The going is initially uncertain, but by 'Turn It On,' space and size begin to shift and singer Alex Kapranos shimmers in and out of the mix. [Jul 2009, p.106]

He's still a remix away from getting played at Gatecrasher, but full marks for effort all the same. [Nov 2009, p.95]

Corgan's floatier tunes and chocolate-box lyrics actually suit this sound palette well, but, as so often in pop - and Corgan's - history, a 10-track single LP would've nailed it better. [Jan 2021, p.86]

Its utilitarian arrangements only highlight how difficult it is to create a worthy cover. [Aug 2015, p.94]

Sweet, but not quite satisfying. [Oct 2014, p.90]

A strand of misanthropy and musical bloody-mindedness makes for an uneven listen and feels like a band in transition. [Nov 2014, p.98]

Nine of its 10 songs are around the three-minute mark and as solid and straightahead as the tank behind whose wheel they might've been written. [May 2009, p.98]

Upbeat and jubilant... a showcase for Wyclef the songwriter. [Dec 2003, p.107]

Strikes a perfect balance. [Sep 2006, p.96]

He indulges in too many mudane romantic/spiritual invocations and vague geopolitical maunderings. [June 2008, p.112]

Six years on from his last, with a white beard grown, Browne delivers elegantly considered weight and truth. [Nov 2008, p.119]

The Rifles perservered, and if originality is not a strong point, their skill for crafting simple but immediate pop choruses makes uo foir it. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Like island life itself, it's quietly focused and won't be rushed. [Apr 2011, p.104]

This stuff is not only good, it's (mostly) weirdly good. [May 2011, p.106]

Fans will love the touching, piano-led title track, replete with the great man's Jack Russell terrier Gizmo barking at the end, while Stand Amazed finds Martyn at his rural front door, marveling at "the panoply of beauty" before him. [Jun 2011, p.103]

To some, Hurts lugubrious, gruff delivery might jar with the LP, but it's entirely intentional--they cast the beauty and simplicity of the melodies into even sharper relief. [Oct 2011, p.96]

Together they've grafted that rare commodity: Grown man dance music with dignity intact. [Nov 2011, p.103]

Pleasant and forgettable. [May 2012, p.84]

Throughout a refreshing spirit of old-school sonic exploration pervades. [Nov 2012, p.87]

He's strong instrumentally, but maudlin content like Separate Ways and One Thought holds him back. [Dec 2012, p.90]

Pleasant enough, but you may feel you've heard this conversation before. [Jun 2013, p.88]

Freeforms about football, his old tunes and beyond, to variably potent digi-dub backings. [Aug 2013, p.98]

Pretty but lightweight. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Edmunds has always delivered, whatever the age and circumstances. And this batch of originals and covers, recorded in full do-it-himself mode, doesn't change that. [Feb 2014, p.91]

There's still precious little here that's not been said before with more originality. [Oct 2014, p.93]

Three songs clearly outstrip the others. [Aug 2015, p.89]

Classic Quadrophenia, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and TV-friendly tenor Alfie Boa, works, but only sometimes. [Aug 2015, p.91]

This collection suffers slightly from inconsistency--possibly because it's cut from several different shows. [Jan 2016, p.90]

The trio's most accessible. song-based effort to date. Thankfully, it's not at the expense of the rattling rhythms and freeform stylings of previous work. [Dec 2016, p.93]

One listen, maybe two, will be enough for most. [Sep 2016, p.93]

Soft Error's background in film and TV composition is the foundation for the opulent, operatic electronica on Mechanism. [Feb 2017, p.95]

Only the tart Princely funk of Boyfriend lets light through lacquered layers of modern pop production. [Nov 2017, p.103]

Young's soundtrack to his partner's film is similarly random, but when it hits the right mark, it too dazzles. [Jun 2018, p.88]

Moon-June-balloon lyricism can let him down, but when he;s good (see Smiths-ish portrait song John) he's great. [Dec 2018, p.94]

All in all, Duck is the sound of a band trying way too hard. [Sep 2019, p94]

It all thumps along agreeably with a brio seldom found in rock today by artists a quarter of his age. [Dec 2019, p.92]

Move, a blistering collision of heavy rock and Latin pop. The remainder of the album ranges from percussive jazz-rock and bouncy Latin Techno to febrile thrash metal. [Dec 2021, p.87]

More coherent than some rejigged castoffs ought to be. [Oct 2022, p.84]

There are perky alt-pop nuggests aplenty here, so it's a shame the momentum can't be maintained. [Jun 2009, p.96]

Evokes a sense that this has all been done before, and better.

