Shine is an intriguing portrait of a civilised chap in turmoil. [Apr 2003, p.110]

There's enough happening here to perk up demanding ears. [June 2002, p.106]

It's a fine album, mixing lean rock anthems... with the kind of ballads lesser artists would need years to write. [Oct 2004, p.116]

A dense, cosmic country, limber astro-funk and psychedelic pop record, it might be KGATLW's finest to date. [Jul 2025, p.80]

This is undeniably beautiful in its minimalist repetitions but could do with a little more dirt in the weave. [Apr 2012, p.95]

In between strong original songs are arresting covers versions. [Mar 2012, p.92]

Gigantic of sound and vision, grandly poetic of pronouncement, the Millennium Stadium surely beckons. [Sep 2012, p.97]

Slightly frustratingly, similar changeability [as 2018's Lala Belu] prevails here. [May 2020, p.86]

McKenzie is so focused on craft ahead of melody that an album this determined to be without jokes might have actually benefited from a couple. [Sep 2022, p.93]

Signs of life: abundant. [Aug 2023, p.82]

The set includes some tender spots, but dire wins the day. Thankfully, it's on occasion leavened. [Feb 2018, p.94]

This is the sound of a big new beginning. [Sep 2014, p.92]

There's a beguiling musicality at play that puts pleasing melody at the centre of even the most outre detour. [Dec 2005, p.102]

Spalding's improvised ensemble pieces put pay to the tittle-tattle about jazz being dead. It is very much alive. [Apr 2012, p.90]

Proves again what an unnerving space the interior of his head must be. [Aug 2006, p.104]

With her co-producers, they fashion some perfectly weighted, tastefully adorned grroves but her voice, an idiosyncratic mix of Lucinda Williams and Dolores O'Riordan inflections, sometimes jars. [Apr 2008, p.100]

Its first side pelts past in 12 minutes, melding the brittle charms of Modern Lovers and Wire with a muscular garage rock dynamism: the joyous hurtle of Down On Loving makes like a more savage Strokes, while the caustic Answer To Yourself draws the fuzzy '60s classicism of the The Black Lips into tighter focus, a Nuggets-worthy anthem. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

Although darkness suffuses Narrow, the rising peaks of its songs and the dramatic arrangements Plaschg frames them in, its intimacy affects. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Introspective, electic brain-groove of the month. [Dec 2012, p.86]

Only Pleasant Valley jars--the irony in Elling's voice is ladled on too heavily--but elsewhere marvel at a master at work. [Nov 2012, p.86]

Steer is an astringent, droll, sometimes touching narrator; it's easy to hear why Cocker was so bewitched. [Feb 2013, p.91]

It's a more downbeat affair than their 2009 debut and best envinced by the stuttering tech soul of Gita. [Sep 2013, p.95]

The hefty production complements a moody selection of songs about bullying, Italian Soccer and1960s London. [Jul 2014, p.93]

With Telegram's Krautrock, psychedelic Pink Floyd and glam rock influences, it packs a remarkable punch. [Apr 2016, p.91]

The album features psychedelic guitar, heavy percussion, priests, deep gumbo and the main man's peerless drumming. [Nov 2016, p.93]

There's no difficult second album syndrome for laconi-pop crew Hooton Tennis Club. [Nov 2016, p.78]

Despite the recruitment drive, it's another curious case of history repeating itself: N.E.R.D setting their phasers to stun, but only intermittently finding the target. [Feb 2018, p.91]

Once again Tucker demonstrates his knack of creating simple, incantatory, almost folky vocal lines, which pivot around a few telling chord changes and lodge in the memory long after the music stops. [Sep 2019, p.91]