Only a tender take on Tom Waits' "(Looking For) The Heart of a Saturday Night" gives Peyroux the glimmer of modernity Perfect World so desperately craves. [Oct 2006, p.80]

These songs feel heavy and significant enough--due to dynamic production and hooky choruses--even if we don’t know exactly what they mean.

It's the band's fussiest, most elaborately conceived work to date. [Nov 2006, p.83]

Outside of a filmic context and stamped with the name Pearl Jam, several of the songs fall flat, dragging down an otherwise upbeat and enjoyable release.

Where these two songs [“Darkseid” and “4ÆM”] burst with fervor, Miss_Anthropocene’s other tracks often stumble and limp.

Everything I loved about Fever... is minimized on this follow-up, replaced by a more temperate jangle. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.129]

Benson doesn't win any points for innovation, but his deft musicianship and confident vocal presence are sure to please those who never tire of a good tune. [Apr/May 2005, p.137]

Strikes a nice balance between Shakira's more straightforward earlier sound and the bluster of her big crossover hits. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.122]

Crows isn’t without merit—Moorer’s voice is beautiful, and the themes are on an emotional canvas that anyone over 13 with a normal amount of chromosomes has experienced, making her album relatable if not particularly memorable.

She has the potential to be the next Ann Peebles, a real superstar in the blues world. But first she needs to snap that leash.

Even the bright spots in the album’s composition—the off-beat piano cascades in “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and the pulsating synth of “Cruel Summer” (thank you, St. Vincent) are particular standouts—are overshadowed by the musical anticlimax on most tracks, especially on “The Archer.”

Ultimately, Russian Circles pummel too politely.

Entering Heaven Alive is seldom actively bad, but the most interesting component of either of White’s 2022 albums is that, well, there are two of them.

On The Haunted Man, Khan continues to pursue a similar approach to combining ambition and concision, but, unfortunately, the result is a disappointingly tepid album.

Whereas that album [Several Shades of Why] revealed the Dinosaur Jr frontman's surprising musical and lyrical range, Demolished Thoughts only reveals Moore's particular limitations.

Where Want One emphasized his ability to soar, Want Two drowns him in costumes; his range actually sounds restricted when you hear the same droopy-lidded croon against such varying backdrops.

Other Worlds is an immersive, expansive listen, filled with warm electro-dub grooves and plenty of ear-tickling headphone details--but it can also be a snooze.

With the title character appearing in several songs amid frequent descriptions of desert landscape, Josephine sounds like a concept album, at times tedious or academic....The Co. redeem these songs by creating beautiful scenery for Molina’s long, hard drive.

Infuriatingly inconsistent. [Dec 2006, p.90]

He set out to depict the pains of contemporary Chicago, but he ended up just making another Common album.

Rice, singing [on "Light Industry"] about “Bennie and the Jets and dreary weekend sex,” plays perfectly into the song’s hesitant mood. It’s the one moment on Gulp! where his audible exhaustion fits, a song that makes you wonder what the rest of the album would have be like if only the band could translate Rice’s weariness into something more suited to their strengths. Instead, Sports Team take a swing with Gulp! and barely make contact.

At root, the gritty, back-to-the-garage drive of these pop tunes adds a layer of grease that makes them stick. [Apr 2007, p.58]

Ornate but unremarkable headphone listening. [Oct 2006, p.80]

What emerges from Set ’em Wild, Set ’em Free is the realization that Akron/Family is maddeningly unknowable and, essentially, a product of all these influences rolled up into one gigantic, take-it-or-leave-it stringball.

Generally less intense and more coy, ponderous and forced [than Keep On Your Mean Side]. [Apr/May 2005, p.132]

This is either one of 2007’s most refreshing or most grating albums, and there’s a hair’s breadth in between. Swerving but creative, Rise Above may wear on repeated listens but still it connects more than it should.

Tonally, however, Bish Bosch offers nothing dramatically new, just (a lot more) of what Walker's done before.

Blessing is merely good, solid rock.