She can carry a tune, sure, but as far as expressing emotion goes, she's relentlessly, huskily one-note. [Oct 2004, p.112]

The overall feeling, despite all the musical mix'n'matching is of a traditional record: a rootsy return, rather than a copy of a certain Canadian seven-piece art-rock racket. [Jul 2009, p.105]

While Desert Skies' fusion of '60s country-rock with '90s underground dynamics doesn't move ass deeply as 2001's sublime Once We Were Trees, its peaks prove Beachwood Sparks' early days are worth investigating. [Jan 2014, p.103]

Motorik-like melodies now overwhelm the miasmic shoegazey tropes. [Feb 2013, p.91]

If previous Body Count efforts wobbled close to self-parody, Bloodlust nail-guns the impending doom of post-truth Trump America with incision. [May 2017, p.92]

Warm and hazy liek a day spent in teh summer sun, The Illustrated Garden is a sumptuous honey-hued helping of soft-souled pop, unhurried Americana and the occasional spry rush of pop. [June 2010, p. 99]

A crop of high quality songs and instrumentals played with dazzling finger-picking. [Mar 2017, p.90]

These 10 tracks positively bristle with feral, street fighter 'tude. [May 2003, p.97]

This is Billy Bragg as known and loved by many. The difference comes from the never more buoyant Blokes. [Mar 2002, p.114]

Brighton trio take a walk on the dark side. [Feb. 2011, p. 104]

Pulsing with youthful rebellion, PV sound wildly bacchanalian. [Jun 2015, p.96]

It's still a safe record, however, neither spasm of petulant experimentation hell-bent on commercial suicide, nor return to the good old days beloved by original fans but viewed warily by the new. [Nov. 2010, p. 94]

She gets into her stride with French electronic maestro Martin Solveig. [May 2012, p.84]

The Stills still aren't sure of their true identity, but at least those Interpol comparisons are way behind them. [Jan 2008, p.101

Hearing Mahal mimic African Blues players is usually fun, but 'Zanzibar' is underwhelming. But when Ben Harper turns his guitar up, things get interesting. [Nov 2008, p.116]

Lyricwise everything is simple, ready for sing-along consumption and sometimes you can almost visualise that bouncing ball heading a long the bottom of some YouTube screen. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

With his chosen genre being synonymous with timeless, classic pop, these songs need to be unforgettable to really stand out. Instead they're merely good. [Jul 2013, p.88]

Some may fine the ambient, tree-hugging Willow (Interlude) hard to stomach, however, and the lyrical flair that can elevate a debut album is sometimes lacking. [Apr 2014, p.91]

Slo Light's sky-high production values come at the expense of soul. [Apr 2014, p.96]

Daft, overblown and sometimes unintentionally hilarious. [Nov 2014, p.90]

Overall, Beck's playing is by turns exquisitely dainty and jaw-droppingly unhinged. [Jul 2015, p.86]

With some lyrics on the utilitarian side of blunt, it lack the younger Jobson's poetic delusions, but and elegiac title track, shimmering Refugee and Kings Of The New World Order's halcyon riffola are all powerful statements worthy of the Skids legend. [Feb 2018, p.96]

Blend anarcho-punk speed rush with the paranoid crash of industrial rock--ticking programmed drums, frantic guitars, creepy crawl vocals. [Feb 2019, p.93]

Results range from the radio-friendly but obvious to the obscure but not a word out of place. [Oct 2021, p.96]

The emotional honesty and lack of bravado suits him. [Nov 2021, p.87]

Freak Out City owes little to Flight Of The Conchords, but much to '70s US songwriters with a kitchen-sink production. [Oct 2025, p.89]

Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson's endless calls for us to party hearty sound like nothing less than Shampoo's sozzled grans on a hen night, Fred Schneider's ironic lounge lizard is just creepy, and the same old tuned guitars spar against the same old Barbarella beats. [Apr 2008, p.102]

Now, by trying something a little different, he's mustered a late-career triumph. [May 2010, p. 92]

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

Enjoyable, but the signposting towards "the good bits" can be a tad too obvious. [Jun 2013, p.86]

Martey is a definite improvement. [Jun 2005, p.106]

