Every knot has been planed away. It's hushed, wistful, 'cool,' acoustic, sweetly dolorous and subtly well crafted... and dull as corrective footnotes in a treatise on ditchwater. [#228, p.54]

Brokeback's airier tendencies are always balanced against the hint of depth and punchiness behind the twin basses, and the bittersweet, reflective quality of the melodic lines. [#228, p.57]

It's surely his finest recorded hour to date. [#230, p.61]

The production is so delicate and the arrangements so well crafted that you can't help being utterly seduced by this open-ended, non-narrative yet elegant and accessible pop music. [#227, p.71]

"Miss Lucifer"... [is] the first of many tracks on Evil Heat that cross rock 'n' roll and electro, only to get Sigue Sigue Sputnik. [#223, p.61]

It lacks something crucial at its centre: definition, precisely. [#221, p.66]

You are reminded that yes, this has all been done before, but Out Hud get by with the wistful innocence of well-intentioned brainiacs. [#225, p.71]

It's on tracks like the ethereal, 15 minute "Oh Shadie" where the group's acid washed sound really takes off. [#232, p.74]

More substantial, positive and dynamic. [#225, p.58]

Possibly their best.... Brave, bleak yet compassionate. [#225, p.77]

His verbal style is notable because it avoids typical ragga chat or MC freestyling in favour of an almost literary blend of prose and verse. [#219, p.75]

A slippery, shape-shifting quality is one of the great strengths of Amon Tobin's sixth album. Plainly put, Out From Out Where is impossible to pin down. [#226, p.67]

MBM's wholehearted embracing of the familiar is stronger than ever, erasing any freshness or innovation, and cancelling out all distinguishing features. [#226, p.72]

After long, lean years of straight edge piety and arthouse restraint, guitar solos that don't hold anything back are as refreshing as they are liberating. [#224, p.56]

The somewhat dated style and sound of Nextdoorland gives it a charm wholly unaffiliated with any current scene or trend. [#225, p.77]

The risky juxtapositions that mark his best work are critically missing. [#224, p.51]

Uncomfortable deliery and thin lyrical content suggest that utilising vocals isn't their strong suit. [#223, p.69]

I Phantom could prove to be one of the most consistently rewarding HipHop records to land in 2002. [#223, p.52]

A highly engaging and very endearing album. [#223, p.59]

Some awful lyrical lapses scupper otherwise promising pieces. [#223, p.51]

They're at their best on tracks like "Nothing Is Ever Lost[...]," where they conjure the wheeling claustrophobia of PiL circa Metal Box. [#223, p.66]

May be the year's most surprising pure pop pleasure--precisely because it's nothing like you'd expect a pop album to be. [#224, p.61]

An album of mostly pleasant contemporary pop. [#218, p.61]

Optometry is a success in terms of both sound and vision. [#221, p.53]

This is an archive of surprises. And one of the surprises of the year. [#220, p.50]

25 years down the line, Wire are still pulling off coups as daring and deadly as This Heat's debut. [#224, p.73]

Sonic Youth have made a joyful return to their No Wave hardcore rock roots with a vibrating set of muscular songs which glide effortlessly from Gooey power pop to full on guitarmageddon meltdown, skulled out psychedelia and beyond. [#220, p.53]

The emphasis now is on the delicate interplay between acousitc guitars, and vocals which sound somewhere between Jonathan Donahue and Syd Barrett. [#221, p.66]