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]

Starsailor find themselves in danger of being lumped in with the much-maligned 'Keaneplay' school of emote-u-like guitar rock. Yet judged on their own merits they are still producing the goods. [Nov 2005, p.104]

A rich, bright sounding record, albeit etched with Ward's lyrical ruefulness and voice of crumbling, lugubrious regret. [Oct 2006, p.111]

A typical case of slack self-editing... Kelis was here too long, frankly. [Nov 2006, p.101]

Could pass for a load of Stone Temple Pilots B-sides. [Sep 2006, p.106]

This is the far meaner, angrier and punkier [of the two post-Libertines albums] [Jun 2006, p.98]

A diverse yet flawless disc. [Sep 2006, p.96]

Plays like a budget price homage to ELO and early '70s Beach Boys, full of pocket symphonies and childlike wonder. [Jan 2006, p.132]

Innovative it's not. [Oct 2006, p.112]

The new, not-so-great English translations hurt more than help. [Jun 2006, p.102]

A record designed to ensnare the as-yet-uncommitted listener without abandoning their extant fan base. [Aug 2006, p.103]

Highway Companion abounds with Dylanesque first-, second- and third-person stories of rolling stones with no direction home, and how wear and tear is grinding them to a halt. [Sep 2006, p.90]

What's most remarkable is just how like the old Dolls this new record sounds. [Aug 2006, p.92]

An 11-song set that's melodically insidious and swings like a noose. [Apr 2006, p.90]

Lyrically he's as pleasingly obtuse as ever. [Jul 2006, p.101]

Multi-layered backing vocals and summery hooks tickle the spine with every listen. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Another electrifying statement of unrest from the underground. [Nov 2006, p.118]

As with Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, we're dealing with an invigorating, many-faceted work of diverse instrumentation and durability. [Jul 2006, p.106]

A typically heartfelt and demonstrative record given to wistful glances backward. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Wield[s] both a wistful poignancy and raw emotional undertow. [Aug 2006, p.94]

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

Chemist eschews masturbatory scratch showcases in favour of artfully constructed, utterly oddball 'songs'. [Aug 2006, p.103]

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

The trio's shared vocals are a unifying factor, finessing the outre music into gently hypnotic melodies. [Sep 2006, p.94]

An audacious, X-rated treat. [Aug 2006, p.90]

This whets the appetitie for whatever Stevens' formidable talent fixes upon next. [Aug 2006, p.96]

The Eraser is less crabbed, cryptic or violently bitter than Hail To The Thief... and is often more satisfying for that. [Aug 2006, p.86]

It finds the band stranded in the middle-of-the-road, spinning its wheels amid a mass of musical cliches and Dave Pirner's overwrought lyricism. [Aug 2006, p.104]

A messy, eccentric triumph. [Aug 2006, p.98]

The dignity and sharp poetic instincts on American V are all classic Cash. [Aug 2006, p.89]

Better still [than 'Stepp Off']. [Sep 2006, p.98]

Lacking the wit and lyrical dexterity of a Jill Scott or the raw power of Angie Stone, the songs can feel airless and unengaged. [Sep 2006, p.98]

[An] underwhelming collection of moderately sweeping, mildly elegant arena pop. [Jun 2006, p.108]

There's just enough twisted wit among the non sequiturs to redeem this controversial release. [Oct 2006, p.100]

What makes this more than a self-indulgence is the mellow melancholy he brings. [Oct 2006, p.103]

Its sound remains as confrontational and as provocative as its content. [Aug 2006, p.103]

While it might've been more digestible as a single CD, Black strives for a wide scope that makes the album's elegant songcraft, musical telepathy and poetic unpredictability all the more satisfying. [Aug 2006, p.104]

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

Their new direction sounds suspiciously like the old one. [Jul 2006, p.100]

It might have been captured anytime in the past four decades. [Jul 2006, p.114]

A hazy treat. [Oct 2006, p.103]

Highly agreeable in small doses. [Jul 2006, p.104]

You're left with the uncomfortable sensation of having walked in on six serious young men, lost in their own indie-rock majesty. [Jun 2006, p.110]

A pretty disappointing work of rock ordinaire. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Last Days Of Wonder is rich in history and nature imagery, yet the couple are equally obsessed with modern life. [Jul 2006, p.101]

The Sun Awakens isn't wildly different (from its predecessor)--though it introduces tripped-out electric guitars to Chasny's homespun palette. [Jul 2006, p.102]

There's surely never beena Sonic Youth album so unself-conscious. [Jul 2006, p.98]

Spektor has lept from black and white into joyous colour. [Aug 2006, p.88]

Proves again what an unnerving space the interior of his head must be. [Aug 2006, p.104]

Quite stunning. [Jun 2006, p.112]