Where Cold Roses was dense, narcotic rock... this is a country album in the tradition of Neil Young's Harvest and, notably, Grievous Angel by Gram Parsons. [Nov 2005, p.122]

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. [May 2012, p.94]

Side one isn't bad either, even if it doesn't quite scale the same heights.... A mostly impressive set. [Jun 2015, p.103]

Some of the Americanisms grate, but The Heavy dirty eclecticism wins the day. [Dec 2007, p.121]

A little indie olive branch, Dove is as welcoming as it is welcome. [Jul 2018, p.108]

This mixtape-style collection is more ramshackle than his most celebrated work, but it's still packed wirh inspired funk. [Dec 2008, p.127]

More often, Double Roses settles for a tastefully ornamented Nashville smoulder. [Jun 2017, p.106]

Log 22... finds them in familiar ground, each song dipped in its trademark melancholy no matter how frenzied the guitars get. [Jul 2003, p.100]

He sings with surprising forthrightness yet these 10 electronic daydreams are not songs in any conventional sense. [May 2003, p.100]

A very understated record, the kind that will be treasured by diehards, pull in one or two casual bystanders and leave the world pretty much unchanged. [Apr 2003, p.106]

Dulli sounds like he's performing at a Sunday pub gig. [Oct 2004, p.130]

Musically, these tracks take in '60s flavour Farfisa-sounds, abstract electronica and, on Citizens Nowhere, the neglected style clash of hip hop and glam rock. [Jun 2003, p.98]

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]

Showcase[s] a band revelling in their powers, in thrilling control of their screeching rock 'n' roll abandon. [Mar 2006, p.107]

This is an electrifying collection of electronic music with heart and soul as well as dancefloor throbs. [Jan 2012, p.1222]

Their second album in 10 months is every bit as unvarnished as its predecessor. [Oct 2016, p.109]

A record you never dreamt you needed, but which leaves you craving more. [Sep 2016, p.109]

What it lacks in orginality, it makes up for in sky-filling exhilaration. [Oct 2009, p.107]

His alt-country songs bristle with classic influences form Gram Parsons to John Fogerty to Steve Eerle. New dog, old tricks. [Jan 2010, p. 122]

Few tracks are any way immediate. [Apr 2010, p.116]

Throughout the songs share a similar colour palette, but vary in tone, texture, technique. It's the sound of a band enjoying the discovery of their sound. [Sep 2019, p.115]

Their packed schedule has finally allowed space for this lavish eponymous debut. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Modern life is rubbish, but the tunes are great. [Nov 2016, p.114]

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

'Ludow St' is lyrically smart, musically ambitious, more than any other track on Phrazes, it makes you wonder, if not regret, why the Strokes themselves never pushed the boat out this far. For that reason alone, it was worth Casablancas making this intriguing if imperfect record. [Nov 2009, p.98]

Lidell's gospel hollars are impressive, but the music verges on pastiche. [May 2008, p.136]

Barbed but Gregarious. [Dec 2020, p.110]

Clapton sounds exactly like what it is: the work of a musically satisfied 65-year-old. [Nov. 2010, p. 106]

There are some decent tunes. [Nov 2006, p.142]

Compared to the radical thrill of Portishead's equally long-gestated "Third," there's a sense Del Naja and Marshall are still feeling their way back. [Mar 2010, p.99]

The Carpenter's appeal lies in its gentle tempos and heartstring-tugging melodies. [Dec 2012, p.100]

The record conjures an atmosphere of twilit sadness, but the songs themselves--languid and forgettable--fail to mark Stein out from dolorous troubadours past. [Oct 2018, p.116]

Ultimately, Powell's capricious nature gets the better of him and as soon as he settles into a groove, as on the Factory Floor-like Junk, he sabotages it with a discordant sample-crash like Gettin' Paid To Be yourself. [Dec 2016, p.113]

Between the unfinished and the clumsy, Pollard produces diamonds such as the wracked Give Up The Grape and sweetly breezy Boxing About. [Jan 2007, p.150]

The Result is a monochrome masterclass where khol-eyed '60s pop and British Invasion riffs are given emotional depth. [Sept. 2010, p. 117]

It still falls to his guest vocalists to distill the album's emotive mood. [Apr 2018, p.108]

Jukebox might not be the jewel in her crown, but it still catches the light and imagination. [Feb 2008, p.91]

It lacks the spark of greatness, although 'Cycling Trivialities' and 'Killing For Love' trundle along merrily. [Oct 2007, p.98]

Lyrics veer from the pessimism of relationship failure to the optimism of new love, underpinned by the worldliness of a woman moving forwards after so many steps backwards. [Jun 2017, p.105]

His best uptempo record since Odelay. [Nov 2017, p.109]

Shine A Light balances the hamminess with proper rock 'n' roll. [May 2008, p.132]

As lovely as Do Easy frequently is, the two are often little more than a producer of their favorite records. [Jan 2017, p.115]

Holly Ross and David Blackwell's heaviest record in years. [Apr 2018, p.111]

Islands Intervals basks in a stately, other-worldly beauty akin to Sigur Ros and Icelandic folk artist Asgeir. [Mar 2014, p.112]

Second time round, they still marry old and new, but they've cut down on the stodge. [Apr 2017, p.118]

What makes BRMC extra special and what steers them well clear of parody drone-rock territory is their three-dimensional sound. [Jan 2002, p.103]

Strangely addictive. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Texan sluggers The Sword shoulder-barge the deadly "hipster rock" sobriquet out of the way with a patchouli-splattered update of Black Sabbath's noise. [Sept. 2010, p. 113]

It is the quieter songs, like the beautiful Throwing Stones, that make this record the most charming Rubin has produced since Donovan's comeback. [May 2003, p.111]

Genuinely and heart-stoppingly bittersweet. [jul 2003, p.112]

Attacking God and country and rubbing his fellow citizens up the wrong way, is par for Manson?s course. Yet never has he done it with quite such passion.

