A fabulous record, a baffling, joyful, touching, frustrating, silly, totally seductive album that you can lose yourself in for an hour, a day, a week. [Aug 2003, p.92]

There is a remarkable consistency about Smile's complex tapestry of delights. [Oct 2004, p.98]

If only all pop music could be this smart and soulful. [Dec 2006, p.106]

An extraordinary record... It's not, nor is it intended to be, easy listening. [Sep 2004, p.94]

Protest music that doesn't protest too much -- a music with such a joy and wit to its outrage that it acquires a universality beyond its subject matter. [Nov 2001, p.98]

Ultimately The Sea And Cake are just making timeless, faultless pop music.

A fantastic consolidation of everything good about LCD. [Apr 2007, p.108]

Fantastic! [Aug 2002, p.112]

It's exhilarating stuff, the kind of record that sets new parameters as to what is possible from a punk rock'n'roll band in the 21st century. [Oct 2004, p.106]

Frankly, you could get drunk just on the minutiae here. [Feb 2005, p.92]

The result is their best and most thematically complete album since Achtung Baby. By turning towards their past, U2 have found their way back to the future. [Nov 2014, p.88]

An effervescent rush of melody, invention and magic. [Jan 2006, p.119]

The mind-boggling intricacies and moody, broody sound-sculpting on tracks like Pen Expers find Autechre zooming off, leaving their followers eating cosmic dust. [May 2001, p.110]

Their masterpiece--the re-interpretation of Western rock history as some consenual power-prog dream narrative where Led Zeppelin and Soft Machine are more important than The Beatles. [May 2004, p.105]

Her songs, paradoxically both epic and intimate, shimmer and pulsate as their kaleidoscopic images and mysterious characters drift in and out of focus.

The most fully realised Lambchop record, the most perfect blend yet of their alt country roots and their obsession with soul.

Damon and Naomi haven't so much altered what they do as augmented it, often beautifully. The results are occasionally breathtaking.... A rare and graceful record. (Oct 2000, p.92)

Sits to the right of the likes of Philip Glass and Glenn Branca while outdoing the experimentalism of either Radiohead or Sigur Ros. [Jan 2003, p.98]

It is Nas's poetic erudition that makes it a stone cold classic. [Mar 2007, p.100]

Choosing favourites is almost futile with so much scintillating brilliance on offer.

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

Vaporous, layered, beautifully evocative, with moments of discordant madness. [Co-Album Of The Month [with 'Blood Money'], May 2002, p.94]

While it still whispers, this third endeavour works its way into your soul.

This record is full of surprises, roping in all manner of esoteria for a sweaty, beer-splattered and tune-drenched rock'n'roll party that rivals even Nevermind for balancing the pop sugar with the twisted underbelly and subtle smarts. [May 2003, p.90]

A brilliant second album unembarrassed about building on the strengths of the first, delivering 13 knockout tunes betraying not an ounce of flab or self-indulgence. [Nov 2005, p.94]

The result is 31 minutes of constantly surprising music, more absorbing and less conventional than anything on their self-titled 2005 debut. [Feb 2007, p.102]

Though the production isn't listener-friendly and the lyrics can be lovelorn in excelsis, Arthur's strong melodies and arresting imagery always win through.

Invigorating and intriguing, as hummable as it is inventive... it's also possibly the best thing Blur have done. [May 2003, p.88]