The Panic Channel... never quite click. [9 Sep 2006, p.37]

Smart; savvy; insanely resilient: 'Waterloo To Anywhere' is just the ticket.

Sounds as hideously vital... as [Slayer] have at any time during their 23 year career. [26 Aug 2006, p.41]

He's nothing if not versatile. [16 Sep 2006, p.37]

Amped-up, aggressive and with a deep love for our canine friends, he arrives once again, shadow-boxing to the max. [19 Aug 2006, p.33]

Ho-hum. [22 Jul 2006, p.39]

While there are a few too many lounge-bar moments - a hangover from his NERD days - when 'In My Mind' is good, it really is excellent.

Contains... some of his finest ever songs. [5 Aug 2006, p.29]

What should have been a worldly record of peace ends up limping with musical dissatisfaction that outweighs its virtue. [29 Jul 2006, p.31]

What's left of the genius glam-punksters has returned in the guise of an above-average pub-rock band. [22 Jul 2006, p.31]

It's one drawn-out primal scream that goes from dark and broody to blissed-out drone. [11 Mar 2006, p.43]

Even the ticking percussion and trilling synths can't hide the sheer melodic oddness of Gartside's songs. [3 Jun 2006, p.35]

Even with the rich array of sounds, every track has an impressive immediacy and it's that balance that makes 'Personality...' so uplifting. [22 Jul 2006, p.39]

Probably the most gutsy, timeless recording of his career. [5 Aug 2006, p.29]

Sounds like a man freed from the shackles of history. [22 Jul 2006, p.31]

Poaching multifarious links from dance music's evolutionary chain, MSTRKRFT grind the good-time sounds of Marshall Jefferson-era Chicago house with harder Detroit techno, and use much of the rest of the album to stretch their ideas out.

Muse have made a ridiculous, overblown, ambitious and utterly brilliant album, with more thrills than their previous three put together.

'Impeach My Bush' is no great sonic leap forward, but it is a near-perfect distillation of Peaches' "thing".

'Kid B'? Yeah, OK - but Radiohead will never make another album like it, and as a twin, it's every bit the equal.

Positively overflowing with magnificent oddities. [1 Jul 2006, p.36]

Thank you very much, Mr Rubin--The Man In Black is still with us. [1 Jul 2006, p.36]

[It] can't top the early stuff. [5 Aug 2006, p.29]

Sounds like an even less energetic Alicia Keys. [24 Jun 2006, p.43]

Truly this is music for life's uncomplicated moments. [15 Jul 2006, p.39]

There's little on PSB's album that matches the big twizzly dunce-hatted glory of their 'Very' peak. [20 May 2006, p.33]

Lostprophets are big and brash and brilliant. And this is rock'n'roll radio.

His world may be grittier, but Plan B's up there with Alex Turner as a lyricist, crafting simple and darkly witty songs about the reality of life in Britain.

Where Black's muse was once shrieked and otherworldly, it's now distinctly earth-bound. [17 Jun 2006, p.37]

As thrilling as Gwen, as badass as MIA. [17 Jun 2006, p.37]

If you don't mind the odd reflective moment, the odd luscious production value, then this has plenty to offer. [25 Mar 2006, p.37]

It's heady stuff, that fans of Serge Gainsbourg, Nick Cave, Scott Walker and anyone else that's ever sung miserable songs in a rumpled suit will be at home with. [10 Jun 2006, p.43]

It can indeed be shunted into the drawer marked "I can't believe I used to like this band." [17 Jun 2006, p.39]

Noble and determined, 'Left' proves that while HOTS are capable of stirring thoughts and emotions, it's only when they reach full throttle that they truly move hearts and minds.

'News And Tributes' is not just better than their first album, it's a fabulous record from a band with an exciting forward catalogue ahead of them.

It's far too early to say whether they will reach the same lofty heights, but there's something of New Order in Hot Chip. There's the same mix of art school-meets-working man demeanour, an unabashed acknowledgement of the debt popular music owes to clubland and a wry lyrical conceit.

Astounding. [1 Jul 2006, p.36]

It is indeed a really good record--but not a patch on their 1988 masterpiece 'Daydream Nation'. [17 Jun 2006, p.37]

'Begin To Hope' is the sound of [Spektor] blossoming into the most talented female artist around--and one with edge. [8 Jul 2006, p.43]

With a comeback pitched between the indulgent love-metal of HiM and the pubescent pop-punk of Fall Out Boy, AFI's hiatus looks increasingly less like laziness and more like a marketing masterstroke.

Much of the reason for bothering with BYOP lies in the absolute glory of hearing Pearl succeed in making every lyrical couplet she spews forth sound as if she's been drinking cider since birth and is ready to hurl... anytime... now!

If 'Let's Get Out Of This Country' was a person, you would want to hug it until its big doe-eyes popped out. [10 Jun 2006, p.41]

A good album, in a well-produced way, but it's not as good or as important as it thinks it is. [24 Jun 2006, p.43]

Excuse me sir, is this 1993? [26 Aug 2006, p.43]

Mojave 3's Great Leap Forward. [17 Jun 2006, p.39]

Like a scented Lush bath-bomb of mediocrity. [27 May 2006, p.31]

[They] are so busy trying to be Supertramp they've forgotten to add anything of themselves. [3 Jun 2006, p.35]

Every bit as stark, foreboding, but utterly singular as 'Tilt'. [6 May 2006, p.33]

Kicks with a passion and inventiveness that's seen them steam up the specs of everyone from Moby to Graham Coxon. [17 Jun 2006, p.39]

If 'It's Never Been Like That' is a failure, at least it's not a boring one. [20 May 2006, p.31]

A hundred miles off, and they might as well be a thousand. [16 Sep 2006, p.37]

Cabic's alt.blues vocals sometimes sound disinterested, but they merely act as a device for the music to take over the listener. [1 Jul 2006, p.36]

When it comes down to it, it ain't gonna change your world any.

