While the album is destined to remain underground, you just know Childish is in his element right there amid the grit and grime. [Sep 2019, p.84]

A game of two halves. ... Could please all. Or none. [Apr 2021, p.89]

Love Triangles Hate Squares is a forceful blast of passion-fired pastiche, but never quite escapes feeling like a cheap holiday in other people's history. [May 2013, p.87]

The quiet/loud dynamic is an elegant partnership here. [Sep 2018, p.93]

Four discs of heavy-lidded, slope-shouldered, shoe-gazing aural opioids. [May 2023, p.89]

Wild Cat does get samey with 11 songs, but it’s a whole lotta fun and fans will lap it up.

Not a great comeback, but just good enough. [Jun 2021, p.81]

There's a DIY feel and bouts of slacker tomfoolery to Varshons 2. [Mar 2019, p.88]

Resolute if hardly revolutionary form. [Jun 2015, p.96]

This album feels like something of a transitional one for Starcrawler, as they find themselves torn between their residual instinct to rock and a desire to roll into new creative areas. [Sep 2022, p.76]

A bumpy ride overall, but with enough peaks to excuse the more pedestrian sections.

The songs aren't works of staggering compositional genius, or bursting with heartbreaking lyricism. But as air-grabbing alt.rock fun instilled with a charming honesty, there's an ocean of possibility yet for these fine young fellows. [Sep 2014, p.94]

Melvins have made exactly the album they wanted to. The result? This is one for dedicated followers only.

COS is a lot darker and more claustrophobic than Thomas's press notes propose. [Sep 2014, p.94]

A classy, slick, impeccably executed album of covers, but a disappointing successor to US No. 1 Before This World. [May 2020, p.83]

The more abiding feeling we're left with, though, is that high-octane hard pop like this needs just a few more piercing hooks to really raise The Dirty Nil above all the other generic good-time rockers that will give you a fun half-hour in a festival tent but rarely capture your imagination. [Feb 2021, p.84]

While it's infectious, it tends to miss as much as it hits. [Sep 2014, p.95]

Collects three albums and apposite era odds 'n' sods. [May 2021, p.97]

The sloganeering surfs in on a wave of ultra-catchy punk melodies, dragging the listener along in its wake. [Jul 2021, p.85]

Their hearts are in the right place, but their percussion needs pumping. [May 2025, p.79]

The streak of familiarity that runs through the album is down to the way songwriters Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites construct their folk-pop melodies and arrangements, but they've given their sound a fresh impetus. [Apr 2025, p.70]

Thirty years later, Documents And Eyewitness works best in the way its name describes: as an account of a moment when bands would do the wrong thing and do it brilliantly. [Sep 2014, p.98]

Album number three takes Anna Meredith-style neoclassical and jumbles it with a woozy mix of Broadcast, Hounds of Love and glockenspiel gamelan. [Oct 2018, p.89]

Cool Planet is a messy indie sprawl for the patient faithful. [Aug 2014, p. 204]

Sweet-voiced grrrl-angst vocals meet grunge dynamics; non-committal Veruca Salt do post-Nirvana loud bit/miserable bit. I Mean, it's fine, but... meh. [Summer 2022, p.79]

He delves into lesser-known parts, like Wheel, a 1973 song about tragic, rural cycles, and he sings Old Road, as a sparse holler, akin to the original. Other songs celebrate the ‘gonzo country’ aims of Jerry Jeff, but Mr Bojangles and his worn-out shoes is still best in show.

Volume X is not a dud album, just a little short on X Factor. [Aug 2014, p. 206]

This odd, understated record is both strange and affecting. [Feb 2014, p.94]