There hasn't been quite enough time yet for them to construct much of a unique sonic indentity. [Aug 2009, p.94]

Surgery won't catapult the group into the realm of all-time greats, but it's certainly a move in the right direction. [Sep 2005, p.92]

PlectrumElectrum, the band set, although rockier and fuller, is just as random [as Art Official Age]. [Nov 2014, p.90]

Sports is more circumspect and subtle. Yet when the hooks of White Pebbles, Bad Rockets or Syncing In slyly take hold, the effect is indelible. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Chic, soulful, but more boom and swoon than hooks. [Feb 2015, p.96]

A crash, bang, wallop delivery, plus an organic fuzz, like stubble against a microphone, colour 'Headshock' and 'Le Ruse,' but smart arrangements and Josh Grier's slackjawed, cryptic confessionals tap into something beyond blokey bluster. [June 2008, p.106]

Astonishingly, her own production makes much of this guff zing along with dirty guitars or big drum beats and improbably insinuating choruses. [Apr 2002, p.100]

An overreaching cathedral, designed by Spiritualized, Kris Kristoferson and John Barry, Human Conditions still somehow charms with its hungry troubadour's idealism. [Nov 2002, p.102]

The perfect vehicle for Eitzel's gorgeous, weary voice and wry, savage humour. [June 2002, p.106]

Hearing Aidan Moffat in such jocose mood on his first song-based record without Malcolm Middleton is quite the revelation. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Mercifully, the venerable Big Star franchise emerges pretty much unsullied. [Oct 2005, p.108]

The new dad has ditched the gap-year spirituality to reach for a more adult world where poverty, war and uncertainty must be confronted, and it's a world beyond his expressive abilities. [Mar 2008, p.102]

The tune count is mainly healthy, with the super-exuberance of Is This A Breakdown, Grapes Upon The Vine's echoes of 1983's Porcupine, and a second-half pursuit of the epic culminating in the soaring, redemptive New Horizons. [Jun 2014, p.88]

Equal parts tantalising, frustrating, and riveting. [Jan 2001, p.106]

Darkly neurotic, it captures the on-the-road loneliness and sense of dislocation perfectly. [Jun 2011, p.97]

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

You finish listening to 18 feeling as if you've heard a decaffeinated version of Play. [June 2002, p.98]

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]

There's the unmistakable whiff of eternal under-achievement that pervades cute but forgettable ditties like 'Share Of Men' and 'Heartbroke.' [Oct 2007, p.98]

Whatever the style, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone’s music is executed with wholehearted passion and technical precision.

There's a freshness uncommon to fortysomething men two decades into their career. [Oct 2004, p.110]

An album full of jukebox hits. [Mar 2007, p.98]

Not an easy listen, but a brave, bold debut. [Apr 2009, p.99]

It's all as subtle as a flurry of punches in the face, but utterly uplifting. [Dec 2016, p.92]

In merging the intimate with the majestic, The Kissaway Trail have achieved a rare, and subtle, balance. [Apr 2010, p.92]

While Wu's trademark kung-fu film samples can't help but sound dated some 18 years after their breathtaking debut similar charges crumble to dust against the renewed evangelism of Ghostface Killah. [Oct 2011, p.104]

It doesn't help that the album features a glut of dull mid-tempos. [Nov 2012, p.95]

Material which says something, but feels nothing real. [Nov 2004, p.95]

Unfashionable and intensely melodic. [June 2002, p.110]

