This collection does little to enhance their hard-won reputation as one of modern rock's most compelling live draws. [May 2011, p.105]

A move to their own label sees them lose the plot entirely, sliding into the stodgy AOR navel gazing of From A Window Seat and listless choogling. [Sep 2013, p.90]

It's more showbiz than authentic, being knee-deep in the kind of epic balladry that wouldn't be out of place at Eurovision. [Apr 2013, p.91]

Flute and horn fight for breath alongside swampy vocals, and a heavy-handed rock bombast doesn't hide a dearth of hooks or memorable pop melody. [Sep 2007, p.110]

Smith often finds herself stuck in a musical straitjacket of tired R&B tropes, rarely able to break out of a narrow comfort zone. [Nov 2023, p.88]

Evokes a sense that this has all been done before, and better.

Raw and revealing though still rather opaque. [Dec 2018, p.94]

All passable fare. [Jul 2009, p.92]

No amount of heavy-friend noodling can redeem One Night Stand and Driving Me Wild, and Ferry's Send In The Clowns would have Krusty renouncing his vocation. [Dec 2014, p.88]

Simon's songwriting ability is unquestionable, and the similarity with his father's voice is hard to ignore, but his quest to re-imagine Elliot Smith's XO too often gets in the way. [Apr 2013, p.86]

Lyrically, the pair stitch together vaguely gothic turns of phrase, yet devoid of any emotional insight or narrative point. [Dec 2010, p.95]

The overall effect is like being trapped in a lift with McFly on a sugar-rush. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Three LPs in a year is only a good idea if you have enough songs. [Oct. 2010, p. 94]

They're a little short on the kind of tunefulness necessary to make these chorus-less songs stand out. [Dec 2003, p.112]

Even a rasping guest vocal by White Denim's James Petralli is unlikely to upset the clientele. [Dec 2013, p.92]

The sneeringly portrentious title and tracks called'Being Bad Feels Pretty Good' or Epic Last Song' would be forgivable--japes, even--if there were a sense of bona fide abandon bubbling beneath the synth squelches, vocoder-shrouded vocals and obligatory cowbell bashing. [Apr 2008, p.114]

There's nothing here to advance the small-scale acclaim gathered by their debut. [Aug 2009, p.95]

What used to work well just doesn't any more, even though Finn still conjures street stories with a rank, raw conversational truth. [May 2014, p.87]

A doldorous racket. [Dec 2013, p.86]

Frustratingly, that search [for plaidits] and presumably producer du jour Ethan Johns--has led them into the uncomfortable territory of bombastic, charmless "October/War"-era U2. [Oct 2007, p.92]

Too often, though, a combination of slight songcraft and waters' awkward tendency to sound simultaneously angry and platitudinous starts to wear thin. [Jul 2017, p.89]

Gravez is scrappy, fun but unoriginal--free in spirit but limited in execution. [Jul 2013, p.105]

Much of it is unreconstructedly rockist. [Jun 20009, p.102]

It's hard to fathom what such a talented songwriter needs to indulge her inner karaoke quite so far. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Twenty-five years after their creative peak, it seems as essential a purchase as a book of new jokes from Bobby Darvo. [Nov 2009, p.91]

While there's some decent garage-punk dirt in 'Roughshod,' and lengthier tracks like 'Free Kitten on the Mountain' and Monster Eye' both briefly echo the menancing screwl of Magik Markers and early Sonic Youth, there's little here that really pushes the envelope much beyond an awkward and mildly abrasive collection of indie rock off-cuts. [July 2008, p.102]

The rest, it must be said, is extremely dull. [May 2011, p.108]

Green writes with a compulsive frequency, like an office joker cracking funnies. And after 20 of his songs, the appeal wanes in not dissimilar fashion. [Apr 2008, p.114]

Steve Mason's second album under his own name is more melancholy meander than Molotov Cocktail. [Apr 2013, p.95]

The band remains shackled to that wearying off-beat pulse that cauise trhe likes of 'Fire,' 'Vision' and the title track to tire. [July 2008, p.112]

