Gibbons's wily blend of open-mindedness and roots-loyalty remains intact. [Nov 2015, p.86]

The quiet simplicity of In The Light, Long Way From Home or piano-led My Eyes suggests a delicacy within the songwriting pair of Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz that will prove far more satisfying in the long run than any future Top 10 Success. [May 2016, p.88]

A hugely sensual work. [Apr 2006, p.88]

Inc. have taken pop-R'n'B out of the cynical genre tourism and into somewhere far more interesting. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Its highlights peaking above those of its predecessor even if the quality of the often plasticky beats means it's a little more uneven. [Nov 2008, p.108]

A dauntless spirit permeates; and while there's only fleeting evidence of Berman's later literary wit, or Makmus' skewed rock swagger... [several songs] hint at the riches to come. [Jul 2012, p.101]

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

It's only the too-glib wordplay that thwarts a more whole hearted endorsement. [Nov 2009, p.94]

NehruvianDoom might be slight, but it deftly whets the appetite for more. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Marvellous. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Even when further adrift from the lost funk sampledelia that made his name, Shadow's production brilliance shines through. [Dec 2023, p.90]

If The Way's latter stages descend into lumpy Who-y rawk, the earlier auditory apparition of Buzzcocks in tuneful excelsis will always be welcome. [Dec 2014, p.89]

But whereas their 2004 debut EP Headgit was intriguing if slightly stiff, they have developed into a propulsive unit with good tunes and a panoramic, near-psychedelic guitar sound. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

A few tracks sound blunt and under-realised, but mostly this is the sound of a champion artist getting good again. [Mar 2002, p.116]

It's frustrating to hear them bringing so much to material that doesn't quite coalesce, it's something like listening to holograms of actual songs. [Jan 2020, p.85]

Perhaps inevitably, given the material's scattered provenance High Hopes lacks the cohesion, both thematic and sonic that characterised Magic and Wrecking Ball. [Feb 2014, p.86]

It peaks with the opulent nu-disco of Tempest. [May 2014, p.93]

Marrying the softest hushed-breath vocals with a lush musical sweep at once both intimate and panoramic, All Harm Ends Here captivates from the off. [Jan 2005, p.94]

The hazy white noise loops of 2008's Black Sea stripped out in favour of choral drones and soothing gamelan chimes, perfectly suited to the film's meditative, valedictory tone. [Sep 2012, p.95]

CocoRosie sound, blissfully, like no one else. [Sep 2005, p.102]

[The album boasts] more accomplished songwriting than some bands manage in a career. [Mar 2014, p.96]

The main deal here concerns a dozen new tracks, deliciously delivered in that soulful quaver of a voice. [Oct 2016, p.92]

An imposing, sometimes melodramatic affair. [Mar 2006, p.94]

Webb has an eclectic Thomas Dolby-style approach and he's not totally successful. ... But that doesn't matter because when he hits it, the song rises with glorious abandon. [Mar 2019, p.98]

The use of borowed items invites comparisons, not only with the originals but also with other versions of the same song. And there Moorer fails the test. [Apr 2008, p.102]

Hard Islands is evolution. But some will hanker for Fake's fluffier vintage. [Jun 2009, p.102]

Uneven but exceptionally inventive. [Sep 2005, p.92]

Trad-indie may be flailing but Barat's belief is persuasive. [Apr 2015, p.92]

Decamping to Mexico with a gang of musician friends and collaborating in songwriting as well as performance has made for Conor Oberst's most colourful, upbeat record so far. [Jun 2009, p.100]

Lamb offer the perfect antidote to all manner of vapid pop-cultural vomitus without sounding pretentious or preachy. [Dec 2003, p.118]

Not their masterpiece, but a sizeable effort nonetheless. [Apr 2006, p.100]

He hones in on what he does best, and improves it. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Graceful and witty with 'Old Wounds' and mordant and terse in the spiky 'St. Albans,' while the sublime 'Mimi' reveals a storyteller's eye for nuance and character. [May 2009, p.102]

Black's chops and tunes suggest he won't stay underground. [Aug 2009, p.99]

This debut feels more about high budget pop aspirations than the vintage rock'n'roll doo wop influences and 'soul' which Brown has been talking up in interviews. [Aug 2009, p.94]

