Above all else, [it] once again underlines Dylan's singularly magnificent gifts as a songwriter. [Apr 2007, p.121]

[Smith's] curiously magical songwriting skills... remain undimmed by time and drink. [Nov 2005, p.124]

Another complex, atmospheric set. [Apr 2004, p.120]

The Secret Migration shows a group in complete control of their cosmic idiom, familiar by now yet still seductive. [Jan 2005, p.120]

Though the results are less homemade-sounding than their debut, a mood of playful experimentation is evident throughout. [Feb 2007, p.99]

Despite Our Differences bustles with invention, righteous anger and the typically sunshine harmonies. [Apr 2007, p.120]

A screw is definitely loose somwhere, but so what? [Oct 2004, p.128]

An engagingly quirky rock record. [Oct 2003, p.100]

A most pleasant surprise. [Jul 2005, p.122]

Out of step with the modern world. [Sep 2006, p.108]

An admirably muscular and direct effort. [Jan 2007, p.145]

Sounds like a recently awakened Aphex Twin in warm snooze mode. [Oct 2004, p.133]

A sprightly collection of provocative pop. [Jan 2004, p.122]

Rock's response is to ease off the hip hop and get back to the '70s, and it works. [Apr 2004, p.114]

With genre-hopping abandon he enlists Spanish guitars, jazz bass, reggae horns, rock drums and disco synths, relentlessly asserting that commercial viability and imagination don't have to be mutually exclusive. [May 2005, p.112]

A winning mix of melody and melancholy. [Aug 2006, p.111]

[An] album of considerable grace and poise. [Apr 2005, p.116]

Reveals a keen mind at work. [Nov 2005, p.123]

Mostly the results are pleasingly wry and wise. [Sep 2005, p.118]

There's... a luxuriant, bubble bath-like quality to proceedings so often lacking in imitators. [Aug 2005, p.134]

While there are plaintive acoustic moments, listen closely and [Oliveri's] inciting listeners to necrophiliac cannibalism. [Aug 2003, p.110]

All told, one weird trip. [May 2004, p.102]

He has finally shed some of his ironic detachment. [Jun 2005, p.111]

There's no denying its stout hart. [Apr 2006, p.113]

It's a sterling testimony to both the songwriting skills of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and bassist Tony Barber's crisp production that Buzzcocks still sound so undeniably valid. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Luckily, Lif's mental agility and provocative rhymes are matched by the production skills of... El-P. [Jul 2006, p.115]

Innovation isn't on the agenda, but thanks to some stomping tunes and Auerbach's oak-smoked vocals, it's another rock-solid enterprise. [Sep 2004, p.119]

A charming album. [May 2006, p.128]

These broiling drum-led riffs offer curdled cries, much volume and even humour. [Aug 2006, p.113]

Over a strident indie-rock soundtrack, singer Kate Jackson comes across like a female Morrissey. [Dec 2006, p.138]

There's... a core of tunefulness and celebration to their experimentation. [Apr 2007, p.118]

They still sound best when playing fast and loud and are only hampered by the album's terrible title and some bizarre lyrics. [Oct 2004, p.123]

Sounds at once familiar yet new. [Aug 2005, p.127]

Masterfully crafted and shot through with outlaw energy. [May 2004, p.101]

If only the Stones would make a record like this. [Jun 2004, p.94]

There's a new sense of darkness and despair at their core. [Dec 2003, p.124]

The Dolls tighten their musical corset with beguiling style. [May 2006, p.123]

As ever, The Outsider's production is immaculate. But by frontloading the album with forbidding hip hop, [Shadow] knows he's driving away the floating voter. [Sep 2006, p.106]

It walks the line between indie and pop without stumbling. [Oct 2006, p.125]

There's still enough trail dust on the seat of their experimental pants to delight country rock eggheads. [May 2006, p.123]

Shows he still has few peers when whipping up a likeable mix of energy, melody and glistening harmonies. [May 2005, p.117]

It's not exactly a party, but Marshall's songwriting and cooing delivery remain fierce and otherly, redolent of romantic encounters in strange wood cabins. [Mar 2003, p.114]

As much as The Back Room is a victory for style, it also strikes a blow for substance. [Aug 2005, p.135]

Back to basics. [May 2003, p.100]

As good as it should be. [Jul 2005, p.120]

The band kick back and noodle with a refreshing nonchalance. [Aug 2005, p.137]

The songs here bode well. [Jan 2005, p.128]

[It] could easily have been a staggeringly pompous exercise; instead, it's rendered intriguing by a liberated approach. [Feb 2007, p.99]

It's wallpaper you'll be glad you bothered to hang. [Aug 2004, p.106]

An impressive set. [May 2007, p.123]