Unashamedly and undeniably in the thrall to '70s pop, The Apples In Stereo have a merry tune in their hearts. [July 2010, p. 128]

Skins is the sound of a band reinvigorated. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Sometimes, it sounds so soporific that there's a lingering sense Chung can't quite be bothered to up the tempo. [Mar 2013, p.108]

It's the overall sense of joie de vivre which makes Where The Heaven Are We such a triumph. [Aug 2013, p.101]

Dizzy Heights is a bold, wonderful affair. [Mar 2014, p.113]

Dalle has her bite back. [Jul 2014, p.104]

Gusts of electronic noise, ominous drones and Menuck's semi-spoken vocals fight for supremacy throughout, occasionally coalescing into something special. [Mar 2018, p.111]

It's as welcome as a warm fire on an autumnal evening. [Dec 2019, p.110]

The Courage Of Others charts a terrain more folksy and pastoral with a greater sense of melancholy and fear at its core. [Feb 2010, p. 106]

Coconut is overly polite by comparison to 2006's Derdang Derdang. [Apr 2010, p.106]

An album that sounds hushed, bucolic and carefully crafted. [Oct 2012, p.94]

Well worth exploring. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Snider and friends bring the party to songs not necessarily associated with wild abandon, but it's the perfect soundtrack for your next keg party. [Apr 2014, p.110]

Electronic outfit return after a decade and a half. [March 2011, p. 114]

The bulk sounds little different from most of what passes for mainstream country these days. [Jul 2006, p.113]

The frenzied feel of the record as a whole might scare off some Bloc Party fans, but this is vital, exciting stuff. [Dec 2019, p.113]

He records on an ancient four-track tape recorder, which lends Her We Go Magic much of its peculiar charm. [Aug 2009, p.106]

Elegant strings and bass, recorded by pianist and composer Hauschka, creep like ivy around this all-consuming debut. [April 2012, p.90]

His best work in many a long year. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Inventive arrangements and a strong supporting cast including Bonnie Raitt and the Blind Boys of Alabama mean these gumbo variations on obscurities and super-club standards come with added spice. [Oct 2014, p.108]

A substantially more visceral and emotionally rewarding experience than both its predecessors. [Jul 2005, p.106]

Challenging yet compelling. [Feb 2014, p.110]

There's plenty of squelching, soaring solos, and drone rock, just the ticket for those turned on by 11-minute epic 'The Rise' from the last album. [Apr 2009, p.97]

While the songwriting stays high, it's her strong but sensitive voice, with its lonesome hint of yodeling, that captivates. [May 2011, p.115]

Richard Feerless's far-ranging and impeccable influences are combined to create something new and exhilarating. [Oct 2011, p.131]

A specialist interest. [Feb 2017, p.119]

There are so many ideas battling it out here it takes numerous listens to make sense of it, but persevere and this is perhaps their strongest set to date. [Apr 2012, p.101]

Idlewild is a dazzling album. [Oct 2006, p.124]

Gorgeous, sun-dappled sounds from San Francisco. [July 2011, p. 121]

With assistance from fellow electronicists and past creative foils Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins, this translates as otherworldly synthetic miniatures, rhythmic techno tension-builders and, on Forms Of Anger, a sudden rush of motorik rock menace. [Dec. 2010, p. 109]

Kimbra has created a sparkling, witty debut that hymns commitment at every turn. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Such is the accessibility of the music here that its myriad stylistic zigzags don't jar, they simply thrill. [Jun 2015, p.104]

All this is but a prelude to the albums extaordinary, elegant climax, Bellamy’s three part, 12 minute orchestrial work 'Exogenesis: Symphony.' [Oct 2009, p.102]

Anyone familiar with Portishead's magisterial Third and Barrow's production on The Horrors' Primary Colours knows the terrain-metronomic rhythms stretched like elastic; percussion as precise as surgery; disembodied keyboards and vocals. [Dec 2009, p.11]

A record of jerky, twilit, hard-edged electro.... But for all its experiment and inconsistency, Black Cherry is still a thoroughly likeable album. [May 2003, p.101]

The 50-minute opus is an ambient masterclass. [Nov 2010, p.112]

It might not be new, but Wolf's delicate delivery ensures that it's never anything anything less than irresistibly romantic. [Jun 2011, p125]

At times, this means overloading slight ideas, but when they get it right, as on the glorious 'Finish Line,' the results are irresitible. [Nov 2009, p.104]

Their debut drips confidence, Mary's glass-shattering whoops and wordless exhortations on Long Highway and Try Colour set against the sort of brooding, stadium rock riffs even the Edge hasn't dared use since The Joshua Tree. [April 2012, p.98]

[A] forgettable collection of rheumy blues and soul rock. [May 2013, p.98]

The quieter songs that follow are more hit-and-miss. [Apr 2016, p.101]

It's the simple beauty that overwhelms here. [Sep 2003, p.98]

Future Songs is minimalist and alien, haunted and pained: like a bloodless Cocteau Twins.

There's still a whiff of contrivance about it that spoils the good work. [May 2002, p.112]

For sheer bravado and imagination it's something that few bands will top this year. [Oct 2003, p.109]

Not only do Kannberg’s vocals sound more robust than previously, but the whole record has considerably more colour in its cheeks than Malkmus’s own recent solo effort.

Falls several steps short of its predecessor. [Aug 2002, p.130]