A burbling concept piece with moments of poppy and demonic. [Oct 2016, p.100]

When it works, it's astonishing, but his hit rate is middling compared with erstwhile sparring partner El-P. [Aug 2012, p.90]

Bugbears is a rich and warming curio, and there's something quietly noble about Hayman dragging the thoughts of these long-dead writers back into the light. [Aug 2013, p.93]

[Album opener Civil Servant is] sonically inventive, with vocoder interludes and a rousing final call of "Refuse! Refuse!," but its on-the-nose swipes at "Bus-fulls of meat...staring at phone-screens" can't avoid the patronising tone of 95 per cent of all songs about "the workers," written by those otherwise employed. ... Far better are songs where Dawson locates the misery and mystery of life in smaller worlds and stranger vignettes. [Nov 2019, p.90]

It's sex music for oddballs. [Sep 2012, p.89]

From the spooked synth attack of hellish 12-minute opener A Natural Satellite inwards, they do little to dispel those fears, robust drums and dirty organs underscoring the swaggering menace of Grace Jones and The Murder of Maria Marten. [Jan 2017, p.98]

Typically eclectic, off-kilter and irreverent. [Feb 2019, p.90]

Escapology is frequently, characteristically unsettling. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Greater prominence to the duo's quavering vocals, though, isn't quite as satisfying. In the long term, more jam and less song might just be their best strategy. [May 2019, p.95]

With 15 tracks, there a good deal to like. [Oct 2008, p.112]

Slick but foxy music from under pop music's best-maintained fringe. [Nov. 2010, p. 109]

Lyrics are vital, and here they often clunk where they should pierce, deadening some of her undeniable power. [Jun 2020, p.86]

The truth is, her lion's mane voice is best suited to expressing thick-browed emotions like paranoia or picking at the carcass of a long dead relationship. [Apr 2014, p.94]

Knowingly nostalgic, it's an album with a very strong sense of itself. [Sep 2017, p.86]

There are just enough moments of shimmering, honeyed dexterity to keep us listening. [Jul 2012, p.82]

Only a dearth of melodic variations disappoints. [Sep 2014, p.93]

Small World suffers from sonic conservatism: The Tame Impala-lite of I Lost My Mind is undercooked, while It's Good To Be Back's tracly synths are a touch self-parodic. [Apr 2022, p.88]

The 2009 live comp shows how testing their sets can be, with long glitchy interludes between colourbursts of song. [Feb 2020, p.96]

This second outing is an exercise in documenting a much beefier, hot-blooded sound. [Nov 2015, p.87]

On "It's A Party" and on the album's title track they just about manage to nail the right combination of Black Crowes-ish bluesy swagger and no-brainer air-punching party anthems. The fact that such a combination has been done to death--and more memorably, and many years ago--loses Buckcherry points. [Sep 2010, p.106]

Thankfully it finds Richter exploring other directions. [Sep 2010, p.94]

The strengths of Loved Ones remain. ... But [Under The Skin's] relentless musical invention takes it beyond self-indulgence. [May 2021, p.86]

Tatum adds to the mix tropical pop textures, shimmery synth-pop gloss and twangy guitar solos that could melt hearts. [Oct 2012, p.88]

Ambitious, hypnotic but a little relentless. [Jan 2013, p.102]

[Prey] and the sprawling jazz'n'world beats suite of Magpie Music prove that there's still life left in DJ Food. [Feb 2012, p.98]

Heroic, to a degree, but they'd need to hurdle the rainbow to warrant any pot of gold. [Apr 2014, p.95]

More judicious editing might have rendered this a classic return to form, but there are still enough high spots to keep nostalgic fans happy. [Sep 2001, p.92]

Moondust For My Diamond stays the right kind of precious. [Nov 2021, p.91