In short, this is exceptionally good contemporary pop. [Jun 2009, p.109]

The themes are familiar, yet still captivating, as rock's most misanthropic man sings about a world of emotional retardation and alienation. [Dec 2009, p.111]

Lostprophets neuter any genuine bite their music may have had with slick, histrionic choruses that render them as impotent as the dozens of other MTV-worshiping derivatives. [Feb 2010, p. 92]

It's out with the neon-fugged, reverb-soaked beats of 2009's Seek Magic and in with straight-up, catchy tunes. [Aug. 2011, p. 100]

The album's varying emotions and mutations are part of its unexpected strength. [Nov 2011, p.102]

Ortega's voice cuts like cheesewire, every word kicking the beat and the story both. [Oct 2011, p. 100]

It can perfectly capture the film's conflicted moods of sadness and euphoria, but just as easily turn cloying and sickly. [Jun 2012, p.87]

There's no question that it's his most appealing work for ages, but still one wishes that the chilly spark on title track and Hey Little Bruiser could have been sustained throughout. [Mar 2013, p.94]

The songs inside are equally well groomed, yet it is a shame that the singer--not generally a man to take the easiest path--hasn't frayed their edges a little more. [Dec 2013, p.85]

None The Wiser is as poppy a set as they have made to date. [Feb 2014, p.94]

Live Rain is a concert album like they used to be: prime Howlin Rain, only longer, louder and more full-blooded. [Jun 2014, p.92]

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

We get tracks like Old De Spain and Driving After You, bare-bones blues whose satisfying menace echoes To Bring You My Love. In between, we're back to hillbilly hoots, jigs and Corrs-style ballads. [Apr 2015, p.96]

Rooted in dubby pop and embellished with punchy horns, it captures the Birmingham group's maiden rebel sound. [Oct 2016, p.98]

The Pace of The Passing is, ultimately, oddly inscrutable, a musical ghosting, seductive, meticulous textures elegant compensation for the lack of a strong centre. [Feb 2017, p.90]

Wonky fuzz-pop duo from Leeds weird out a little on follow-up to 2015's Ratworld. [May 2017, p.98]

It's pleasant enough, but suffers for not taking songs places they've never been. [May 2018, p.98]

Good use of pot-banging percussion and swanee whistle electronics. [Mar 2019, p.99]

Intended as a chilly-pastoral instrumental cycle for piano, three cellos and string quartet, but Los Angles sound designer Jennifer Pague pitched lyrics for four tracks and a more personal narrative took shape, evoking solitude and morbidity. [Jun 2020, p. 93]

Heartbreaker Please expresses its title in the most literal terms; it's broken and pleading. At the same time, the music provides a through-line to the 43-year-old's singer's past, striking his usual balance between Buddy Holly simplicity and Roy Orbison sweep, with a dash of Memphis horns tossed in. [Jun 2020, p.89]

Their naked intimacy can be hard to bear. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Many of these 12 songs, eight of them originals, tend towards the reflective. [Jan 2021, p.90]

Though the album's polished backdrops are a far cry from the raw Delta blues records that inspired Keb' Mo' at the dawn of his career, there's no doubting the authenticity of the deep feeling he [ours into his vocal performances. [Feb 2022, p.89]

There's not much here to rival very top Tull but then nothing that sullies the venerable brand either. [Feb 2022, p.83]

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

Holds together as a coherent statement, offering - like its predecessor, 2015's Right On! - a more modest, bare-bones vision of the spectral, goth-adjacent dark pop of her day job. [Jun 2022, p.86]

The band retreated into the more self-contained approach which has spawned My other People. [Jul 2022, p.92]

The spartan structure makes for an intimate if one-paced experience and Potter's singing us more spoken in Marianne Faithfull style, with a hint of Weimar, but she's a beguiling storyteller. [Sep 2023, p.83]

Dad is no longer the singer he was, which of course makes Cat Stevens’ title track all the more poignant. .... Junior does most of the heavy vocal lifting and it is he, you suspect, who suggested Ph.D.’s I Won’t Let You Down and Eurythmics’ Here Comes The Rain Again, both of which turn out to be highlights. [Jan 2025, p.82]

Although there are lengthy passes of mellifluous flute playing, the largely instrumental composition is lacking in focus. But there is much to enjoy ere in the more concise songs. [May 2025, p.92]

As always, with such projects, Goddess flies or falls on what these collaborators bring to the table, but the material here is as strong as it is varied. [Jul 2025, p.84]

Overall, it’s a robust, if somewhat exhausting, showing.

