The majority of Not Too Late hums with a placid darkness and neurosis which is as delicious as it is unexpected. [Feb 2007, p.104]

A sweaty, dirty cellarful of noise. [Feb 2007, p.102]

Visitations may just be their finest half-hour. [Dec 2006, p.108]

The overall effect is a bit off-key, ill-defined and generally incomprehensible yet warm and attractive. [Mar 2007, p.100]

Neither the return of the Last Gang In Town, nor the crisp, literate, wonderfully confident pop with which Albarn perfectly crystallised the mid-1990s. Instead, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is a noir-ishly understated suite of songs, further testament to its chief author's need to keep on moving. [Jan 2007, p.98]

There are twists, but no clutter, just a gentle lyricism leaving every song lit from the inside. [Feb 2007, p.100]

His gifts remain undiminished. [Mar 2007, p.99]

Stereolab had similar starting blocks--there's no reason why Fujiya & Miyagi shouldn't become as notable. [Jan 2007, p.110]

There's just one heart-grabbing moment. [May 2007, p.120]

Ghost are soundtracking a fresh, modern hell. [Mar 2007, p.99]

You kind of know what to expect from a Kristin Hersh solo album, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. [Mar 2007, p.102]

Imagine a math-rock XTC fronted by Elliott Smith, illuminating the quiet corners of life. [Mar 2007, p.94]

It is Nas's poetic erudition that makes it a stone cold classic. [Mar 2007, p.100]

Bizarre, but brilliant. [Mar 2007, p.100]

The stark beats are the best Hugo and Williams have built in years. But its themes--dealing, girls--require more lyrical innovation to compel. [Feb 2007, p.105]

Stimulating, entertaining and moving. You'll listen to it more than you have Anthology, I promise. [Dec 2006, p.100]

Astounding... More even than his Exile On Main St., this is Tom Waits' Basement Tapes. [Dec 2006, p.104]

This is largely a quality-controlled treat. [Jan 2007, p.112]

It was a scratchy and sassy sound, funky and fun.

It is Newsom's voice that provides the stunning balm to bind this strange beauty together. [Dec 2006, p.118]

So Divided is less pompous, but the dynamic likes of Naked Sun and Stand In Silence barely atone for hamfisted stabs at chamber pop, country and The Cure. [Dec 2006, p.108]

This record easily beats its predecessor. [Feb 2007, p.105]

Songs that any liberal-minded Cat Stevens fan will adore. [Dec 2006, p.120]

Rice doesn't dismiss outright the folky troubadour charm that distinguished O, but here it's a springboard for jealousy, sex, misery. [Dec 2006, p.104]

The whole album is characterised by a subtle, all-pervading sense of menace that superbly offsets Campbell's snow-pure vocals and sparsely psychedelic orchestration. [Dec 2006, p.104]

Theirs is an ire that deserves to be heard. [Dec 2006, p.110]

It's disappointing that only 12 tracks have been handpicked for this release. [Jan 2007, p.124]

The joke's pretty much over after one listen. [Feb 2007, p.106]

No one could have predicted Endless Wire would be quite this good. [Nov 2006, p.98]

[It] lacks conceptual cohesion. [Nov 2006, p.112]

An experimental, sensual collection of songs harking back to the days of the first Gorky's EPs. [Mar 2006, p.104]

His most impressive skill is echoing the laid-back charm of Bill Withers and the melodic instincts of Stevie Wonder. [Dec 2006, p.104]

Despite its bleak outlook, this is a record big on nagging choruses and arm-punching emo punk that--more often than not--aims for the mainstream artery. [Dec 2006, p.110]

An intriguing, funny and inventive listen. [Nov 2006, p.101]

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

A set glorying in its sensual exoticism. [Jan 2007, p.102]

By turns, raw, sophisticated and sublime. [Sep 2006, p.104]

[It] delivers a pop-art contrast to the prog-opaque sprawl of its underrated predecessor. [Nov 2006, p.106]

Each song feels handmade, having the precise airiness or density it requires. [Jan 2007, p.112]

It's both so clever and so very charming. [Nov 2006, p.114]

Their forte remains unashamed headbanger action. [Nov 2006, p.114]

Adventurous of chord-voicing but never showy, the band nail most of their zesty songs in well under three minutes. [Mar 2006, p.92]

A feverish set that borders on near-delirium. [Nov 2006, p.100]

The latter tracks sink into Beck-by-numbers fare. [Nov 2006, p.100]

An action-packed blockbuster. [Oct 2006, p.104]

This time the music is as rich and detailed as [Finn's] wordplay. [Feb 2007, p.100]

