Ultimately a completist's set. [Dec 2023, p.84]

Little has changed in the schlocky-horror junk-shop aesthetic.... However, the polished and emotive power-pop chuggers She's The Bad One and Sorry About Tomorrow show more midlife maturity. [May 2015, p.103]

Hard Light works so well because rather than cling on to relevance during the wilderness years, Drop Nineteen have simply waited and let the world catch up with them. [Dec 2023, p.77]

Baird’s weary, almost impassive croon and deadpan humour across both records can’t hide his serious resistance to our self-deceiving, digitally distanced lives.

Past Lives is a wilfully uncommercial record, made for the sheer love of the tight-knit scene that spawned them. [Dec 2022, p.74]

It makes sense with the book on your lap, but otherwise, the album may not convince. The acoustics are peculiar on tracks like Pride and the vocal mic seems compressed, rather than expansive. Something to do with surrender, perhaps. What remains of it, when you give yourself away. [May 2023, p.80]

Its shorter, pacier tracks up the dynamism, making for a pummelling - if somewhat relentless - experience as deep-strata hardcore tracks like Detroit and Blackage shift gears into more ponderous interludes. [Jun 2025, p.72]

The band's sixth album is another uneven mix, but with enough fresh twists and smart cameos to save it from redundancy. [Jun 2015, p.90]

It’s a fine mix of odds and sods to stave off the hunger for the next sonic feast they cook up.

Not essential, then, but well worth a peek through the window. [Nov 2019, p.84]

The majority of this all star tribute treads an inappropriately conformist path. [Apr 2022, p.83]

A little unwieldy in places, but still pleasingly timeless. [Jul 2019, p.85]

There is skill on display, but the album is unlikely to progress beyond background music. [Jun 2015, p.93]

You don't come to this band foe an easy rode and a soothing soundtrack to while away the hours; you come to them to be pummelled with some horrible but mesmerising noise. And on Synthesizer they deliver in abundance once again. [Nov 2024, p.75]

The Minus 5 remain a star-heavy Trojan horse for McCaughey's songwriting. [Jun 2015, p.97]

As displayed by the title track and the pumping Brutalism, Oxymore feels stuck in the 90s rather than the work of two trailblazers, though at least Epica’s hands-in-the-air dynamics feels fresher. [Nov 2022, p.71]

Although micro-melody whimsy is at its heart, there’s a Tangs/Radiophonic Workshop slant that gives tracks such as Midwinter Rites a spooky Kill List/Children Of The Stones edge.

The concept of nature destroying man-made civilization to a soundtrack of dark, danceable symphonics is chilling. [Sep 2020, p.85]

His words and sentiments are left deliberately smudged and indefinite in places; sardonic Dylan phrasing sticks to some words, double-tracked Lennon wails on others.

They revisit a previous concept. ... Floating along on a wave of jazzy good vibes. [Nov 2022, p.75]

Stephen Lawrie grumbles dutifully over the anticipated Spacemen 3 guitar squalls, and tracks like Shake It All Out and This Train Rolls On do their traditional misery-in-motion thing. Nothing Matters suggests an out-take from Iggy’s The Idiot that was ditched for resembling Dum Dum Boys too closely. [Oct 2024, p.74]

It's an album outside its own time, designed to intrigue the dedicated few rather than service the content-consuming many, and if nothing else it's bringing the art of enigmatic charisma back to the world of rock. [Apr 2025, p.74]

Anyone not expecting a retread of his former glories will find enough here to enjoy. [Summer 2018, p.90]

Bootsy shines brightest when the Big Daddy Kanes pipe down and he gets to consider mortality on the poignant Heaven Yes, pay tribute to fallen P-Funk comrade Bernie Worrell on A Salute To Bernie, or stretch out on the uncut funk he does best, bolstered by guitarist Eric Gales and veteran Funkadelic drummer Dennis Chambers on Come Back Bootsy.

Inevitably they’re not reinventing the wheel, yet it’s still good to hear Ringo’s non-voice (heavily treated), and his drumming skills are undiminished.

Difficult to separate the jokers from the aces. [Aug 2019, p.80]

Despite lofty ambitions to write a letter 'from God to humanity' on Restless Souls, these are counter-attacked by Rebel Girl, an overstuffed, over-sweetened, male gaze-heavy, lovelorn confection that completely overrides the potential of its title. ... nevertheless, Lifeforms is beautifully produced and catchy as hell, earning itself a spot on any intergalactic playlist. [Oct 2021, p.73]

The additional CDs redeem the era. Every B-side here is superior to half the record.