With shade and contrast added to the anthems, the songs emerge from a brooding, often restrained darkness so when Fray and co click into euphoric chorus gear they genuinely soar. [Dec 2016, p.92]

No Further Ahead Than Today's 10 chromium-smooth synth-pop essays are so meticulously, lavishly and mellifluously constructed that listening to them is like being dosed up with dopamine. [Jan 2017, p.96]

There are tidings aplenty, but little comfort and even less joy. [Feb 2017, p.97]

It's tasteful and meticulous throughout, but the longer, more adventurously songs exert a greater grip on the imagination. [Oct 2019, p.91]

Sure, these blues are familiar, but at least these friends make 'em fun. [Aug 2023, p.82]

For all their organic methods, these Animals often come across so robotic and constricted--witness natural Selection's echoes of woozy Chicago house classic Washing machine--stripping those painstaking vocal arrangements of their humanity. [Mar 2016, p.94]

Hearts is meta-shoegazing, a melody-driven dive into mist, where focus is difficult. [Sept. 2011, p. 97]

Scratch beneath the glossy surface of Torches and beneath the gurgles, stutters and hands-aloft choruses lies an album with a disappointing lack of substance. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

Fascinatingly oblique songs are plaed with confidence and laid-back precision, rather than smothered by a desperation to impress. [Mar 2005, p.96]

The band sound like they're striding into the mainstream, leaving Desveaux sounding more of a sweet, upbeat pop-rock songstress than she should. [Apr 2009, p.109]

There are gothy antecedents here – Baby Blue Movie sounds like the ’80s Cure over-medicated in the Hollywood Hills – and if it sustains a certain moodiness, X’s adheres to a tonally one-note atmosphere. [Aug 2024, p.82]

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]

There's no hallmark of originality or pushing envelopes, nor any sense of collaboration between two distinct talents creating more than a sum of their parts. [Apr 2012, p.94]

The disc as a whole is never quite as gripping as its conceptual predecessors. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Instrumental rhythms and all manner of sound effects are used to colour in these morbidly compelling stories. [Apr 2017, p.90]

Like Weimar cabaret Gilbert & Sullivan. [Apr 2006, p.104]

This is SMD's deepest, moodiest record to date. [Jun 2012, p.85]

Old Growth has the primeval, fuzzed-out power of the trio's earlier albums, but with a new clarity and groove. [Mar 2008, p.113]

Krell sounds like ha has taken a step back, seemingly trading his experimentalism for a more traditional blue-eyed soul route. [Jul 2014, p.91]

The live album of the film of his 2014 Scottish road trip reveals Moffat's irreverent take on his nation's folk songs. [May 2016, p.96]

"Back In Back" it ain't, but it's certainly a real return to form. [Nov 2008, p.102]

For every throughly relised composition, there is a meandering fragment, great only as far as it goes. [Nov 2009, p.90]

It's hard not to wish for more. Or maybe less. [Feb 2012, p.95]

It seems that self-examination has taken them to bold, new places. [Apr 2021, p.80]

Ten years from now, someone will stumble across this in a thift shop, buy on a whim and be thrilled. [Sep 2002, p.96]

The arrangemnts are smartly constructed, Campbell's guitar is economical and crisp, and his interpretibve skills and singing are as sharp as during his commercial peak. [Sep 2008, p.112]

[Tallies] inject sufficient Sunday/Cocteaus-ish vocal and melodic bounce to soften even the most calcified indie heart. [Feb 2019, p.93]

Continues to hit the sonic sweet spots. [Jun 2019, p.93]