The Afro-ising influence of Vampire Weekend on Precisely The Dodos' musical sector leaves them sounding emblematic only of early-Noughties blowsiness--as passe as their name suggests. [Oct 2009, p.108]

This feels like production line Muse: big riffs, bass squelches, conspiratorial dialogue, but few new ideas. [Aug 2015, p.88]

As unique and poignant as a family bible. [Nov 2005, p.104]

The failing voice at its core would clearly be happier in the privacy of lo-fi. [Mar 2003, p.106]

Without ostentation, The Ragpicker's Dream draws his major sources together: R&B, country, North-East folk. [Oct 2002, p.106]

You try to remember a single melody or hook from the record and you're found wanting. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Carolina's use of a talk box a la Frampton stuck in this listener's craw, but elsewhere the urgency and uncensored filth of Slash's playing is a joy. [Jul 2012, p.82]

Living Fields is no instant hit, but the twilight world you're eventually drawn into is difficult to leave. [May 2015, p.98]

A diverse collective taking turns at the canon. [Jun 2017, p.94]

It's a highly-strung record--tiringly so sometimes--but The Dears walk its emotional tightrope with an acrobat's grace. [Aug 2017, p.93]

Get Hurt proves the balance between The Gaslight Anthem's Springsteenesque heroism and their punk fire is key to keeping them from tumbling into the trite. [Sep 2014, p.88]

When the title track and Handshake attempt stylistic detours they are swiftly re-routed with a familiar chorus or chord progression, symbolising the "play it safe" mentality of the whole album. [Oct 2012, p.90]

The album works because McCartney treats the material with respect, exuding charm by the bucket-load. [Mar 2012, p.94]

The hobnailed thud and electronic clatter of Youth and Love riot force the seriousness but when they hit their exuberant stride, they pull on legwarmers and dance the night and cold away. [Dec 2012, p.88]

The former Vincent Frank has filled his debut with a hard-to-stomach collection of shiny pop tunes floating between Alphabeat's sing-along-a-showtunes and Mika's falsetto muggging. [Aug 2009, p.96]

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

His solo debut is, however, a robust proposition, not as his former band but certainly not the alt country indulgence implied by label and name. [Apr 2009, p.103]

It's at once plush and anodyne, both insatiable and confined. [Dec 2008, p.100]

A mixed bag. [Apr 2013, p.96]

It's to their credit, though, that this album's uncertain focus works with them, thickening the plot, rather than losing it. [Apr 2018, p.89]

Folds' leaps from satire to farce to domestic drama are part brilliant, part alarming, yet he still seems to wear wit and the manic energy of his voice as a carapace to conceal his soul. [Dec 2008, p.102]

Walls is not a lovable album but if Kings Of Leon would rather be taken seriously these days, instead of simply being adored, they have put down a solid foundation. [Dec 2016, p.89]

Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser's third album again fails to provide a soft pop landing. [Oct 2013, p.96]

A varied, febrile affair more often than not in pursuit of the lunatic. [Feb 2004, p.93]

Radio Retaliation is another example of the Corporation's remarkable consistency. [Dec 2008, p.104]

The result is Placebo's best album since 1998's magisterial "Without You I'm Nothing." [Jul 2009, p.97]

Actors marry folk tales and socio-political polemic to pulsing, woozy-synth soundscapes. [Nov 2012, p.96]

This enjoyable act of historical revisionism highlights the still definitive source material. [Nov 2012, p.100]

The results are at first comically unexpected, then intriguing. [Mar 2015, p.94]

The pleasantly chaotic backdrop is heavy on analogue synths and vintage space echo, and though far from the reggae idiom, Perry is at home warbling his curses and magic spells in multi-tracked triplicate. [Nov 2016, p.93]

French Touch unfolds as a warm, stylish tribute to great songs from one of continental Europe's most affecting voices. [Nov 2017, p.98]

He's less scattergun and easier to pin down. More crucially, Graham's songwriting has blossomed. [Jun 2021, p.85]

The album takes on an airbrushed blandness that drowns out both the odd outbreak of compositional quality and the promise of adventure offered by the guests. [Dec 2001, p.104]

For all its country rockin' appeal, Monsoon lacks the emotional charge of its predecessor. [Feb 2004, p.98]

His pieces are mostly drawn from moderns such as Cage, Gorecki, Barber, Satie and Ravel, and work best when mined for their luxuriant melancholy...

Vision Fortune and then Spectres themselves serve up two slices of white noise, and even the hardiest listener may question the necessity of any further submissions. More substantial things arrive further on. [Jul 2016, p.93]

His socially conscious lyrics can be clunky but never overwhelm the light, acoustic setting. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Everywhere, tremolo guitars twang, and slow, compressed drums beat out the rhythm of disquietude. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

Reaching a jubilant, freak-flag waving climax with the garage sloppiness of Where We Go, what's left is a quieter set of herbal spirituals that continue to link strands of country, folk and blues with the group's own beautifully wayward sense of direction. [Jul 2011, p.105]

Tune out the background media noise and immerse yourself. [Mar 2012, p.94]

Ersatz G.B. offers no easy explanations, but instead twists and excites the listener's brain with unexpected phantom bewilderments. [Dec 2011, p.100]

There's some startling songwriting on Let's Bottle Bohemia. [Oct 2004, p.104]

From the Top is a mix of folk and rock and Americana, but James bends them all into new and daring shapes. [Jan 2013, p.95]

If you're mad enough to be planning a Breaking Bad-themed barbecue you've just found the perfect soundtrack. [Sep 2016, p.90]

Blends Shimmery psych guitar, spacey grooves and indie-falsetto vocals. [Sep 2018, p.96]

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

Suffers from a paucity of premium standalone songs.... way too relentlessly generic. [Mar 2004, p.101]

