At its worst, it's tired and turgid, but neither is it hopeless or without hope. [Dec 2016, p.109]

The Trump nightmare goes on, but these otherworldly lo-fi lullabies provide the perfect tonic. [Nov 2018, p.111]

It's focused, punchy and beautifully poetic. [Dec. 2011 p. 129]

Anyone bored by the kitchen sink will find much to love here. [Feb 2008, p.97]

What raises Big Station above the ordinary is the ease with which Escovedo explores his place in the world, whether through love's hard fought redemption or life's barrel-scraping moments. [Aug 2012, p.97]

This is their most rewarding yet, built to enjoy in one 38-minute session, languid, melancholy tunes growing out of barely audible static pulses, incoherently Vocodered whispers or preposterously exciting cymbal splashes, carried on by soft pianos, vulgarity-free brass and strings into Bitch Magnet-meets-Samuel Barber electric cataclysms.

Rarely do teenage kicks result in such eloquent, nuanced records as this. [May 2011, p.118]

One of the year's most inventive debuts. [Jul 2004, p.114]

Untamed Beast proves the band to be much more than just the rock'n'roll Alabama Shakes. [Jun 2013, p.95]

From start to finish, it's moving and beautiful stuff. [Jun 2015, p.105]

Recalls the riffola of Bleach-era Nirvana, complete with sludgy Led Zeppelin-esque guitars. [May 2005, p.110]

Faith In The Future continues this rich work [of short story narrative in song], but with a new feel of quiet sobriety. [Oct 2015, p.107]

Here Mascis's guitar playing remains as distorted--and dextrous--as ever, but here his songcraft burns as brightly as his fretwork. [Jul 2009, p.121]

Some of the greatest countrified orchestral pop this side of the randy old goats' [Gainsbourg and Hazlewood] heydays. [Feb 2012, p.108]

It retains the same soft, celestial charm that has lit up the songwriter's earlier releases, merging classical strings, gentle guitars and subtle electronics. [April 2012, p.90]

It's a job well done.... But a few tracks sound too much like functional mix fodder. [Nov 2012, p.91]

[The songs are] played with enough ear-catching acuity to satiate your inner psych-pop gourmand. [Jan 2014, p.126]

The warm production, matched to their adoption of modern techno aesthetics, has upped the intensity of the sonic kink. [Apr 2015, p.98]

Pleasing though it is, [it] doesn't run too deep. [Sep 2015, p.112]

Ora shines brightest on the album's calmer moments. [Jan 2019, p.113]

There's still an absence of real emotional heft, but it's hard not to be won over by Blossoms' relentless, effervescent cheeriness.

Proof positive that you can post-rock and still have a smile on your face. [May 2007, p.124]

He sing-raps stream-of-consciousness tales that, coupled with instrumentation from his brother Josiah and Doug McDiarmid, create contagious songs. [May 2008, p.141]

This record is like a pale version of their biggest fan in its shoe-shuffling awkwardness, and though each track sounds far too timid for single release, that is perhaps Upper Air's defining charm. [Aug 2009, p.103]

Produced by the ever-tasteful T-Bone Burnett, Ray Charles wouldn't have been disgraced by the earthy mix of soulful blues and gospel. [Mar 2011, p.105]

Daltrey climbs inside every song, slaps it around a bit and makes it his own. [Jul 2018, p.111]

Tracey Thorn dispatches these carefully chosen covers and four new tracks with realism and a lightness of touch. [Nov 2012, p.106]

Gossamer's a pleasant listen, but since when has that been enough? [Aug 2012, p.108]

It's charming, tuneful stuff, rich in canonical cool. [Apr 2014, p.121]

LaFarge explores nooks and crannies left unfinished 70 years ago instead of merely replicating the bigger themes. [Jul 2015, p.108]

It's when Hutchison's sinister demeanor matches the darkness of the music that Owl John works best. [Oct 2014, p.116]

Works on the age-old theory that if it ain't broke, don't fix it--and it is all the better for it. [Jul 2005, p.120]

