Her sultry rasp--think Nancy Sinatra meets Bettye Lavette--delivers disquieting, brooding self-penned originals over warped, folk-tinged, electric blues. [Sep 2003, p.110]

An overpoweringly diverse record. [Aug 2003, p.92]

They sound great on it. [Aug 2003, p.90]

A fabulous record, a baffling, joyful, touching, frustrating, silly, totally seductive album that you can lose yourself in for an hour, a day, a week. [Aug 2003, p.92]

The best of The Trouble With Being Myself finds Gray grinning. [Jun 2003, p.98]

[A] sensual, endlessly inventive record. [Aug 2003, p.106]

Some may bemoan the lack of scope in these hushed meditations.... But more will find comfort in the warm surrender of The Clientele's aesthetic. [Sep 2003, p.113]

Adheres to the simple formula that worked so successfully on her debut, combining fluid, mid-tempo grooves with infectious vocal hooks. [Sep 2003, p.110]

As nuts as they are, The Mars Volta recall the raw potential rock held before it was castrated by radio programmers and corporate control. [Aug 2003, p.99]

Their continued presence is reassuring, confirming that there are enough people sufficiently interested in old-fashioned rap music to ensure the group's survival. And this album, logically, is made for those listeners, not to pander to a theoretical multitude. [Aug 2003, p.94]

As accomplished as anything in his storied catalogue. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Disappoints big time. [Oct 2003, p.110]

Mostly you're left with the sensation that the quickie you so hotly anticipated wasn't what you were looking for after all. [Sep 2003, p.104]

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]

Much sparser and looser than we are used to from David Sylvian. [Sep 2003, p.101]

Exotic, deep, unique. [Oct 2002, p.110]

Promise of Love's cyclical episodes unravel at an amenable mid-pace, each one allowed just enough time to establish a mood bfore halting as over-familiarity threatens. [Jul 2003, p.101]

Quirky, detail-rich arrangements nodding at dub and death metal. [Jun 2003, p.108]

Represents an ultramodern rock masterpiece, low-key yet ominous, offering new yet comforting ways of singing familiar tunes. [Jul 2003, p.98]

These songs cut too deep to be pastiche.... A lovely record of enormous warmth. [Jun 2003, p.101]

Finds them fine-tuning their class act, Dickon Hinchcliffe's choice string arrangements underpinning a typically careworn set. [Jul 2003, p.107]

Unfortunately, on Soft Spot [Eef Barzelay] strays too often into the pleasantly nondescript. [Jul 2003, p.112]

Some of the songwriting is exceptional. [Dec 2003, p.114]

Their signature tension between black blues gestures adn white boy harmonies has never been more vividly exploited than here. It'll keep you busy for months. [Jun 2003, p.95]

Celebrates the little people with full powerpop majesty. [Jul 2003, p.108]

As the concerns that drive Lytle's lyrics lift out, the well-known tremulous quiver and fragile vocals become increasingly irreplaceable, the perfect medium for songs about articulating the intangible. [Jun 2003, p.94]

It recollects emotion with a raging tranquillity, artistic objectivity overruling self-pity. [Jul 2003, p.110]

Coheres as well as anything else in their canon. [Jun 2003, p.90]