Despite the occasional maudlin drift, The Bad ends meet rapturous ends when they rally against impending darkness. [Feb 2023, p.85]

Tennessee roots rockers ease off the barroom brawl piano blues for a more reflective, more modern sound. [Sep 2018, p.96]

Iommi occasionally apes Slayer's squealing solos, but otherwise this is vintage Sabbathian, slow-grind all the way. [Jul 2013, p.82]

Things could have easily slipped into a kitsch pastiche by this stage, yet La Luz continue to find fresh avenues to explore. [Jan 2022, p.85]

Although perhaps too much arrangement is thrown at the producer-penned opener Among The Believers, second track Forbidden Nights, written in 2009 by Elvis Costello, has a stronger melody. [Nov 2015, p.92]

Only problem is, he also wants us to love him for his mind, so he has declared this a concept album. [Nov 2006, p.116]

Deep into side two You Hear Georgia starts to drag a little as they ditch the choogle and attempt to foray into the cosmic Americana territory of My Morning Jacket. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Like Sleater Kinney reimagined for synth-pop teens. [Feb 2014, p.98]

A few shuffling moments suggest Sunday pub lunch surrounding by Bugaboos, but when Gonzalez hits his meditative stride--Every Age's there-is-a-season stateliness, the post-rock smudges of What Will---he owns the room. [Mar 2014, p.98]

The grammatically doubtful One Less Heartless To Fear finds the quartet in more punishing mode. [Feb 2011, p.101]

Though Robinson's limited lyrical purview rarely moves beyond "moths, dragonflies, bumblebees," the well-trodden poetry of the road and the inevitable woman with silver rings on her fingers, his soulful rasp, when combined with the Brotherhood's easy, 200-gigs-a-year musicality, is hard to resist. [Jul 2019, p.95]

Something of a disappointment after 2008's Pot Of Gold. [Apr 2013, p.98]

The highlights: beautiful 'Hemingway's Whiskey;' spooky 'The Guitar;' and his moving, midtempo, backporchy cover of best friend Townes' 'If I Needed You.'

High Society [proves] Schmersal capable of a good, straight-forward pop song. [July 2002, p.100]

Specialists in Transatlantica hone their songcraft. [July 2011, p. 100]

Away is a looser and more poignant than the band's previous releases ever hinted. [Oct 2016, p.95]

While never the greatest singer, Escovedo's lyrics more than compensate. [Oct 2018, p.91]

Some structural confusion aside, it's easy to embrace his Johnny-Flynn-does-indie songs. [Oct 2015, p.98]

Their mellowest ever high. [Oct 2015, p.92]

Tobin's songs offer a more lucid warmth. [Jul 2014, p.96]

On Requiem, they invert proportions, taking a variety of folk and world sounds as base ingredients and embellishing those with rock noise. Whether that's a more intriguing approach depends on if you prefer relentless musical phrases delivered on pan flute or distorted guitar. [Nov 2016, p.91]

His macabre tendency has evolved further into a kind of disaster romanticism on his 21st album. [Mar 2020, p.89]

NehruvianDoom might be slight, but it deftly whets the appetite for more. [Nov 2014, p.89]

If the alcoholic's lament Death Came teeters close to parody, then the bare-boned country pop of Place In My Heart and Bitter Memory offer some much needed respite. [Feb 2016, p.90]

The rolling melodies, stately pace and closed-miked, out of phase vocals result in an off-kilter whole, tempered by contributions from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. [July 2008, p.111]

Nothing here is ever structurally predictable, nor is it all cacophonous. [Mar 2014, p.98]

A logical next step then, which stays the right side of MOR. [Mar 2013, p.96]

A third Rick Rubin-produced album -- cover versions but the comeback continues. [Jan. 2011, p. 97]