It sounds twee and, in parts it is, but it's leavened by their unrelenting world-weariness. [May 2007, p.123]

It's addictively brilliant. [Nov 2019, p.108]

The influences may be retro, but La Roux use them as the starting point for something fresh. [Jul 2009, p.114]

Hip hop heavy weights stop squabbling for long enough to justify their star billing. [Oct 2011, p.116]

To Survive, however, ignites enough fireworks of its own. [July 2008, p.1112]

Dark nights of the soul rarely come with soundtracks this compelling. [Oct 2015, p.103]

You want to like Broadcast. But they don't make it easy. [Oct 2005, p.115]

Droll, baffling and brilliant in equal measure. [Mar 2002, p.128]

An LP of sleek, sophisticated and teasingly soulful tunes. Eerily introverted one moment, warm and open the next, Essence demands attention but makes for an intriguing, rewarding experience.

The mood is too heavy for far too long, but some good songs and more cohesive, melodic structures augur well for this damaged daughter's future. [Sep 2001, p.115]

If there's a weakness, it's that the fulid, four-MC set-up masks a lack of lyrical depth.

This is aching ramshackle folk rock. [June 2002, p.124]

This unabashedly jolly outing manages to be both simultaneously charming and irritating. [Feb 2003, p.106]

Not quite a masterpiece, Echoes still shows why New York rock currently feels a million times more exciting than Britain's woefully safe equivalent. [Oct 2003, p.114]

Nicholas Drain Lowe, now 62, remains sweetly lethal with a tune. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Possibly the most polished album Adams has produced, Moves is bigger and grander than its DIY indie-rock sound may suggest. [Feb 2013, p.110]

The mood is largely one of milky wistfulness, but the clever textural detail means these songs are more than stylistic cloning. [Sep 2014, p.108]

"The doctor said I've passed my peak/All my eggs are dying/In my 20s I'm antique," she groans on Holiday resort. her Verve and wit protest otherwise. [Apr 2019, p.113]

These songs sparkle with a gentle joy, their warm softness as alluring as a swimming pool on a hot afternoon. [Jul 2019, p.109]

Rogers remains her forcefully idiosyncratic self throughout, endlessly impressive in her ability to draw on electro-pop history yet not be beholden to its past. [Summer 201, p.115]

By eerie last track 80 Ondula, all moody Vangelis synths and bad-acid vibes, there comes the realisation it's actually the sinister undertone that lurks beneath all Jenkinson's esoteric soundscapes which makes them so compelling. [Mar 2020, p.122]

Naturally, it's an immaculately stoned affair. ... You might not be able to teach old punks new tricks, but who cares when they perform as well as this. [May 2020, p.115]

Yet for all the sharp hooks and rhythmic twists, the album sags in the middle. [Apr 2008, p.127]

This follow up to Psychic Chasms displays similarly exhilarating aural ambitions. [Nov. 2011, p. 139]

One thing that hasn't changed is Thorn's voice, which is as warming and mellow as ever. [Apr 2007, p.122]

What's lacking are a few copper-bottomed pop melodies to bind it all together; the kind of thing his collaborators normally provide, in other words. He's beter as a team player. [Mar 2010, p.101]

On this voodoo-inspired record of unfettered ambition, Foals have achieved a rare magic. [Mar 2013, p.100]

Mixing pleasingly unevolved Ramones-y bangarounds and more reflective punk-pop, the therapeutic lyrics teem with unidentified protagonists having or inflicting a hard time. [Oct 2014, p.115]

It's a strange, wonderful album, one that almost feels like Arctic Monkeys have embarked on their own full-band side-project. [Jul 2018, p.106]

A brace of new collaborations with Canadian duo Tegan And Sara, whose pop sparkle illuminates Bad Ones' nocturnal tech-house, reveal yet another facet to Dear's ever-changing modes. [Nov 2018, p.105]

Amazingly, this weird, consciously retro amalgam of Van Dyke Parks, Big Star and Queen actually works. [Nov 2016, p.111]

