On In Circles, with its plangent, Yan Tiersen-style piano, something wonderful happens--a feeling of limitlessness opening up. [Jun 2015, p.89]

Listener as shrink? A bit, but you'll be happy to attend E's chaise longue. [Mar 2013, p.86]

The tunes recall artworks born of constraint and a strictly limited palette, a very specific kind of less equalling more. [Aug 2023, p.80]

The best tracks see the pair sparring over hymnal slow-burners that feature contributions from Neil Young, Brian Wilson, and Booker T. [Dec 2010, p.108]

The simultaneous warm/cold currents, recalling Broadcast, are reflected in Ramani's word. [Jul 2021, p.84]

Occasionally it's dull - but the mood's upbeat where it once was ominous. [Apr 2023, p.83]

With O’Brien running the gamut from one-night-stand shelf lurker (No One To Blame) and post-coital dewy (Dawning On Me) to resentful (Hot Scary Summer) and widowed (Darling Arithmetic). It’s a risky exercise but O’Brien pulls it off thanks to his trademark musical economy.

Restrained but emotionally compelling songs. [Sep 2014, p.93]

This album was submitted to Radio 1 in lieu of a mix, and in many ways it works better when considered on those terms. Because lots of the tracks have a similar vibe they could blend in perfectly well with each other, and it’s a shame that they don’t overlap at any point as this could have improved the overall experience. However, the album is still immensely enjoyable and generously rewards repeat listens.

Local Valley has no lows, nor any thrilling highs, but it's an even, easy pleasure from start to finish. [Oct 2021, p.91]

Unfolds like a hand-stitched musical patchwork quilt, gently educating its listeners in the great American songster tradition. [Apr 2003, p.114]

Universal Truths is not as raw overall as GBV's earliest efforts, but it seems much closer to their wonderfully chaotic live sound than the last couple of records have. [July 2002, p.104]

When I Was Cruel is bursting with bile and romance, tricky lyrics and tantalising tunes, and finds him practically trampolining with the thrill of messing about with sounds. [May 2002, p.108]

A distinctly melancholic affair. [Aug 2002, p.102]

These songs are consistently fantastic: from Brand New’s harmony-laden prayer for rebirth, to The Letters, Etc’s wry, country-steeped moment of clarity, whispering “how strange to be strangers after what we was”. [Sep 2024, p.89]

Strangelet's not so much odd as unusually good. [May 2007, p.102]

Reduced to a duo for Southern Records' live-in-the-studio Latitudes series in 2012, Tucker and O'Sullivan seasoning their cosmic mantras with such sweet tinctures as early Eno, This Heat and the acoustic mirror harmonies of early OMD. With Glynnaestra the potion is perfected. [Sep 2013, p.86]

Nothing prehistoric about the latest Buffalo Tom: this is the golden sound of a band in their element. [Apr 2018, p.90]

'Of Raymond' one exquisite lick of brass sends out enough light to illuminate the whole record. [Nov 2008, p.106]

Thrice Woven stirs in Norse and Gaelic legend into a bewitching barrage of arboreal-metal fury and black-winged flight, somewhere between early Darkthrone and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. [Oct 2017, p.93]

A record of jarring juxtapositions, a bunch of cool tunes that could[n't] care less about how they fit together. [Apr 2006, p.86]

The Brit School girl undergoes a successful soul-pop makeover. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

Lidell's bluesy wail goes head-to-head with a dense, churning groove in what can best be described as anti-R&B. [June 2010, p. 97]

Troubadour delivers deeply rewarding pop from its stylistic risks eerily familiar at moments, but ever its own marvellous thing. [Oct 2013, p.96]

What she shows via sweetly understated arrangements, are beautifully simple love songs delivered with a summer-scented voice that echoes Karen Carpenter one minute, Linda Ronstadt or Peggy Lee the next. [Aug 2008, p.102]

Dead Man's Bones turns out to be a decidedly beautiful thing. [Nov 2009, p.93]

Ultimately, you suspect that their natural habitat are shoegazey guitarscapes like Everyone I Ever Met and Forever The Bridge, which marry controlled noise, atmospheric arrangements and subtly insidious melodies. Either way, it works. [Feb 2011, p.104]

A masterfully subtle follow-up to 2018's Down The Road Wherever. [May 2024, p.85]