For all his fragility, Avi is as good a songwriter as anyone who's ever traded under Sub Pop's logo. And that's quite a claim.

Complex and artful, there’s no need to understand fugues and canons to appreciate this--its utter perfection and joy is self-evident.

The objective was to make a fucking brilliant album where the mood is king, the delivery is queen and studied modern coolness is a jester that's one misplaced quip away from being the lion's breakfast. And, of course, they've succeeded.

By turns brooding and effervescent, but always outrageous fun, 'Writer's Block' is a compact minor classic.

Stay Positive not only confirms The Hold Steady’s status as one of the best rock’n’roll bands in the world, but establishes them as one of its most important too.

Lyrically it's astonishing. [28 Aug 2004, p.55]

A record of glorious parts that are just too weighty, too emotionally complex and rich to hang together well as a whole.

‘Fenian’ is a spraypainted brick wall of consistency, amplifying the adventure of The Prodigy and Burial, seamlessly but tastefully hopping genres while keeping the vibe up to retain Kneecap’s knack for having a good time to illuminate the hard times.

It is one thing to make a clever record, it is quite another to make a clever record that could pass for a pop album, and which oozes humanity while simultaneously delivering a perfect snapshot of modern British life.

This is a deeply personal record, unequivocally sensual.

Believe the hype, this is even better than 'Ray Of Light.' [12 Nov 2005, p.45]

Warpaint's is a different darkness, not delighting in splendour or show, but in deftly exploring a bleak internal, romantically bereft landscape.

Complete and utter filth from start to finish, and that's as high a compliment as we can bestow on an album.

'Since I Left You' is proof that while being a vinyl junkie might not make you a teen idol, crafting a joyous, kaleidoscopic masterpiece of sun-kissed disco-pop definitely will.... Cool? Sure, whatever. Brilliant? Undoubtedly.

Cranking the urgency and confrontation of last year's self-titled debut to neck-breaking intensity, RTJ2 is an urgent, paranoid album for a violent, panicked time.

Swans' bleakness is beset with great beauty, black wings to another world.

Imagine 'Lost Souls' injected with Prozac and a huge dose of weird guitar noises that give you goosebumps from head to toe. That's 'The Last Broadcast'. It's one of those rare albums that makes sense first thing in the morning but you can still yell along to when your head's exploding.

A set of immense maturity that never rubs your nose in its thematic complexity, compositional innovation and thunderous thump-beats. [29 Jan 2005, p.58]

Swoon is a bit of a dying whale of a record. In a good way; vast, dark, a little mysterious, sad, dignified and palpably in pain.

Lee’s lyrics are sometimes sentimental to the point of potentially seeming trite, but they’re logical for a situation where love and pain have become so overwhelming that simple statements seem the most trustworthy.

Filled with both a clarity of instrumentation and thought, this is an album of undeniably mature work. And one which knows how to effect a large emotional impact without unsightly flexing of the muscles.

A+E is Coxon's most thrilling and noisy album since 2000's The Golden D.

Kiss Each Other Clean is a surprising and majestic triumph.

on their third album, the combination of Canadian indie (Broken Social Scene), psychedelic ’60s rock (Love), cosmic ’70s pop (ELO) and shoegaze (Ride) is nothing short of beautiful.

Despite all this seemingly new wave-laden, impeccably cool, retrograde influence, 'Make Up The Break Down' is indisputably now.

What it does do, however, is remind us that he is a copper-bottomed genius.

A painfully honest, emotionally draining album. [22 Jan 2005, p.49]

Being doomed seldom sounded so beautiful.