Another beautifully scored Divine Comedy album that sounds a bit like Scott Walker and a lot like the last one. [May 2004, p.102]

It's real, it's challenging, and at times even funny. [Apr 2005, p.126]

Another of Cooder's worthy experiments. [Apr 2007, p.117]

This is complex, dense music that yields a little more with each play. [May 2003, p.106]

This isn't anything like a Best Of, but there remains plenty of enjoyment in these spacey oddities. [Sep 2006, p.118]

[Curator Paul] Morley's selection is generally spot on, but those who already own 1998's more concise retrospective Endless Love won't need this. [Dec 2006, p.150]

So intimate and sad you can almost see the candles flickering. [Mar 2004, p.110]

Even on a daft live album, he refuses to coast. [May 2004, p.106]

Full of melancholy instrumentals rich in strings and percussive weirdness. [Mar 2005, p.104]

[It] is the stirring, rounded collection leader Glen Hansard has hinted at since they formed in 1990. [Feb 2007, p.99]

If the songwriting isn't quite up to the standard of 1992's high-water mark It's A Shame About Ray, The Lemonheads marks a welcome return. [Oct 2006, p.122]

There's nothing radically different on offer, but fans will take heart from the sound of a band re-energised. [Mar 2007, p.112]

An impressively thoughtful album. [Oct 2003, p.103]

This unassuming record certainly deserves as much attention as [his] former big noise. [Sep 2005, p.116]

The results are enticingly hypnotic and reassuringly unhinged in places. [Jun 2006, p.117]

She has never sounded brighter or more infectious. [Nov 2003, p.117]

Glows with retro colour. [Jul 2004, p.110]

She recalls the emotionally raw folk of... Kristin Hersh. [Sep 2004, p.118]

The usual blend of knockabout punk rock, nutty-boy ska and witty lyrics. [Jul 2003, p.108]

Three's still something fresh about Stereolab's brand of trippy space pop. [Mar 2004, p.112]

It's heavy-duty stuff, and all the better for it. [Mar 2007, p.115]

An absorbing, exuberant flourish of outwardly incompatible genres. [Apr 2005, p.122]

Though Matmos are undoubtedly the Willie Wonkas of ear candy, just occasionally The Civil War gets too anal. [Oct 2003, p.109]

[Her] voice [is] as clear as a Great Smoky Mountain stream. [Aug 2005, p.127]

Comes on like an in-your-face Avalanches, with elements of Pavement-style art-rock and a punk attitude thrown in for good measure. [Nov 2005, p.127]

A massively inventive debut. [Feb 2005, p.104]

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]

Rap rarely comes more unedited and spontaneous. [Oct 2006, p.125]

Successfully bring[s] new features to familiar territory. [Jul 2005, p.115]

Stereophonics have never sounded so brooding, mysterious and -- dammit -- sexy. [Apr 2005, p.122]

They have toughened up. [Jun 2005, p.113]

A trip worth taking. [Jun 2005, p.116]

Lunacy has seldom sounded more exhilarating. [Aug 2005, p.126]

[It] finds her on familiar territory, offering 12 concise yet fully realised vignettes. [Oct 2006, p.124]

While dull moments are few and far between, there's little among these 19 tracks to rival such hummable past glories as Time Bomb or Roots Radicals. [Oct 2003, p.113]

Though head-spinning, this collision of ideas retains some cohesion thanks to Gelb's sun-scorched songwriting that sees his acoustic alt-country efforts, in particular, shine. [Oct 2004, p.123]

Conjures a magical, cut'n'paste dimension where genteel lounge sways to disembodied voices, clicks and bleeps. [Apr 2005, p.126]

The band's ability to rock out at the drop of a hat proves a pleasant surprise among the dopey reverie. [Jun 2006, p.115]

There's a lack of clutter to songs such as To The Open Spaces and the title cut, with its barely-there brass arrangements, which makes them simple pleasures, and among the best songs of her career. [Jun 2003, p.102]

It's a fine set, full of calm, thoughtful rhyming. [Nov 2004, p.125]

Splendidly queasy listening. [May 2004, p.100]

Lyrical delights lurk round every turn. [Dec 2003, p.132]

They don't quite escape the shadow of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai, but there's something rather joyous about this unadorned rock dynamic. [Jan 2004, p.114]

A funk-driven return to familiar ground, laced with dark imagery, beefy hooks and sharp vocal trading. [Jun 2004, p.97]

Sweet, nostalgic and relishing the strength of words softly spoken. [Aug 2004, p.112]

A treat. [Jul 2003, p.108]

Diminished by their willingness to splash about in the post-Tortoise shallows. [Dec 2003, p.124]

A thrill from first to last. [Aug 2004, p.106]