ESG are still creating music of eerie austerity. [Oct 2002, p.108]

More honed and richly-textured than former offerings. [Apr 2005, p.101]

[Pinback's] blend of warm and wistful is almost impossible to resist. [Jan 2005, p.104]

They have settled gracefully into the task of making a consistently glorious racket. [Oct 2002, p. 100]

Theirs is an ire that deserves to be heard. [Dec 2006, p.110]

A veritable treasure trove of electro-bubblegum, irresistible punk-funk, and hypnotic noise experiments. [Mar 2005, p.116]

Godhead take this '80's obsession one step further, crafting a sound so hypnotically synthetic it makes Heaven 17 sound like Robert Johnson. [Feb 2001, p.94]

[The Datsuns] do the rawk thing so well you can forgive them almost anything. [Dec 2002, p.106]

A persistently funny exercise in nonconformity. [May 2003, p.106]

Occasionally gestures towards greatness, but remains earthbound for the most part. [Sep 2003, p.112]

One Beat is not an album you slip into. You pick it up, study it, twist it, put it down, pick it up again. [Sep 2002, p.108]

Mostly, it works. [Aug 2005, p.102]

A pleasantly surprising step in the right direction. [May 2002, p.104]

Point is less a stylistic mash-up and more a stylish exploration of mood and groove. [Feb 2002, p.98]

Their raucous, raw live show transfers effortlessly to record, justifying all three of those exclamation marks. [Jun 2004, p.116]

There are more retro-sounding pop-R&B numbers with "sha la la" backing vocals than the subject matter might indicate, a stadium rocker, some soulful ballads recalling early Van Morrison, and stirring gospel. [Sep 2002, p.94]

There's no sonic trickery here, just Mac the balladeer. [May 2003, p.95]

Neither miraculous nor wholly divine, but it does mark Corgan's return to form. [Mar 2003, p.102]

It's a record that benefits from a pervasive electro-melancholia induced by quaking analogue synths, dulcet arpeggios and fragile vocals, recalling fraternal, dark electro-pop mavens Disclosure. [May 2015, p.97]

Elbow... have let new-found bliss propel them to yet loftier heights. [Sep 2003, p.106]

A kaleidoscopic funfair of angloid psychedelia, baroque folk-pop and open-minded sonic exploration. [Mar 2005, p.96]

Some of it hisses and gurgles like early Future Sound Of London. [Oct 2003, p.118]

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]

His sheer enthusiasm and peerless pop nous are enough to carry things along. [Jan 2006, p.124]

There's only fleeting glimpses of Jason's weakness for dimestore Minutemen angularity. [Sep 2002, p.104]

Overlong, but provocative and engaging. [Dec 2002, p.116]

An earthy, beat-oriented album... It ain't '3 Feet High'--or even 'De La Soul Is Dead'-- but it ain't half bad. (Sep 2000, p.96)

Gorky's play it spare and (mostly) live, placing further emphasis on their long-established pastoral bent. [Sep 2003, p.100]