Hymns is worthy if never quite stratospheric heir. [Feb 2012, p.102]

With songs of fake rock 'n' roll, magical dogs, lost minds and love, this is pop with wobbly wheels and new found joy and optimism. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

Yet for all Doseone's phantasmagoria and keening schizophrenia, there's a melodic richness that miraculously sculpts order out of the panicked disco chaos. [Aug 2012, p.85]

It's a unified listen: it works as an album. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Heavy on atmosphere, but candid and brave also. [Aug 2015, p.98]

The glossy, high-shine finish songs come with an air of post-club languor. [Dec 2012, p.96]

Houston has delivered an album that, despite a few middling tracks, is genuinely moving. [Nov 2009, p.95]

With the group of temporary hiatus, Ounsworth spreads his wings here, delivering a solo set that combines his gift for melody with more adventurous instrumentation and stylistic detours, waltzing between deft piano balladry (Holy, Holy, Holy Moses), high-drama orchestral-pop (That Is Not My Home), and lilting, horn-bolstered calypsos (South Philadelphia Drug Days) with grace, confidence and wit. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

The New Yorkers' debut is retro but refreshing. [Dec. 2010, p. 106]

Mostly, a terrific piece of work. [Nov 2003, p.120]

In places it verges on doodling, as if Barnett is endlessly tuning her guitar, but tracks such as Intro or Tiver sound darkly majestic, like deep, drifting hollowed-out Americana. [Oct 2023, p.78]

foon's USP here is her voice, an instrument of somnolent, gossamer allure which floats gracefully, if opaquely, amid the eddying, amniotic music. [Jul 2013, p.92]

Musical Pop Art has seldom been as good. [Apr 2015, p.88]

The standout is a take on Nothing Compares 2 U, Prince's adroit vocal melody a showcase for Cornell's affectionate, bluesier reading. Elsewhere, Harry Nilsson's Jump Into The Fire is toughened-up and much abridged. [Apr 2021, p.80]

They sound a bit tired. [Sep 2004, p.98]

Canadian duo's smooth blend of yacht rock, disco, Rick James funk and late-90s French house with lyrics that aim to pastiche modern R&B tropes. [Jun 2014, p.98]

All told, it sounds a bit like a band searching for a new direction, and while they don't always find it, it's a worthwhile endeavour either way. [June 2008, p.106]

It's an appropriately trying listen, far removed from 2010's relatively mannered debut. [Sep 2016, p.92]

This is a swaggering, unashamedly fun pop record. [May 2005, p.94]

Dig Out Your Soul might not be the sound of envelopes being pushed, but its mix of kitchen-sink production and too many vague songs mark a deviation from business as usual that ultimately fails to deliver. [Nov 2008, p.105]

The follow-up to 2003's "The Diary Of Alicia Keys" has lots of confidence and volume, but less of the shades in between. [Dec 2007, p.98]

It's the record that regular Krall devotees demand. So is it churlish to suggest that she's capable of something more? [Oct 2006, p.111]

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

In its early stages, Joy feels not at all slight, dashed-off or inferior, launching out on a series of acoustic-rattling, inescapably Syd-Barrett-esque pop tunes whose wonky brevity is a virtue. [Sep 2018, p.93]

It's a labyrinthine 64-minute journey, bound together by a group identity that gains clarity with every listen. [Jun 2012, p.80]

They may be musical magpies but what they build from their stash is gold. [Oct 2012, p.95]

Though the sound remains dreamy, it's expansive; the melodic songs have a feeling of joy. [Oct 2009, p.101]

It's still summer music, but The Only Place captures that moment when it's time to wrap a cardigan around your shoulders against the chill. [Jun 2012, p.83]