Their star power indeed might be largely borrowed, but they wear it well. [Nov 2014, p.98]

Nothing here feels contrived. Instead we witness a rare thing: an inherently youthful band gracefully making good into their thirties. [Apr 2011, p.106]

The scale of the latter achievements suggest Kasabian and 48:13 will get by nicely with their existing fanbase. Whether this means many new converts is less certain. [Jul 2014, p.87]

Toriphiles will be delighted to find a generous 76 minutes of songstuff here but the less committed might never get past the veritable encyclopedia of tortured vocal affections that blight the stodgy opening track. [Jun 2009, p.102]

London's Yuck offer scrubbed-up take on the FX-drenched guitar pop of Pavement or MBV. [Apr 2016, p.96]

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

This 17-track colossus is eclectic, ambitious ad expertly executed. [Nov 2011, p.103]

The third choice record from McIntyre in as many years. [Aug 2004, p.99]

He's at his best when making compulsive, synthetic house anthems. [Mar 2006, p.106]

The thread that binds is Tyler's enduringly impressive voice. [Sep 2016, p.95]

The overhaul, surely, needed to be much more far-reaching. [Mar 2014, p.88]

In this 30-track collection marks Snow Patrol as a band backed with some serious songwriting heft.

Where her self-titled debut was intense and socially conscious, things are groovier now. [May 2011, p.107]

Anyone turned off by conspiracy theories may shudder, but allow Brown his free-your-mind gnostic-in-designer-streetwear stance and entertainment wins out. [Mar 2019, p.88]

If you crave that ineffable something Abba achieved, then it's only glimpsed here. [Jun 2013, p.84]

A big, bold, brazen statement, epic in places, charmingly flawed in others. [Sep 2002, p.110]

This sounds like a decent Gang Star LP--no bad thing, but it lacks the spark of individuality. [May 2004, p.103]

Mostly it looks like there's a new kid in town. [Dec 2007, p.98]

Bare bones it may be, but it's still recognizably David Gray. [Sept. 2010, p. 102]

Warble Womb offers those addled young whipper-snappers a timely masterclass in how to keep the right balance between relentlessness and variation. [Nov 2013, p.86]

The Making Of is a decent debut. [Nov 2015, p.87]

(I)NC's pop-punky take on early Deep Purple-ish blues-rock is elegantly streamlined by Rubin's lucid production. [Sep 2004, p.104]

While the boisterousness that made 2006 single Chelsea Dagger so welcome on the terraces of Stamford Bridge is successfully repurposed on Baby Don't You Lie To Me! and Too Much Wine, and Thief motors like Lady Madonna on Stevie's Higher Ground, other fruits of this reunion with producer Tony Hoffer--see the mellotron-mangled Rosanna--soon sour. [Sep 2015, p.94]

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

More than just a decent nu-folk album, Babel is a great pop album. [Oct 2012, p.82]

What's lacking is the shock factor.... At its best, amid the oceanic dream-wave of melody and surreal verbiage that these reanimated Pixies still essay with style, Indie Cindy is worthy of full participation. [May 2014, p.90]

Trials & truths is a diffuse experience. [Feb 2017, p.94]

Illuminated, with its wistful wordless vocals, keening melody and swooping strings, is arguably a career peak. [Sep 2009, p.102]

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

This succeeds chiefly because its remixers take such drastic liberties with the source material. [Jan 2013, p.92]

Happiness Ltd is all about neat production, inventive time changes and romantically inclined witticisms. [Oct 2007, p.92]

From the get-go Freedom Of Speech takes no prisoners. [Mar 2012, p.93]

It's the lesser-spotted Mike D and Chan Marshall aka cat Power who snag this troublesomely titled fourth album's crowning moment. [Jul 2016, p.92]

The wit and intelligence rarely lets up. [May 2003, p.95]

One of the most bizarre covers albums ever. [Dec 2004, p.102]

And if nothing on Killing Puritans has quite the commercial potential of last year's You Don't Know Me (a UK Number 1), it does have the same cheekily opportunistic spirit, Van Helden's sticky fingers busily probing all kinds of forgotten pop cultural corners.

Heavy on reggae, with strong funk and grooves. [Aug 2015, p.98]

Paralytic Stalks is not an easy listen, but neither is it a good one. [Mar 2012, p.98]

It's early Erasure fans who seen likely to enjoy the '80s electro sheen of the all-action rhythmo-melodic hooks and subplots. [Nov 2011, p.100]

Nicks co-produces with Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. [July 2011, p. 102]

A sonic quantum leap. [Jul 2005, p.100]

Alas, when their feisty glam racket starts to repeat itself towards the end, the joke wears a little thin. [Nov 2005, p.112]

This may sound wilfully eclectic but actually hangs together, bound by May's showman-like vocals. [Mar 2009, p.109]

There's a moving intimacy and improvisational feel to the wistful, late night, piano songs. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Despite being accessible like an electricity pylon, this trio of art-punk hysterics are as righteous as they are ridiculous. [Jul 2003, p.108]

Despite some uneven quality control, here's proof that this veteran MC still has things to say. [Dec 2010, p.94]

So far they make phrases rather than lyrics and sounds rather than songs, but they have a nice semi-chaotic way about them. [Sep 2008, p.108]

This guileless, wistfully romantic harmony pop suits them much better. [Jul 2015, p.96]

It's all tawdrily familiar. [Oct 2009, p.102]

Kravitz's stylistic schizophrenia remains on Raise Vibration, whether in the early-80s electro-beats of Who Really Are The Monsters? or the What's Going On moves of It's enough. [Oct 2018, p.87]

Removed from the living artist, it may one day be hailed as a great album. [Apr 2020, p.88]