Unfortunately, much of the rest veers from lightweight to teeth-grindingly irritating, suggesting a private joke that perhaps would have been best left in private. [Sep 2009, p.93]

His lyrics don't always match his ambition. [Apr 2007, p.108]

The effete Norwegian's music is becoming too unobtrusive for its own good. [Apr 2009, p.103]

Never inept, The Nightingales still remain hard work for precious little gain. [Mar 2009, p.114]

She's simply not being fed the right material, or getting to work with a sympathetic producer. Hudson is a soul singer not a modern R'n'B one. [Jun 2011, p.104]

Monsters Exist feels like a stadium rave washing machine, stuck on infinite cycle. [Oct 2018, p.88]

Unfortunately, Afterglow further embraces, and is overshadowed by, his influences. [Jun 2017, p.91]

The whole sprawl of tooting loops, sawing violins and Pallett's unlovely operatic warbling feels gruelling and indigestible - prog stodge in a dashing post millennial disguise. [Feb 2010, p. 93]

Mostly, she seems so (understandably) lost inside herself you don't know where to find her. [May 2011, p.111]

Spread over a whole CD, there is some worryingly featureless stuff. [Apr 2004, p.102]

You're left with the uncomfortable sensation of having walked in on six serious young men, lost in their own indie-rock majesty. [Jun 2006, p.110]

It's largely horrible, but sometimes impressively so. [Dec 2014, p.94]

The polished arrangements of Heretic Pride do Darnielle's songwriting no favours. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Overall these are bold ideas rather than great songs. [Aug 2016, p.91]

Unfortunately, Sea Sew too often clunks along like its awkwardly punning title. [Jun 2009, p.1010]

The Afro-ising influence of Vampire Weekend on Precisely The Dodos' musical sector leaves them sounding emblematic only of early-Noughties blowsiness--as passe as their name suggests. [Oct 2009, p.108]

Any number of Zutons and Corals have already trod this path, and to keep up Kane will have to try harder than insering words like "insane" and "psychotic" into music that sounds as if it was made by James Shelley's naive young cousins. [July 2008, p.101]

A festival friendly selection of gossamer reggae-lite that even jacks a riff from U2's Bad On I'll Be Waiting, although the mood is more a love up, unplugged Boomtown Rats, with Franti carefully to ensure his unflinching positivity doesn't become too wearing. [Jun 2011, p.104]

The failing voice at its core would clearly be happier in the privacy of lo-fi. [Mar 2003, p.106]

Catchy, undemanding, irksome. [Feb 2018, p.99]

Such earnestness makes for a terrifically hard slog. [Aug 2004, p.93]

While Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth impress with the monolithic power of their noise, there's little else that compels here. [Mar 2015, p.94]

The formula eventually sags. [Oct 2002, p.92]

The results are hardly raw skiffle, more sophisto-shimmery roots. Best on Fleetwood Mac-ish Butter Flutter but over-long and mawkish (SOS, for Syria). [Dec 2017, p.96]

By and large, though, Cajun serve up a smooth, folky breed of indie-rock, only rendered unlovely by Blumberg's histrionic yelping. [Jun 2008, p.103]

It's a shame that their modishness acts against them, but sometimes, playing all the right notes in the right order just isn't enough. [Nov 2011, p.92]

He indulges in too many mudane romantic/spiritual invocations and vague geopolitical maunderings. [June 2008, p.112]

There's little dry about old guy jokes. [Jun 2018, p.97]b

Cook has attempted to vary the Fatboy formula here but it's all gone a bit "mature".

