Ent. Weekly does have decent reviews from time to time- but it no longer has David Browne, who was a pretty good critic. I haven't read Q lately, but at a time, it wasn't that it raved over anything commercial- I've seen lots of the year-end lists, and the mainstream acts included usually warranted the praise. There are some instances of an act being able to merge art and commerce and garner acclaim.

There'll a little too high in my estimation, but I do enjoy them. Something holds me back from all-out loving them, though I can appreciate their role and their greatness.

“we feel frustrated when bands that we grew up admiring are clearly no longer at the height of their abilities—makes us feel old, and somehow cheated”
“I honestly do not understand why the Stones (or U2, or whomever) should be penalized for failing to replicate their very great achievements as they get older”
Agree 100%, schleuse. It’s impossible to say it better.

I’ll just add that it’s very difficult for a successful artist to develop artistically when the spot light is blinding you, “growing up in public” like Lou Reed said. The audience and the critics are partially guilty too. When an acclaimed artist try to stay relevant by adapting to the sound of current times we usually accuse him to betray his own roots, to sell out and blah blah (notable exceptions could be “Kid A” or, talking about U2, “Achtung, Baby” . Just think about some pathetic works of established artists during the 80s. Usually these failed works are used to explain how terrible were the 80s (while the same sound gave excellent results in other hands!!).
And, on the other hand, every artist tends to be formulaic with the years, tends to repeat a formula that proved successful, in fact he tends to do what he already does well. What the hell, everyone in our daily work is quite happy doing it the best we can, even if it’s repetitive (in my work I need to introduce new techniques quite often and this is usually quite terrifying until you learn it properly). So who am I to blame some artist for being true to his own sound, the sound that in some cases was created by himself.
So we are demanding the artist to continue releasing relevant works while simultaneously being true to themselves. And this task can only be done by real geniuses. Bob Dylan? Tom Waits? Nick Cave? Any other?