Hate is a record of immense ambition and sophistication, a bold vision, a beautifully calibrated meditation on the messy business of life. [Nov 2002, p.98]

A debut that will fry your ears and break your heart. [Jan 2012, 100]

He sings with committed restraint and plays outspoken guitar. [Feb 2005, p.95]

No duffers here, never a dull moment, satisfaction guaranteed. [Jul 2005, p.100]

Multifaceted and consistently brilliant. [Jun 2023, p.84]

Fascinatingly oblique songs are plaed with confidence and laid-back precision, rather than smothered by a desperation to impress. [Mar 2005, p.96]

The results are often magical, the tracks' man-versus-machine provenance never jarring, the music often utterly liquid in feel. [Apr 2020, p.95]

A jittery suite of clattering protest jams, further uplifted by the ferocious interplay between trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and alto saxophonist Keir Neuringer. [May 2020, p.95]

This is a new band, but it already sounds primed for the long haul. [May 2025, p.90]

The cover of P.J. Harvey's 'The Desperate Kingdon Of Love' encapsulates the album--restful, intoxicating, sounding gorgeous. [Oct 2008, p.102]

He hones in on what he does best, and improves it. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Ultimately, it's a record filled with beauty that tries to do what therapy does: sort through a mess of emotions and reorganise them into something that makes more sense. [Jun 2019, p.84]

Copeland herself is always gloriously centre-stage. [Jun 2009, p.108]

The solid, memorable songs are at the sweet end of the bittersweet spectrum. [Mar 2014, p.91]

Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. [Jun 2009, p.94]

The overall result is not the studious mess it could have been, but an adventurous, challenging and futuristic recording, albeit one that might cause a little aural indigestion. [Feb 2010, p. 93]

The other Side [is] probably the most honest reflection of himself he's ever made. [Jun 2024, p.87]

This is music that needs to be heard in as long a form as possible, so nothing breaks the immersive hallucinatory effect, and you can lose all sense of time direction and place. [Mar 2023, p.93]

Like Lamar’s grandstanding To Pimp A Butterfly, the numerous strands of Compton: A Soundtrack take time and effort to fully unravel, but the rewards are manifold.

We Move is warm, slick and modernist. [Oct 2016, p.96]

A more nuanced approach than generally prevails on his records with The Hold Steady. [Oct 2015, p.90]

EX is a contemporary masterpiece. [Sep 2014, p.88]

Stick on the nine minutes of opener Lufuala Ndonga, turn the bottom end up and stand back. What happens next is unbelievable. [May 2005, p.98]

Now he only resembles himself--a distinctive and exhilarating vituperative voice celebrating anything from glam rock to beans on toast. [Jan 2017, p.102]

The 35-track odyssey serpentines on an exotic carpet of plangent electric and acoustic guitar sounds through whimsical, sub-Basement Tapes Americana, languorous, Grateful Dead-like psych-folk and hallucinogenic, Lennon-esque-pop. [Jan 2018, p.92]

Field Music's most ambitious album yet. ... A consummate success. [Feb 2018, p.88]

On his third solo album, Steve Mason veers dangerously close to that overfarmed damaged-earnest-sensitive-bloke territory, but luckily he doesn't seem capable of schmaltz or emotional cheap-shots. [Mar 2016, p.95]