If you've ever wondered what growing up in middle-class 1970s America would have been like, these deeply personal revelations are for you. [30 Apr 2005, p.64]

A dollop of deliberately sloppy post-grad college rock. [23 Apr 2005, p.51]

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]

So listener-unfriendly that it's almost amusing. [16 Apr 2005, p.51]

An odd album. [13 Aug 2005, p.58]

'Light' is let down by anaemic sound. [16 Apr 2005, p.51]

One of the best British rock albums of the year so far.

At its most euphoric, 'In Case We Die' is reminiscent of the cast of South Park forming a Polyphonic Spree tribute band after an all-night feast of sugarcubes and E numbers. [13 Aug 2005, p.58]

'Mimi' manages the unique trick of being self-indulgent without actually ever sounding much like Mariah. [16 Apr 2005, p.51]

An elegiac, neo-psychedelic collection of labyrinthine naive melodies that's the schizophrenic lovechild of Four Tet and The Magnetic Fields. [4 Jun 2005, p.58]

It's music for downhearted cattle rustlers to mournfully skin steers to. [9 Apr 2005, p.58]

An astonishing debut of cosmic country noir. [28 Aug 2004, p.57]

All of this unique oddness would not, of course, mean a thing without the music, and this is an album without a single duff track. More than that, it has plenty of exceptional ones. [2 Apr 2005, p.46]

As inviting and accessible as anything released this year. [2 Apr 2005, p.50]

'Breakdown' was a kicky little exercise in how to make a great pop record. 'Elevator' shows how to make one of substance. [23 Apr 2005, p.50]

Ineffectual hippy grumblings that will make you want to sleep. [4 Jun 2005, p.58]

A 30-track nonsense-o-paedia of speed-metal twatabouts. [9 Apr 2005, p.58]

Molina's retro-countrified songs of American redemption are not academic and studied, but human. [28 May 2005, p.64]

[Evans is] a sharp songwriter with an acute ear for melody and a voice that could bitch-slap any R&B wannabe into place. [21 May 2005, p.66]

Does nothing wrong but could do with a bit of meat. [13 Aug 2005, p.58]

'Guero' represents a very clever man being clever enough to recognise what he's good at. [19 Mar 2005, p.58]

An excellent modern rock record. Dense, intelligent, user-unfriendly and challenging. [12 Mar 2005, p.57]

It's bold, brash, trashy fun that will tempt Killers fans to fall in lust all over again. [19 Mar 2005, p.57]

It's like 'Pet Sounds' born and raised in the Bronx. [26 Mar 2005, p.51]

As defiant as ever. [23 Apr 2005, p.51]

Time has proved Morrissey to be just as powerful and alluring a performer at 45 as he was at 23. [2 Apr 2005, p.49]

Sound[s] pretty much the same as they did a decade ago. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]

There is a fatal flaw with 'Arular' which means it never makes the step up from 'solid debut' to all-time classic. MIA clears her throat, grabs your attention: and then has nothing to say. [16 Apr 2005, p.49]