They don't make quite such a startling leap forward on this third effort [as on 2016's Love Yes], but tweak it by reworking their sound with electronic experiments. [Apr 2019, p.116]

Decent enough, but still not up to their best. [May 2014, p.119]

Funny Girl is so good it makes you think a parallel career as huge stars ought to be in the offing. [May 2012, p.103]

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

The panoramic melancholy may lack variety for some, but sorrow rarely sparkles this wonderfully. [Feb 2014, p.112]

With ace guitarist Marc Ribot on board, it's rockier than her three previous outings--but in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.121]

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

It bobbles along, slowly but gracefully. [Feb 2005, p.100]

The sound is at once distinctively British and uniquely African, encompassing vivid live field recordings and heavily processed electronica. [Dec. 2001 p. 126]

producer Don Was has tried to capture a country legend in his veteran state, but he's missing all the tricks. [Jan 2013, p.106]

Weezer sound extremely happy in their own skin right now, and they're all the better for it. [Jun 2016, p.112]

On their first LP in five years, Thomas and his 15 collaborators lovingly craft 12 richly layered but never precious songs which burst with invention, melody and surprising saxophone, all underpinned by chief singer Carol Catherine's appealing melancholy. [Jun 2013, p.104]

Something special and fascinating and really quite contemporary. [Jul 2015, p.111]

Classic heartbreak stuff. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Alienation, restlessness and lovelorn angst abound here, and Veronica Falls have lost none of their knack for blithely morbid romance. [Feb 2013, p.113]

Full of borrowed ideas put together in a not unpleasant or unoriginal way, their sound is still too close to the myriad other wannabes trailing in The Libertines' and Razorlight's wake. [Oct 2006, p.119]

If there is a criticism, it's that they lack thier own, unique sound, but this is still a breezily pleasing summer-evoking effort. [Jul 2009, p.122]

For the most part it's how you'd imagine: classy, laid-back, so lush it's a wonder the sleeve isn't made out of velvet, trendy beyond human experience and exceptionally well-sung. [Aug 2003, p.115]

Heath's high-octane hoedown riffs achieve the expected levels of raucousness. [Oct 2004, p.129]

There's lashings of charm in the way the songs unfurl, touch upon an array of ethereal womenfolk and end, having gone nowhere much, but prettily.

They have shed their gormless, drifting amateurism and turned themselves into a classic American pop band. [Aug 2009, p.109]

I Am Arrows finds Burrows ploughing a fuzzy acoustic furrow to delight fans of summery '70s pop. [Aug 2010, p.120]

Take Me Over makes a misplaced attempt at funk, which grates slightly, but it's hard to dislike the well tuned synths and dreamy choruses of tracks such as Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat. [Apr 2011, p.101]

They've kept their distinctive sound. [April 2012, p.106]

It's Envy's quietest moment, a hazy cover of Bowie's Letter To Hermione, which is the real diamond in the rough here. [Apr 2012, p.105]

A welcome surprise. [Jul 2012, p.113]

It's a lush, moving affair. [May 2015, p.103]

Still work to be done here. [Aug 2015, p.106]

Having given himself just eight tracks to play with, Broder ends up with more ideas than he has songs to fit them into. [Jul 2016, p.106]

At times it can feel a little lightweight. [Sep 2016, p.106]

Glorious stuff. [Jun 2018, p.116]

Memory Streams is the sound of a band locked in a classy holding pattern. [Dec 2019, p.113]

The Diving Board is less engaging, widescreen lyrics paired with waddling blues and maudlin balladry. [Oct 2013, p.104]

It may be a little too low-key for its own good--Four Tet explores similar territory with more urgency--but it's full of dog-eared charm. [Jul 2013, p.104]

The celestial keys and brooding bass of Lesson From The Darkness could be straight from the early '80s, but The Faint's mastery of their influences ensures Doom Abuse is defiantly their own creation. [Jun 2014, p.108]

You can't argue with the boldness of the move, but it's hard to know who really wants a sensible Sic Alps. [Oct 2012, p.110]

Safe to say, it's one reassuringly cosmic listening experience. [August 2011, p. 113]

Crackles with the cocky, hormonal exuberance of youth: it's a profoundly teenage album. [Aug 2005, p.126]

It can get a bit overly conceptual, but Gone Now is so irresistibly joyful that it can be forgiven. [Aug 2017, p.100]

They haven't just picked up where they left off last time; they've recreated the sound of their debut wholesale, then tossed on a couple of extra layers of flamboyance for good measure. [Sep 2006, p.104]

Her solo incarnation is finer-framed, a collection of country-dusted ballads and Laurel canyon laments run through a Kurt Vile filter. [Feb 2019, p.115]