Reality Killed The Video Star - produced, as the title suggests, by Trevor Horn - offers more than a glimmer of hope. [Dec 2009, p. 94]

He and his bandmates have grasped the flaming torch of '70s hard-rock pomp - but how to make it their own? [May 2021, p.82]

A solid if not spectacular, step forward for a band unfathomably more popular in the Uk than their homeland. [Jul 2010, p.92]

¿Cómo Te Llama? is not a bad record, just so unrelentingly average that you wonder how in this age of music biz recession, it could be worth anyone's 14.99. [Aug 2008, p.112]

There are plenty of twisty turns, and more than a dollop of cynicism and cheek, to ensure that this latest comeback earns its rightful place in the CVB canon. [Apr 2013, p.90]

Paper Gods feels like a Duran Duran-shaped helium balloon, impressive, shiny, but oddly empty inside. [Oct 2015, p.96]

If the spirit of punk and the brawn of US hardcore is to be found anywhere today then it is in this, the third dazzling full-length album by The Bronx. [Jan 2008, p.110]

Black Rainbows is a pretty good dress rehearsal. [Oct 2011, p.97]

Portamento does not convince. [Oct 2011, p.105]

On "It's A Party" and on the album's title track they just about manage to nail the right combination of Black Crowes-ish bluesy swagger and no-brainer air-punching party anthems. The fact that such a combination has been done to death--and more memorably, and many years ago--loses Buckcherry points. [Sep 2010, p.106]

Hazy, heart-broken boy/girl indie-rock reveries.[Dec. 2011 pg. 96]

Overall, Preacher's Sigh & Potion ... has a sketchy feel that will likely only appeal to those keen to hear every stage of Dear's musical development. [Aug 2021, p.95]

Strip away the wearying kung-fu skits and there'a s hard-boiled 12-tracker at The Saga Continues' core. [Dec 2017, p.90]

This collection does little to enhance their hard-won reputation as one of modern rock's most compelling live draws. [May 2011, p.105]

Part II sprawls across paranoid Massive Attack-style locked grooves (Nothing To Give), ethereal folk-prog (Sun), gushing, orchestral breakbeat (Only You) and narco rock/electronica hybrid (Crucifixion/A Prophet). [May 2019, p.87]

This is fine singer-songwriter Americana, particularly good on the ballads. [May 2006, p.100]

This young, Reading rock foursome offer hyperventilated hooks and heart-soaring breakdowns. [Jul 2017, p.96]

We Are Scientists now sound less like a band you might have seen on a bill with Bloc Party. [Apr 2008, p.112]

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

'Beautiful Summer's' spectral chamber rock and a take on Fleetwood Mac's 'Over & Over' prove there's life in the franchise just yet. [Aug 2008, p.103]

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]

On first impression If By Yes sound floaty and melodic. Ideal for backdrop sounds at classy fashion outlets. Yet it;s more than that. [May 2011, p.109]

[Highly Suspect] may alarm those who recall grunge and nu metal. [Jan 2017, p.104]

This latest peculiar twist in the Bunnymen saga affirms the songs resilience, as well as the virtue of bravery. When the new versions mimic their predecessors, the project feels redundant. [Nov 2018, p.93]

The difference on this album is that their amps and tempos are turned up and their sound is pared down. [Jan 2003, p.102]

There's some terrific and accessible stuff here.... but the result is still an album that retreads old Placebo themes. [Apr 2003, p.110]

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

Not quite magic but an impressive attempt at experimental spell-weaving. [Mar 2004, p.101]

Their best in almost a decade. [Jun 2005, p.100]

A colourful, catchy and quietly impassioned record. [Oct 2016, p.90]

With a few exceptions, she just sounds bored. [Aug 2015, p.93]

The trio have bounced back from frontman Tim Rice-Oxley's surprise 2006 stinct in rehab by discovering the '80s. And not in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.108]

The Stockholm group return; their cement veneer hiding a riptide of emotions. [Dec. 2010, p. 100]

The Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee-produced follow-up to 2005's "Make Believe," finds Cuomo precariously balanced btween amused/amusing self-obsessed and de facto narcissism. [July 2008, p.110]

The results are as scattershot as the guest list. [Mar 2009, p.106]

All passable fare. [Jul 2009, p.92]

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

[Richard] Warren still makes great pop music--free of formula but full of character.