For Radio Wars, producer Dan Grech-Marguerat has opened out their sound, but the atmosphere of intrigue remains. [Apr 2009, p.98]

A warm twangy sound, evocative of Southern, sun-paralysed afternoons. [Dec 2011, p. 100]

The rolling melodies, stately pace and closed-miked, out of phase vocals result in an off-kilter whole, tempered by contributions from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. [July 2008, p.111]

There's a renewed vigour to its frugging mix of vintage synths, barking-dog bass stabs and jagged electric guitars. [Jun 2014, p.94]

A delicate affair sometimes too wistful for its own good, even with the added colour of Dede Sampaio's bird sounds, Extended Vacation is a complex exercise in delicate melodies, field recordings and repetition. [Jan 2010, p. 100]

Structurally, melodically and harmonically some of the material is formulaic but the sublime quality of Stone's vocals - especially on shimmering ballads such as Maybe and Tell Me - save the day. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

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

This successor has some Morricone moments, but is comparatively wan and blandly moderne. [Jun 2015, p.96]

It's a promising - if a little lackadaisical - debut. [Dec. 2011 p. 97]

Guaranteed to make fans of the underground feel queasy. [Dec 2013, p.92]

There are moments when Craft's melodies don't punch quite so hard as his striking, road-less0trodden imagery. [Mar 2018, p.90]

American Classic really shines when the velveteen smoothness takes a backseat to that voice. [Sep 2009, p.90]

You come away from Hamburg Demonstrations only further assured of the breadth and indestructibility of Doherty's talent. [Jan 2017, p.95]

Clocking in at under half-an-hour, the album proves a short, sweet delight. [Sep 2010, p.92]

The album's no fence-sitter, it hits hard almost for the duration. [Feb 2015, p.90]

[Audioslave] display[s] a welcome lightness of touch. [Jul 2005, p.96]

Crushing riffs and ancestral memories of hardcore. [Aug 2015, p.98]

For Gahan, Angels & Ghosts is another opportunity to repeat his therapeutic cycle of guilt-shedding and redemption. [Dec 2015, p.88]

The record's familarity is nourishing rather than revelatory. [Jun 2009, p.99]

US party band !!!'s fourth is a holiday record, full of movement and heat and things that feel tired and cheesy at home, but are good, sleazy fun when you're away. [Sep 2010, p.98]

Lyrically, he may occassionally jar but it's hard not to be uplifted when he lets rip on the opener 'Setting Forth' or when he and Sleather-Kinney's Corin Tucker chime on 'Hard Sun.' [Dec 2007, p.100]

It's quite a departure from their trademark psychedelia. [Apr 2015, p.98]

An album to make you happy feeling sad, Scratch My Back gets better with each play; it might just turn out to be the best surprise present of the year. [Mar 2010, p.88]

Deez is revealed as a one-trick pony in the nine variants that follow. [Jun 2010, p.102]

Starts strong and finishes weak, but it's forgivable considering the gems contained in this 12-song set. [May 2004, p.97]

The tunes dry up alarmingly. [Jun 2007, p.108]

[The album] is diverse in the songs' styles and themes. [Oct 2012, p.96]

Heading South On The Great North Road drags, and Pretty Young Soldier, a tale of gender confusion in the military, is slightly laboured. However, most of 57th and 9th has a youthful energy suggesting that Sting hasn't faded yet. [Dec 2016, p.90]

The results are too eccentric and sprightly to squash the music's potential. [Oct 2014, p.89]

Those fans who jumped on with 1994's breakthrough album Dookie should rejoice: your favourite slacker-punks are, briefly, back. [Oct 2012, p.82]

Nothing here is ever structurally predictable, nor is it all cacophonous. [Mar 2014, p.98]