A strand of misanthropy and musical bloody-mindedness makes for an uneven listen and feels like a band in transition. [Nov 2014, p.98]

Inevitably flawed yet fascinating, it's respectful without being reverent, less myth-making tribute, more robust embrace. [Aug 2023, p.81]

Aside from the occasional mistep this is a finely balanced collection. [Nov 2007, p.92]

The odd head-snapping moodswing, a la Nick Cave, can jar. [May 2017, p.98]

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]

The debut's sinister clouds are replaced by spry digital funk and studio sheen. [Mar 2014, p.96]

Tobacco is more appealing when playing it straight. [Aug 2009, p.108]

A little under-sung in mumbling modern folk shorthand for emotion, but lovely. [Jun 2017, p.95]

Choral folk pop reveries and soft rock tease out the cosmic everyday. [Jun 2016, p.97]

Asher steers The Secret Of Life toward familiar traditional-pop territory. The Placid setting brings out the politeness in Streisand's guests. [Aug 2025, p.76]

Kelis' involvement in the brooding title track can't save it from its fundamental dullness, warped, tetchy ska of 'Saga' fails to get under your skin, They're better on the camp, ecstatic single 'Raindrops,' and the hollering soul jive of 'She's No good.' [Oct 2009, p.98]

Quality control dips during the last quarter, but this is a reassuring step forward. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Quality inessential entertainment. [Mar 2010, p.97]

Never overwrought, A La Sala is a cool exercise in the beauty of restraint and understated groove mastery, exploring new vistas without subverting Khruangbin's blueprint. [Jun 2024, p.88]

There's less jamming than on earlier NMA releases, more insistence on songwriting. [Jul 2011, p.108]

It's a familiar world they inhabit, but still a deeply odd one. [Oct 2019, p.82]

Luck is more satisfying than Leisure Seizure, but it's still not throwing sixes all the way. [Jul 2014, p.90]

An awkward faceoff between Mathers the prankster and Mathers the cultural and would-be political agitator. [Jan 2005, p.96]

Roberts' dying-Jacobite vocals remain thrillingly feeble, and Nic Jones-ly fingerpicking on Wonderful Grey Horse and Young Airly may draw in waverers. [May 2023, p.89]

Meredith's precision helps control the fun, but this is another buoyant invention from her musical lab. [Dec 2019, p.95]

A Henry Rollins cameo in the title track is tantalising: were he a constant presence, this set would really spark. [Nov 2016, p.96]

Whatever the style, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone’s music is executed with wholehearted passion and technical precision.

The gauzy hypnotism of opener Infinite Trips sounds as if was beamed in from a far more enticing album altogether. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Only Johann Johansson's airy decanting of Protest and two movements from chamber music Glassworks really tap Glass's sublime essence. [Dec 2012, p.88]

A record to welcome the morning light as it seeps through chinks in the curtain. [May 2017, p.91]

On this solid business-as-usual set, his band kicks requisite ass on Isaak's decent country-rock tearjerkers. [Jul 2009, p.106]

Here, the band look to the more languid nod of Spaceman 3 instead. [Jul 2009, p.98]

[A] moving tribute, gently awash with autumnal colour. [May 2013, p.96]