Easy listening with just enough unease to tease. [Nov 2003, p.125]

Using jaunty jigs and marches, [Matmos] mishandle flutes, bagpipes, violins and God knows what else to illustrate the mid-1800s battlefield. [Oct 2003, p.111]

Some of it hisses and gurgles like early Future Sound Of London. [Oct 2003, p.118]

Stalking drumbeats collide with lush chords and Joel Cadbury's smoky vocals for an emotionally fragile record. [May 2004, p.104]

Despite such flamboyant touches, the songs here are more caustic than camp. [Oct 2003, p.120]

A combination of fierce electro-clash, stabbing rock riffs, and the rudest raps on the planet. [Oct 2003, p.118]

Those who want their Emmylou full of sweet, sad longing will play a quarter of this album to death.... Elsewhere, there's righteous anger and an assertiveness and sexuality to the love songs. [Nov 2003, p.128]

Every time you think you've got to the bottom of a particular song, another layer of intrigue presents itself. [Oct 2003, p.118]

An odball masterpiece. [Oct 2003, p.110]

North radiates a humanity that wasn't altogether apparent on, say, The Juliet Letters or When I Was Cruel. [Oct 2003, p.104]

Represents a major leap forward. [Nov 2003, p.130]

The genius of past Outkast isn't diluted or diminished across these disks, rather it's doubled, expanded and explored. [Sep 2003, p.99]

It's messy, seductive stuff. [Dec 2003, p.113]

A vast, often splendid affair that recalls the lavish expanse of Roger Waters-era Pink Floyd alongside the psychedelic crash of The Who. [Dec 2003, p.122]

The dozen self-penned songs blend traditional genres rather than rewriting the style guide, but that weight of musical and emotional heritage only adds to the compelling effect of the whole. [Jan 2004, p.99]

An astonishing album... a nu soul master that should ride high on any 21st century 'best of' lists. [Dec 2003, p.109]

As fine as anything he's done, but overall Grand Champ makes too many R&B concessions to be a fitting epitaph to his record-breaking career. [Nov 2003, p.129]

[A] perplexing, 'is it irritating or is it glorious?' album that meshes the oddball with the serious in a quirky, plastic-punk manner not entirely unlike that of The B-52's and Devo. [Mar 2004, p.108]

There's no denying the intuitive understanding Stone has of the often daunting material she tackles. [Mar 2004, p.104]

The Darkness swoop dangerously close to parody, but pull off the dizzying, sublime soprano hi-jinks of I Believe In A Thing Called Love, the deft pop-rock of Friday Night and Love On The Rocks WIth Ice's overbearing machismo with the grace of seasoned circus acrobats. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Bowie's best album for 20 years. [Oct 2003, p.104]

With greater degrees of deliberate construction than Mers De Noms, Thirteenth Step is more cohesive band effort, less ad hoc side project. [Nov 2003, p.132]

As Mayaer talks himself in circles you hear an artist facing massive success, and retreating from it. [Dec 2003, p.112]

This is an album of stadium sized melodies and exquisite songwriting, allied with almost too many ideas. [Jun 2003, p.110]

This is music you can lose yourself in. [Oct 2003, p.110]

Epic, lyrical, and as ultimately old-fashioned as those words suggest. [Oct 2003, p.106]

For every song that reacts against the last album, another chimes perfectly with its mood of epic redemption. [Sep 2003, p.101]

Enough memorable moments to make this the first Catholics album worthy of your love and attention. [Sep 2003, p.113]