This brittle, torrid world has little light and shade. [Apr 2015, p.89]

This band could, and should, go mega. [Jan 2003, p.99]

At times positively fizzes into life. [Jun 2003, p.110]

A fine piece of work. [Mar 2003, p.106]

Certainly, for anyone dosed up on post-Sisters black-attired rockisms, these Alabamans are a pulse-racing godsend. [Jan. 2008, p.110]

This bombastic, cacophonic, but endlessly impressive set would make a fine soundtrack for dancing madly among the wreckage [of capitalism]. [Feb 2009, p.113]

Not everything is quite so Travis by-the-numbers--and with mixed results. [Sep 2013, p.88]

While there are moments that grate, this is an assured first outing that suggests that Brad and his band are worth keeping a keen eye on. [Jul 2012, p.83]

Ignoring the meek opener Looking For A Fight and any rote lyrics, the instantly likable Outta My Mind and Dead in Your Head are a master class in girl group jangle pop. [May 2013, p.95]

It's great that the music is allowed to live in the moment, but the inevitable live albums are hardly essential purchases. [Dec 2008, p.112]

[Disc 1] is grunge-punk-metal boiled down to mere energy -- and calories don't rock. [Jul 2005, p.102]

Certainly the most accessible [album] of their career. [Jun 2006, p.99]

In its dreamy, fluttering loops and Sian Ahem's brittle, deliberately understated vocals it possesses a brace of powerful tools. [Aug 2014, p.91]

What's missing? A hot-shot producer. Turbocharge their tunes with studio oomph and jiggery-pokery, and Soul Motivators could fill floors worldwide. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Gleeful scattershot collision between genres and theatrical drama, explored through such epistles as DIE! DIE! DIE!, barked by Pixies' Black Francis. [Aug 2020, p.92]

Slow, stark tracks like Kick-Around Johnny sound like a spun-out, confessional Lou Reed, and there's epiphany too: I Came To Tell You In Plain English (I'm Leaving You) is casually devastating. [Jan 2021, p.90]

It's a slow burner that catches fire. [Feb 2025, p.82]

Probably his most varied album. ... The extremes work better still, be it Cyrus's eyebrow-raising raw trawl through Metallica's Nothing Else Matters or the vocal pyrotechnics which course through Young Thug & Nicki Minaj's Always Love You. [Dec 2021, p.87]

Cherished Canuck crooner recruits Metallica's producer. [March 2011, p. 95]

This is the band at their melodious best. [Jun 2004, p.112]

Though some things remain reassuringly the same--the glitzy, moody, twangy, cinematic '60s Euro-pop feel--as if time hasn't passed, there's also a strong sense of Turner and Kane having grown as people. [May 2016, p.86]

Their candour is as refreshing as it is revealing. [May 2005, p.108]

We're not talking SFA psychonautry but Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's verdant valley of romantic pop innocence. [Aug 2014, p.92]

It's astonishing how, despite his 32 instrumental credits and 20 guests, it still sounds dustbowl-empty, as if these were missives from The Great Depression, time-wise and spiritually. [Aug 2015, p.93]

An exotic and exuberant affair with hard-rock, electronica and symphonic elements. ... Some might find the afterlife that Farrell's Kind Heaven promises a little daunting, ultimately. There's a helluva lot going on all the time. [Jul 2019, p.89]

Each of the album's 10 songs is a downbeat, dreamy, ultra-melodic yet angular nugget. [Sep 2019, p.90]

[Wolf Parade] stand against the day, insisting, "We can begin again." Doing it less with grand declarations than moments of grace. [Mar 2020, p.89]

The new approach... lets them explore their lyrical side. [Sep 2005, p.94]