The album is diverse: lovers rock meets gospel hymnals and Parisian waltz-dirges. [Feb 2020, p.94]

Their penchant for bold riffs and big climaxes comes with little individual grandstanding. [Nov 2022, p.91]

Margo's deep, stentorian tones have remained almost unchanged since 1986's Whites Off Earth Now!! and Hell Is Real could have graced that LP. Even so, there's real evolution. [Jul 2023, p.84]

Don't head here for untrammelled novelty, but Idlewild is a record worthy of the name. [Nov 2025, p.89]

It's the quality of the material--not just the three vocal takes each by Jack White and Norah Jones, but also the supple and atmospheric instrumental interludes-- that elevates Rome beyond Pastiche and into the realm of cinematic enchantment. [May 2011, p.105]

Rocky bests every beat thrown at him. [Apr 2013, p.94]

It's a little too long to sustain its fetid boudoir ambience; but that aside, this remains a deep red velvet swoon of an album. [Jan 2003, p.93]

Aural absinthe. [Jul 2003, p.115]

The surface mayhem actually masks an admirable craft. [Aug 2004, p.96]

The recorded-live-by-candlelight performances documented herein aren't short on the kind of clamorous foreboding and twisted pop nous a fan of Disintegration or The Head On The Door might hope for. [Aug 2004, p.87]

They sound great on it. [Aug 2003, p.90]

Sometimes their brutish irreverence works.... But Audio Bullys' vignettes of suburban lad-life can't quite equal Mike Skinner's deft way with a lyric. [Jul 2003, p.106]

They've got groove, feeling, and they regurgitate these moods and riffs with the same gleeful spirit as did the people they're nicking 'em from. [Aug 2003, p.99]

Ratchets up the accessibility quotient considerably. [Nov 2004, p.102]

These tracks feel more like intimate conversations, with Allen's boundless curiosity shining through. [Jun 2021, p.82]

A "rumination on life and death," which suitably chimed with earth's current 'end times' vibe, from sorrow to rage, elevated by post-rock's most luminescent guitars. [Oct 2023, p.88]

Any suggestion of sameness is speedily erased by Alexandra Eastburn's arsenal of skewed electronic embellishments and the breathless exuberance the group bring to the party. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Garbage haven't released an album this immediate, melodically strong and thematically interesting since their self-titled 1995 debut. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Listeners long-attuned to Gordon's avant excursions will find much here that satisfies. [Oct 2013, p.94]

While Bo Ningen often sound like they're flailing with chaotic abandon, the might of tracks like DaDaDa proves they also respect tension and restraint. [Jun 2014, p.88]

Their best album in 30 years. [Dec 2014, p.92]

There are a lot of moments when - sleeves rolled up, top button undone - it sounds as if they're pouring out their hearts to the same bartender as The National. When they get the detailing right, though, it flies. [Jul 2020, p.78]

This lavish song cycle, embarcing intricate choral, chamber and post-rock passages, is the feted US/Australian ensemble's first non-instrumental album. [Jul 2010, p.95]

On tracks such as The Day That The Earth Stalled and The Resist Stance, frontman and sometimes professor palaeontology Greg Graffin's folkish lilt and incisive anti-capitalist lyrics ensure Bad Religion never become cartoonish, while guitarist and label owner Brett Gureqitz's frenzied soloing reminds that after 30 years Bad Religion still strive to show those bands who are half their age--and twice as wealthy--how it is really done. [Nov 2010, p.110]

Nothing Special sometimes swims so far out of focus that it's difficult to share Sheff's vision, while at other times it surges and soars towards everything that was fascinating about Okkervil River. [Nov 2022, p.84]

The space disco of 'I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)' and Listen To Your Body Tonight' are destines for repeat plays on this summer's festival circuit. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Ambitious but muddled, throughout they veer from awful to the gently compelling. [Apr 2016, p.86]

He's never met a supernatural entity he can't pair with thumping darktronica and stalking rock guitar - weeping Ghost, Vampire's Touch, Skeleton - but it's done with a fabulously cold touch. [Mar 2021, p.89]