Here is Coolfer's latest group of overused album review words.

• Pastoral. "Charmingly simple and serene; idyllic." Most often used in describing singer-songwriters and bands with a light, folky touch. Also popular in describing laidback electronic music such as Boards of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children. Why mellow ambient music has so much in common with rolling green pastures is beyond me. It just does. Pastoral is about to join the Hall of Fame with the likes of eschew and soundscape.

• Languid. "Showing little or no spirit or animation; listless." This definition is probably better for the context of most album reviews: "Lacking vigor or force; slow." Just about anything slow -- and that covers a large swath of indie rock -- gets the languid tag.

• Furtive. "Expressive of hidden motives or purposes; shifty." Synonyms that I hope a few critics will use: artful, calculating, cautious, circumspect, clandestine, cloaked, conspiratorial, covert, crafty, creep, cunning, disguised, elusive, evasive, foxy, guileful, hidden, hush-hush, insidious, masked, scheming, secret, shifty, skulking, slinking, sly, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy, sub-rosa, surreptitious, tricky, under wraps, under-the-table, undercover, underhand, underhanded, wily.