The record comes on like a sweaty, amphetamine-fuelled rehearsal room bash that went extraordinarily well. [Oct 2006, p.102]

[A] sensual, endlessly inventive record. [Aug 2003, p.106]

The pair's lack of ambition might eventually grate but listen to this on your own on a rainy Sunday, with the thermostat set on 25 and its hallucinatory qualities might well invade your being.

Sewn Together is as winningly tuneful as it is raggedly charming. [Jul 2009, p.95]

Effortlessly inventive and still full of invective. [Apr 2012, p.88]

However distinguished the guests, though, there's no doubt who the commanding presence is. [May 2012, p.82]

What started out as playful downtime in the studio soon blossomed into a set of poetic urban folk songs. [Jun 2012, p.86]

Were every song as great as I'm Free, Blue Skies and Call Me Faithful, this would be a classic too. [Jun 2014, p.94]

Her second album doesn't up the merriment ante much. [May 2015, p.93]

They impress with a neo-Romanticism rather than basic rabble-rousing. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Languid piano, sleazy Rickenbacker, intellectual Lothario. Lethal. [Oct 2016, p.96]

While a little slavish in worship of her influences, these seven icy near-instrumentals conjure a gripping imaginary thriller in the mind, their glacial electronic melodies underpinned by taut rhythms. [Jun 2018, p.89]

There's a cosmic/romantic wisdom to highlight One Way Or Another and Two Dreamers' sunshine classicism. [Sep 2019, p.96]

It's an engrossing set with nine reflective soundscapes. [Nov 2019, p.89]

May is less successful on the rockers - not so much through lack of "oomph" or authenticity, but because the songs aren't great. ... Way more subtle, convincing, and apparently deeply felt are the tumbling country soul of Different Kinds Of Love and the lovely Dusty In Memphis vibes of Diamonds. [May 2021, p.80]

The DLO3 serve up a decidedly old school-sounding platter whose feel-good vibe is infectious. [Mar 2022, p.86]

They're all done pretty straight, but then of course eh throws in his trademark "more is More" soloing, all Bluesbreakers-to-Cream-era Eric Clapton-style muscle and intensity. [Nov 2023, p.93]

Ultimately, Innerstanding finds Harrison marking out his own territory, sustaining a brooding musical atmosphere and filling it with sterling melodies. [Jan 2024, p.88]

It's a steady, comforting blast of warmth, from the Jon Hopkins-Style soft techno pulse of Soft Gradient beckons to Nocturne's ambient swell. [Aug 2025, p.79]

Lots here is clever and fun, and maybe Oh Snap is an album she needed to make, but heard end to end it's a bumpy ride. [Nov 2025, p.86]

There is much melancholy here, but he sounds comfortable singing songs that carry the weight of experience. [Oct 2013, p.87]

This pared back approach, which lends parts of the record a "dancier" vibe, may not suit all fans of his singular debut. [Jul 2013, p.85]

Blissed-out analogue synths, the swell and drone of ambient rock and epic, beatless, drawn-out melodies characterize the debut. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

In all, more a series of disconnected building blocks than a cohesive album. [Nov 20, p.89]

They sound joyous even when they're miserable. [Oct 2006, p.96]

Some of the lyrics, translated from the Dutch, are a touch clunky, but all in all a lively set and not, I suspect, Bishop Burke's final memorial. [Feb 2011, p.100]

Trouble Anyway is a much more fleshed-out, even lush proposition [than her 2016 debut, Out Of Love]. [Jan 2019, p.90]

With one million sales, the French quartet can be forgiven for not messing with the formula here. [May 2013, p.86]

Piano and guitars soar vertiginously; lyrics are bittersweet or pleasingly surreal. [Apr 2013, p.98]

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

On the whole, they succeed by taking a careful layered approach. [Mar 2014, p.100]

There's a pleasing, ad hoc nature to these loose-limbed grooves. [Mar 2016, p.97]

Gogol Bordello's passport-abusing, transcontinental musical journeying occasionally feels like being faced with an over-ambitious tapas plate. [Oct 2017, p.96]

There, is, alas, something much more formulaic sounding about All That I have Left, but for at least 42 of its 46 minutes, Islands is an invigorating place to be marooned. [Jun 2018, p.94]

