Moodily modish but emotionally intriguing, Arthur Beatrice inhabit a stylish grey area. [Mar 2014, p.92]

A strangely bloodless album heavy on technical perfection rather than the visceral emotion at the core of the best roots music. [May 2023, p.91]

In the world of the gilded musical scion, sixth album counts as stripped back. [May 2010, p. 93]

But despite the lack of surprise, Gold Rush is a fine, rollicking jig, and Sparrow's skeletal voice and uke combo feels like it's been pulled from the ground still caked in Prairie soil. [Feb 2010, p. 94]

An album that falls between traditional and progressive country stools. [May 2014, p.89]

With Fate, Dr. Dog have begun to deliever the sort of super-confident songs that, up until now, have proved frustratingly out of reach. [Sep 2008, p.108]

It's hard to envisage anything this parochial moving beyond cult status.

For the most part it's a genuinely thrilling, energy-charged adventure. [Feb 2002, p.98]

[An] almost equal measure of intriguing and tiresome music. [Jun 2005, p.108]

Irksome and intriguing, compelling and calculated, Goblin confounds at every turn. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

Throughout, a twinkly otherworldliness is counterbalanced by rhythmic excursions evoking the passage between one liminal world and another. [Feb 2019, p.92]

Elephant's songs of love and death are heart-wrenchingly sad, movingly performed and sung in a poignant, luminous voice betwixt pop and country folk-country. [Apr 2009, p.110]

There's much of Lawrence's beguiling attention to detail present here. [Oct 2014, p.94]

Striken, sorrowful balladry is the meat of this fine album. [Feb 2008, p.102]

The vocals of core dynamic duo Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers instantly proffer more light and shade, while the punchy garage of Kraut Of All Of This, distorted, gliding My Bloody Valentine-lite of Frayed And Spank, or thundering Chemical Brothers detonations at the heart of A Wolf In Geek's Clothing all point to far more than just obscure psych records in their collection. [Apr 2011, p.100]

It's the very essence of being "unplugged" as Chilton--laughing, joking, fluffing lines, forgetting verses and whistling choruses--breaks down all barriers between musician and fan. [Nov 2013, p.102]

A triptych of glitchy, dissonant beats, shards of white light and fractured, ambient interference. [Aug 2013, p.91]

Alias perhaps lacks a truly killer song, a lightning rod to draw newbies in. [Sep 2014, p.94]

A potent debut that juxtaposes pastoral lyricism with urban angst. [Mar 2016, p.96]

Johnson recorded 30 songs between 1927 and 1930, and 11 are covered here by a curious, though often great, selection of artists. [Apr 2016, p.89]

Too often, though, a combination of slight songcraft and waters' awkward tendency to sound simultaneously angry and platitudinous starts to wear thin. [Jul 2017, p.89]

Visitations may just be their finest half-hour. [Dec 2006, p.108]

These Wooden Shjips, however unchanging, even conservative, are becoming increasingly irresistible. [Nov 2013, p.86]

There are some lovely moments. ... But ultimately, the impossible ambition of Planetarium looms over every single moment. [Aug 2017, p.89]

It's searingly sincere, earnestly aching stuff, but when The Thermals hit the melodic bullseye, yours will be the next heart that breaks. [Dec 2010, p.94]

Palindrome Hunches is a record full of songs that whisper their entreaties. [Dec 2012, p.88]

The Black Keys’ raw edges are retained amid the Hendrix fuzz of Man On A Mission, while on the slick, Philly-shaped soul standout Make You Mine, the pair soar to new poppy heights. [Sep 2025, p.79]

Minimalist of palette it may be, but Laraaji's characteristic approach to melody, harmony and rhythm, at once both charmingly childlike and spiritually ecstatic, is present throughout. [Aug 2020, p.87]