An album of quite magnificent mardiness. [Mar 2018, p.94]

This relentlessly engaging album hangs together even better than its illustrious predecessor.

Any notions that this [name change]--and additions of brass and strings--is a major label ploy to smooth their edges and distance them from the spiky traditional elements that chracterised "The Bairns" is soon decimated by this new album's equally moody, uncompromising nature. [Nov 2009, p.102]

One of the most compelling [albums of his 15-year career]. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Boy From Michigan is Grant in panoramic mode, looking back and looking forward to create his biggest picture yet. [Jul 2021, p.86]

London singer-songwriter attempts to annex the middle ground between Benga and Anthony Hegarty. [March 2011, p. 96]

The use of computers and electronic SFX here emphasises their dark, distorting, disturbing qualities...

This portrait of the artist might be a gloomy, oppressive one but it’s grimly fascinating nevertheless.

FM! initially feels slighter, not least because of a brisk 22-minute duration. The breeziness is deceptive, though, as Staples and producer Kenny Beats construct a minimalist update of G-funk where the jams are always freighted with an awareness of potential violence. [Feb 2019, p;.84]

This is an album that demands careful attention before its meanings and musing reveal themselves, blending apocalyptic visions with occluded celebration. [Sep 2009, p.91]

"It's not too late to find where you are," he sings on The Tern; Hadsel seems to tremble on the brink of that revelation. [Dec 2023, p.88]

Smart, funny, characterful, there’s virtually nothing not to like about this record. [Dec 2024, p.88]

The poetic soloing ad celestial melodies of Carried It All Around and woozy, irresistible anthem In Hollywood affirm that The Besnard Lakes are masters of their art. [Dec 2025, p.83]

A Dirty Three, free-folk weirdness takes Sophie Harris's vocal theatrics somewhere darker. [Jul 2026, p.93]

Big, beautiful new record. [Aug 2018, p.94]

[Azel] finds him maturing rapidly. [May 2016, p.93]

A modestly sized, nine-track snapshot of the singer in a more appealingly inward phase.

An adroit demonstration of Power's aim to reflect today's festering political landscape. [Apr 2017, p.97]

A richly detailed synth-pop LP of admirable sophistication. [Jul 2023, p.82]

'Easy Does It' is pleasant and clever rather than emotive and memorable, like so much of this album. [Aug 2008, p.114]

Deep-piling beautiful microorchestration and songs which in the fashion of mature-era Fanclub slowly yet unfailingly insinuate their charms. [June 2010, p. 95]

These are songs that chime delicately within uncertain world, in the best possible way, neither here nor there. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Genuinely inspiring, the story of Bananagun is a great yarn. [Aug 2020, p.87]

The songs are wonderfully non-toxic, obsessed in only the best possible way, a refreshing take on country love and lust. [Sep 2023, p.82]

The groove here is mostly grainy, organic, natural. [Nov 2025, p.83]

A modern soundtrack for city life--an aural survival pack that pulls out moments of delicate beauty from all the shit and cacophony. [Dec 2003, p.122]

Despite a shared Giorgio Moroder influence, they are more DAF meets Soft Cell and early Detroit techno than a 21st century Human League.

The album is crowned by the extraordinary, seven-minutes-plus Death Engine, where a gospel feel gives way to a lengthy, rolling, Bach-like coda. On an otherwise tonally unified album, this is where Linden's emotions are at their rawest. [Jun 2020, p.89]