This record does not return [Ice Cube] to his early 1990s heyday, but proves he still has sufficient desire to make angry, focused music. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Vocally and melodically, Durant aims for nursery-rhyme simplicity, sometimes to her detriment. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Packed with fine folk-tinged numbers. [Jun 2006, p.102]

When Todd sings his own I Saw The Light he sounds more comfortable than when negotiating The Cars' blustering powerpop. [Jun 2006, p.111]

Only the faithful need apply. [Jul 2006, p.101]

A record that makes the tortured beauty of Tilt appear like a mildly resigned shrug. [Jun 2006, p.102]

It's another good one. [Jul 2006, p.100]

Equal parts bludgeoning Art Brut and soaring pop grace. [Aug 2006, p.94]

For all the frenetic energy, lush orchestration and earnest vocals, however, It's Never Been Like That has the feel of the work of a hollow band. [Jun 2006, p.110]

Give it time and you'll be rewarded. [Oct 2006, p.102]

To Find Me Gone won't win any awards for wheel reinvention, but it's no sterile exercise in genre classicism. [Jul 2006, p.101]

An album that sounds effortless, but at times almost dissyingly diverse--imagine The White Album, but made by happy people. [May 2006, p.96]

The autobiographical lyrics on offer here make for intimate listening. [Jun 2006, p.108]

A bewitching record. [Aug 2006, p.96]

That he is reunited with producer Mitchell Froom only partly accounts for the likeness this album shares with his '90s work. [Jun 2006, p.111]

Every generation needs an Art Brut. [Jun 2005, p.100]

A loose lyrical thread (mental instability), an unrestrained creativity and an enviable sense of musical freedom are the only things holding it together. [Jun 2006, p.104]

And the songs? Urgent, instant, bolshie mostly, with a stronger individual melodic sense than, say, Greendale, but without the intense beauty of, say, Ohio. [Jul 2006, p.112]

[A] confident follow-up. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Its music holds a refreshingly naive (if ridiculous) charm. [Jun 2006, p.110]

Fambly Cat's highpoints... stand with their very best. [Jun 2006, p.102]

One off-putting aspect: a vague sense of cocky over-cleverness. [Jun 2006, p.108]

A record sensational only in the best ways. [Jun 2006, p.103]

It's the sound of a band on a roll. [Jun 2006, p.110]

Though couched in arrangements that sometimes camouflage their immediacy, the tunes are dependably strong. [Jul 2006, p.100]

Eyes Open hardly furthers Snow Patrol's rote one guitar attack, and repetition exposes Lightbody's interpretations of love's little hiccups as a tiring experience. [Jun 2006, p.108]

Never less than inventive. [Jul 2006, p.110]

This one's got a whiff of the Stones' Black And Blue about it. [May 2006, p.98]

With no weak link, you can drop the needle anywhere. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Many are banal love songs, devoide of narrative impact, or even identity. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Pearl Jam sound reborn, vital. [Jul 2006, p.112]

Wolfmother have a canny knack for a tune. [Jun 2006, p.98]

Capture/Release's clanking guitars and shimmering melodies meld the abstract and the earthy with a Mark E Smithian panache. [Sep 2005, p.102]

There are some beautiful moments. [Apr 2006, p.94]

Although some of his lyrical tricks might sound a little familiar this time round, he remains one of Britain's great storytellers. [Jun 2006, p.104]

Many who don't like Springsteen may love this. Many who love Springsteen may hate this. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Smart, sensual, self-loving and self-critical, pissed-off and hilarious. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Belle Starr and... Red Staggerwing finds [Knopfler] reaching for a goodtime clambake feel that ends up sounding kinda grating and twee. [Jun 2006, p.98]

Business as usual. [May 2006, p.104]

It's in essence a wordless, monochrome Television. [May 2006, p.104]

When it comes to making smart, mischievous electronic merry, no one can touch him. [May 2006, p.105]

There's plenty of soul and swagger again here. [Apr 2006, p.94]

The disc as a whole is never quite as gripping as its conceptual predecessors. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Certainly the most accessible [album] of their career. [Jun 2006, p.99]

[An] intriguing debut. [Sep 2005, p.103]

Some of its finest moments are its most intimate and least arranged. [May 2006, p.99]

This is repeat-play head music that still manages to hotwire the heart. [May 2006, p.102]

Despite having some of Ritter's least introspective lyrics, there are some of his most emotionally affecting songs. [Apr 2006, p.98]

[It] was mind-bending in its day and remains so now. [May 2006, p.122]

Odd, enjoyable. [Jun 2006, p.103]

There's much to be enjoyed here, but The Concretes, like a packet of Fruit Pastels, are best appreciated in fairly small doses. [Apr 2006, p.108]

