As the concerns that drive Lytle's lyrics lift out, the well-known tremulous quiver and fragile vocals become increasingly irreplaceable, the perfect medium for songs about articulating the intangible. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Their most forward-facing jazz album yet, packed with complex, multi-storied compositions you can still dance to. [Nov 2021, p.89]

A forward-looking treat. [Jul 2015, p.87]

The groove here is mostly grainy, organic, natural. [Nov 2025, p.83]

Bosnian Rainbows is no less powerful for its focus, segueing from fractured futuristic funk rock, to thorny melodic pop, to resonant power balladry with a fire and confidence confirming the Bosnian Rainbows as no mere "project," but indeed a whole new direction. [Jul 2013, p.86]

They may have just failed to make a Great Rock Album--though it has many moments of greatness--but they have unquestionably become a Great Rock Band. [Album of the Month, Nov 2002, p.90]

It gets on the dancefloor to create some bona fide hits of its own. [Aug 2013, p.89]

Garden Party is a golden-hour dream of a record, balmy keyboards and cicada-like percussion setting a perfect scene for the easy, receptive conversations between the guitars of Johnson and Barry Walker. [Jun 2023, p.87]

There’s only one moment when the production distracts from the players, a brief yet clunky guitar overdub on Arajghiyine. Listeners who love a wide soundstage, however, with well-separated guitars coming at you from all angles, will be in heaven. Thankfully, the guests shun the spotlight, leaving Ibrahim, Alhassane Ag Touhami and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni to concentrate on that elusive sound, the guitars cleaner and crisper than those that introduced Tinariwen to the world 20 years ago. [Jun 2023, p.82]

It's a familiar mix of delicate acoustic tracks and crunching country rock - but The 400 Unit has evolved via the deepening emotional heft of their leader's songwriting. [Jul 2023, p.86]

A bijou flashback to a place of quiet nirvana. [Feb 2006, p.107]

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

Their voices have contrasting timbres and they produce some gorgeous harmonies throughout. [Feb 2019, p.87]

If you love pop, you really have to hear it. [Mar 2015, p.92]

Its 17 yearning, numinous essays, with lyrics that are part road trip, part inward odyssey, inhabiting a liminal, sepia-tinted sound world. [Apr 2016, p.88]

This blending of expected and unexpected makes Soul Power something altogether special. [Feb 2015, p.92]

Un Dia is if anything, even more challenging, a set of songs that demand interpretation even as they beautifully defy it. [Nov 2008, p.106]

Emotional yet chilled, this is an album to see you through winter's darkest, coldest days. [Mar 2012, p.99]

Sweet, shimmering, Swedish alt-pop. [April 2012, p.91]

Naturally, every song is a fully formed gem underscoring Saint Etienne's unique way with setting reflective pop upon a dance floor chassis. [Jul 2017, p.86]

Even when he's so amiably out-of-focus, Vile's melodies remain vivid, his wanders never self-indulgent. [May 2013, p.86]

Sauna becomes a transitional journey of self-surrender, Elverum's soft-sung imagist perceptions slowly reaching toward a quiet, meditative transcendence. [May 2015, p.96]

Beam's evocation of elemental themes and dramas is too profound and affecting to deny. [Jan 2003, p.92]

Dangerous, magical, and gleefully noisy. [Dec 2003, p.113]

The grown-up Ash remain every bit as irresistible as the pop-punk pups. [Jul 2015, p.87]

It's the resulting acoustic simplicity of his songwriting that makes this collection such a treat. [Jul 2012, p.101]

Stunning. [Jan 2026, p.84]

The fervid prog punk of Flesh Fondue, the synth collision of 65 Million Years Ago and the trippy Nets Of Space are further high-points on this constantly regenerating trip. [Nov 2019, p.94]