It's a little too long to sustain its fetid boudoir ambience; but that aside, this remains a deep red velvet swoon of an album. [Jan 2003, p.93]

Stamey makes the most of a limited vocal range. [Mar 2005, p.104]

Business as usual. [May 2006, p.104]

Well before David Essex provides a gruff guest turn on Relocate, you are entirely won over by this record, brimming with music from a postcode synonymous with class. [Jul 2005, p.106]

There's a beguiling musicality at play that puts pleasing melody at the centre of even the most outre detour. [Dec 2005, p.102]

Garishly attractive. [Oct 2005, p.98]

This is their best album in 65 years. [May 2005, p.94]

A disorienting work somewhere between Scott Walker, Joy Division and Matmos. [May 2004, p.105]

Faced with the Kings of Leon's musical savvy, however, it's easy to believe the hype. [Sep 2003, p.104]

This is a collection of melodic, quality pop songs that lean to the grown-up side of things. [Nov 2006, p.100]

Its sound remains as confrontational and as provocative as its content. [Aug 2006, p.103]

Adult. add unflinching aggression to the razor-sharp beats and vaguely sinister lyrics first mapped out on 2001's Resuscitation. [May 2003, p.104]

A charming glide of warm fuzz-pop that suffers only through their influences being worn perhaps too clearly upon their sleeves. [Oct 2004, p.101]

A rarefied exemplar of genteel bliss. [May 2005, p.108]

At moments Other People's Lives sounds weird and forced, but it's never less than fascinating and it's frequently sublime. [Feb 2006, p.93]

Mesmerising stuff. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Isn't an easy listen but those with an adventurous ear will be well rewarded. [Aug 2004, p.101]

At points UNKLE verge on Moby car advert territory, but judicious sampling and that deadpan sci-fi spirit keep the album the right side of experimental. [Sep 2003, p.113]

Quirky, detail-rich arrangements nodding at dub and death metal. [Jun 2003, p.108]

They have an inherent gift for the split-second pause, the cool coda, the scene-stealing lyric. [Feb 2004, p.98]

Somewhere Only We Know is one of 2004's loveliest tunes, and while nothing else on their debut album quite matches this apogee of woebegone non-energy, there's plenty to keep the eyes welling up. [Jun 2004, p.116]

Shine is an intriguing portrait of a civilised chap in turmoil. [Apr 2003, p.110]

Somewhere in there Brown's murmurous vocals and the lyrics tend to get lost. [Sep 2001, p.99]

Richly textured percussion, thrumming nylon-string guitars, discreet electronics and sundry guest vocalists. [Jul 2005, p.105]

It's far from disappointing. [Apr 2006, p.106]

A tad melodramatic at times, this remains a "Christian rock" album with a serious hellhound on its trail. [Sep 2002, p.94]

A big, bold, brazen statement, epic in places, charmingly flawed in others. [Sep 2002, p.110]

Marrying the softest hushed-breath vocals with a lush musical sweep at once both intimate and panoramic, All Harm Ends Here captivates from the off. [Jan 2005, p.94]

Unessential, yes, but hardly uninteresting. [Feb 2004, p.101]

The blend of Moulds old and new is highly successful. [Aug 2005, p.100]

Perfectly conceived and executed, the album is a beautiful collection of mood music. [May 2007, p.112]

If the album has a weak point, it's a sense of congestion. [Mar 2003, p.110]

A rare feat: gentle and kind without becoming soppy or daft. [May 2005, p.109]

Wolfmother have a canny knack for a tune. [Jun 2006, p.98]

The trio's shared vocals are a unifying factor, finessing the outre music into gently hypnotic melodies. [Sep 2006, p.94]

He's made the album he should've made right after Maxinquaye -- i.e., a listenable one. [Jul 2001, p.112]

While [it] lacks the glitterball dazzle of Emerge, its many-coloured moods result in bankable Moroder moments, baroque ballads, and an ECG-blowing cover of Boredoms' O.

Like a series of melancholy one act plays. [Jan 2006, p.131]

Brassbound is a far better played, better written and lyrically grown-up record than its brash, Brit-pop-punk predecessor. [Jul 2005, p.102]

Remarkably compelling to anyone with slightly more outre tastes. [Aug 2005, p.102]

Wiggs and Trimble do a fantastic job recreating the feel of classic soundtracks of the '60s and '70s... The only shame is that it runs out of steam a little towards the end.

Proves Mark E. Smith's gang have lost nothing of the power to surprise. [Nov 2005, p.104]

Enjoy it before it all gets used in bank adverts. [May 2003, p.104]

The pleasure... is in hearing it unravel. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Cracknell's straight '60s pop ballads sit oddly, but a clubbable Shower Scene and well-electroclash Amateur and New Thing suggest more than a fiar outlook for the weathering well threesome. [Oct 2002, p.110]

It's hard to envisage anything this parochial moving beyond cult status.

Edgy, ear-splitting, bonkers, bizarre and, in parts, astounding. [Mar 2004, p.104]

Though not without the odd turkey, it is arguably their most satisfying work since 1978's Some Girls. [Oct 2005, p.100]

The Sparks take the nascent country rock of their obvious influence and extraploate every last ounce of plangent guitar chime and yearing vocal polyphony until they ring afresh. [Nov 2001, p.100]

The record is such a sprawling, unwieldy beast that the instrumental hooks take time to emerge.

