Maxim magazine might be better known for its scantily clad cover stars than for its insightful musical criticism.

Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.

But its readers probably assume that the mag's music reviewers at least hear the albums they review.

Not so for the Black Crowes' latest, Warpaint.

The review, which appears in the magazine's March issue, gave Warpaint 2.5 stars out of five, claiming, "It hasn't left Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth."

The band quickly responded to the review, saying that it was impossible for the mag to have heard the full album. "Neither the writer nor the editor could have heard more than one song--the single 'Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution,'" the Black Crowes' manager, Pete Angelus, said in a statement.

Angelus called the magazine's actions "a disgrace to the arts, journalism, critics, the publication itself, and the public."

Maxim editorial director James Kaminsky issued an apology today. "It is Maxim's editorial policy to assign star ratings only to those albums that have been heard in their entirety," he said. "Unfortunately, that policy was not followed in the March 2008 issue of our magazine and we apologize to our readers."

According to Angelus, by not being more specific or mentioning the Black Crowes, the apology amounts to "self-serving damage control."

"At the most, Maxim could have only heard the one complete song that has been released to radio before publishing their 'album review," he continued. "It comes as no surprise that Maxim has elected to apologize to their readers now that the world has been informed of their deception; however, that is not full accountability."

According to a report in the New York Post, the Crows aren't the only recipients of fraudulent reviews. The paper spoke to the rapper Nas, who said that his forthcoming album, Nigger, also received a less-than-stellar review, despite the fact that only an unfinished version was heard.

"I'd prefer [a review from] Playboy," he told the paper's Page Six. "That kind of stuff doesn't reach my radar or affect anybody around me. I don't know what a music rating from Maxim is. I don't know what it even means really."