Irma and producer Scott Billington have devised the perfect setting. [Sep 2008, p.1000]

Upbeat episodes are outweighed by melancholic drama. [Jun 2018, p.88]

Throughout, Ranaldo and Nels Cline build up layers of eloquent, electrifying guitar.... Satisfying. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Pierce's lyrics remain largely opaque, and the atypically lumpen Warm Hand In Narnia sounds unsettlingly like Snow Patrol, but to cavil feels churlish when elsewhere such vivacious invention pervades. [May 2013, p.86]

Like much of UNKLE's work, the album feels a little bloated and too serious by half, but there are gems among the rubble. [June 2010, p. 97]

A stopgap isn't quite what The Hold Steady need right now, but as a holding exercise it's hard to fault. [Sep 2019, p.89]

Sure, there is a handful of magic that could cause significant flame damage to a dancefloor somewhere, but, beyond that, Jessica 6's toil to sculpt killer from filler is an endeavour that only occasionally pays off.

Negro Swan is more consolidation than the ext great leap forwards. [Oct 2018, p.91]

As with all such improvised projects, Gong Splat is as much about the journey as the destination, but there's little meandering to Dwyer's questing. [Feb 2022, p.87]

The pleasantly chaotic backdrop is heavy on analogue synths and vintage space echo, and though far from the reggae idiom, Perry is at home warbling his curses and magic spells in multi-tracked triplicate. [Nov 2016, p.93]

Charming and cherishable. [Sep 2014, p.94]

By track two... he has slipped back into the familiarity of sinuous guitar lines, fidgety beats and the cheesy language of international disco. [Jul 2005, p.110]

An album hitting some dead ends, as other avenues open up. [Jan 2020, p.88]

Here's a concept Tori: less is more. [Jun 2007, p.108]

It's full-bodied baroque. [Oct 2008, p.109]

An album that, in the best sense of the term, is all over the place. [Jul 2025, p.84]

Urstan find Roberts'signature whistling-kettle delivery ... framed with guitars, fiddles, drums and brass. A peaty, heathery authenticity pervades - to compelling effect. [May 2012, p.88]

Chopper blades and police sirens pepper the album; indeed, shorn of this angsty hum, the by turns pastoral and metallic instrumental tracks pale. [Apr 2004, p.106]

Slaloms round sing-song pop, day-glo punk and Zappa-style tune transformations. [Jun 2004, p.106]

The title track is a thunderous grower with a tribal, kick-ass epiphany. And then...it's one mediocre ballad after another. [Jul 2014, p.91]

Esteemed Cologne unit corrals a trans-global selection of the dancefloor's most revered. [Sep 2015, p.95]

It's their fourth album in six years, but quality hasn't wavered. [Oct 2015, p.94]

Joplin's long, devastating plea for salvation once mirrored the big story--that the surprise star of '68 had outgrown her rough diamonds. The 30 tracks here, several in multiple versions, don't necessarily change that. But wart'n'all, Big Brother were the best foil Janus had. [Jan 2018, p.101]

Their initial torrid confluence of My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division here shapeshifts more towards "synth-assisted stadium nu-gaze," with odd Kraut-y hints of early Simple Minds, and frequent echoes of their new found patron: fune-real The Arbor is pure Disintegration, while shimmering Keep It All To Yourself has Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!'s hi-tech dazzle. [Feb 2019, p.88]

The result are suitably soothing. [Mar 2016, p.95]

Any of these versions would brighten Radio 2's day, but eventually the massed violins and mid-paced tempos begin to pall. [May 2013, p.88]

Musically this is the most satisfying Deftones album in a decade, welding their patented post-hardcore crunch with their noted love of twisted, Cure-styled melody. [June 2010, p. 92]

New Adventures In Hi-Fi holds up well now. ... CD2 consists of all previously released material. Fun of you've never hears R.E.M. saunter through Wichita Lineman, but completists will see this one as a massive opportunity missed. [Dec 2021, p.98]