Delta reveals layers few would have thought they had. Often though, these moments of interest get flattened by a wave of arena-ready bombast. [Jan 2019, p.108]

It's what Spiritualized might sound like before Jason Pierce sprinkles his gospel fairy dust on them. [Oct 2010, p.104]

At 14 tracks long, it could have done with some editing: there are too many soggy R&B diversions. [Oct 2011, p.113]

A collection of songs of pleasing weight and completeness, their musical joints expertly dovetailed, their detailing crisply hand-carved. [Jun 2016, p.108]

It's lacking some of his scabrous wit, but this is Merritt's most enjoyable album for years. [April 2012, p.101]

Unlike the singer, the songs need to project a little more, but Beauty Already Beautiful sounds an intriguing first note. [Jul 2016, p.114]

It walks to the wobbly line between the sparkling and the indulgent with the former just about winning out. [Aug 2018, p.116]

A must-listen if you know the infield fly rule, but not so essential if you don't. [Jun 2014, p.104]

This third LP for the label is both gritty and polished, sung and played with the certainty of an artist who's been doing it forever and will keep on doing it until they're stopped. [Jul 2014, p.107]

Like a lot of world music, it probably has niche appeal, although Soroor's voice is beautifully expressive. [Nov 2019, p.112]

It's perhaps not a career peak but it's not too far away. [Oct 2015, p.102]

If their principal audience is a nostalgic one, The Selecter deserve credit for refusing to bask in its obvious comforts. [Nov 2017, p.112]

Danilova's vocals occasionally get bogged own in the contemporary pop production, but this foray from murky fringes into the mainstream deserves success. [Nov 2014, p.121]

Morrison swings as he sings, conventionally but enjoyably in a classy jazz club mode. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Album number eight from Zakk Wylde sees him cranking up the macho guitar heroics to superhuman levels. [Oct. 2010, p. 103]

For all the many diverting moments, the lack of judicious editing leaves the album spending too much time going round in circles. [Apr 2020, p.114]

It can be a little ponderous, but the unearthly dawn chorus of 'Jade Like Wine' or the ritual freakout of 'Goddess Atonement' leave you yearning ofr a solstice to celebrate. [Dec 2007, p.124]

Fray's acute sense of geography, both local and emotional, guides the band's hectically directionless indie rattle down some alluring paths. [May 2008, p.137]

A spontaneous, short, sharp stab of a record but one that might have been great had it not sounded so rushed. [April 2012, p.101]

There's nothing here to quicken the pulse, but like an uneventful beach holiday it's the perfect place to pause and refresh. [Jun 2018, p.114]

It won't change the world, but These People will give those other troubadours something to think about. [Jun 2016, p.106]

Lamb have finally perfected the trip hop/classical fusion they discovered on their career-high Gorecki, though the beatific sumptuousness of their sound can be overwhelming.

The more you ignore Bell X1, it seems, the better they get. [Aug 2013, p.94]

US singer Grey Reverend lends a bluesy warmth to Silent Fall's heavyweight electro, but Swedish vocalist Cornelia Dahlgren sounds merely decorative on the Massive Attack-like Vivid. [Oct 2014, p.107]

It feels like a splash of teenage aftershave: a pass at sophistication, not the real deal. [Oct 2011, p.123]

Miracle Fortress' version of the '80s manages to push the decade's bookends together, fusing the analogue synthetics of early Mute records and proto-shoegazing's disorienting, ecstatic swirl of noise. [Oct 2011, p.127]

While there are a few pops and crackles of magic--it's often dead air. [Jan 2016, p.114]

The LP's monotonous back half leaves Jackson running to stand still. [Apr 2020, p.111]

There's nothing here that feels truly essential. [Apr 2007, p.122]

A ferociously Velvetsy turn from Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe on Istanbul IS Sleep only highlights how mind-blowing The Liminanas could be if they ventured further from the shadows. [Mar 2018, p.111]

By packing 21 tracks onto a half-hour running time, he never gets stuck too long in one grove. [Sep 2011, p.104]

This is his most pleasing solo album for a decade. [Mar 2008, p.108]

There's breezy charm to much of the music here. [Feb 2015, p.117]