Their problem? Others have overtaken them. [17 Jun 2006, p.39]

After three Twilight albums that never lived up to his previous might, he's now hit paydirt. [13 May 2006, p.41]

A series of back-to-the-futurescapes that are both lush and subtly unnerving. [29 Jul 2006, p.29]

So unashamedly beaming with the spirit of 1991 that it should be wearing a flannel shirt and a woozy expression. [22 Apr 2006, p.41]

Mason falls a touch short of the mark. [27 May 2006, p.33]

This is both a fine and fun album. [21 May 2005, p.65]

You certainly won't hear much else at the moment as inventive as this.

Really, what's to be gained from simplistic sloganeering like, "We don't need no more lies!" [20 May 2006, p.33]

Again finds them excelling in the art of morbidity. [27 May 2006, p.33]

This is Americana of the highest order. [20 May 2006, p.33]

Easy to admire, but hard to really love. [27 May 2006, p.31]

Somewhere along the line the Chilis got sophisticated on our asses.

This surprise is an entirely pleasant one. [27 May 2006, p.33]

Gone completely is any passing trace of the grubby, US college rock that made them so beloved underground when the real world wasn't taking notice. In its place, is an awful lot of big, blustery ballads.

Yet another Next Flaming Lips emerges from beneath the librarian's skirts. In the 'Neon Bible' section, of course.

A record of rare and strange beauty. [4 Nov 2006, p.33]

Shoegazing in origin, barn-storming in conclusion. [24 Jun 2006, p.43]

It's at its best on the likes of 'Blackened Blue Eyes', which... is a cousin of their classic 'One To Another.' [8 Apr 2006, p.41]

Combin[es] the chummy West Coast country pop of The Thrills with the plink-plonk pub piano philosophising of Embrace. [3 Jun 2006, p.33]

The sort of glossy folk-pop that makes you want to usher Alice down the rabbit hole, and roll out the cement mixer. [10 Jun 2006, p.41]

This is a further stumble away from the glory days of 'Ten'. [29 Apr 2006, p.39]

It's clear this group have ways of getting beneath your skin. [20 May 2006, p.33]

They're songs infused with bite and bile, quite ridiculous, very bombastic - and let's make this point one more time - utterly, utterly thrilling.

[It] signpost[s] a possible future for emo. [29 Apr 2006, p.39]

'Capture/Release' is fresh, unique, original even; its oh-so-contemporary reference points are revisited with such punk-rock vivacity and hell-for-charity-shop-leather vigour that they might be the first band you’d actually believe when they roll out the old "no, honestly, we were doing this long before we’d even heard of Bloc Party".

Yes, the Secret Machines do prog, but vitally they do so much more.

The beats and lyrics get better with each listen.

This is a folk-gospel tribute album with harmony and backing vocals so powerful you'd think it was the population of New Jersey marching in Technicolor over the grey, polluted Hudson singing along. [22 Apr 2006, p.39]

Alas, it tails off towards the end, and TBS never quite shake the feeling that other people are doing this sort of thing far more thrillingly elsewhere. [20 May 2006, p.33]

It doesn't seem the product of so revered an artist. [29 Apr 2006, p.37]

Mostly Americana and mostly unremarkable. [29 Apr 2006, p.37]

'Chosen Lords' is proof of Aphex Twin's uncommonly rude health, artistically-speaking. [15 Apr 2006, p.33]

The bastard lovechild of Tori Amos and an Eastern European touring circus. [15 Apr 2006, p.35]

Workmanlike. [18 Mar 2006, p.33]

A handy "best of the Stereophonics--for now." [8 Apr 2006, p.39]

At its best, this is the sound of Captain Tofuheart; at worst -- on 'Elegy' -- it is literally an out-of-tune dirge. [29 Apr 2006, p.39]

A debut offering of preposterously ace swoon-pop. [6 Aug 2005, p.56]

There's always something heartwarming about a band discovering pop well into their career, especially when it sounds as good as this. [1 Apr 2006, p.43]

It's an unyielding piss-up of tattooed garage riffs, petrol-drenched blues and Marlboro-chuffing growlers. [1 Jul 2006, p.35]

It's the sound of the band mutating from the exciting, mysterious person in the club to the partner you pee in front of and take shopping for carpets. [15 Apr 2006, p.35]

A twisted, mucky treat. [15 Apr 2006, p.35]

Better moments appear when they get a bit ballsier: 'On The Radio' and 'As Four' are jingly upbeat numbers that show they haven't spent all their in-between album down time crying into their pillows. [4 Mar 2006, p.29]

It's astonishing how the band are unafraid to take on Serious Issues yet remain so much fun.

'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' sees Morrissey not only in wonderful voice, but more flamboyant and alive than at any time in his solo career.

This latest effort sees her turn indistinguishable. [1 Apr 2006, p.43]

Secure, self-aware and even funny, this could well be the masterpiece they've always promised to make. [11 Mar 2006, p.43]