It's the most consistently enjoyable Malkmus/Jicks LP since his excellent self-titled album of 2001. [Feb 2014, p.117]

Of the four new tracks, Just Like We Never Said Goodbye is the pick, evoking a John Hughes school disco scene soundtracked by Aphex Twin, though anyone feeling the package still lacks substance can select the full "Silicon" option at Sophie's webstore. [Feb 2016, p.118]

Free Nationals say less about the band's identity than it does their taste, skill and curatorial clout--but that's still more than plenty. [Feb 2020, p.112]

If Fake Sugar lands, the mainstream's in for a sweet treat. [Aug 2017, p.103]

The first half of Heart On is a heroically hedonistic party, but it's the subsequent comedown that, inevitable, lingers longer. [Feb 2009, p.113]

Simon Le Bon's croon oozes with charisma throughout and the elegant, new wave pop hooks of their heyday are revisited. [May 2011, p.126]

Darkly funny and strangely beautiful. [Nov 2009, p.111]

There's enough here certainly, though, to suggest he's one to keep an eye on. [Oct 2013, p.97]

This is graceful and elliptical songwriting. [Mar 2015, p.109]

Some suitably dramatic music. [Feb 2016, p.115]

The hypnotic techno loop of Dicker's Dream provides forward momentum, though it's the more contemplative moments, from No Reflection's sparkle to Moon In Water's limpid ambience, which shine brightest. [Jan 2019, p.113]

Not the easiest of listens. [Feb 2007, p.98]

Maybe he's not the kind of artist you need to hear stripped down. [Jan 2013, p.101]

Hard to believe they needed 13 years to make it, but Event 2 is well worth the wait. [Nov 2013, p.103]

It's genuinely exciting to think where The Horrors might go from here. [Jun 2014, p.105]

The songs this time have a depth and a warm maturity, a Neil Young sensibility coupled with a soul-singer sensuality and a distinct pop edge. [Feb 2016, p.113]

Even if the songs aren't much more than workmanlike, they're good enough to showcase the man's still mighty roar and shattering guitar playing. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Superb. [Jun 2011, p.114]

Tauter, tighter and leaner, it's at its best when epic choruses collide with soaring guitars. [Mar 2012, p.105]

Its triumph is in its intimacy and honesty. [Dec 2008, p.134]

Silver Eye's strength lies with its strong sense of mood rather than any truly memorable material. [May 2017, p.104]

While the musical backing is occasionally sweeter than it is memeorable, Moss's narrative lyricism saves the day resulting in a rich debut that provokes fresh thoughts with each listen.

His aim is true, his enthusiasm genuine and even the one new self-penned track, Live It Up, slots in nicely. [Mar 2012, p.105]

Spacehopper is out there, yes, but not so out there that you can't still admire it from Earth. [Aug 2013, p.106]

Rogers's 63-year-old voice sounds uncannily well preserved. [Feb 2014, p.119]

It's a record that ups the style further but their slick, modern metal still lacks depth. [Oct 2014, p.115]

These are immaculately crafted songs. [Oct 2016, p.105]

No great leap forward, then, just a solidly impressive album. [Dec 2018, p.111]

Conflict was always at the root of Living Colour's sound, and finding a balance remains a challenge; even more so for a group whose members work together so occasionally. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Hippo Lite is brilliantly abrasive, any prettier blips overwhelmed by Real Outside's uncanny whirl or the ESP crackle of Corner shops. ... Such insularity only means you lean in, however, as close as possible to their intriguing transmissions. [Jun 2018, p.110]

The London Sessions isn't quite the hoped-for wholehearted embrace of the UK house nation, but it witnesses the reawakening of one of modern soul's most durable sirens. [Jan 2015, p.127]

The Last Hero won't make them any new friends, but those they have won't be disappointed. [Dec 2016, p.105]

There's a lack of emotional intrigue or maverick charm here that keeps everything at a shrug-inducing distance. [Sep 2003, p.100]

[The] dub deconstruction of second LP Con Todo El Mundo illustrates the trio's virtuosity at sculpting pleasingly languorous, stripped-down soundscapes. [Aug 2019, p.113]

Grace/Wastelands isn't quite the defining statement of his genius that his cheerleaders always insisted was just around the corner, but it demolishes the charge that his talent has been fatally squandered. [Apr 2009, p.98]

Another great find from Bella Union, there's not a weak moment on this engaging debut. [Oct 2011, p.124]

An intimate, close and enjoyably ambiguous record. [Jun 2020, p.94]

It may have been recorded in a church, but this is a record celebrating the celestial and the sinister in equal measure. [May 2011, p.126]

As the album goes on, however, Marks To Prove It becomes a heavy dose of reflection upon reflection and a similarity of pace means the songs begins to merge into one another. [Sep 2015, p.108]

A brooding collection. [May 2004, p.108]

There's less of Califone's rootsy side here and more floaty mood-pieces or doomy dance grooves. [Feb 2004, p.98]

A fiddly disappointment, as centreless as a B-sides collection. [Oct 2002, p.117]

It's difficult to hear what was wrong with most of the never-before heard material. [Nov 2000, p.101]

A lesson in untouched simplicity, raw groove and my-woman-done-left-me throat wobbling. [Jun 2003, p.94]

His high, thin voice won't grab everyone, but will generate a gentle glow for many. [May 2007, p.125]

There's all the usual yarn-spinning and nerdy wit here, but ... there's also a warmth and wisdom that no amount of lo-fi goofing can disguise. [Nov 2011, p. 135]

It's a more searing and cranked-up affair than its predecessor. [Jun 2013, p.99]

This fourth is no less essential for fans than the previous three. [May 2013, p.117]

The 30-year-old's debut album proper is a thing of hushed beauty. [Jul 2015, p.106]

