Occasionally, as on the stuttering, beats-at-war-with-the-tune One And Lonely, it's not so successful, but in the main it's easy to feel both the width and the quality. [Jun 2011, p.106]

While The Gate is not as persuasive as 2007's Nightmoves, the good stuff more than makes up for comparatively effortful takes on Stevie Wonder and EW&F material. [Jun 2011, p.105

Though the bleak, froideur-laden Going Wrong and Milky Blau also impress, here are moments when W reneges on Doorway's great promise. [Jun 2011, p.105]

The Dodos switchback moods and rhythms never settle and that's the prime joy of No Color. [Jun 2011, p.105]

It isn't as urgent as Crazy rhythms, but follows from 1986's The Good Earth with a sparkling, rolling and guitar strum-driven understatement between third and fourth LP Velvets, a minimalist Neil Young and their cheerleaders R.E.M. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Cantrell's voice exudes greater purity than Wells's and she has some tricks up her sleeve, one being an original that gives the album its title, a song that namechecks Wells and other country icons such as Maybelle Carter and Martha Carson. [Jun 2011, p.105]

A festival friendly selection of gossamer reggae-lite that even jacks a riff from U2's Bad On I'll Be Waiting, although the mood is more a love up, unplugged Boomtown Rats, with Franti carefully to ensure his unflinching positivity doesn't become too wearing. [Jun 2011, p.104]

[It results] in bubblegum thrash paeans to laziness and forgetfulness, multiple blasts of fiery milquetoast defiance stuffed with beguiling observations on the minor tragedies of everyday life. [Jun 20111, p.104]

Laurie is best on standards such as St James Infirmary and Buddy Bolden's Blues, playing piano on them with strength and sensitivity. [Jun 2011, p.104]

She's simply not being fed the right material, or getting to work with a sympathetic producer. Hudson is a soul singer not a modern R'n'B one. [Jun 2011, p.104]

Originally intended as a YouTube offering, The Palace Guards teeters between alt country and folk rock in a diverse and totally appealing manner. [Jun 2011, p.103]

Harvey's softly purring voice hardly leaps from the speakers, but his identity is stamped strikingly on Rhymeless, with its malevolent appropriation of "all the songs you never sang to your little ones." [Jun 2011, p.103]

Lollipop finds songwriter Curt Kirkwood, as ever, rearranging rock history into new shapes that fit his wonderfully warped vision, delivering some of the Pups' most compelling tuneage yet. [Jun 2011, p.102]

Booker responds with young and evergreen playing, a typically euphonious mixture of economy, precision, warmth, color and melody on tight groovin' instrumentals. [Jun 2011, p.101]

The remainder unfurls in similar fashion: laudably spirited, often astoundingly catchy and entirely indebted to the past. [Jun 2011, p.101]

Good album, clever guy. [Jun 2011, p.100]

The simpler numbers--sun-dappled Dust On The Dancefloor, sweet love ballad Our Hearts Burn Like Damp Matches--are much better. [Jun 2011, p.100]

More symphonic in structure than Herren's previous work and richer in melody and theme, it eschews loops in favor of fuzzy interference and acoustic vibrations. [Jun 2011, p.97]

Darkly neurotic, it captures the on-the-road loneliness and sense of dislocation perfectly. [Jun 2011, p.97]

The Magic Place is her most fully involved album, suffused with the warmth of fond memories and a deep, dream-like resonance. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Their orchestral meditations on aging are convincing and beautiful. [Jun 2011, p.96]

So, was Tony Bennett exaggerating when he called lang, "the best singer of her generation"? Yes, but on this form only a little. [May 2011, p.114]

By the end, you are left wanting more extreme flourishes. [May 2011, p.114]

His score for this Murakami adaptation is just as striking, referencing Vaughan Williams and Shostakovich in a manner similar to such 20th century Japanese magpie composers as Hayasaka and Hashimoto. [May 2011, p.112]

The Youth split their sound into four clear component parts: piano, drums, percussion and guitar-screes that separate out beautifully and merge grimily--just like the kids in the film itself. [May 2011, p.112]

Collected together the fear might have been that the sound would be found wanting. yet from 1996's Nenette Et Boni to 2009's White Material here is a sound always pulsing with the same intimate warmth of Denis' films. [May 2011, p.112]

This is an album that stands up to the touchstone indie classics it references. [May 2011, p.112]

An impressive debut that crackles with vitality. [May 2011, p.112]