Canadian indie-songsmith producer, illustrator comes blinking into the sunlight. [July 2011, p. 108]

The more gothic the song (Girl In Amber; Red Right Hand) the better the interpretation. [Feb 2022, p.92]

The overall effect is usually on the right side of too much, the listener lifted up by Castle's wings. [Jan 2021, p.87]

The spartan structure makes for an intimate if one-paced experience and Potter's singing us more spoken in Marianne Faithfull style, with a hint of Weimar, but she's a beguiling storyteller. [Sep 2023, p.83]

With much of Harrison's early solo output slammed upon original release, these remasters allow us time to search for the diamonds in the dirt. [Nov 2014, p.109]

Closer listening finds thin-voiced New Yorker Andrew Wyatt undercutting the Swedish Britney Spears producers' sleek earworms with sing-along melancholy. [Apr 2016, p.96]

Girl At The End Of The World lacks the hooky brilliance to be James' best, but it's a Top 3 contender. [Apr 2016, p.90]

Jones's fans with long memories will certainly want to hear the first four tracks, but the robustness, of sound, modernity of arrangement and cool, hard, clarity of distinctive delivery that once suggested her style would always sound fresh just fades away. [Nov 2008, p.110]

Le Voyage is best when it sets the controls for the tribal prog of Sonic Armada or the ritual beats of Astronomic Club. [Mar 2012, p.92]

It feels like a reaction to the concise, clear-headed It's Blitz; wild-eyed hoopla, in that spontaneous, occasionally brilliant, occasionally patchy kind of way. [May 2013, p.90]

Overall it's pleasurable, audacious even, but hardly world changing. [Sep 2009, p.102]

Its follow-up features a batch of songs Jones has lived with and reworked over 20-plus years, and the material radiates with a well-worn intimacy. [Dec 2009, p.90]

Just occasionally the jangles get repetitive; sometimes, good things do go on too long. [Oct 2017, p.96]

As the Crow Flies feels like a more personal work. Both a soundtrack to dreamlike childhood summers and an imagined government guide to the cycles of the seasons, complete with liner notes by historian and folklorist Ronald Hutton. [Sep 2011, p.101]

The overall feeling of lab-hygienic utility is clearly intended, but a pretty wistfulness also whistles down these wires. [Feb 2025, p.87]

Household Name is their Cannonball moment, supercharged pop that also acknowledges Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt. Momma wear it well; celebrating, not denying, their inspiration. [Aug 2022, p.91]

It's like watching people chuck matches into a box of fireworks: sparks everywhere, but - excitingly, frustratingly - you're never sure where they're going to land. [Aug 2021, p.80]

There's more down the line, heart-on-the-sleeve songcraft secreted, near-guiltily, in the album's latter half. [Mar 2012, p.99]

This time, the division between uninspired, joyless Gang Starr pastiches like Don't Say Nuthin and the polymorphous likes of Stay Cool or Outro has never sounded so glaringly obvious. [Aug 2004, p.92]

If the forward-looking, ever exploratory production just occasionally outguns the songwriting, Daft Punk-ish floor-filler The Last Dance is unimpeachable, a defiant shimmy toward the apocalypse. [Mar 2022, p.82]

Alex Menne's Dolores O'Riordan-ish yodel still dominates and can overwhelm the songs, but Big Thief fans should take note. [Dec 2019, p.96]

At its best--Northern Blues' soulful echo--a bit of Southern grit's rubbed off on the Canadian. [Nov 2015, p.96]

She stands sonically naked, palettes limited and claustrophobic in their unrelenting mono-focus, in this fascinating but demanding debut. [Feb 2019, p.91]

Alluring, if more cold brewed latte than electric kool aid. [Mar 2016, p.100]

The best moments come when the duo break out of their languid comfort zone, as on the breezy Feel Your Weight and dynamic Phoenix. [Mar 2018, p.90]

The best songs here--the loose, Blaxploitation soul groove Bones; the Cat Stevens-like Deeper And Deeper--are those on which Harper sounds most relaxed and contemplative. [May 2016, p.86]

Four decades and eight albums in, however, their own status as much cherished melody makers seems perfectly secure. [Jul 2016, p.93]

Has lingering '80s elements, with some pompous lyrics, laborious arrangements and long, drawn-out vowel sounds, yet it is also fresher and less strenuous than before. [Apr 2004, p.114]