It's the most vital-sounding record he's made in years. [Dec 2016, p.110]

Perhaps not the best introduction to Gane's soundworld, but for fans Hormone Lemonade offers a familiar landscape dotted with enough new structures to make it worth exploring. [May 2018, p.104]

No Way Down mischievously demands to be consumed whole at hazy after-hours sojourns. [May 2009, p.107]

His fifth album is typically protean. [May 2010, p.118]

Surprisingly heartfelt. [Mar 2020, p.114]

Stick with it, though, as the last song, the elegant memorial Somehow The Wonder of Life Prevails, turns out to be a piece of quiet and hugely emotional brilliance. [Aug 2013, p.100]

Free of the shackles that hobbled his debut, Styles manages to show more of his personality here, especially on the Vampire Weekend-style Sunflower, Vol. 6. It's just a shame he can't quite keep up with his ambition. [Feb 2020, p.110]

Few rappers think to use words like "polyocular;" fewer still manage to make them funky. [Nov 2008, p.111]

She might not be as well known, but at times she really is that good. [Jun 2013, p.109]

Get past its duffel coat and its 14 layers of cardigan, though, and there's a warm and lovely heart at this record's centre. [Aug 2014, p.105]

The band make a powerful case for letting it all hang out. [Aug 2017, p.103]

There's neither a wasted note nor wasted word. [Sep 2017, p.110]

The best record he's [Saul Adamczewski's] done. [Apr 2018, p.111]

Sadly, Open Season's one-pace '80s guitar rock lags a bit behind the narrative. [May 2005, p.110]

Another way classy set they make. [May 2009, p.118]

Expect to be lulled into a contented sonic stupor. [May 2017, p.100]

Contentment makes Everett a less compelling narrator than devastation, but Eels still tailor songs rich in ideas yet stripped of unnecessary fat. [Mar 2013, p.109]

The Union has pulled off the canny trick of allowing Elton to revisit his past, while still sounding like a songwriter looking and moving confidently towards the future. [Dec 2010, p.106]

Not a straightforward journey, then, but still a rewarding one. [#361, p.108]

It's purging stuff, for sure, but clearly empowering and, as a listener, you're with him every step by highly emotional step. [May 2015, p.101]

The whole exercise has an infectious exuberance, even if it isn't quite the must-have document its title suggests. [Summer 2018, p.114]

Juke joint heaven. [May 2003, p.106]

It's the tender slow rollers that really clinch this supreme collection. [#180, p.97]

This may not be their greatest album to date, but Universal Truths and Cycles is a charming record that shows the Pollard production line remains in good order. [July 2002, p.114]

There's still enough synapse-jangling vocal invention and moments of great beauty to make it a worthy addition ot Bjork's singular ouevre. [Nov. 2000, p.99]

There isn't anything quite as special as, say, Veronica but the veins at Costello's temples are throbbing again.

Far out just got further away. [Sep 2013, p.102]

Buffalo Tom remain a very fine shoulder to cry on, warm, steady and strong. [Apr 2018, p.106]

Aside from the relatively oomph-laden, piano-driven 'Sharing A Gibson Withh Martin Luther King Jr.' and a lonesome cover of Don Williams's 'I Believe In You,' there's barely a melody to savour. [Nov 2008, p.118]

It's a record that might even disappoint on first listen, but one that reveals many subtleties and wonders over time. [May 2006, p.118]

There's a slightly scattershot quality to 21 that suggests that Adele is not quite the mistress of her own destiny. Greatness is tantalizingly within reach, though; perhaps she just needs to grab the wheel, and quickly. [Feb 2011, p.106]

Though his voice remains vintage, his creative spirit has been rejuvenated. [Jul 2010, p.127]

The Stepkids' sense of fun and pop nous makes Troubadour a constantly entertaining listen. [Oct 2013, p.112]

It feels as if they are making music for the sheer pleasure of it, and it's this that proves the record's abiding charm. [Aug 2008, p.143]

Incredibly, it works. [Nov 2009, p.104]