Their forte remains unashamed headbanger action. [Nov 2006, p.114]

For a rapper who has excelled in redefining the artform, The Life Of Pablo is a sprawling, uneven and curiously unfinished sounding affair with a dearth of recognisable bangers. Much less than the sum of its parts when stacked against the grandiloquent orchestral sweep of 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or pared-back abrasive aural sculpture of predecessor Yeezus, it suggests West is merely human after all.

'Beautiful Summer's' spectral chamber rock and a take on Fleetwood Mac's 'Over & Over' prove there's life in the franchise just yet. [Aug 2008, p.103]

If Diana Krall's Goodby and Norah Jones's Ill Wind are strikingly vulnerable, intimate performances of classics, it's perhaps the obscurer selections that stand out. [Feb 2011, p.107]

Move, a blistering collision of heavy rock and Latin pop. The remainder of the album ranges from percussive jazz-rock and bouncy Latin Techno to febrile thrash metal. [Dec 2021, p.87]

Her queasy, pitch-shifting sound aligns with labelmate Flying Lotus's high-end head music. [Sep 2019, p.96]

The smooth edges of Mature Themes doesn't mean this music is any easier to grasp. [Sep 2012, p.86]

Ultimately guided by voices, it peaks on cypher session S Bento MC5, an affectionate homage to A Tribe Called Quest's Scenario. [Jan 2017, p.99]

Oh My smacks less of a one-off project, more of the opening chapter in a narrative which could dominate its participant's future. [Mar 2018, p.94]

This is diaphanous pop music--perhaps overly flimsy on occasion--but full of sparkle and more variegated than before. [Mar 2016, p.97]

This is passionate music, delivered with verve. [Mar 2011, p.104]

Not quite up to par with the last three indie label releases, but he set the bar high. [Oct 2021, p.93]

If Kate Bush backed by MGMT appeals, Maguire's your woman. [Apr 2011, p.105]

Bid renders the album's picaresque litany of devious noblemen, murdered knights and debauched bishops with typically knowing aplomb. [Oct 2019, p.89]

Produced with Dave Fridmann and Joe Chiccarelli, the album benefits from the former's spacey soundscapes and the latter's commercial sensibility. [Sep 2014, p.96]

Beach Music is stylistically disjointed. [Nov 2015, p.94]

Pollard's lyrics are characteristically oblique, but persistence pokes through as a theme. [Jan 2020, p.90]

A mixed bag, then, but rarely short of mood-elevating. [Jan 2017, p.100]

Stunning in parts. [Nov 2013, p.94]

Over time, however, it can feel like Clarke has excised the excitement along with the Extraneous matter, his balefully lovelorn tenor, now right out front without distracting clutter, often too reedy to carry the show. [Sep 2023, p.84]

Although the album is marred by its over-consistent tone, almost any one of these songs taken in isolation--played of the closing credits of The Sopranos, say--would rightfully be hailed as a lost classic. [May 2007, p.118]

For every glimpse of a hook or a memorable melody, there's a stretch of unfocused, sample-strewn electronica, all skittering art-techno beats and wilfully obtuse instrumentation. [Nov 2007, p.95]

Highlight of an unfathomable whole: Hell. [Jul 2020, p.88]

Writing in a different meter results in parts of Sudden Elevation becoming more linear, less abstract than predecessor Innundir Skinni. [Mar 2013, p.89]

These fine-spun talents are too frequently suffocated by the album;s production, which ignores the songs' subtler details in favour of something more epic. [Apr 2013, p.89]

If anything, she's dreamer, the tempo's a little more down, the mood more twilit. [May 2009, p.101]

The father-and-son combination is satisfyingly unpredictable, with a fresh, non-rock approach to some of the rhythms and unexpected shifts in style. [Jun 2017, p.86]

Occasionally remarkable, American Twilight is a timely reminder of the instinctive songwriting that a certain other, more feted southern gothic Melbournian has sometimes mislaid. [May 2013, p.95]