Symbols of hope still gatecrash his bruised world. [Dec 2020, p.80]

It's a record that benefits from a pervasive electro-melancholia induced by quaking analogue synths, dulcet arpeggios and fragile vocals, recalling fraternal, dark electro-pop mavens Disclosure. [May 2015, p.97]

Collapse Into now finds Stipe, Peter Buck and mike Mills pleading relevance and vitality. [Apr 2011, p.96]

His sheer enthusiasm and peerless pop nous are enough to carry things along. [Jan 2006, p.124]

Although The Dew Lasts An Hour is a patchwork quilt of an album, it's so audaciously pulled off it's impossible not to grin and wonder why mainstream pop missed this trick 30 years ago. [Sep 2014, p.96]

The music could overwhelm lesser singers but Lidell's astonishing vocals carry it off with remarkable elan. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Both men have made better albums and Black Pudding sounds like a couple of guys too deferential to each other to actually raise a challenge and push a boundary or two. [Jun 2013, p.85]

The resulting 10 songs are an intriguing genetic mix of modern psychedelia and eccentrioc pop. [Apr 2010, p.93]

As was the case on 2013's Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO, seem poised equidistant between the mellifluousness of '70s Beach Boys and prog rock opacity. [Feb 2016, p.93]

Their debut full-length more than makes good on the attention they've been receiving. [May 2009, p.103]

Chuck sets an example for everyone else to follow. [Jul 2017, p.94]

Nude With Boots alternates between their trademark, skin-crawling sludge rock, and more accessible, almost anthemic moments. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Mike Ness and his men still have those rock 'n roll blues. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

The upbeat rockers certainly pull no punches. ... Better still, some gentler tunes reveal his more vulnerable side. [Nov 2017, p.95]

While It's Not Me, It's You isn't quite the voice of wisdom, the Mockney chatter has been dialed right down. [Mar 2009, p.108]

They have settled gracefully into the task of making a consistently glorious racket. [Oct 2002, p. 100]

Enough memorable moments to make this the first Catholics album worthy of your love and attention. [Sep 2003, p.113]

Honeycomb is really closer to the Dylan of New Morning than Blonde On Blonde; an angry young man finally transformed by a new voice and outlook. [Aug 2005, p.95]

Plenty of good listening here. [Jun 2009, p.105]

The San Francisco pair Sic Alps present 22 concise numbers and commendably few lo-fi cliches. [Feb 2011, p.99]

The grain and gravitas of Jones's voice is perfectly suited to this diverse material. [Jun 2012, p.82]

Where time truly has no meaning is in the lyrics. [Apr 2014, p.96]

Sadly this well-meaning rewroking doesn't [hold up]. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Mostly it rocks. [May 2015, p.99]

Each piece worms in and stays there. Brice has enhanced the voices of others for too long. Now, her own needs to be heard. [Jul 2016, p.91]

This album opts throughout for classy tristesse, perfect for Close To You and A House Is Not A Home, too steadily composed for Walk On By and Another Girl, both heartbroken songs behind the on-point style. [Nov 2016, p.87]

A classy and elegant piece of work. [Jun 2017, p.93]

The band interpret the album title as a play on Portuguese for "Shadow Or Doubt," as in the choice between comfort zone and uncertainty. It's a line they confidently tread throughout. [Jun 2019, p.93]

This sad skewed pop with shades of Momus, Sakamoto, L. pierre and Bjork weaves its magic on the fluttering yet forthright Salty, vocal tapestry of Come Behind Me, So Good! and raw emoting of Meo, but palls a little before its haunting apex on spaced-out sign-off Coyote, with spectral echoes of Kazu's complicated past. [Oct 2019, p.86]

There's not a bad song here but, more to the point, Fogerty Sr's voice and guitar sound as potent and commanding as ever. [Jan 2021, p.88]

With its portentous pulse and skirls of feedback BN9Drone, sounds like nothing less than a call to mobilise. [May 2021, p.87]

In its Thatcher-ite commitment to pop perfection, it turns the art of the album into a sausage factory of hit making. Alexander's Years & Years sounds like a ragbag of contemporary influences rather than possessing a distinct sound of its own. [Mar 2022, p.85]

