Lovely. [Oct 2005, p.114]

Ndegeocello doesn't opt for straight covers, adding a fresh, and sometimes unexpected, twist on a 14-track collection that mostly reconfigures Simone's most famous songs. [Nov 2012, p.86]

Many sure-footed, instantly memorable songs. [Jun 2018, p.88]

Vessel Of Love is her most vital work to date. [Mar 2018, p.91]

She's still producing songs that stand comparison with those past and purloined classics. [Aug 2002, p.106]

This album has plenty of ideas and plenty of 'moments.' [Jan 2003, p.92]

Cave has managed to move away from the stifling atmosphere and the false captive environment of No More Shall We Part and somehow create a Cave world where The Bad Seeds can indeed stretch, howl, riff, sniff, grind and bark with a freedom unheard on record since 1993's Live Seeds. [Album of the Month, Feb 2003, p.84]

Deluxe, post-dance soundscapes from Simon Green's anthropoid alias. [May 2010, p. 97]

Ambitious, soulful and joyous. [Apr 2012, p.90]

Her expressive lyrics exude equal-parts watchful intelligence and first-person vulnerability. [Mar 2020, p.96]

Opener Wall Of Glass resounds with stirring audience participation while a robust rhythm section and lively Hammond organist help cut through the din. [Aug 2020, p.86]

Born In The Echoes finds them capturing the most elusive sound of all. They sound, at last, like themselves again. [Aug 2015, p.90]

Their early temper now lurks beneath, as chiming post-punk atmos channels affecting, emotional jabs. [Jun 2016, p.97]

It may prove hard for Matsson to get heard above the quiet din made by so many others who clutter his field, but he's one of the all-too-few worth listening to. [Sep 2012, p.94]

Garishly attractive. [Oct 2005, p.98]

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]

Fans of pre-grunge American alt-rock come on in. [Jul 2015, p.96]

Up And Away is warmer and grittier than its '80s-polished predecessors, infused with the '50s/'60s trad folk and hybrid pop records her grandparents and parents spun for her. [Jul 2022, p.90]

More a set of unconnected pieces than a single, cohesive whole, while not short on individual charm it's hard not to see this as anything other than a warm-up for the main event to come. [Dec 2016, p.91]

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

Pop, but still an album for reflection. [Nov 2013, p.89]

Pare things back to an insistent Banshees-like boom and groove. [Nov 2020, p.90]

A real treasure. [Sep 2009, p.90]

There are no masterpieces here. But it's a brave venture nonetheless, and one that does succeed in becoming something more than the sum of its parts. [Jan 2010, p. 95]

Dolly steps up as America's cheerleader, to help fight the recession blues. [Oct 2011, p.100]

Surprisingly marginalised on the latest Wu effort, Ghostface Killah proves he's fighting fit on this gritty, organic partnership. [Feb 2015, p.88]

The wall-to-wall cyber-vox distract from his bountiful gifts. [Oct 2018, p.92]

Less of a musical therapy session, more of a celebration. [Jul 2016, p.91]

A winsome, nostalgic atmosphere. [Jul 2017, p.91]

You might even give it a cuddle because it delivers the kind of ultra-friendly music that sits up and in a cutesy manner demands such attention. [Fall 2009, p.93]

Elegant and haunting as the individual tracks may be, it's difficult to remain engaged throughout 75 minutes of music with such a uniform mood. [May 2020, p.89]

Byrne filters grace, wonder and apocalyptic portent through his fractured worldview. [Apr 2018, p.95]

Their most primitive, intimate and vocally oriented [album] yet. [May 2005, p.108]

Rancid's strength is singer Tim Armstrong's touching depictions of the world; from his heritage on 'East Bay Night' to swimming through the devastation of hurricane-stricken New Orleans and on his brother's time in Iraq on the acoustic 'Civilain Ways.'

It finds the Seattle quintet making a convincing case for being The Last Rock Band To Believe In. [Feb 2011, p.96]

Sadly, the songs are less noticeable than the urge to strangle the drummer. [Mar 2005, p.101]

US gypsy folkies ramble aroudn the musical map. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

The Smog's winning streak [is] intact. [Aug 2006, p.88]

There's no sonic trickery here, just Mac the balladeer. [May 2003, p.95]

The synth-laden tunes are relentlessly upbeat--sort of New Order on Prozac--with a Lightning Seeds blitheness.... Though no groundbreaker, 'Monaco' is catchy as flu.

Much of Get Ready is less a call to arms than the sound of an old man wheezing out of a creaky armchair. [Sep 2001, p.108]

This is some coming-of-age classic. [Sep 2004, p.96]

There's still much to link the group to their musical past. [Jun 2004, p.107]

A welcome drop in intensity. [Oct 2005, p.102]

It's sweet and vivid, but also a bit messy. [Dec 2005, p.116]

Seeger's voice is frail now and he has to rely on an array of accomplished singers to help him deliver his message....Even so, Seeger remains innovative. [Jan 2008, p.100]

These lads really knock together a proper tune. [Oct 2008, p.108]

Hamilton's second album only firms up a reputation for making pastoral, semi-acoustic pop. [Mar 2009, p.107]

His exhilarating meld of hip hop beats and mesmeric grooves proves that should he reform his old band, it's not because he needs to. [Nov 2009, p.95]

Unlike her previous solo release, it's all music, no spoken word (her other job is poet), though the lyrics are often good enough to make you sit up. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

New Clouds is poised between towering psych-noise and ambient beauty, intermittently etched with quicksilver. [Nov 2009, p.101]

The earth doesn't move, but sands shift seductively. [Sep 2009, p.102]

There's an impressive sense of pop classicism, but these songs are even more melodically insistent, occassionally verging on show-tune mellifluousness. [Apr 2010, p.105]

