New York Times, Saturday, March 16, 2019

I've become a massive fan of TANGERINE DREAM in the last couple of years. Shout out to the terrific ‘80s All Over podcast, whose review of Thief introduced me to the band, and particularly their movie soundtracks. I've seen about a dozen of the movies that they scored since writing this puzzle in July 2017. I'd say Thief is their best overall soundtrack, while Sorcerer is the best movie that they scored. Because most of their music is instrumental, I find it makes for an excellent accompaniment when filling a grid, as lyrics tend to distract me. Many a puzzle over the last few years has been written while listening to TD.

That said, I was more interested in the convenient letters of TANGERINE DREAM when I seeded the puzzle. I'd tried and failed at my first few attempts at executing this 14-10-10-14 quad-stagger layout, but this one turned out well. I was just trying for DELI at that central across; when I realized it could be expanded to PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC (which then opened up the slots for AMEN CORNER and PRINTER INK), I knew I had something. If I were constructing this today, I'd work on cleaning up the corners — there are a few too many abbreviations and initialisms for my current taste. But that center section is one of my favorites, and even more so because Tangerine Dream has become so personally beloved since writing the puzzle.

STANDARD POODLE crossing TOODLES entertained me way too much. Now that's an AMEN CORNER! There was so much greatness packed in, especially impressive considering how tough a construction job this is. A wide-open middle, with nine (!!!) long feature entries is no joke. That quartet of STANDARD POODLE / DINNER DATE / DON DELILLO / TANGERINE DREAM is so impressive.

The only one of the nine that didn't grab me was ROAD TO RIO, but I bet it might be the favorite for an older generation. No doubt that it's crossworthy, at the very least.

I liked that Andrew didn't stop there. EARL GREY TEA and RAISING CAIN added even more color. But wait, there's more! The SW / NE corners, which often don't live up to potential on layouts like this, feature DATA DUMP, PA KETTLE, and even METEOR. Not at all TEDIOUS.

Fantastic clues, too. [Person who's on a roll] directed to a high roller at a craps table. No, that's a VOTER roll — top-notch wordplay.

A couple of dabs of crossword glue in MML CTS LUM, but that seemed like a fair price to pay for so much goodness. There was the oddity of ENTRAIN — I've ridden a lot of trains but never heard someone say, "it's time to entrain" — but again, it was a price worth paying. Easy to infer, anyway.

Fantastic construction. I often tune out of a themeless if I get more than a couple of dabs of crossword glue, but today, all the sizzle was well worth it.