The Heart Speaks In Whispers is the sound of her getting it right again. [Jul 2016, p.105]

A racket in the best possible way. [Sep 2016, p.108]

Pleasing, interesting, but not especially gripping. [Nov 2018, p.102]

Occasionally needs higher definition, yet her brittle voice and watchful lyrics cut through the Cocteau Twins grunge of With Love, the eye-rolling daze of All My Friends Are Drunk, the slacker energy of Keep It Near. [May 2020, p.100]

If listening to this record feels like eavesdropping, however, what's overheard is emotional dynamite. [Feb 2016, p.109]

Thankfully, it avoids the easy traps of earnestness or tweeness, and emerges as an intriguing, convincing listen. [Jan 2013, p.108]

The songcraft is so taut that whether this howls, drifts, pummels or floats, it remains utterly engaging. [Aug 2012, p.102]

Grey Britain is at once more accessible than its chaotic predecessor, "Orchestra Of Wolves." but also harder hitting. [Jun 2009, p.122]

There isn't a weak link amongst these 12 enormously impressive songs. [Nov 2014, p.117]

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

Spine-tingling electronic experiments from Denmark. [Aug. 2011, p. 127]

Echoes of early Pink Floyd, Saint Etienne and a tougher Vashti Bunyan prevail, but this is an original and haunting collection. [Sep 2017, p.109]

It's nowhere McCartney hasn't been before, yet it's still richer and more varied than he's been in years. [Jan 2009, p.116]

Further proof of Hersh's glittering place in the rock firmament after two decades of making music. [Mar 2007, p.112]

A rich and varied album, fans of Sonic Youth's less abrasive, song-based output of recent years will find much to savor here. [April 2012, p.102]

Numan and collaborator Ade Fenton complement the narrative with a sand-blown, Eastern gothic mood, featuring use of Arabic scales, which evoke a desert within the human soul as much as any hypothetical desert Earth. [Oct 2017, p.107]

This is laregly classic pastoral English whimsy at its best. [Apr 2007, p.119]

The likes of 'Americans Abroad' and 'White People For Peace' pick up where Green Day's "American Idiot" left off, channelling righteous fury into a racket that's as vigorous as it's earnest. [Sep 2007, p.88]

This push 'n' pull between pop and rock, sweet and sour, is a motif throughout but, crucially, Suck It And See also comes with a spacedust kick. [July 2011, p. 104]

It's a one-tempo caramel cream of an album--sticky-icky and irresistible. [Feb 2014, p.110]

Their second studio album does have a strange charm, in short doses. [Jun 2016, p.108]

Visuals spatters Mew's art-rock sensibilities on a pop canvas. [Jul 2017, p.111]

It's his most enjoyable music in two decades. [May 2017, p.112]

It is a track or two too long. ... But that aside, Why Me? Why Not. is a triumph, one that proves As You Were was no fluke and that Lia Gallagher is well and truly back on track. [Oct 2019, p.104]

Tellingly, there isn't a weak song here, just 13 slices of original Pirate material. [Mar 2008, p.108]

His first widely distributed release, is no vanity showcase. It's an album of acoustic, guitar-based singer-songwriter pop, although not quite as sparse as that sounds. [Nov 2008, p.107]

Pressure And Time is a powerful, soulful affair full of strut and swagger. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

This is a starry-eyed celebration of yearning on a US factory floor, as idealised by British spa town punks. [April 2012, 105]

The grooves stay warm and loopy. [Jan 2013, p.108]

The tunes are excellent throughout, with strong echoes of Cannonball-era Breeders. [Feb 2013, p.106]

It's not ground-breaking, but Piano Ombre is a beautifully off-kilter record to lose yourself in. [Apr 2014, p.109]

As Desolation Sounds progresses, so the mood becomes more considered and expansive. [May 2015, p.105]

Their second album has much to recommend it. For the most part, songs fizz by succinctly. [Aug 2015, p.106]

It's an immersive experience you'd need to be a right old fuddy-duddy not to plunge into. [Sep 2016, p.114]

Even if Avenged Sevenfold are guilty of occasionally overreaching in places here, it's undoubtedly made them more interesting. [Feb 2017, p.117]

The title track sounds like it was written for a TV movie and Lower The Tone is a sexless sex-jam, but it's an energetic return regardless. [Mar 2018, p.113]

There's nothing here likely to be adopted as a stadium chant, but in its tethered imagination, Boarding House Reach is the most surprising and eccentric record White's made. [May 2018, p.110]

A four-part story in the record's centre is propelled by a whirligig of percussion that rapidly becomes total overwhelm[ing]. But in its final 20 minutes the album finds steadier ground, allowing space for Deacon's undaunted imagination to come into its own. [Mar 2020, p.117]

Bang Zoom Crazy... Hello is their best version this century. [May 2016, p.107]

Ultimately, only the flintiest hearted won't respond. [Jan 2016, p.111]

If not Elliott's most inventive album, The Cookbook is certainly her most colourful and entertaining. [Aug 2005, p.124]

Here their sound is largely sharpened and polished by their unmistakable anger. [May 2017, p.98]

Like Beck before he developed the Prince fixation, Fog's anti-puritanism makes this a constantly startling, wholly addictive joy.

Another triumph, brimming with soulful, languid grooves, deft samples and well-chosen guest singers.

As ever, when the beats go uptempo, things go awry... but there's life in the giant-haired lady yet. [Jun 2003, p.98]

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

Their best yet. [May 2003, p.102]

It all feels so much more intentional than before, the mix of pop and experimentation they've long striven for. [May 2004, p.99]

It's a highly evolved, sometimes claustrophobic take on warm but angular Scandi-pop. [Oct 2012, p.103]