The trio are at their most effective when meshing from-the-streets comment with clanging guitars and harmonies in the vein of early-period Who, see the wry poke at tabloid celebrity, "Keep Your Eyes On Me." It's only when they descend into the Kinks pastiche of "Mr. Grey" that the bar is lowered. [Mar 2010, p.96]

Musically, this album is well assembled, with stabs of Memphis-style horns, slide guitar and luscious strings--but the lyrics lack deep resonance. [Apr 2011, p.100]

While her impressively expansive band needs little bidding to cut loose, Carthy's lush vocals, and cryptic lyrics keep you on your toes. [Jun 2011, p.103]

Stunning... a highly-textured, invigorating adventure in sound. [Mar 2012, p.94]

Her voice is pure enough and boasts the necessary dash of grit for her to rise above mere MOR blandness. [Apr 2012, p.84]

[The album has] the loose, zonked-out flangey FX/claivnet/Rhodes piano vibe of Goats Head Soup, with strong flavours of Flying Burritos country songcraft. [Jul 2012, p.82]

The new blood broadens the Sand's vocal palette and, along with some of Gelb's sharpest writing in some time - gives Tuscon's 19-song sprawl more energy and focus than any Gelb LP since 2000's Chore of Enchantment. [July 2012, p.89]

This is haunting, atmospheric and intelligent introduction. [Jan 2012, p.99]

Nothing here is less than intriguing. [Oct 2012, p.86]

It plays to all their debut's moody, elegant, widescreen strengths while illustrating the changes since. [Sep 2012, p.86]

These love songs all sound pretty good. But the feeling remains that she has more, which the respectful hands around her haven't liberated. [Jan 2013, p.95]

Challenging it may be at points, but absorbing and complex too. [Dec 2013, p.94]

A blurred landscape of muffled beats warped tape and corroded ambiance that suggests club land euphoria. [Feb 2013, p.93]

[The songs] are among the most immediate he's recorded. [Apr 2013, p.88]

These fine-spun talents are too frequently suffocated by the album;s production, which ignores the songs' subtler details in favour of something more epic. [Apr 2013, p.89]

The electronic undercurrent that's hummed throughout Hyde's musical life to date is there on Edgeland, but only in the gentlest of forms. [May 2013, p.85]

Wings Over America records the fact that they were a far sturdier, more streamlined and thrilling proposition than they were ever given credit for. [Jun 2013, p.96]

An unapologetic blast of tough breakbeats, deep bass, roots consciousness and with guest appearances from veteran MCs like Tenor Fly, General Levey and Tippa Irie, history lessons of how jungle grew from reggae and raving and influenced later forms including garage and grime. [Aug 2913, p.96]

For the time being Palms are holding fast to a distinctly high-flying trajectory. [Oct 2013, p.90]

A stylistic serpentine of an album, it wiggles insouciantly from sugar-rush synthetic pop to harp-caressed ballad. [Dec 2013, p.88]

One Day Away, with Urban, is country-lite, but everything else is heavy with the weight of Guy's skill and experience. [Jan 2014, p.101]

Kidjo is in scintillating form. [Mar 2014, p.93]

An ADHD, electro-fuelled crazy quilt. [Mar 2014, p.95]

It feels like a very personal and agreeably languid autobiography. [Mar 2014, p.93]

The solid, memorable songs are at the sweet end of the bittersweet spectrum. [Mar 2014, p.91]

The synths are always used imaginately, forming an intricately shifting mosaic structure on Sheen. [Aug 2014, p.91]

The title track is a thunderous grower with a tribal, kick-ass epiphany. And then...it's one mediocre ballad after another. [Jul 2014, p.91]

Hither he thunders, with an excellent 11-track battery co-produced by super-sticksman Jim Keltner in Memphis. [Nov 2014, p.90]

This studio rendition fills out the sound with added instruments, but this essentially remains a suite of spiky, modern-classical compositions delicately showcasing Smith's sensitive, frequently affecting observations on where he has fetched up. [Dec 2014, p.89]

Their guileless sincerity is less wild rumpus than Snow Patrol in its universal simplicity. [Dec 2014, p.102]

His fourth album's Blast-apeing vein of electro-gliding mirrorball pop comes in optimistic hues. [Nov 2014, p.95]

Jap noise magus Keiji Haino wenches apocalypse-blues from guitar squall, vocal wail and synth sirens. [Dec 2014, p.102]

[The] third Egyptrixx album has a fidgety, unsettling quality. [Mar 2015, p.97]

There's beauty and imagination aplenty here--but maybe a slight whiff of Pseuds Corner, too. [Apr 2015, p.91]

Hallelujah, melodies and lyrics are not just sensitive but sharp and witty, glittering with a dazzle reminiscent of Britpop at its deftest. [May 2015, p.96]

Lulu sounds as vital and feisty as ever. [May 2015, p.93]

Younghusband's second LP pushes bittersweet melodies from under a reverb rug. [Dec 2015, p.94]

[The album] has no one style, no favoured musical template. [Mar 2016, p.92]

Capturing the duo's perfect balance of fan with technician, it plumbs indie music's past, inhabiting the same sonic atmospheres as the JAMC, MBV and Joy Division, but is executed with expert ability. [Apr 2016, p.90]

[An] Ubu-sinister psychedelic LP. [May 2016, p.96]

It's a grand gesture of a record, though, and if at times it's a little too much, that's entirely in character. [Jun 2016, p.94]

Another left-field guest-fest. [Jun 2016, p.96]

Just a tad more quirkiness would be welcome. [Jul 2016, p.92]

Gorgeous from beginning to end, Luck Or Magic is evenly split between originals and covers. [Aug 2016, p.91]

It's Ry [Cooder] who handles the production chores and does that capably. [Sep 2016, p.94]