While there's nothing here to touch 1999's moving, Cinemascopic downtempo classic Les Nuits, it's an eclectic offering, deliberately in keeping with the Balearic paradigm Evelyn once helped shape. [Oct 2013, p.91]

Behind the moments that sound like megachurch guided meditation, however, are flashes of brilliant disturbance. .... Sophie stands as a monument to what might have been. [Dec 2024, p.92]

Certainly, the music here is very often brilliant. ... .Paak's tendency for juvenile and preening bad-boy bluster is a recurring weakness. [Feb 2019, p.84]

With little in the way of banjo now, nearly every song comes steeped in acoustic piano, while the vocals are pitched to eke out every last chunk of substance from well-honed lyrics. [May 2010, p.93]

The Austin Doors ramp up the psych-pop tunes. [Oct. 2010, p. 97]

Moonshine occupies that rich space between hope and melancholy, smooth, maybe, but not without its hooks and catches. [Aug 2022, p.90]

It doesn't all work; but when it does, it's wonderfully widescreen. [Jun 2018, p.96]

Despite her emotional punk-meets-Brecht contralto, Marianne's vocal limitations are clear on tracks like 'Easy Come, Easy Go' or Sondheim's Somewhere (A Place For Us)' which she struggles through with an overawed Jarvis Cocker. But she shines on songs that seem more personal to her. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Recorded in analogue, Echo Kid is his love letter to '70s AM rock radio. [Jan 2010, p. 93]

Though the bleak, froideur-laden Going Wrong and Milky Blau also impress, here are moments when W reneges on Doorway's great promise. [Jun 2011, p.105]

The odd uptempo beat rather jars. [Jul 2013, p.96]

Predictable, perhaps, to mention Torrini's compatriot Bjork. ... Ultimately, though, RTS charts its own path. [Apr 2023, p.91]

A record which is less abrasive and more measured, if slightly wishy-washy from time to time. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Rich, sonic politesse on offer here. [Apr 2017, p.99]

The pieces here are teeming with small melodic and rhythmic details across a range of textures. [Mar 2019, p.87]

Mines dips and twists spindly, telescopic guitar lines, taut coils of rhythm and controlled electronic pulses. [Oct. 2010, p. 100]

Only a fraction of the songs here reach a truly memerizing apex. [Sep 2008, p.110]

All serious stuff--but it never quite sounds that way because the Levs provide rugged anthems for crowd consumption. [Sep 2008, p.111]

It suggest that a future as pullover wearing folkies is theirs for the taking if they fancied it. [Mar 2015, p.94]

At once brooding and beautiful. [Jun 2018, p.97]

The vignettes pack enough detail and emotion to work as well in short fiction form. [Jun 2018, p.97]

Taken as a whole, these poignant moments never threaten to cohere into a greater whole. [Apr 2010, p.111]

While The Gate is not as persuasive as 2007's Nightmoves, the good stuff more than makes up for comparatively effortful takes on Stevie Wonder and EW&F material. [Jun 2011, p.105

It's all too handsomely sterile to truly love. [Jul 2013, p.96]

Their stylish debut knows a bit about content, too, bolting together [the album's] synthetic surfaces with Vorsprung Durch Technik efficiency, yet unashamed of the messy human heart beneath the shine. [Jul 2012, p.85]

Pretty but lightweight. [Sep 2013, p.96]

A challenging but far from inaccessible work. [Jan 2020, p.91]

Innovative it ain't. [Jan 2006, p.132]

The best moments - Where The Water Clears The illusion's untethered vocals, for example - come with an edge of unease, pushing Prochet onwards, upwards, and out of her beautifully suspended animation. [May 2022, p.86]

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]

A little too relaxed for its own good. [Apr 2007, p.108]

This enjoyable act of historical revisionism highlights the still definitive source material. [Nov 2012, p.100]

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]