Inventive, shape-shifting arrangements always go the extra mile. [Oct 2006, p.112]

Something about Jet doesn't quite ring true. [Dec 2006, p.106]

His most satisfying album in a decade. [Dec 2006, p.106]

Sean Lennon continues to impress. [Nov 2006, p.104]

An exercise in economy. [Dec 2006, p.120]

At times it's spellbinding. [Dec 2006, p.118]

If only all pop music could be this smart and soulful. [Dec 2006, p.106]

A much grander affair [than his debut]. [Jun 2006, p.103]

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

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

Most of these 12 songs... fall within the wistful to enchanting range. [Oct 2006, p.96]

Meticulously constructed. [Nov 2006, p.114]

The band's wild woolliness seems strangely AWOL. [Nov 2006, p.118]

Burke's prodigious talent and larger-than-life presence ensures the big name cameos don't steal his thunder. [Nov 2006, p.102]

You have to go back to Costello, The Beat or Smiths to find a catalogue simultaneously as hummable and as disturbing as McCabe's. [May 2006, p.102]

Tough to take in one sitting, The Outsider nevertheless boasts enough fine 'deep cuts' to be a keeper. [Sep 2006, p.98]

This isn't Air, but something quirkier. [Jan 2007, p.106]

At ease with the mellower cuts... the more aggressive Learnign The Lie and the stop-start instrumental Heji feel more contrived. [Oct 2006, p.112]

For the most part Empire is every bit as powerful as its title suggests. [Oct 2006, p.96]

His most honest, touching album yet. [Dec 2006, p.118]

This album makes good on the promise of earlier benchmarks like Ease Down The Road and Master And Everyone. [Oct 2006, p.102]

What more than saves the day here is a better-than-good melodic performance from Elton, and an outstanding set of lyrics by Bernie Taupin. [Oct 2006, p.98]

One of the albums of the year. [Dec 2006, p.120]

An uneven and slightly uneasy listen. [Nov 2005, p.112]

It's the record that regular Krall devotees demand. So is it churlish to suggest that she's capable of something more? [Oct 2006, p.111]

A triumph of psychedelic melody, drone and eerie groove. [Jul 2006, p.104]

Strikes a perfect balance. [Sep 2006, p.96]

A funny, funky and gloriously eccentric stew. [Oct 2006, p.100]

Much will be familiar to JBs devotees... but this time their MOR predilections are more pronounced. [Oct 2006, p.100]

A great blue-eyed soul record. [Dec 2006, p.108]

Pieces... delivers greater consistency. [Oct 2006, p.104]

Only problem is, he also wants us to love him for his mind, so he has declared this a concept album. [Nov 2006, p.116]

Another wonderful, intimate love letter to pop. [Sep 2006, p.94]

Anyone possessing their previous output will find little in the way of reinvention. [Oct 2006, p.96]

An album that, by turns, is lacerating and seductive. [Sep 2006, p.106]

An uncomfortable yet rewarding listen. [Dec 2006, p.110]

What Los Lobos's thirteenth long-player lacks in surprise it makes up for in groove and mood. [Oct 2006, p.103]

As intimate and unforced an album as I've ever heard. [Nov 2006, p.104]

Its rote alternarock thrills are meagre vittles compared to the revolutionary metal the principle players have wrought in the past. [Oct 2006, p.110]

There's little discernable rhyme or reason holding it all together. [Oct 2006, p.110]

The Drones whip up a heady storm of garage-bred blues, post-punk intensity and Crazy Horse-style amp overload, in which they couch fevered narratives worthy of Nick Cave. [Nov 2006]

Crudely put, it is the sequel to Love And Theft, which is to say that a great deal of it is split between 12-bar treatises about love and lust and croonsome ballads about much the same themes.... That said, it is not quite as sharply focused as that record. [Oct 2006, p.94]

A focused tour de force. [Oct 2006, p.100]

[Their] irony is especially trying when it infects the music. [Jul 2006, p.110]

Though it's certainly refreshing after the murk of 2002's Evil Heat, the results are still variable. [Jul 2006, p.104]

Happy Hollow swings with the nutty abandon of Madness, sharpened with the literate punk frenzy of Fugazi. [Oct 2006, p.104]

Every time you think you've got Idlewild figured out, it zips off in a totally unexpected new direction. [Oct 2006, p.97]

On the downside, Razorlight is lyrically hamstrung. [Aug 2006, p.104]

Contains some of Broadcast's most adventurous music. [Sep 2006, p.118]

An album of colossal strength and maturity. [Sep 2006, p.104]

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]

As ever, easy melodies pour from him. [Oct 2006, p.104]