More non-threatening folk-pop. [Jul 2014, p.96]

It's not so much that the most singularly talented and important soul singer of now has let us down, more she's tried too hard to please. [Sep 2003, p.105]

Beneath The Skin becomes a cautionary take if how going for "affecting" can end up just terribly overwrought. [Jul 2015, p.90]

Esteemed guests such as flautist Michael McGoldrick, accordionist Phil Cunningham and fiddler John McCusker ornament the arrangements exquistely, while the Knopf's ever-tactile guitar continues to say more with three notes than most do with 20. [Oct 2009103]

A classy veneration of the Byrds, Bob and Band, exquisitely seasoned with phlegmy harmonies and subtle instrumentation. [Mar 2004, p.108]

There's an engaging sense of uncertainty running through these songs. [Mar 2010, p.96]

Patchy seven-song set. [Feb 2017, p.105]

It's polished, professional, but one for the faithful. [May 2023, p.89]

Bold, stirring and so unfashionable it just might work. [Mar 2003, p.114]

Their new direction sounds suspiciously like the old one. [Jul 2006, p.100]

Some of the most powerfully surging melodies from a British band since the second Travis album. [March 2002, p.114]

Once they settle in, Cats In Paris could be a hyper-modern Stackridge. [Sep 2008, p.98]

New all-star trio featuring Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper, and George Harrison's son, Dhani. [Jan. 2011, p. 96]

At it's best, it's a picaresque, altered-states voyage through old school hip-hop, black-leather electro and techno menace; elsewhere it's as invigorating as trying to get served at a bar. [Apr 2008, p.101]

Wildly uneven, sporadically awesome. [Jun 2015, p.92]

The Ottawan's new record abounds with moments most arresting for the crazy chutzpah with which she'll shoehorn a line of verse into a line of music whose rhythm puts the stresses on all the wrong words. [July 2008, p.104]

It isn't until the latter half of the album... that they find their own voice, and one that delivers deliciously sugary powerpop. [Aug 2005, p.102]

The Afro-ising influence of Vampire Weekend on Precisely The Dodos' musical sector leaves them sounding emblematic only of early-Noughties blowsiness--as passe as their name suggests. [Oct 2009, p.108]

This feels like production line Muse: big riffs, bass squelches, conspiratorial dialogue, but few new ideas. [Aug 2015, p.88]

As unique and poignant as a family bible. [Nov 2005, p.104]

The failing voice at its core would clearly be happier in the privacy of lo-fi. [Mar 2003, p.106]

Without ostentation, The Ragpicker's Dream draws his major sources together: R&B, country, North-East folk. [Oct 2002, p.106]

You try to remember a single melody or hook from the record and you're found wanting. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Carolina's use of a talk box a la Frampton stuck in this listener's craw, but elsewhere the urgency and uncensored filth of Slash's playing is a joy. [Jul 2012, p.82]

Living Fields is no instant hit, but the twilight world you're eventually drawn into is difficult to leave. [May 2015, p.98]

A diverse collective taking turns at the canon. [Jun 2017, p.94]

It's a highly-strung record--tiringly so sometimes--but The Dears walk its emotional tightrope with an acrobat's grace. [Aug 2017, p.93]

Get Hurt proves the balance between The Gaslight Anthem's Springsteenesque heroism and their punk fire is key to keeping them from tumbling into the trite. [Sep 2014, p.88]