Occasionally, as on the stuttering, beats-at-war-with-the-tune One And Lonely, it's not so successful, but in the main it's easy to feel both the width and the quality. [Jun 2011, p.106]

He's employed iPhone apps, junk-shop keyboards, cassette recorders and other unlikely paraphernalia to illustrate the wider aural picture. [Jun 2013, p.86]

See them A Come and band original Open Goal here could both date from that time [1980].... The rest of Subculture spreads the net wider though. [Jul 2015, p.93]

What could have been overly esoteric instead recalls Vampire Weekend playfulness, albeit with 4/4 beats. [Jul 2013, p.96]

It isn't until the latter half of the album... that they find their own voice, and one that delivers deliciously sugary powerpop. [Aug 2005, p.102]

It makes for some oddly sublime listening. [Jan 2021, p.85]

One or two numbers have too many twiddles; but then there's the waltz-like Are You In Love?, no longer a teen crush but adult, gently humorous and intoxicating. [Mar 2022, p.85]

It's unashamedly nostalgic, but her voice remains pure and true. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Metals is the product of a stock-taking pause, it's clear the former Canadian indie scenester had rediscovered her bearings. [Oct 2011, p.106]

Album number 11 twitches with the same darkly neurotic pop as 2009's Destroyed. [Oct 2013, p.98]

Enter is 21st century big band jazz at its most brain-spinning. [Sep 2014, p.91]

This 20-song set delivers high octane versions of their greatest hits. [Nov 2013, p.85]

The results are at first comically unexpected, then intriguing. [Mar 2015, p.94]

Graffiti on the Train may be a conduit to pastures new, but it's two steps forward, one step back. [Apr 2013, p.96]

While the soundscapes offer subtle rewards, lyrics' emotional perseverance takes a toll. [Jul 2018, p.92]

Marc Rigelsford's second LP basks in at-home production warmth. [Jul 2013, p.96]

If the album's (mostly) feral guitars and off-mike whoops conjure a band keen to re-harness the pluck of 2003's Youth & young Manhood, in places, the enormodome-courting trappings of recent years linger on. [Oct 2013, p.94]

For unswerving fans only, and not of Pink Floyd. [Feb 2015, p.96]

Folky, fragile songs and others built on washes of guitar effects. [Apr 2013, p.98]

They've delivered their biggest surprise to date. A record that falls short for its constituent parts. [May 2011, p.100]

Coffey's new solo album is split 50/50 between space-funk rock guitar features and more grounded tracks as he becomes the servant of singers on five of the 11 tracks here. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Bumpy at times, but worth the effort. [Jun 2013, p.92]

The mood is authentically heavy but the impact is strangely light. [June 2010, p. 104]

A certain rock'n'roll energy is lacking. .... Think: transitional. [Jun 2024, p.86]

Isaak, whose singing voice is naturally full and resonant, is most at home with the Presley tunes... but the Lewis and Perkins homages don't quite add up. [Jan 2012, p.91]

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.

Though the detail in these blurred vignettes sometimes upstages the foreground, the moments of magic make the odd longueur worth enduring. [Sep 2004, p.95]

It still feels a bit hammy. [Jul 2013, p.96]

Although still rooted in rockabilly terra firma, with cameos from the likes of Nashville groovester Aaron Lee Tasjan, McPherson's horizon has never sounded so open. [Nov 2017, p.102]

Stereo Mind Game certainly sustains an atmosphere, but it's a brooding and bleak one, and at times the darkness of Daughter's dream-pop can feel a bit suffocating. [Jun 2023, p.85]

Hushed, understated psychedelia and Laurel Canyon-influenced LP. [Mar 2020, p.95]

The result is a trifle confusing. [Dec 2012, p.85]

A diverting, stoner-friendly 39 minutes. [Dec 2014, p.89]

Rambling, stoner guitar and drifting synths elevated by radiant percussion. [Dec 2012, p.96]

