Erratic. [Feb 2007, p.126]

It's a mixed bag. [Jan 2007, p.112]

Together, they paint devastating emotional portraits, and they sidestep tedium by remaining rap's most lyrically inventive group. [Nov 2006, p.155]

A strong statement from a veteran still pushing his artistic boundaries. [Dec 2006, p.170]

A gleeful, idiosyncratic pastiche. [Nov 2006, p.156]

His constipated, region-nonspecific flow overwhelms even the most flamboyant beats. [Jan 2007, p.119]

Frustratingly uneven. [Dec 2006, p.165]

Clever turns of phrase, the reason you go to Banks in the first place, are in lesser supply on Apple, replaced with boilerplate declarations of supremacy. [Oct 2006, p.148]

Sure, the DFA treat their sources irreverently, but their updates are better. [Nov 2006, p.165]

Excellent. [Oct 2006, p.142]

There are soaring hooks aplenty, but there's little to fill the gaping holes in between. [Oct 2006, p.141]

Ludacris never truly breaks through. [Nov 2006, p.158]

It's all tasteful retro treatment for a '60s soul icon, but Burke approaches it with brio. [Nov 2006, p.165]

Occasionally, the chemistry is thrilling... Mostly, though, Shadow picks collaborators allergic to subtlety. [Oct 2006, p.143]

When [Fergie] nails it--as she does about half the time on her genre-jumbling solo debut--the result is strange pop that successfully blurs the thin line between annoying and alluring. [Nov 2006, p.160]

Generally, Chingy is blank, as flat as tap water. [Oct 2006, p.150]

These are antiheroic, anti-anthemic, antiwar gems of abstraction, full of consistently strange and exotic charms. [Oct 2006, p.146]

The Boys make earnest, delicate and occasionally gloomy synth-pop, but they want the pain to be danceable. [Nov 2006, p.161]

Timberlake and Timbaland... write frustratingly awkward songs. [Oct 2006, p.142]

A generally exhilarating marriage of pop songcraft and state-of-the-art rhythms... But the compact and caffeinated B'Day also sounds calculated, as if it were A&R'd by a nervous number cruncher. [Oct 2006, p.137]

Like prior Roots albums, Game Theory boasts top-notch craftsmanship... but it's continuity that makes this album unique. [Sep 2006, p.211]

Still a nimble rapper, he's copped his best beats in years. [Oct 2006, p.142]

Shining brims with clear-cut and fully resolved ideas. [Oct 2006, p.138]

Shockingly, Paris the vocalist is actually listenable; no Gwen Stefani, but better than, say, K-Fed. [Oct 2006, p.151]

Eminem complements [Trice's] sinister outlook with equally gloomy production. [Aug 2006, p.140]

Killa is mostly outmatched by his more charismatic Wu brethren. [Oct 2006, p.144]

In their earnest effort to recharge rap, however, the veterans' pioneer-day rhetoric comes off as heavy-handed. [Sep 2006, p.213]

Something's off... ESG's doe-eyed charm... is missing. [Oct 2006, p.148]