The project pushes him into new and different directions, with beat band ballast ('Ate It Twice'), horn-laded soul ('Ready To Pop'), orchestral gloom (the title tracks) and pleasingly weird mini-epics ('Still In Rome'). [Oct 2008]

Canadian power-poppers celebrate hyper-melodic 20th birthday. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]

If 2017's Hard Love overreached, Eraserland is a successful recalibration. [Apr 2019, p.91]

An admirably impassioned return. [Mar 2012, p.92]

He [Luke Younger] has blended ghost-echoes of dub, techno, and house to oddly sounding effect. [Aug 2015, p.95]

These are superior soundtracks for sure, but just a little low on levity. [Dec 2016, p.93]

His latest sounds like the product of a much-needed rethink, bracketed by two cosmically speculating slowies: the opening, sparkling title track documents its author's self-fulfilling quest to mine a deeper instinctual creativity, while closer No Man's Land has a wide-eyed romanticism, evoking Mercury Rev. [May 2018, p.93]

Matt Berninger walks a distinguished line between control and catharsis, with only occasional collapses (Graceless, for example), but when the music falls away during Bloodbuzz Ohio, you hear a band carried on by both the roar of the crowd and the structural might of their songwriting. [Jan 2025, p.83]

Forever Is A Feeling is layered, lush and contemplative. [May 2025, p.86]

Their slightly shambolic and unapologetic pop-fused sound works, though, and looks likely to speed Los Campesinos! to the cult canonical Brit-indie status reserved for the other outsider troupes like Belle & Sebastian and The Cribs. [Mar 2010, p.96]

Go To School is a misstep--the sound of talented young musicians over-reaching to the point of unlistenability. [Oct 2018, p.93]

This "new" RP Boo set feels like a deeper, warmer work. [Aug 2015, p.98]

Singer Paul Smith's blend of dry and witty lines would make Jarvis smile, but disappointingly, the album still likes a Take Me Out-sized hit single to beat the floppy-fringed competition. [Jul 2005, p.96]

If nothing here quite reaches the hook-laden heights of Outdoor Miner or Kidney Bingos, there are plenty of sunlit avant-pop uplands. [May 2015, p.97]

That play of sonic summer and spiritual winter shades this. [Mar 2008, p.102]

Despite the eclectic material, the slow tempos and monochrome tone gets wearing. [Sep 2017, p.94]

Moderate in everything but length, Big Wheel And Others seems to go on forever. Again not in a good way. [Nov 2013, p.84]

A Wasteland Companion revels in the layers of experience overlaid on life, building up texture, building up meaning, building up songs. [May 2012, p.87]

No retro trip, this, greasy grooves and hollered pulpit soundbytes remain Blue Explosion's prime business--and business is good. {Oct 2012, p.90]

The sextet ply their angular chord changes and syncopated rhythms in first-rate tunes. [Sep 2012, p.97]

This is (finally) an album that is enjoyable solely as a listening experience. [Sep 2013, p.89]

One of Neubauten's very best releases. [Jan 2014, p.98]

[Sid Griffin] hurled all bluegrass boundaries out the window as pride of place on this new album. [Nov 2016, p.92]

Spinning Coin have spun new dreams from old. [Mar 2020, p.94]

Skirls of noise are layered like mille-feuille, bass drops hit with the muscular impact of a piledriver, and a cloud hangs heavy over the entirety of proceedings. [Jan 2022, p.87]

The Unfolding is an inventive and accessible mix of acoustic instrumentals and electronics with an elemental atmosphere. [May 2022, p.92]

It is gorgeous in the way a hotel painting is – very pleasant to look at once or twice but not to ponder for too long, an autumnal soundtrack whose glow fades like leaves. [Dec 2024, p.93]

While its parent album's themes of grief, ageing and mortality don't naturally transfer themselves to the dancefloor, it's often that juxtaposition that makes these reworkings so effective. [Jul 2024, p.78]