A major rebirth, relegating the chirpy melodies to expedients, relying less on Sadier's monotone singing, and reaching for new formats within the group's formidable compositional skills.

The album has its share of enjoyable tunes, and more than a couple great ones.

The material is maddeningly inconsistent, sometimes in the course of the same song.

A gentle tremble of an album.

It's an okay album, not nearly as overproduced as Liquid Skin nor as unnecessary as Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline. It isn't anywhere near the stellar debut, though, which is quickly becoming a tag Gomez is sick of hearing.

The band's most consistent, well-written effort yet.

It augments the band's traditional pop sound with string arrangements and baroque instrumentation, to varying degrees of success.

A glossy, major-label-sounding record that’s dull, atmospheric, frustrating, and beautiful in pretty much equal amounts.

While the songs aren't that different from "classic" Spiritualized, the method in which they were recorded presents a whole new set of sonic possibilities.

It almost sounds like Pirner is born again, and as anyone who's heard some of Soul Asylum's earlier records -- especially Hangtime and And The Horse They Rode In On -- knows, that's a good thing.

Once again defiantly demonstrates Ween's talent and versatility.

Thanks to fresh melodies, a surprisingly effective voice, ever powerful rhythms, and burning guitar/bass workouts, Jason Loewenstein has coined a voice of his own.

In the end, Porcelain pulls off a rare feat: able to appeal to hardcore/emo lovers as well as fans of good, old-fashioned guitar rock.

The album leaps between influences of Hawaiian music, classic indie rock, '70s-era orchestration, and country -- all very very delicately, as is Aden's way.

BLD is arguably Black's most straightforward rock album; his sound is becoming more and more "classic rock" with each passing record.

Devil's Workshop is the most compact realization of the group's aesthetic, and it contributes 11 solid songs to Frank's ever-expanding canon.

The majority of the new songs are keepers.