Despite its bleak outlook, this is a record big on nagging choruses and arm-punching emo punk that--more often than not--aims for the mainstream artery. [Dec 2006, p.110]

Many of these sessions trump the original album versions. [Mar 2005, p.100]

Pissed Jeans' fist-pumping tunes, thrilling noise and acidic wit ensure their permanent bummer is always a good time. [Apr 2024, p.87]

A logical next step then, which stays the right side of MOR. [Mar 2013, p.96]

There is no great leap into the unknown here, but rather a fusion of the band's previous two records. [16 Jul 2005, p.50]

Secret Sisters ably court both the family market and those who haunt Past Times stores in search something new. [Mar 2011, p.108]

Knockin' Boots shuttles between classic disco, '80s electro soul, Gallic House tropes and stripped-down future funk with significant aplomb. [Aug 2015, p.88]

The pervading mood of Dedication is oppressive and borderline paranoid, but it makes for wonderfully innovative, state-of-the-art urban electronica. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

Spiral slowly reveals a core mood, triangulated between Talk Talk, Radiohead and Pink Floyd models of taut, blissful, trance-inducing rock, but often beat-driven. [Sep 2021, p.86]

Alternate/Endings is sprawling, cinematic and agenda setting. [Feb 2014, p.97]

It's Bramwell's knack for a kind of "surely this one must be a cover-version" classicism that impresses most. [Feb 2013, p.96]

A serious set that delivers on his promise. [Dec 2014, p.93]

Minimal, murky, magnificent. [Aug 2015, p.96]

For all her professed preference for slower, gothically-inclined blues, it's old-time rippers like Sometimes There's Blood or land speed banjo record attempt, Oh, Command Me Lord!, where she really excels--and, critically, excites.[Aug 2018, p.88]

Their traditional strengths remain, chiefly McVeigh's rich vocals and their knack of emphasising a simple hook with a cacophonous, multilayered production. [Mar 2019, p.98]

A superlative crooner with grit, soul and impeccable phrasing, James caresses and finesses every syllable of his highly literate, deeply personal songs. [Apr 2020, p.88]

A late-onset triumph. [Oct 2020, p.92]

Proceedings occasionally veer toward earnestness, but gorgeous textures of clarinets, guitars and synthesizers keep the project bracingly alive. [Dec 2020, p.82]

Barry also produces with an ear to the sonics of yesteryear. ... But some of the vocal sections aren't as strong. [Jun 2021, p.87]

Over time and repeated plays, Showtunes weaves its magic, maintaining its mysterious atmosphere throughout, along with a welcome sense of stillness amid life's ongoing dramas. [Jun 2021, p.81]

It's intimate but also voyeuristic. [Oct 2021, p.86]

He's not strayed too far from his usual template: beautifully crafted yet unashamedly earthly songs which soar and contemplate at just the right moment. [Nov 2022, p.89]

For all its filigree detail, Spring Eternal is a big philosophically questing record, a velvet glove hiding a death-like grip. [Mar 2024, p.90]

As well as less oft-aired selections from Stoogean days (I'm Sick Of You, a ferocious Death Trip), the Bowie era (Mass Production) and later solo outings (The Endless Sea, off '79's New Values), there's a trumpet-led singalong for The Passenger, and Loose rendered with a near-big band swing - weird but actually rather wonderful. [Feb 2025, p.85]

Not a thrill a minute, but a steady antidote to chaos. [Sep 2025, p.83]

The Brooklyn foursome's debut is the work of some feverishly creative minds, as it effortlessly genre-hops between dusty Americana, Breeders-style angular art-pop and off-kilter folk. [Jun 2016, p.93]

Musicians writing and singing about being in the seventies is a rare thing in the Peter Pan world of rock--but The Who do it exceptionally well. [Dec 2019, p.92]

Featuring a previously recorded vocal by Davy Jones, who died in 2012, it’s a match for any of their ’60s hit 45s. It also features all four Monkees, the only song of the 13 here to do so. The remainder, penned by the group, musician fans and long time cohorts, feature Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith and for the most part recapture the enchantment of the original group.