A quirkier affair than their previous works.

They have clearly been rejuvenated by this beguiling collaboration, producing their best work for years. [Jul 2005, p.110]

A charged return. [Mar 2006, p.96]

It's mostly a success, though its dominant tone of understated, rainy melancholia is unlikely to earn Parish a dressing room with a star on the door. [Oct 2002, p.108]

A workout for both mind and soul. [Jun 2005, p.97]

Formula, for sure, but it's the Buzzcocks' own: the original and best. [Apr 2006, p.88]

[A] consistently crafted and stimulating set. [Jun 2005, p.100]

A more than enjoyable stopgap. [May 2006, p.104]

This is well-muscled, heavily mascara'd dance music. [Sep 2004, p.99]

While their music does have a Scando smoothness to it, its ramshackle moments recall the Beta Band more than they do Sondre Lerche, The Cardigans, et al. [Sep 2006, p.100]

The album only stretches to 35 minutes but its quality more than compensates. [July 2002, p.112]

And the songs? Urgent, instant, bolshie mostly, with a stronger individual melodic sense than, say, Greendale, but without the intense beauty of, say, Ohio. [Jul 2006, p.112]

An interestingly mixed-up album. [Sep 2001, p.114]

Never less than inventive. [Jul 2006, p.110]

A reflective, pop album fit for a rainy afternoon. [Mar 2003, p.103]

Equal parts tantalising, frustrating, and riveting. [Jan 2001, p.106]

A surprisingly consistent listen, albeit one that's akin to gorging on Christmas cake. [Feb 2006, p.102]

An eminently listenable collage of jittery grooves, lop-sided beats and wayward electronica.

The empathy between the four is palpable. [Jun 2003, p.113]

It's messy, seductive stuff. [Dec 2003, p.113]

A specialist release, perhaps, but one that is ambitious, accessible and beautifully played. [May 2006, p.112]

The same drifting mood is maintained from start to finish, all nine songs being gently eclectic acoustic musings with occasional electronic decorations. [Apr 2002, p.101]

This [album] finds her with a steelier determination in her country soul and an inclination to rock out that she's only previously hinted at. [Nov 2004, p.116]

For all the band's rich resonance, she shines brightest when [producer Colin] Cripps holds the kilowatts. [May 2005, p.98]

At times positively fizzes into life. [Jun 2003, p.110]

Every time you think you've got to the bottom of a particular song, another layer of intrigue presents itself. [Oct 2003, p.118]

With You Are Free it feels like she's reached some kind of accomodation between a celebration of her vocal gift and a context within with she can happily offer it to everyone else. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Some may bemoan the lack of scope in these hushed meditations.... But more will find comfort in the warm surrender of The Clientele's aesthetic. [Sep 2003, p.113]

No great surprises, then, but as aurally seductive as ever. [Mar 2004, p.101]

The Lemonheads have never sounded so feral yet so tight. [Oct 2006, p.104]

Using jaunty jigs and marches, [Matmos] mishandle flutes, bagpipes, violins and God knows what else to illustrate the mid-1800s battlefield. [Oct 2003, p.111]

There's enough happening here to perk up demanding ears. [June 2002, p.106]

Generally rawer than it's predecessor Home, Under Cold Blue Stars is as evocative as Rouse's much-lauded debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska, while reaching still further from the twang of his adopted Nashville. [Mar 2002, p.100]

[Ladytron] have evolved into a dark behemoth, trading much of their Moogy plinky-plonk poise and gentle subversion for ominous rock thunder. [Sep 2005, p.96]

[A] confident follow-up. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Harper offers nice lines in homages to Marley, Basement Tapes Dylan, and funky James Brown. [Apr 2003, p.106]

For the most part it's a genuinely thrilling, energy-charged adventure. [Feb 2002, p.98]

The danger with this kind of project is sounding like a '70s revue, but Rouse avoids that with his intimate vocal style and quirky songwriting. [Sep 2003, p.104]

These songs cut too deep to be pastiche.... A lovely record of enormous warmth. [Jun 2003, p.101]

Their unique pop panache saves the proceedings from simple retread. [May 2006, p.102]

McBean remains a fascinating prospect. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Winds the clock back to a mid-'80s electro-soundworld in which melodies are crafted alongside beats, rather than crushed by them, and the tinkle of a keyboard carries a sinister air of mystery. [Mar 2002, p.104]

While Kenny still sounds like he's mumbling mantras to himself, the band's soft-focus allure remains undiminished. [Oct 2005, p.102]

This whets the appetitie for whatever Stevens' formidable talent fixes upon next. [Aug 2006, p.96]

Brakes give the likeable impression of being a jokey jamming session at a party that got out of hand. [Aug 2005, p.98]

A swaggering, intoxicating tight-but-loose debut. [Jun 2004, p.107]

If it weren't all so damn happy this would be the most terrifying music in existence. [Aug 2004, p.98]

A return to basics--14 meticulously sculpted, wordless vignettes tricked out in blurry beats, subtle digital daubs and mellifluous bass counterpoints. [May 2004, p.104]