Without the accompanying visuals, Ugly Season makes most sense when there's a vocal to centre it. [Aug 2022, p.86]

Tribal, jazzy, at times doom-laden, After The Flood is undoubtedly the darkest moment in Kuepper's long and storied career. [May 2025, p.89]

Odd, occasionally unsettling, always memorable. [Mar 2015, p.97]

There are some lovely moments. ... But ultimately, the impossible ambition of Planetarium looms over every single moment. [Aug 2017, p.89]

Finely etched narratives telltales of aging wunderkinds and tragic figures, the deeds of those famed and flawed, while the music moves in manifold directions, from powerpop to scuzz rock to alt country. [Jun 2011, p.106]

There's enough bittersweet emotion to ensure his own personality seeps through. [Jul 2015, p.96]

The bluesiest tracks are best (Beat The Drum; Witness). [Oct 2019, p.92]

The feel is antique and wearily repetitive. Only the sexed up Wicked Way and the deft and tender Little Pixie, about her baby daughter, offer any light and shade. [Jul 2014, p.92]

One of the most bizarre covers albums ever. [Dec 2004, p.102]

Tense, rewarding, avant-garde jousting abounds. [Nov 2019, p.96]

By turns, it's both sublime and downright ridiculous. [Oct 2005, p.116]

Just in time for autumn, more summery surf rock by Hawaii's second favorite son. [Oct 2013, p.98]

This new nightmare falls short of the original, with several songs misfiring. [Nov 2011, p.93]

Find A Light breaks down the distance between dexterous Southern rock and country brilliantly on songs like Best Seat In The House and Run Away From It All. If they have a weakness this time around, it's occasional lapses in quality control. [May 2018, p.91]

Agreeably retro psych-pop from New Zealand. [Apr 2013, p.98]

The opening tunes are strong, but in the later half mannered singing and pretentiousness bring back memories of the Thompson Twins. [Mar 2009, p.110]

A Splash Of Colour remains more grab-bag than coherent statement. [Jun 2016, p.104]

Here, solid collaborative vibes in the wake of all that life trauma make for rousing, edge-of-collapse rock action. [Aug 2017, p.89]

Despite one-time Rudimental leader Amir Amor's rather flat production and the dearth of all-out tub-thumpers beyond the wry The Lads, they've transformed themselves inti a differently beguiling proposition. [Mar 2024, p.88]

There are some hammy moments on Americana Act II, but Davies' status as one of pop's great storytellers endures. [Aug 2018, p.92]

Their polemic backed-up by their abundant charms, not least the plentiful guitar heroics of frontman Rick Rizzo, evoking both the lyricism of Neil Young and the artful amp abuse of Sonic Youth in their thrilling scree. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Established fans will find much to adore, but Finn and company need to be cannier about their long game. [June 2010, p. 98]

There is a certain sameness in evidence that makes the album more meditaional aid than rip-snorting prescription for maximum engagement. [Jan 2012, p.90]

This is a sweet entry point. [Oct 2019, p.92]

A sameness about these developments diminishes the album's appeal, but given a presence in the ether, airwaves, clouds and such, the Pierces' obsession could become addictive. [Jul 2011, p.114]

X&Y is awash with cliches, non-sequiturs, and cheap existentialism; at times it all becomes nigh on unbearable. [Jul 2005, p.97]

It's exactly what you'd expect, but in a good way. [Feb 2021, p.83]

Charmingly wobbly Edwyn Collins-produced debut. [Dec 2017, p.96]

Has a first-person directness and grunge-schooled contrasting of melody with clamour. [Feb 2021, p.90]

What this record lacks is a couple of the screamalong anthems at which Muse have become renowned. [Aug 2006, p.88]

Echo mostly plays safe, but signs of where Sparke can stands alone include Dog Bark Echo's red-desert heat, Everything Everything's jabbered vocal and dissonant piano, and a particularly devastated Bad Dreams. [Apr 2021, p.81]