A solo album with not enough of the soloist. [Jun 2006, p.102]

Gallo's eccentricity is bound to irritate at least as many as it charms. [Jan 2019, p.91]

This is Lopatin's most cogent record yet. [Dec 2015, p.91]

He and his guests have history, but the second half of Mountains might have benefited from fewer backing singers - however good, they over-egg the songs. [Sep 2023, p.86]

A set of seamless, lyrically concise songs that are as sweet and harmonic as their pairing suggests but also strangely stilted. [Dec 2013, p.92]

[The lyrics] carry every once of experience and writerly imagination he's learned and earned in 76 years. [Dec 2012, p.86]

The songs inside are equally well groomed, yet it is a shame that the singer--not generally a man to take the easiest path--hasn't frayed their edges a little more. [Dec 2013, p.85]

As fans of the or two previous albums might expect, there's little on this covers collection that proves Vetiver's love of the three-minute pop format: the mood is instead tuned to the free-festival campfire and the misty morning meditation. [July 2008, p.111]

Here nothing has changed as she melds all these influences ub a tribute to her now beloved New York. [Dec 2008, p. 100]

The album works because McCartney treats the material with respect, exuding charm by the bucket-load. [Mar 2012, p.94]

While there is no quibbling with the noble sentiment behind this set, a more judicial selection policy might have established a unified aesthetic to eclipse some of the B-side material here. [Mar 2009, p.114]

Although every other verse here is filled by paradiddles, polyrhythms and wilfully complex time signatures, DMB's ear for a tune at least provides us with some fine choruses. [Jul 2009, p.94]

On over half of the songs, the marriage works.... But the titles and the lyrical obsessions are generally those of the Sparks oeuvre. [Jul 2015, p.89]

[The album] is most notable for two typically saturnine contributions from unlikely electro diva John Grant. [Jun 2014, p.98]

Louris and company have created a soothing balm for overly neurotic and trying times. [Sep 2018, p.89]

Vol. 1 here is mellow, introspective and rootsy. [Nov 2017, p.103]

It's polished, professional, but one for the faithful. [May 2023, p.89]

It doesn't quite blow the emotional lid off, but Open is rich in subtle variations. [Dec 2017, p.88]

The album's soft-haze strings are to die for, and the trad-sounding Trusty And True has admirable reach and dignity. [Dec 2014, p.100]

New York's post-punkers are mooder than ever. [Oct. 2010, p. 90]

Bad Religion see no reason to mess with the formula. [Feb 2013, p.98]

The Age Of Adz, by contrast, is problematic for its mind-boggling ambitions, as Stevens harnesses his folkier songcraft and complex orchestration to electronica. [Nov. 2010, p. 100]

Malakian's Scars On Braodway further explore his love of machine gun guitars, bongs for breakfast, scatological lyrics and permeating sense of paranoia. [Sep 2008, p.108]

It's often a mess, but to witness he process is genuinely exhilarating. [Jun 2018, p.88]

Though the record perhaps lacks the one killer tune or irresistibly "come hither" song title that can really get you at it, the swooning Pure Heart, intermittently cinematic We Were One, neat instrumental segue Fata Morgana and sonically startling So Many Nights help flag a unique and fruitful cocktail of influences. [Jun 2016, p.90]

Not an easy listen, but a brave, bold debut. [Apr 2009, p.99]

It's less effective on the bland troubadour pop of Here Today and The Man, which samples Elton John's Your Song and is already a US Top 5 hit. [May 2014, p.92]

Black Age Blues is satisfyingly solid and reassuringly familiar a comeback as you'd expect. [Jul 2015, p.89]