A baffling mix of forgettable riffs and clumsy lyricism. [Jun 2019, p.96]

The vocals are mostly too downmix, the lyrics too inaudible or too banal. [Apr 2011, p.101]

In the end, caution and Horn's glossy production smother the early Yes's spirit of oddball experiment. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]

This sounds like a calculated genre exercise. [Sep 2012, p.90]

A big record, but one that leaves little mark. [Jan 2016, p.88]

With her co-producers, they fashion some perfectly weighted, tastefully adorned grroves but her voice, an idiosyncratic mix of Lucinda Williams and Dolores O'Riordan inflections, sometimes jars. [Apr 2008, p.100]

Sadly, their steadfast refusal to engage the emotions is irritating and alienating. [Feb 2001, p.95]

It's defiantly uneasy listening, becoming more uneasier still when No Help Pamphlet comes in sounding like a lost Badly Drawn Boy Song. [Sep 2017, p.88]

These 15 songs justify their status as outtakes. [Sep 2012, p.96]

In Anderson's own context, it's slight, awkward stuff. [Oct 2008, p.110]

With each album, the Canadian collective's mix of '70s rock and nursery rhyme harmonies gets less raucous and more predictable. [June 2010, p. 94]

Even with a groundswell of atmospheric guitar sounds and ghostly keyboards,the album's slow-burning style never fully ignites. [Aug 2014, p.91]

Large chunks of Everything At Once sound dishearteningly workmanlike. [May 2016, p.92]

Lacking the wit and lyrical dexterity of a Jill Scott or the raw power of Angie Stone, the songs can feel airless and unengaged. [Sep 2006, p.98]

The results are strangely disorientating and at times Carr's brittle, acoustic sketches are smothered by skull-jarring percussion. [Sep 2004, p.92]

Stollsteimer, it seems, is still in search of his own musical identity. [ Jun 2009, p.96]

There's still precious little here that's not been said before with more originality. [Oct 2014, p.93]

Packs too many failed experiments. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

The third set sounds clean and efficient at the expense of real zest. [Jun 2019, p.96]

Sampling Serge Gainsbourg's quivering strings for 'Sensitized,' however, only serves to highlight the album's lack of truly knee-wobbling moments. [Dec 2007, p.98]

US gypsy folkies ramble aroudn the musical map. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

Another like this and they should consider naming themselves after a different Tim Buckley album--Look At The Fool, for instance. [Oct 2003, p.107]

Though making the common mistake of over-investing in the frame of guitar and piano licks and bodging the big picture of the song, Ron Wood's tribute is not the worst in the world. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Their pop-rock posturing comes studded with lyrical yearning but lacks real emotional weight. [Mar 2014, p.96]

This lot recall mid-'90s crusty combos like Senser and Back To The Planet, their politics naive and hectoring, their music, frankly, pretty ghastly. [Apr 2009, p.108]

All in all, Duck is the sound of a band trying way too hard. [Sep 2019, p94]

A steely-eyed desperation to succeed is transparent all through Hard-Fi's debut. [Aug 2005, p.112]

There's just one heart-grabbing moment. [May 2007, p.120]