself, with a dearth of feedback and studio obfuscation and Ambrogio's poetry as front-and-center spoken word. [No. 105, p.57]

An eight-song album that flounders too much in mid-tempo purgatory. [No. 107, p.55]

The effect is rather like Post-Super ae Boredoms, which is a great sound to achieve, but they only nail it sporadically. [No. 106, p.55]

Songs that actually shoot for happy tend to slide into saccharine. [#69, p.96]

A mixed bag. [#71, p.102]

[The final track Love Is Love] has the sprightly energy that's missing on most of the record. [No. 143, p.61]

Vacancy has a more organic, "big indie rock" real feel to it as opposed to something automatically designed to blast from convertibles and iPods in high-school lockers. [No. 134, p.53]

Too frequently, though, the new material doesn't have the constitution to withstand the heavy hand of producer and former Dawes guitarist Blake Mills. [No. 137, p.55]

Fans and obsessive will love this, but it may not qualify as a return journey for the rest of us. [No. 147, p.55]

Even at 16 tracks, RKives feels paltry and incomplete. [No. 98, p.59]

Turn Blue is a soft pack of post-coital smokes, and Marlboro Lights 100's at that. [No. 110, p.51]

Home Again is an album with a powerful voice, but little to say. [No.89, p.56]

The pulse of their motorik grooves feel more mechanical than menacing, and the decision to put '80s-vintage synthetic drums and pomp-rock synths up high in the mix distracts from evil intent. [No. 139, p.59]

Ultimately, this is really only of interest to random member of Teenage Fanclub and die-hard obsessives alike. [No. 103, p.52]

There's melody and rhythm, but mostly the overtones float through the ether, seldom resolving into anything approaching a song, although the overall effect is soothing and dreamy. [No. 135, p.54]

The album's numerous ballads meander at times, but Stories Don't End is an overall solid effort. [No. 97, p.54]

Once a means to subvert pop/rock formula, the band's abruptly shifting dynamics have themselves become formulaic. [#67, p.97]

Marshall’s second album of covers, mostly continues the cleaned-up, virtually lobotomized aesthetic of 2006’s unfortunately heralded "The Greatest."

Diploid probably has some ace songs, but you'll need an industrial belt sander to uncover them. [No. 109, p.55]