Major General plough's The Hold Steady's punk-pop narrative furrow almost to the point of surrealism. [Sep 2009, p.92]

There's nothing here that elevates the Goodies above the level of the ordinary. [Aug 2004, p.96]

Much of All The Lost Souls is far more icky-yucky than its predecessor. [Oct 2007, p.90]

Its rote alternarock thrills are meagre vittles compared to the revolutionary metal the principle players have wrought in the past. [Oct 2006, p.110]

[Songs swerve] between undistinguished reggae, so-so pop and indistinct blues-rock. [Nov 2011, p.92]

Its icky love songs sadly have no beating heart, and very little soul. [Jul 2015, p.93]

A second rate version of the original. [Sep 2005, p.102]

As each song features a different vocalist and each is a snapshot, it's difficult to tell which character is singing, to get emotionally involved or to keep up with the story without much refernce to the book. [Apr 2010, p.103]

The permanence of adolescent earnestness hangs about the Young Adult novel-ish lyrics. [Jul 2014, p.92]

When the title track and Handshake attempt stylistic detours they are swiftly re-routed with a familiar chorus or chord progression, symbolising the "play it safe" mentality of the whole album. [Oct 2012, p.90]

Ultimately setting up camp in the middle ground between King Of Limbs-era Radiohead and mid-80s Tears For fears. [May 2019, p.86]

There's an absence of audible heat, no palpable anguish or tantrums. [Oct 2009. p.108]

Ultimately though, too much of Echo is over familiar. By the end you find yourself longing for some subtlety or more light and shade.

The blue-collar earnestness is still served in large dollops, but there;s a sense of over-reach about the whole thing. [May 2011, p.100]

Only the faithful need apply. [Jul 2006, p.101]

The result, unfortunately, is one of the dreariest hours you will even spend listening to music. [Aug 2009, p.100]

It's all a bit similar, and amazingly unmoving, until the last number. [May 2014, p.92]

Pleasant enough, but you may feel you've heard this conversation before. [Jun 2013, p.88]

The problem lies with the unrelentingly downbeat music. [Dec 2014, p.96]

With a few exceptions, she just sounds bored. [Aug 2015, p.93]

Producers Ron Anielo and Matthew Koma stick to the formula. And it's not enough. [Oct 2017, p.94]

[Painting] loses momentum. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Confusing mix of glam-influenced punk and would-be party bangers a tad disappointing. [Apr 2020, p.93]

Not Music can feel a little like trying to solve a series of Sudoko puzzles, the brain fully engaged but the heart untaxed. [Dec 2010, p.97]

While there's some inspired moments, much should've been discarded on son Woody's bedroom floor. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Stone pens 14 of the 15 songs and has clearly overstretched herself; the material is bland and only on sublime, transcendental 'Baby,'featuring Betty Wright and a cappella showcase 'Go Back To Your Life' do we hear the Angie of old. [Nov 2007, p.96]

It's pleasant enough, but suffers for not taking songs places they've never been. [May 2018, p.98]

This crisply produced second LP sticks rigidly to the same mandate--big beats and bigger tunes--and feels a little dated as a result. [Jun 2011, p.97]

Sumner's fans won't be disappointed, but it feels a bit like a stopgap. [Nov 2009, p.90]

Deez is revealed as a one-trick pony in the nine variants that follow. [Jun 2010, p.102]

Papa Roch no doubt think there's venom in songs like Hollywood Whore--and they're certainly more visceral heard live here--but these ears just hear the low-IQ goofiness of Motley Crue combined with the stylistic similarities of rockers-by-rote Nickelback. [Sep 2010, p.96]

Despite being probably the best illustration of the scope of his creative impulses, ultimately Life Is... capsizes under the weight of its own cleverness. [Feb 2010, p. 104]

Jones admits a queasy air of self-congratulation to her third album of jazzified covers.

Patchy seven-song set. [Feb 2017, p.105]

Generally, the undistinguished R&B pop and trite lyrics he and his long-term bandmates come up with bear no comparison to the salty good cheer of 'It Don't Come Easy' and 'Photograph.' [Feb 2008, p.100]

This feels like production line Muse: big riffs, bass squelches, conspiratorial dialogue, but few new ideas. [Aug 2015, p.88]

It's early Erasure fans who seen likely to enjoy the '80s electro sheen of the all-action rhythmo-melodic hooks and subplots. [Nov 2011, p.100]

Does little to extended their reputation beyond that of a band big on amp buckling bluster and low on pop harmonies. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Listeners outside their target teen demographic will find all this painfully sincere emoting pretty joyless. [Dec 2010, p.106]