Stellar noise pollution. [May 2003, p.99]

This is a more consistent set, and, hopefully, a revelation for a few young metal heads. [Feb 2003, p.89]

Occasionally ground down in the past with the sheer weight of sadness, here Songs:Ohia sound defiant, uplifting, and never better. [Apr 2003, p.102]

Its songs hurtle at Buzzcocks pace and fizz with nagging melodies. [Jun 2003, p.110]

Donelly's wild, sweet tones are the perfect counterpoint to Hersh's cajoling banshee of a voice. [Apr 2003, p.97]

Cursive employ musical inventiveness and a healthy dose of self-awareness to set themselves apart. [Apr 2003, p.102]

Fantastic! [Aug 2002, p.112]

There is little truly distinctive here. [Jun 2003, p.113]

A reflective, pop album fit for a rainy afternoon. [Mar 2003, p.103]

Winds the clock back to a mid-'80s electro-soundworld in which melodies are crafted alongside beats, rather than crushed by them, and the tinkle of a keyboard carries a sinister air of mystery. [Mar 2002, p.104]

More accessible than of old. [Mar 2003, p.108]

An overreaching cathedral, designed by Spiritualized, Kris Kristoferson and John Barry, Human Conditions still somehow charms with its hungry troubadour's idealism. [Nov 2002, p.102]

The formula eventually sags. [Oct 2002, p.92]

Smoother than last year's Sign, this capricious set also contains some finely crafted instrumental sections. [Mar 2003, p.114]

This is accessible, if sometimes austere, modern electronica, distinguished by passages of unmitigated prettiness. [May 2003, p.108]

Thrilling. [May 2003, p.106]

Surprisingly much more accessible than the idea first sounds. [May 2003, p.106]

She's somehow too like several other singers and perhaps too unambitious a writer to immediately engage novitiates. [Mar 2003, p.114]

Somewhere between Faultline's bedroom-boffin invention and Stephen Merritt's pensive elegance. [May 2003, p.99]

Seductive, stirring songs about crushed hope and the corruption of beauty and some of their most ambitious arrangements make this their most fully-realised and accomplished album yet. [Mar 2003, p.98]

Occasionally... there's a sense of things being too studied, the brain doing the work of the heart. [May 2003, p.106]

[The Datsuns] do the rawk thing so well you can forgive them almost anything. [Dec 2002, p.106]

With You Are Free it feels like she's reached some kind of accomodation between a celebration of her vocal gift and a context within with she can happily offer it to everyone else. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Overlong, but Chocolate Factory is an impressively varied opus. [May 2003, p.100]

The Aislers don't always hit their mark, perhaps because the disparate interests at work also contribute to some unengaging instrumental, noise and nearly spoken word pieces. [Apr 2003, p.103]

Unfolds like a hand-stitched musical patchwork quilt, gently educating its listeners in the great American songster tradition. [Apr 2003, p.114]

It's recognisably the same band, but lower key, less structured, a set of soundscapes rather than songs, and sometimes almost gothic in its mood. [Mar 2003, p.97]

This is exhilarating stuff. [Mar 2003, p.111]