This eighth album is very much business as usual. [Dec 2016, p.92]

Largely an album of blues covers that isn't terrible just, well, perfunctory. [Apr 2026, p.84]

The disc as a whole is never quite as gripping as its conceptual predecessors. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Singer Ann's third solo LP is her most Heart-like, cruising between drivetime and blues-rock. [Jun 2022, p.89]

Existing fans are well served. [Jun 2007, p.112]

The album is a masterclass in elegiac navel gazing. [Oct 2010, p.90]

Relentless vocal shards create the sensation of being stabbed in the head with a whalebone comb, but when voices and concept coalesce... you begin to see the point. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

The first half of their fifth studio album racing by, a blur of nimble fingers and frills. The second half, a 19-minute exploration of Pink Floyd's Echoes, will divide audiences along prog and classical lines. [May 2019, p.91]

[Brian Chippendale] returns for more overcharged neon-Morricone industrial pop onslaughts, drums and vocals hooked up to his evil super-oscillator. [Apr 2013, p.89]

While brutally impressive, if it's subtlety you're seeking, look elsewhere. [Mar 2011, p.100]

Although influences aren't hidden ... it's [Pundt's] own voice here. [May 2012, p.82]

It doesn't always hit the bullseye - Te Tragaste El Chicle's intense shredding veers towards '80s hair metal, or the soundtrack to a Jerry Bruckheimer movie - but the dizzying ideas on display amply compensate. [Oct 2025, p.81]

Classic OMD tropes are almost overdone on this, their 13th studio album. [Oct 2017, p.88]

With a playing time of just 29 minutes, this feels more like a holding exercise than a fully-fledged long-playing statement. [Oct 2015, p.88]

The 10 tracks rise and fall through burbling electronics and explorative jazz. [Apr 2021, p.88]

Gainsbourg's reedy vocals ... just don't stand up to the rigours of live documentation. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Their first album in seven years is a guns-blazing reinforcement of classic tropes, powered by young 'un Daxx. [May 2016, p.88]

The Peth prove they're no mere cracked actors. [Oct 2008, p.110]

Maryland pop-punks are shamelessly commercial and ruthlessly effective. [Dec. 2010, p. 96]

When they strip down everything down for the closing pair Fear and the onomatopoeic Organ Blues, the nape hairs rise even higher. [Mar 2011, p.100]

The melancholy feels more goth than hippy and, ultimately, both the sounds and lyrics feel unresolved. [Apr 2024, p.90]

Although the assured songs are beautifully framed by sparkling arrangements, To Each His Own suggests--as BNQT had too--Pulido is sidelining what might be more rewarding for listeners: getting on with Midlake to help realise his musical vision in a less obvious manner. [Apr 2019, p.91]

The tune count is mainly healthy, with the super-exuberance of Is This A Breakdown, Grapes Upon The Vine's echoes of 1983's Porcupine, and a second-half pursuit of the epic culminating in the soaring, redemptive New Horizons. [Jun 2014, p.88]

Spontaneity suits him; weaving jangly groove-grit with melody and just the odd overly-earnest lyric. [Sep 2019, p.96]

By turns whimsical, self-deprecating and humorous. [Oct 2015, p.93]

It's a little hard to take in one sitting, though downcast fans of Saint Etienne and The Magnetic Fields will find much to adore. [Sep 2005, p.92]

It ain't light listening but its emotions run deep. [Sep 2014, p.95]

While the peppier River Of Longing and Palace Of Love are rousing, it's when the brakes are applied that Illegals in Heaven leaves a durable residue. [Nov 2015, p.90]

A beguiling sigh in itself. [Aug 2023, p.81]

With a voice now dry and shaky, Friedman nonetheless revels in his novelist knack for tall tales. [Dec 2015, p.86]

It doesn't all work. ... But the doo wop-in-space Hope Hell High, the football chant-as-polemic punk rock of Motherfuckers Got To Go and the widescreen desert balladry of Love Is A Mind Control prove the Deap Vally girls should experiment like this more often. [Apr 2020, p.91]

It's all tenderly delivered and definatly indie--both sonically and spiritually. [Oct 2008, p.113]

Ultimately, it's the combined sound of - there's no getting away from the word - ethereal vocals and cavernous, sometimes even martial dance rock that appeals rather than the detail. [Apr 2012, p.86]

The sumptuous How Soon The Dawn and gently rcok'n'rolling I Can Burn shine. [Oct 2017, p.98]

It all hangs together well, and is ably supported by the band's superb musicianship. [Nov 2012, p.87]

sometimes the going gets a mite too easy, too laid back. But there are several memorable teamings. [Nov 2013, p.91]

