If there isn't a great leap forward, there is progression on assorted fronts, so The Best Is Yet To Come embraces all-out rock, but Scared Of Love suggests acoustic ballads could be an alternative way ahead. [Sep 2023, p.88]

[Their] first [album] to sound authentically beaten up. [Jun 2007, p.101]

Forensically constructed, sad-eye pop with bright melodies of a Shins-like stripe. [Dec 2012, p.96]

Crush is a thrilling, giddy conflagration of hot and cold currents. [Oct. 2010, p. 97]

Occasionally infuriating when great ideas are cast aside indiscriminately, Wolf's vision remains undimmed. [May 2017, p.92]

At its best, as on 'Heartbreaker,' the singing has the deadpan charm of Talking Heads or Kraftwerk, adding to the likeability of men who know its better to be a robot than a hippy. [Oct 2008, p.108]

The answers Wallumrod seeks may be out of reach but in the process of searching she has produced an album of disquieting power. [May 2016, p.90]

Whether this leaves you head-scratching or dancing like an electrified monkey, it certainly won't bore you. [Jul 2003, p.109]

Though the Vivs pride themselves on DIY charm, they're becoming scarily cogent. [May 2011, p.110]

It's still high camp stuff, but Wolf's world suddenly seems like a more welcoming place. [Jun 2011, p.97]

The first half of this double album follow-up picks up Badlands' wayward trail.... As the set wears on, Hungati's soundtrack-composer instincts take over. [Jul 2013, p.84]

Heavy on reggae, with strong funk and grooves. [Aug 2015, p.98]

An experimental and deeply idiosyncratic record. [Oct 2019, p.90]

It all thumps along agreeably with a brio seldom found in rock today by artists a quarter of his age. [Dec 2019, p.92]

An equally intriguing mix of airy, modern indie pop, gauzy, gothic epic and plaintive folk-picking. [Feb 2019, p.93]

It might sound like a stunt, but results in a deeply felt and surprisingly enjoyable exploration of American Vernacular music. [Sep 2010, p.93]

What lets her down is a pair of English songs--beautifully sung, but the material is unforgivably weak. [May 2017, p.95]

It's darker and starker, more 4am despair than midnight rendezvous. [Feb 2014, p.97]

It's an exploration of the end that assets it's not over. [May 2017, p.88]

A somewhat arid listening experience. [Jul 2018, p.104]

With more hits than misses, Shadow is back in the frame. [Aug 2016, p.95]

For the most part it works,Moody, Standard And Poor is a fine exercise in pre-punk '60s garage energy given added zest from the dynamic interplay between his and former Edsel man Sohrab Habibion's dueling guitars. [May 2011, p.110]

The tone is wistful and serene more than sad and heavy, but principal singer Nona Marie Invie still sounds like a femme fatale, with a coiled, spectral charm that suits the band's name. [Jun 2011, p.104]

It's not so much that the most singularly talented and important soul singer of now has let us down, more she's tried too hard to please. [Sep 2003, p.105]

Alas, when their feisty glam racket starts to repeat itself towards the end, the joke wears a little thin. [Nov 2005, p.112]

Nearly a decade later, their new album attempts to recapture the moment of dancefloor serendipity and only occasionally do they succeed. [Oct 2011, p.99]

On the minus side, The False Foundation lacks an overarching character, so plays out like a soundtrack or compilation. [Nov 2016, p.89]

Belle Starr and... Red Staggerwing finds [Knopfler] reaching for a goodtime clambake feel that ends up sounding kinda grating and twee. [Jun 2006, p.98]