It's very much a period piece, but a very enjoyable one at that. [Feb 2012, p.107]

Still on polyhedric form. [April 2012, p.102]

It feels like a middling album that would've made an incredible EP, but when Wiley thrills, he really thrills. [Jul 2018, p.116]

Nearly, but not quite. [Jul 2009, p.117]

Although reaching a touching peak on melancholic closer City By The Sea, two albums in Good Shoes still lack a defining personality of their own. [Feb 2010, p. 107]

High On Fire sound like Lemmy fronting Black Sabbath on a Slayer tribute night. [Apr 2010, p.106]

For better or worse, this is exactly how you'd expect the third Leftfield album to sound. [Jul 2015, p.107]

Yet when they stop arsing around for the sake of it, Blink-182 write some very good pop songs. [Aug 2001, p.124]

An interesting stopover on a journey marked by constant curiosity. [Oct 2019, p.110]

No longer ahead of his time, he has a deft enough touch to keep irrelevance at bay. [Jan 2003, p.120]

Neither subtle nor very shocking, it still sounds as if Manson, Countess Bathory-style, has received a shot of fresh blood. [Nov 2017, p.111]

A curio, for sure, but worth saddling up for. [Dec 2018, p.114]

He remains a maestro at the mixing desk, even as the album's split-down-the-middle concept undermines his genre-splicing strengths. [Jan 2020, p.106]

This feels like a flying visit through an impromptu victory party. [Dec 2015, p.107]

Their second album may not pack many surprises, but vocalist Haley Shea proves engaging company. [Apr 2020, p.113]

Completists will be delighted that songs as good as Cars Can't Escape and Kicking Television have been rescued from the dead zone of soundtracks and bonus discs but there's a lot of competent Americana and superfluous concert material to get through. [Jan 2015, p.139]

They often strain too hard to showcase their musicianship. [Apr 2008, p.112]

Though the younger Dylan hasn't the gravitas of those old masters, his best songs such as 'Will It Grow,' have an easy downbeat charm. [Aug 2008, p.135]

At times--'Little Secrets,' despite its kiddie choir, 'The Reeling' and 'Moth's Wings'--it's a little too cloneishly Jake Shears for comfort. At other, though, they soar with MGMT-esque widescreen vitality. [Jun 2009, p.130]

Older, possibly wiser, cleaner and sounding as majestically ramshackle as ever. The only snag is that their new album is a live recap of their career highlights with no new songs to justify it as a comeback. [Aug 2017, p.108]

Broadcast are detached and austere, but mesmerised by their discoveries in the radiophonic workshop. Current single Echo's Answer and the unusually upbeat Come On Let's Go are the best places to start, but this is a classic case of an album working as a whole. Hard work, but compelling.

Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine is still their touchstone, with dreamy vocals almost obliterated beneath washes of distoortion on "I Just Want To See Your face" and "Reprobate!," but they also thorw curveballs. [Apr 2010, p.119]

The band's simmering anger are leavened by a sophisticated musical backdrop utilising brass and keyboards. [Sep 2017, p.109]

The result is one of his most rounded, fulfilling solo records. [Jul 2014, p.111]

At times his magpie approach lacks focus, but when it all clicks Blunt achieves a transcendental beauty. [Aug 2013, p.95]

Cantaloupe Island, for instance, hit the target, even if it's no match for the Herbie Hancock original. But with more cabaret material such as Me And My Shadow's louche duet with Sarah Silverman, you really wish you'd been there first time around. [Jan 2019, p.109]

More Than and We Both Know's saturnine piano chords offer a novel contrast to crisp synth-pop such as Somebody Who, where their talent for alluring yet artless arrangements really comes into its own. [Nov 2013, p.102]

While a creditable effort, it's unlikely to be a record that drags their heads too far above the parapet. [Jan 2016, p.114]

As an act of Catharsis, Storm Damage was clearly an important one for the singer, even if ultimately it yields mixed results. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Rizzle Kicks are a pop prospect with a winning charm you just can't teach. [Dec. 2011 p. 137]

Battered by love yet ever hopeful, and with a fetching drawl to match, her story songs might occupy familar alt-country terrain, but surrounding herself with some top LA session men helps give Asking For Flowers that extra bit of class. [May 2008, p.130]

