It is catchy, frank, challenging, beautiful, terrifying, erotic, and nightmarish. In other words, it has all of the elements that make it a good "record".  Full text...

Take a few breaths, though, and give these songs time to lodge themselves in your brain. As of its release, I'm addicted.  Full text...

With The Air Force, Xiu Xiu has released their greatest album. Savor it.  Full text...

Musically, the album is a mélange of music boxes, grandfather clocks, and player pianos stored in the attic of a haunted house.  Full text...

the mix of sparse and dense, broken and enraged, auxiliary percussion and programming, noise and melodiousness is all here - it's beginning to sound rote. The song structures are often too predictable, with too many elements used as ornaments instead of anchors. The lyrics seem weaker, too, as if Stewart is leaning toward impressionism and away from overarching themes.  Full text...