An awkward faceoff between Mathers the prankster and Mathers the cultural and would-be political agitator. [Jan 2005, p.96]

A few tracks disappoint; but there's lusty Fever Forever and graceful Beating On The Outside, which could be Roseanne cash. [Oct 2022, p.90]

Time Flies is a similarly lovely creation, but with this surface gloss also comes a lack of depth and a slight cheesiness to the whole affair. [Aug 2015, p.94]

This second album owes nothing to Kevin Shields and just about everything to the Smashing Pumpkins. [May 2009, p.69]

Cloaked in fuzzy melancholy, Fandango is one for dreamers. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Peaks early with the opening title track. [Nov 2016, p.96]

Colonia has nothing like its predecessor's consistency of tone, but Persson strikes gold with two siren calls worthy of the last, desperate, doom-laden Abba albums. [Mar 2009, p.109]

The story feels thrown together in two seconds, and much of it is irredeemably hokey.... In the end, despite its kooky charms, Greendale is just one more lazy Neil Young album. [Sep 2003, p.96]

Production detail aside, their is little tinkering with their formula. [Sep 2013, p.91]

The singles--'Fruit Machine,' 'Great DJ' amd the electro Krautrock of 'That's Not My Name'--are supported by the equally impressive 'Shut Up and Let Me Go' and closing title track, all bouncing beats, shiny samples and an invigorating knack for a pop tune. {june 2008, p.109]

Stunning in parts. [Nov 2013, p.94]

There's a telepathic harmony to their nuggety pop chug. [May 2016, p.86]

Rather than slicing the Fleet Foxes cucumber too thin, Poor Man adds a whole new flavour. [Sep 2012, p.86

Often, Sinead's words are infected with the pernicious post-therapy psychobabble that blights the contemporary female singer/songwriter...

The ultimate sugar hit: an occassional buzz but ultimately unsatisfying. [June 2008, p.103]

The sound Of Your Laughter and The Guessing Game are Get It On-style glitter boogies; by contrast Stay Now and All That Glitters reveal a more fragile side. [May 2015, p.92]

Redolent of soundtrack ace Danny Elfman, if Kubrick is a pitch for work in cinema it's a sound move. [Jan 2016, p.94]

Their narrative of cosmic self-realisation may be a touch familiar, but overall Electric Eye are mightily far-sighted. [Jan 2018, p.92]

Everything on Sinematic is huge, layered, expertly grooved and overladen with Robertson's parched voice hamming up lyrics which offset the standard portentousness of a rock great sermonising from the Mount with underspun True Crime yarns like I Hear You Paint House, Shanghai Blues and the Orson Wells tribute, The Shadow. [Oct 2019, p.84]

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

Adrian Younge's ambitious album splices all-analogue blaxploitation sounds with psychedelia. It's a volatile mix for songs. [Apr 2021, p.83]

Singer Ann's third solo LP is her most Heart-like, cruising between drivetime and blues-rock. [Jun 2022, p.89]

While there is an absorbing, hypnotic quality to droning songs like Twilight Zone, the exceptional thrash of We're Tired Of It offers proof that a few more gear changes would have been welcome. [Apr 2018, p.91]

It's breathless stuff, but can feel homogenous after a while. [Apr 2014, p.98]

As with its predecessor, 2006's Continuum, not a note, not a breadth, is wasted--and the playing, from a crack team including Pino Palladino, Steve Jordan and Ian McLagan, is unfussily superb throughout. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

It's less effective on the bland troubadour pop of Here Today and The Man, which samples Elton John's Your Song and is already a US Top 5 hit. [May 2014, p.92]

[Introducing] contains her best songs and most relaxed, assured performances. [May 2007, p.112]

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

This Giorgio Moroder-soundtracking-Black Mirror approach isn't always successful. ... The slick AOR of Something Human suggests their decision to move away from riff-rock isn't wholly misjudged. [Dec 2018, p.84]