A record of jarring juxtapositions, a bunch of cool tunes that could[n't] care less about how they fit together. [Apr 2006, p.86]

As with everything Morrissey does, ROTT's resonance will elude those not hitherto fascinated by its master's voice. A shame, for in terms of pure musicality, ROTT is possibly his most ecumenical solo album, his most welcoming and loveable. [Apr 2006, p.89]

A third of these songs can rightly be claimed as classic Placebo pop. [Apr 2006, p.106]

While it's the Oldham-penned title track... which will rightly grab all the headlines, Staton's mastery of more traditional material is no less imposing. [Apr 2006, p.88]

It's a set packed with ideas and enthusiasm. [May 2006, p.105]

It's far from disappointing. [Apr 2006, p.106]

Delivers a top-grade high. [Jun 2006, p.104]

Sadly, if you possess any of Embrace's four other albums, you'll have heard it all before. [May 2006, p.98]

Guitars, sounding like synths, soar into the stratosphere, and intense crescendos linger over delicate, breathy passages. [Aug 2005, p.94]

Very focused and quietly anthemic. [Feb 2006, p.92]

A clumsily executed, ghoulishly self-regarding mess. [Mar 2006, p.94]

The trio's chanting, loops and metal-bashing framework is now fleshed out by some beautiful ambient-noise balladry. [Mar 2006, p.106]

It's remarkable how organic and right (as opposed to gimmicky) the church voices sound on these 14 melodic folk, spare soul and various-tempo blues songs. [Apr 2006, p.98]

[CD1's] uproar casts most of CD2's over-delicate maunderings in a wan light. [Apr 2006, p.102]

A more than enjoyable stopgap. [May 2006, p.104]

Josh conjures a light, affectless mood which quietly promises happiness without ever sliding into schmaltz. [May 2006, p.100]

A worthy, determined salvo. [Jul 2006, p.102]

It's difficult to judge on one listen. [May 2006, p.104]

A stripped-back stroll through the summer of the '80s. [Jun 2004, p.106]

The joy of Steely Dan's early albums was that their superior playing, production and craftsmanship was vibrantly energetic, spiced with rollercoaster twists and turns, and deeply sardonic lyrics... Fagen now lacks those vital extra elements, leaving just craftsmanship with no spark. [Apr 2006, p.104]

A steely-eyed desperation to succeed is transparent all through Hard-Fi's debut. [Aug 2005, p.112]

Like Weimar cabaret Gilbert & Sullivan. [Apr 2006, p.104]

It's all funny, sardonic, heartfelt and loveable. [Apr 2006, p.106]

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]

There is no great leap into the unknown here, but rather a fusion of the band's previous two records. [16 Jul 2005, p.50]

Formula, for sure, but it's the Buzzcocks' own: the original and best. [Apr 2006, p.88]

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

Their unique pop panache saves the proceedings from simple retread. [May 2006, p.102]

Compare this latest instalment of vivid, left-wing existentialist pop with past triumphs like Mars Audiac Quintet and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and it's every bit as good. [Apr 2006, p.102]

With its indelible songs and bug-eyed intensity, this album makes you wish that more bands could be so irreverent. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Delivers on the melodic promise of 2001's Rock Action, teetering between art-bruised fragility during its slower, gentler moments and flashes of stereo-buckling metal. [Mar 2006, p.93]

A gentle triumph. [Jan 2006, p.130]

Feels as old as a cracked-leather Bible that's lasted generations and witnessed many secrets. [Apr 2006, p.98]

For a studio album it sounds remarkably like a live one. [Mar 2006, p.90]

Mostly loose and warm more than heart-stopping. [Apr 2006, p.104]

His own three songs blend in nicely. [Apr 2006, p.90]

McBean remains a fascinating prospect. [Apr 2006, p.100]

The repetitive refrains and orchestral interventions of Lil' Beethoven are developed with the judicious use of rock guitar into something bigger, yet just as beguiling. [Feb 2006, p.90]

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

Expands Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's frighteningly austere template to an almost symphonic level of opulence. [Jul 2006, p.102]

Occasionally self-indulgence threatens, but no matter; there is an undeniable musical hunger and pioneering spirit at work here. [Apr 2006, p.101]

A mixture of old-school smarts and mellifluous modernism. [Apr 2006, p.103]

An exercise in monolithic heaviness. [May 2006, p.98]

A specialist release, perhaps, but one that is ambitious, accessible and beautifully played. [May 2006, p.112]

Shows just how focused their rock'n'roll attack has become. [May 2006, p.105]

There are a couple of songs hidden away in the backwaters of their patchy debut which hint at something much better. [Apr 2006, p.88]

Rocks and then rocks harder, launching wave after wave of vicious punk hooks. [Jul 2005, p.106]