Deschanel's light, Astrud Gilberto-style vocals float wistfully and when they collide with Ward's harmonies on Deirdre or with er own harmonies on Melt Away, it soars. [Sep 2022, p.94]

Its overload of big-picture polemic, explosive virtuosity and tune-rich entertainment certainly takes some unpacking, yet is consistently thrilling. [Sep 2022, p.89]

12 self-penned kitchen-disco bangers, each one a gem. [Oct 2022, p.84]

The album is a great showcase for the Fontaines D.C. guitarist's production skills, which makes even occasionally inert material punchy and dynamic. [Mar 2026, p.81]

This sequel ups their ante further; there's inventiveness here that rivals Girls Aloud producers Xenomania. [Apr 2009, p.103]

Heroic, to a degree, but they'd need to hurdle the rainbow to warrant any pot of gold. [Apr 2014, p.95]

There are moments when Tom and Ed no longer sound like the baton is theirs to pass. [Feb 2005, p.101]

Even with the bright flickers of Kate Bush-like experimentation and excellent Depeche Mode disco, though, these songs tend to lack the high-definition of 2018's Chris, their earnestly fixed intensity never quite catching from pop smoulder to earth-scorching flame. [Dec 2022, p.84]

Insanely ambitious, or just insane; you decide. [Apr 2016, p.90]

Overall Tron: Legacy is but faint clanging, drowned out by rent-a-string-section romanticism; like sad robots banging on a sound-stage door. [Jan. 2011, p. 95]

This is perhaps Eno's most personal record to date. [Jul 2005, p.102]

Almost entirely instrumental apart from the occasional detour into Floyd-like orbits, this is yet another bold statement from this ever-changing and challenging group. [Mar 2016, p.96]

The results are slightly uneven. [Jun 2013, p.89]

Nothing here truly ventures into the unexpected as [Russell] did, but there was only one Arthur Russell. [Dec 2014, p.89]

It's top quality stuff. [May 2008, p.106]

The 14 tracks here represent just a fraction of what he produced in his prime, so beware that it may be habit forming. [Oct 2011, p.110]

So that's Obits: rapid tunes, powerhouse performances, great album. [May 2009, p.104]

One senses New Shapes Of Life will probably mean less to the world at large than it clearly does to its author, but it has moments of intense beauty. [Dec 2017, p.86]

What's so impressive about Man on the Moon, however, is that it's a complete vision, designed to be listened to as a whole. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

Connoisseurs of punk's darker corners and post-punk's experimental extremes will have their socks rocked off, totally. [Apr 2007, p.108]

Gentle, Andrew Bird-style ballads bump alongside histrionic prog pop and four-to-the-floor beats on Ritalin-phased second LP. [Jun 2014, p.98]

Culturally rich, and instantly identifiable as excellent, this one's an extra-hot essential. [Mar 2016, p.97]

You sense they need a couple of pure pop gems that the Mary Chain had submerged within the noise to perfect the classic sound they aspire to. [Jun 2005, p.95]

A substantial and richly evocative work. [Apr 2013, p.89]

Across a double album, Clarke's songwriting landscape can start to feel featureless, his big-sky country demanding tighter focus, more interesting rock formations. [Dec 2020, p.88]

Few are better placed than Bostonian Edan Portnoy, who uses access to the old-school masters owned by Traffic, one of the few reissue imprints interested in rap, to curate a fine, fun funky and fascinating half-hour mixtape interlaced with new sample-based production. [Feb 2010, p. 105]

One of their most consistently impressive releases. [May 2013, p.90]

It yields mixed results. [Nov 2014, p.100]

Loose feels less like an album than a clutch of singles plus accompanying extras. [Jul 2006, p.100]

The Future Will Come's title seems presciently loaded, its content primed for a mainstream meet'n'greet. [May 2009, p.108]

Top heavy with gleeful dysfunctional relationship songs, though eventually stalling via forgettable '80s rock mediocrity. [Dec 2003, p.109]

Gibb's voice--not to mention his lyrical outlook--is endearingly astringent. [Aug 2004, p.98]