Both slow-burning, early Zeppelin-style blues, its understandable they would front-load the album with its trump card, but both seem slightly at odds with the Dickinsons' mission statement. [Jan 2014, p.101]

The disillusionment makes for downbeat and decidedly adult pop. [Feb 2014, p.88]

Whether it's the Damon Albarn-embellished Afro-pop of Pure Love or Buschtaxi's wonky take on reggaeton, delightful weirdness seeps from every pore. [May 2025, p.91]

Though some things remain reassuringly the same--the glitzy, moody, twangy, cinematic '60s Euro-pop feel--as if time hasn't passed, there's also a strong sense of Turner and Kane having grown as people. [May 2016, p.86]

Lowly strikes their balances adroitly, but Hifalutin could easily have become another album--one that was more straightforward. [Jun 2019, p.94]

Her confidence as a performer is clear, as is her growth as a songwriter. [Mar 2014, p.93]

Sonic Nurse is not... a classic rock record. And it's not a classic Sonic Youth record. It's an excursion, into corners weird and corners familiar. [Jun 2004, p.100]

Young set up a tour with a fine country band playing at state fairs and rodeos. This set includes live, countrified version of Re-actor, Old Ways, Harvest, even Buffalo Springfield and five previously unreleased songs. [Jul 2011, p.120]

Rooted in dubby pop and embellished with punchy horns, it captures the Birmingham group's maiden rebel sound. [Oct 2016, p.98]

The joy of Steely Dan's early albums was that their superior playing, production and craftsmanship was vibrantly energetic, spiced with rollercoaster twists and turns, and deeply sardonic lyrics... Fagen now lacks those vital extra elements, leaving just craftsmanship with no spark. [Apr 2006, p.104]

The tunes recall artworks born of constraint and a strictly limited palette, a very specific kind of less equalling more. [Aug 2023, p.80]

It feels like a big step forward. [Jan 2014, p.101]

Barratt’s plummy texts present fragmentary narratives aquiver with unresolved tension and hyperreal detail. Her compadre is talking them up as In Every Dream Home A Heartache rebooted, but Loose Talk is surely but an intriguing distraction compared to that pop-cultural landmark. [Apr 2025, p.79]

Wanderlust sees the singer execute an elegant slide into a more stately kind of pop. [Feb 2014, p.88]

More so than on predecessor The Spell, the Procession's ominous, gothic-baroque sound now suggest angular German Expressionist cinema and the raven wing atmospheres of Edgar Allan Poe as readily as The Bad Seeds. [Dec 2009, p. 94]

Raitt remains a master interpreter of song. [May 2012, p.87]

Local Valley has no lows, nor any thrilling highs, but it's an even, easy pleasure from start to finish. [Oct 2021, p.91]

Save for a couple of re-edits, this deeply satisfying blend of emotional techno, Afro rhythms and stripped back house comprises all Daphni Originals. [Sep 2017, p.93]

Morse Code is more concerned with our collective lost soul rather than individual anxiety. [Nov 2019, p.86]

It is gorgeous in the way a hotel painting is – very pleasant to look at once or twice but not to ponder for too long, an autumnal soundtrack whose glow fades like leaves. [Dec 2024, p.93]

What it all means--if anything--is hard to take in, but the journey to finding out is utterly epic. [Nov 2013, p.85]

These are exotic lullabies which, superficial cosiness notwithstanding, lead only to nocturnal anxiety. [Apr 2018, p.91]

An elegantly collaged exploration of death and its consequences. [Mar 2025, p.86]

O resoounds with the lustily imparted vocals of Kianna Alarid and Neely Jenkins, while the band's signature instrumental palette--fizzing guitars, chunky '60s organs--has expanded into a thick sonic cheesecake. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Although Duffy sounds like a pissed Year 9 teacher on 'Live And Let Die' and The Hold Steady confirm suspicions that their greatest strength is being an E Street Band covers act on Bruce Springsteen's 'Atlantic City,' Hot Chip, Peaches, TV On The Radio and Elbow all go that extra mile to create something new, unique and often quite wonderful. [Apr 2009, p.101]

There are perky alt-pop nuggests aplenty here, so it's a shame the momentum can't be maintained. [Jun 2009, p.96]

It's an unlikely explosion of X-Ray Spex, The Raincoats, Oliver Mtukudzi and Stella Chiweshe, but it's a winning one. [Aug 2019, p.97]

A music-box intricacy keeps these anxious, wondering songs on a room-sized scale even as they worry at the big issues over strings and keyboards. [Dec 2021, p.90]

The lack of personal revelations that brought nuance and light to 2016's Made In The Manor often makes these vivid, grim depictions of inner city strife uncomfortable listening. [Nov 2019, p.89]

On first impression If By Yes sound floaty and melodic. Ideal for backdrop sounds at classy fashion outlets. Yet it;s more than that. [May 2011, p.109]