Foward Russia! drop the post punk sound and art-school posing in favour of an emo reinvention.... It works best when they don't overcook it. [May 2008, p.134]

Something... is sumptuously produced art-rock, heavily influenced by Sonic Youth and Dinosaur, Jr., but presented with a fresh-faced optimism. [Sep 2008, p.141

MU.ZZ.LE is more crackly, lo-fi trip-hop, like something beamed in from another planet. [Feb 2012, p.110]

Five years in, they've still to learn that less can sometimes be more. [Jun 2016, p.112]

A variable trip. [Dec 2016, p.105]

Too often, when Janet needs Jam & Lewis to "gimme a beat," they don't. [Dec 2015, p.108]

This raw, unsettling album's backstory, rendered through protesting guitars, is what gives it its defiant edge. [Nov 2013, p.102]

A little more thematic variation would be welcome, but there are worse soundtracks to the chaos of the new decade. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Monuments is an enjoyably straightforward rock album. [Jan 2015, p.128]

Anyone able to go to sleep without checking the wardrobe for monsters is unlikely to find much of interest here. [Dec. 2011 p. 137]

Though wildly hit and miss, Keep Your Dream, is never more fun than when going completely over the top. [Feb 2012, p.110]

The end result is 10 songs that switch direction with ear-pricking regularity and generally avoid the sub-Oasis ladrock you might have expected Ifans to churn out. [Oct 2008, p.143]

For a band who sing so often about matters of the heart and emotional connection, much of Trouble Will Find Me sounds oddly on autopilot. [Jun 2013, p.106]

It's fun for sure but perhaps not quite the game-changer everyone--or, at least, the band themselves--was hoping for. [Jul 2014, p.112]

Desperation proves that only modest mellowing has taken place in the interim. [Aug 2013, p.103]

A collection of delicate, woozy and otherworldly electronics. [Sep 2013, p.99]

As rock, soul and funk steep together, the overriding sense is that Kravitz would prefer to be the leering loverman than the seer. [Oct 2011, p.124]

If there's one gripe, it's that the quality control becomes a little more relaxed as For The Company progresses. [Dec 2015, p.110]

Sometimes the results a re a bit too wilfully weird. ... When his songs are sturdier though, Blau is an intriguing figure. [Jan 2018, p.106]

They could do with stretching out a little. [Feb 2018, p.115]

The attitude's still present and correct, but there's also a nagging, Pixies-like surf melodies of Drive and the serrated riffs of Springfield Cannonball. [Jan 2015, p.122]

There's a welcome freshness here. [June 2008, p.137]

He's less convincing when he rocks, but he understands both depth and beauty. [Mar 2015, p.104]

Tennessee Pusher pushes their envelope further still. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Here honing the bright and distinctively Nordic sound that enlivened 2014's International, they even flirt with becoming a pop group, albeit one wearing its '80s fixation with pride. [Jun 2016, p.113]

A tad more focus and she'll be there. [April 2012, p.102]

Hemming's voice has an authentic catch, but for all the lyrical loneliness, his lavish arrangements are packed with ideas. [May 2015, p.107]

The embryo that is Manic Expressive promises much from the future. [Nov 2001, p.122]

The shoutiness that made their previous two albums a tiring listen hasn't been entirely banished, but they have taken it down several notches, while also dialing down several notches. [Jun 2010, p.133]

There are echoes of Bibio's pastoral folktronica woven throughout. [Sep 2017, p.110]

Although Lion City's best moments come with the fusion of African and Western psychedelic rock to ambient atmospherics, standout song Justice will suit anyone who's ever wondered what might happen were Bruce Springsteen to write a blue-collar anthem with African rhythms. [Jun 2014, p.108]

Themes of displacement, disillusion, and druggy ennui speak of a band who are no longer enjoying themselves. A shame, because when singer Andrew Savage shakes himself free from the torpor, his anger becomes an energy. [Jul 2014, p.112]

This one has it's moments, but somehow never quite catches fire. [Oct 2017, p.106]

A heavyweight, goth-rock death trip, awash with mangled guitars and horror-film atmospherics. [Nov. 2000, p.113]