The Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee-produced follow-up to 2005's "Make Believe," finds Cuomo precariously balanced btween amused/amusing self-obsessed and de facto narcissism. [July 2008, p.110]

They write about what they know. Once that was dashed hopes and broken hearts, now its families and what sounds like pages from a diary. [Apr 2011, p.104]

It's a pity that the set plays out with a hat trick of dreadlock holiday stinkers. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Her relaxed experimentation is more inviting than hearing Longstreth grind his axe. [Aug 2017, p.92]

Her music mostly comprises ordinary, though precisely crafted, acoustic arrangements and plaintive-lite laments regarding absent lover. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

With several songs appearing twice covered by different acts, the malleability and strength of The Midnight Organ Fight material is clear. [Aug 2019, p.88]

Listen too close to the lyrics and you'll often detect a dispiritingly autopilot misanthropy.... Lose yourself in the music, though, and Cherry Bomb reveals a fevered charm. [Jul 2015, p.89]

Every song is arranged beautiful but it feels like an accomplished assemblage rather than a living, breathing whole. [Oct 2018, p.85]

With Love's blackout material is thinly stretched, allowing light to shine in on a skeletal basement stock of dubstep sketches and flat house beats that repeatedly loop out to abrupt endings, halting Zomby's greater narrative ambitions. [Aug 2013, p.92]

Most compelling on the looser, less slick numbers. [Aug 2014, p.96]

Experimental longueurs and lack of vocals mean this trip's not for everyone, but out-rock fans should get on board. [Aug 2005, p.109]

There's undoubted musicianship on display but killer tunes are rarer. [Dec 2018, p.87]

An album whose gentle charms fades a little before the final curtain falls. [Feb 2016, p.93]

A triptych of glitchy, dissonant beats, shards of white light and fractured, ambient interference. [Aug 2013, p.91]

With Telegram's Krautrock, psychedelic Pink Floyd and glam rock influences, it packs a remarkable punch. [Apr 2016, p.91]

Stygian Waves has a pleasing surety of direction. [Jun 2025, p.84]

[Singer MJ's] reverb-drenched vocals keep his lyrics veiled, but the reckless energy of two-chord Spaceman-3 like rock-outs such as Preservation and Away/Towards suggests a most electrifying catharsis is in process. [Apr 2013, p.89]

Despite some uneven quality control, here's proof that this veteran MC still has things to say. [Dec 2010, p.94]

This 77-minute abbreviation includes the 18-minute triptych 'Time Of Ye Life/Born For Nothing/Paranoid Arm Of Narcoleptic Empire, typifying CBP's simmering conflagration of Mogwai, Godspeed! and The God Machine. [May 2009, p.109]

The one-nature of the wracked, robotic torch songs does wear thin by closer Smoke Rings, however. [Jun 2016, p.95]

The album's seven-minute epics, Done and Tomorrow, chase their melodies to powerfully dramatic heights, pocket symphonies that stir and haunt with graceful, emotive crescendos that beg lighters waved aloft. [Feb 2010, p. 104]

Jaded & Faded offers a series of fleetingly thrilling, anti-everything songs that pulse with the kinetic energy of New York street life. [Aug 2014, p.92]

Tricky effectively goes missing as sultry vocal proxies Avalon Lurks, Mina Rose and Terra Lopez takes the weight, before beautifully briny closer When We Die, with original foil Martina Topley-Bird, reminds us of his peculiar strengths. [Oct 2017, p.94]

All the ducking and feinting is entertaining enough, but it begins to feel more like a box of disguises than a coherent album. [Nov 2024, p.91]

This is uneasy listening with little in the way of recognisable groove or plotting. [Jan 2015, p.94]

Flowing with an easy energy, it's the last track on an album that shows Madonna still firmly on the dancefloor, but with her eyes now turning to the USA. [June 2008, p.106]

Gloomy, seductive avant folk-blues. [Jun 2017, p.95]

Less a big splash, more fascinating ripples on a pond. [Apr 2013, p.89]