Thrilling, unpredictable and often inspired stuff. [Nov 2019, p.86]

Payseur's vocals might still sound diaphanous, his lyrics still concerned with small moments of sadness and pleasure, but there is now a structured professionalism here that will delight and confound others. [Jul 2023, p.82]

If lyrics about mushrooms, unicorns and frogs are your jam, Coyne & Co. of course have you covered. The Naked Slaves and Amazon strippers do feel tiredly exploitative. [Feb 2017, p.93]

There's still a lot of soul-searching at mournful tempos, but reconnecting to his roots has made for a fine set of songs. [Feb 2019, p.93]

Beyond the singles-"Melody A.M." lapsed into a latterday jazz-funk. This album sometimes tends the same way, but interest is reignited by Royksopp Forever--ELO with dancebeats--and the tracks where Lykke Li and The Knife's Karin Dreijer-Andersson approach Robyn's unhinged lager-umlaut Europop berserkersim. [May 2009, p.104]

Mostly, though, the album plays to Mould's strengths. [May 2009, p.98]

It works remarkably well. [May 2012, p.83]

This bloody enormous rock demeanour means Stone Roses fans may not be amused. [Oct 2002, p.96]

All lovely throwbacks have an instant familiarity. [Oct 2015, p.93]

French Touch unfolds as a warm, stylish tribute to great songs from one of continental Europe's most affecting voices. [Nov 2017, p.98]

Psych instincts and gas-weight vibes avoid modern psych's retro slavishness, but its lightweight sound can feel insubstantial. [Nov 2018, p.96]

At just 23 minutes long this stop-gap album, but it's great to hear the fire in his belly once more. [Jan 2018, p.94]

If Watneys Red Barrel-flavoured stompers like Roll The Balls, Watch Your Step and Bonehead Waltz are something you'd dig, this is definitely for you. [Feb 2016, p.98]

This muscular, everyman rock could have been produced at any time in the past 35 years, but has charm and character nevertheess. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Years Of Refusal isn't a great album, but it's no disaster. [Mar 2009, p.104]

A subversion of new age, but still oddly soothing in its own way. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Hands sees the 24-year-old blossom into a throughly modern chart contender, but at the expense of some of that quirkiness. [Jul 2009, p.95]

Former soul-punks return with rough edges removed and hearts on sleeves. [Feb. 2011, p. 99]

Foster's extraordinary voice is suited to Dickinson's poignant rhymes, and tracks like They Called Me To the Window and I see Thee Better -- In The Dark, are concentrated, exquisite and oddly moving. [Feb 2010, p. 101]

Despite no huge leaps forward sonically, there are some fantastic scenes set to song. [Nov 2020, p.83]

Though brief nautical ballad Deck Chair is a skit too far here, there's a great bubblegum-pop song fighting its way through the exploded theatrics of Heavy Metal Lover, while silly song of thanks for the six-string We Are The Guitar Men is a virtuosic hoot. [Nov 2019, p.89]

Sometimes futuristic, at others surprisingly formulaic, it’s another stepping stone on Sinephro’s path to greatness but one where the parts are worth more than the whole. [Oct 2024, p.87]

The rough-milled follow-up to 2020’s Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was doesn’t suggest time is mellowing him. [Oct 2024, p.86]

Patchier than Jacksonville. [Mar 2006, p.92]

While his alienated, laissez-faire flow disguises sly pop sensibilities on the smoked-out, funereal-paced Red Bottom Sky and Silver Arrows, it's bare-bones lament Agony that sums up his charm. [Jan 2018, p.94]

Though his nervy, nasal singing style can occasionally grate, the songs are redeemed by his breathtaking lyrical precision and eye for detail. [Oct 2006, p.103]

Albini's hardline technical/philosophical missive is the tastiest 'discovery' in this inevitable 20th anniversary box set--tastier, indeed than any of the unheard music. [Nov 2013, p.101]

Dana Margolin isn't just reckoning with a break-up, but a near-total collapse in its wake. ... Yet the prettiness somehow makes listening feel more voyeuristic. [Jul 2022, p.92]

Efrim Menuck's off-key wail remains an acquired taste, but there's undeniable collective commitment. [Apr 2008, p.112]

The best songs here more than compensate for the near misses. [May 2008, p.112]

Surprises include End Of Night, nicely brutish electro-pop where Dido's automaton vocal really works; funked-up raga/calypso Love To Blame; and Sitting On The Roof Of The World.... Otherwise, Musak coming soon to a changing room near you. [May 2013, p.88]

Even the Hey Jude-y crowd singalong works. ... The album as a whole also has a coldness that threatens to undermine the point that Everything Now strives to make. [Sep 2017, p.87]