A profoundly ordinary, deeply monotonous LP. [Apr 2002, p.100]

SFA's first truly flawless album.... Sad, lush, romantic, beautiful, heartbroken, crazy, this is an album powerful enough to make you shout out loud in public or cry alone at night. [Aug 2001, p.96]

An eccentric, genre-hopping tribute to the mutability of song-craft. [Mar 2002, p.101]

One of the most cerebral-yet-groovy hip hop albums you'll hear. [Apr 2002, p.104]

It is quizzical, troubled, socially concerned, compassionate, schizoid, retro-eclectic, strikingly modern, racially mixed--and even likes women. [Apr 2002, p.112]

Is not only utterly delectable but manages to find genuinely new ways to shape heartbreak. [Dec 2002, p.114]

Unfashionable and intensely melodic. [June 2002, p.110]

The actual tunes may not be particularly strong, but crucially, at the centre of it all Natalie croons and sighs with all the clear-eyed moonfaced sweetness of Juliette Binoche baking cakes. [Dec 2001, p.116]

The results are mesmeric in their stately extrapolation of gloom. [May 2002, p.102]

Ten years from now, someone will stumble across this in a thift shop, buy on a whim and be thrilled. [Sep 2002, p.96]

Clinic just aren't as sinister as they first seem. They're damaged, but friendly and worth visiting. [Mar 2002, p.105]

This is Billy Bragg as known and loved by many. The difference comes from the never more buoyant Blokes. [Mar 2002, p.114]

Astonishingly, her own production makes much of this guff zing along with dirty guitars or big drum beats and improbably insinuating choruses. [Apr 2002, p.100]

Not a crossover record, but invigorating. [Mar 2002, p.114]

The quirky rhythmic tics remain, as do the cheeky little melodies, but this is a tougher and funkier project altogether. [Feb 2002, p.100]

Challenging and sometimes extraordinarily beautiful. [Mar 2002, p.108]

Generally rawer than it's predecessor Home, Under Cold Blue Stars is as evocative as Rouse's much-lauded debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska, while reaching still further from the twang of his adopted Nashville. [Mar 2002, p.100]

This is a thing of deftly understated beauty from pillar to post. [Mar 2002, p.104]

These gradual pleasures fly in the face of today's pop/rock hardsell, for sure, but inexorably you are drawn into Kurt's world. [Mar 2002, p.100]

A few tracks sound blunt and under-realised, but mostly this is the sound of a champion artist getting good again. [Mar 2002, p.116]

There's an uncomfortable homogeneity about it all. [June 2002, p.100]

Fans are well served, but newcomers might tire waiting for the group's charms to percolate. [Feb 2002, p.93]

Every one of these 12 self-composed, played and produced tracks is absolutely stickled with hooks. [March 2002, p.108]

For the most part it's a genuinely thrilling, energy-charged adventure. [Feb 2002, p.98]

The same drifting mood is maintained from start to finish, all nine songs being gently eclectic acoustic musings with occasional electronic decorations. [Apr 2002, p.101]

Point is less a stylistic mash-up and more a stylish exploration of mood and groove. [Feb 2002, p.98]

The work of a genuine individualist. [Aug 2001, p.108]

Although [Future Songs] reveals no radical reinvention, it does see them stretching their creative legs. [Jul 2001, p.96]