All the ducking and feinting is entertaining enough, but it begins to feel more like a box of disguises than a coherent album. [Nov 2024, p.91]

A grimier, more uncomfortable listen. [Nov 2004, p.100]

At its best during the cinematic rock of Coming Home, the epic, plangent Roses and pugilistic opener The Factory Gates. It's less successful on the woozy stomp-alongs of Misery Company and Meanwhile Up in Heaven. [Apr 2014, p.92]

The piano-led 'New Beginnings' is one of several sombre mood pieces on what is the most ambitious work of the band's 40-year career. But fear not, headbangers: 'Revelation,' all chugging rifferama and panto villany, prove that Priest are still mad for it. Metal, that is. [July 2008, p.100]

It's a strangely stilted approach on songs. [Sep 2009, p.92]

Sumner's fans won't be disappointed, but it feels a bit like a stopgap. [Nov 2009, p.90]

Cleverly, it mixes them [stadium rock and Celtic roots] both. [Mar 2012, p.99]

They're doing nothing radical, but the band, now in their 35th year of playing together, are tight and the results pleasing. [Oct 2013, p.96]

This is a band who need to shrink back a little, switch off the emotional wind-machine, and work out how to make the personal less impersonal. [Jan 2019, p.86]

Make the most of dead Son Rising, as its diversity is its strength. [Nov 2011, p.103]

There's nothing staggeringly new happening here, but it's all deftly delivered and sure to find favour. [Mar 2011, p.106]

While T.I.'s measured, discursive rap style is heard at its best on scourging confessional duets with Eminem and, of all people, Christina Aguilera on the genuinely touching Castle Walls, Further promising collaborations with Kanye West, Pharrell and Drake end up having a rather more formulaic ring to them. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Sadly, the results are soul-less. [Apr 2003, p.99]

A fairly routine batch of middling-to-turgid funk numbers about lurrve performed with rather more duty than excitement.

In part gripping.... But Gore doesn't always push his voice to its brilliantly effete/effeminate extremes. [May 2003, p.104]

The album only stretches to 35 minutes but its quality more than compensates. [July 2002, p.112]

If anywhere, this stuff belongs in interviews, not in songs. [Mar 2004, p.94]

There's an undeniable feeling of bile over content. [Nov 2005, p.100]

Generally, the undistinguished R&B pop and trite lyrics he and his long-term bandmates come up with bear no comparison to the salty good cheer of 'It Don't Come Easy' and 'Photograph.' [Feb 2008, p.100]

Satriani, a Hendrix obsessive, is brilliant throughout. But above all, it's the quality of their songs that makes Chickenfoot more than just a rich rock star's hobby. [Jan 2012, p.100]

Surprises include End Of Night, nicely brutish electro-pop where Dido's automaton vocal really works; funked-up raga/calypso Love To Blame; and Sitting On The Roof Of The World.... Otherwise, Musak coming soon to a changing room near you. [May 2013, p.88]

The result is confusing, as with any roots artist messing with synths and beats. Even so, when he doing his familiar stark, keening vocal and raw country-blues thing and sentimental lighters-aloft pop, he's still deeply impressive. [Jul 2016, p.92]

While other Clansmen excel are building intricate metaphors and vivid storytelling, Method Man is all about swaggering confidence and masterflow flows. [Sep 2015, p.93]

She's got soul all right. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]

The blue-collar earnestness is still served in large dollops, but there;s a sense of over-reach about the whole thing. [May 2011, p.100]

The 'Lab's fondness for Latin exotica pushes the music well clear of egghead tedium.

Nothing on The Spine drills into your cerebral cortex and demands to be whistled on public transport like earlier hits, but the tunes are agreeable enough. [Aug 2004, p.99]

This record does not return [Ice Cube] to his early 1990s heyday, but proves he still has sufficient desire to make angry, focused music. [Aug 2006, p.90]