If collage is the art form of all centuries from the last one forward, you might be tempted to catalogue 13 Ghosts' Brad Armstrong and Buzz Russell as master practitioners of the craft, for this outing is a piece of this, a piece of that and a piece of practically every other thing that's come down the line in pop-rock since 1972. It's all wheeled out over the course of something like an hour and the majority of it's overwhelmingly good. The problem is, though, that Cicada doesn't add up to much. The disparate writing styles and shifting moods never allow the listener to hang their heart on any given emotion long enough to have both a lingering and meaningful experience. It's a problem that loomed large over Guided By Voices; that lives in the cracks of even the best work of latter day Paul Westerberg, and the one that unhinges this affair faster than a termite invasion destroys a log cabin. Too many moods and emotions hurl at you at the speed of Husker Du on amphetamines and coke and it eventually becomes lost in a whirl that has you questioning whether this is one band making several records or several bands smooshed onto one record. While this 21-track outing isn't short on greatness—"The Search Party," "Robert J" and "A Model Citizen Flip" create a powerful trio of mid-album yummy—it is way short on cohesion, something that ultimately keeps it from being the true burst of genius it could be. File under: Worthwhile but scattered. – Jedd Beaudoin (2006, The Daily Copper)