Morcheeba's lightly shaken, hardly stirring sounds will doubtless satisfy fans, band and record company. [Aug 2002, p.104]

Polished mid-paced throbbers, alive with feedback, thumping drums and troubled lyrics. [Oct 2013, p.98]

The opening tunes are strong, but in the later half mannered singing and pretentiousness bring back memories of the Thompson Twins. [Mar 2009, p.110]

They lack a style or personality of their own. [Jul 2005, p.106]

Rather than sounding like an '80s soft-rock rehash, they have worked with up-to-the-minute beat merchants Timbaland and Nate 'Danja' Hills to create a dramtic, contemporary pop concoction. [Dec 2007, p.98]

It's confirmation that the old boy's still got a few tricks in him. [May 2015, p.90]

There's nothing here that elevates the Goodies above the level of the ordinary. [Aug 2004, p.96]

The orb's Dr. Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann conduct themselves as if overawed by their hero. They allow Perry to prattle away unchecked. [Sep 2012, p.88]

By track two... he has slipped back into the familiarity of sinuous guitar lines, fidgety beats and the cheesy language of international disco. [Jul 2005, p.110]

With six producers and 10 guest stars, Malice N Wonderland sees the ageing gangsta casting an eye over modern hip hop in all its forms, including Pronto's nod to the AutoTune phenomenon featuring the manipulated vocals of singing robot Soulja Boy. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

Laurie is best on standards such as St James Infirmary and Buddy Bolden's Blues, playing piano on them with strength and sensitivity. [Jun 2011, p.104]

The covers format doesn't facilitate too much untamed Scabies (sadly), but Brian himself poignantly appears on The Last Time. [Mar 2026, p.81]

Taken all together these songs pack a powerful punch and make for a much better record than we might have expected. [Dec 2002, p.108]

Mostly A New Tide is high on big tunes and low on character. [May 2009, p.108]

There's a pleasing, Bowie-ish swagger to Elfman's vocals and a steam-punk thrust to Big Mess's heavy, junkyard percussion, the album's caustic, chaotic arrangements utterly fearless throughout 18 rather exhausting songs. [Aug 2021, p.86]

Fate Of The faithful is ostensibly No Quarter, Meeting The Master is Thank You, and The Falling Sky cribs a Robert Plant-style harp solo so perfectly that GVF can likely taste his spit. Be in no doubt, however, that frontman Josh Kiszka's Olympian wail can part the waves of cynicism and make the scales fall from your eyes. [Sep 2023, p.88]

His bellowed cadences are as timeless and elemental as the blues. [Nov 2005, p.98]

These 15 songs justify their status as outtakes. [Sep 2012, p.96]

The air of gentle rustic drama is enhanced by discreet flourishes of trumpet, vibraphone, bowed banjo, amplified kalimba and quartz singing bowl. [Mar 2008, p.113]

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

Finally, Embrace deliver a poignant and prolonged rush of blood to the head. [Oct 2004, p.116]

Their raucous, raw live show transfers effortlessly to record, justifying all three of those exclamation marks. [Jun 2004, p.116]

The production... is appropriately lush and celebratory, brimming over with strings, synthesizers and layered, sensuous vocals. [July 2000, p.111]

It's testament to his long-time dedication to the drone dirge and dark pop sweetness of the VU, JAMC ect. that it all fits seamlessly. [Oct 2016, p.100]

Without Marshall, they're less overtly folk-based and on the stand-out Caroline, they're as rewarding as David Gray at his most up-tempo, while Madison Cunningham brings a feminine touch to Blood On The Page. [May 2025, p.87]

[Doesn't] always make satisfactory listening. [Dec 2005, p.104]

Not much subtlety, but if some of the lyrics and playing are sometimes tough and ready, righteous passion overrides it to carry the day. [Aug 2015, p.88]

[An] impressive return from the veteran doyens of acid jazz. [Jun 2013, p.95]

Though still in thrall to the synthetic '80s new wave ttemplate as perfected by Devo, Fasciination is nevertheless the sound of a band who've finally found the space to nail their own sound. [Nov 2008, p.119]