Good use of pot-banging percussion and swanee whistle electronics. [Mar 2019, p.99]

Intended as a chilly-pastoral instrumental cycle for piano, three cellos and string quartet, but Los Angles sound designer Jennifer Pague pitched lyrics for four tracks and a more personal narrative took shape, evoking solitude and morbidity. [Jun 2020, p. 93]

Heartbreaker Please expresses its title in the most literal terms; it's broken and pleading. At the same time, the music provides a through-line to the 43-year-old's singer's past, striking his usual balance between Buddy Holly simplicity and Roy Orbison sweep, with a dash of Memphis horns tossed in. [Jun 2020, p.89]

Their naked intimacy can be hard to bear. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Many of these 12 songs, eight of them originals, tend towards the reflective. [Jan 2021, p.90]

Though the album's polished backdrops are a far cry from the raw Delta blues records that inspired Keb' Mo' at the dawn of his career, there's no doubting the authenticity of the deep feeling he [ours into his vocal performances. [Feb 2022, p.89]

There's not much here to rival very top Tull but then nothing that sullies the venerable brand either. [Feb 2022, p.83]

It's unashamedly nostalgic, but her voice remains pure and true. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Holds together as a coherent statement, offering - like its predecessor, 2015's Right On! - a more modest, bare-bones vision of the spectral, goth-adjacent dark pop of her day job. [Jun 2022, p.86]

The band retreated into the more self-contained approach which has spawned My other People. [Jul 2022, p.92]

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]

Dad is no longer the singer he was, which of course makes Cat Stevens’ title track all the more poignant. .... Junior does most of the heavy vocal lifting and it is he, you suspect, who suggested Ph.D.’s I Won’t Let You Down and Eurythmics’ Here Comes The Rain Again, both of which turn out to be highlights. [Jan 2025, p.82]

Although there are lengthy passes of mellifluous flute playing, the largely instrumental composition is lacking in focus. But there is much to enjoy ere in the more concise songs. [May 2025, p.92]

As always, with such projects, Goddess flies or falls on what these collaborators bring to the table, but the material here is as strong as it is varied. [Jul 2025, p.84]

Overall, it’s a robust, if somewhat exhausting, showing.

For Radio Wars, producer Dan Grech-Marguerat has opened out their sound, but the atmosphere of intrigue remains. [Apr 2009, p.98]

A warm twangy sound, evocative of Southern, sun-paralysed afternoons. [Dec 2011, p. 100]

The rolling melodies, stately pace and closed-miked, out of phase vocals result in an off-kilter whole, tempered by contributions from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. [July 2008, p.111]

There's a renewed vigour to its frugging mix of vintage synths, barking-dog bass stabs and jagged electric guitars. [Jun 2014, p.94]

A delicate affair sometimes too wistful for its own good, even with the added colour of Dede Sampaio's bird sounds, Extended Vacation is a complex exercise in delicate melodies, field recordings and repetition. [Jan 2010, p. 100]

Structurally, melodically and harmonically some of the material is formulaic but the sublime quality of Stone's vocals - especially on shimmering ballads such as Maybe and Tell Me - save the day. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

The joke's pretty much over after one listen. [Feb 2007, p.106]

This successor has some Morricone moments, but is comparatively wan and blandly moderne. [Jun 2015, p.96]

It's a promising - if a little lackadaisical - debut. [Dec. 2011 p. 97]

Guaranteed to make fans of the underground feel queasy. [Dec 2013, p.92]

There are moments when Craft's melodies don't punch quite so hard as his striking, road-less0trodden imagery. [Mar 2018, p.90]

American Classic really shines when the velveteen smoothness takes a backseat to that voice. [Sep 2009, p.90]

You come away from Hamburg Demonstrations only further assured of the breadth and indestructibility of Doherty's talent. [Jan 2017, p.95]