They're better when they throw off the straightjacket of cool. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Foam Island again trashes the template as the duo attempt an ambitious quasi-documentary approach. [Nov 2015, p.106]

The album possibly fails to deliver singles like Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix did, but nothing here suggests unpaid debts, a splurge before the bailiffs come or a lack of confidence, despite the title. [May 2013, p.97]

Of Nelson's many collaborative albums, To All The Girls is simply among his best. [Nov 2013, p.112]

Unfortunately, there's nothing else that come close to matching its opening statement. [Feb 2015, p.106]

"Lamping" is a hunting term for flooding a forest with light then opening fire on the panicking prey, and the ninth album by these Athens, Georgia oddballs is similarly scattershot. [Dec 2008, p.132]

All told, it's a mighty tasty spread. [Apr 2016, p.117]

Oddly, it [maturity] suits them well. [Oct 2017, p.105]

It's sweetly out of step with prevailing pop trends, but it will certainly strike a chord with anyone who has ever had their heart broken. [Jul 2018, p.108]

His second album Splazsh serves up tense techno without a hint of human warmth. [Jul 2010, p.140]

Fading Love is hard to fault on its own terms, but in a world where there's just so much music, sometimes being decent isn't enough. A bit of nastiness wouldn't go amiss. [May 2015, p.105]

Unfortunately, Collapse Into Now is not nearly as consistent, vital or accomplished as either Out Of Time or Automatic For The People. [Apr 2011, p.94]

Pollard's ear for a pop hook remains unswerving. [Mar 2006, p.109]

Ballet School update and enhance, rather than copy or clone their '80s forebears. [Oct 2014, p.103]

His music, colorful and entertaining as it is here, has yet to supply a definitive answer. [Mar 2013, p.98]

If you haven't bought one of his [Mark Lanegan's] records for a while, this is a great place to get reacquainted. [Jun 2013, p.100]

This instant familiarity is their strength but also the source of the mild disappointment that nags through the rest of the record, since it mostly amounts to variations on a theme, few of which scale those initial heights. [Apr 2010, p.116]

Their music is a similarly odd hybrid [as the Bray Road Beast that their first track references], its great dreamy prog head gazing down at its shoes. [Feb 2016, p.108]

An uneven but fitting swansong, then. [Aug 2017, p.100]

Sure, there's a little too much filler, but this is pleasingly radio-unfriendly fare. [Aug 2008, p.140]

As You Were stands as proof that rock's most charismatic general is back on active service and spoiling for trouble. [Nov 2017, p.102]

Allen keeps it reliably real. [Mar 2009, p.92]

The impression is of a group who have got too good at sounding like themselves. [Oct 2002, p.110]

Suffers from the same faults as previous efforts: limp tunes, pompous guitar solos and an overhwlming sense of "Will this do?" [Sep 2003, p.98]

His mutation into Hank Williams may be unlikely, but it also proves to be rather charming. [Aug 2005, p.126]

Their fourth album is another collection of winning boy-girl-harmony-laden indie confections. [Jan 2008, p.106]

It'll undoubtedly please their cult following, if few others. [Sep 2011, p.110]

He thrives when bringing gravitas to the sparse blues of Soul Of a Man and extraordinary tenderness to the Low Anthem Charlie Darwin. [Jun 2012, p.105]

A hauntingly quiet triumph, Croz gets under your skin and stays there. [Apr 2014, p.114]

Barely rising above the soft purr of a sleepy summer morning, DB are all about mood and ambiance. [Aug 2014, p.103]

There's a pleasing magpie approach to his songwriting.... At times, however, his influences are too transparently obvious. [Apr 2015, p.107]

Although it's all competently realised, it's hard to escape the feeling that this has been done many times over before. [Jun 2015, p.108]

One to be enjoyed in small doses. [Jun 2015, p.110]

For all the tastefully understated harmonies and lush orchestration there are times his beats could use a shot of caffeine. [Jan 2017, p.104]

Draining and stylish in equal measure. [Jan 2017, p.111]

There are less arresting moments--the pensive The Silence In Between, for example--but they are the eye of an impressive electronic storm. [Jul 2019, p.110]

Less immediate than her band work, it's a record that is rewarding and quietly revelatory. [Nov 2019, p.112]

Beneath the hazy romance, California sunshine and chamber-pop sheen lies something less blithe and breezy. ... Quite the trip. [Sep 2020, p.108]

Tart modern pop performed with a sly sense of homour. [Mar 2009, p.105]

The Black Lips are on consistent and disreputable form throughout. [Apr 2014, p.104]

It's a winningly demented mix of ADHD garage rock, wonky psychedelia and massive, foot-on-monitor guitar riffs. [Oct 2013, p.109]

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]

It's like they've just put all their old sounds together in a slightly different order. [Feb 2005, p.101]

Dicing with chaos throughout, it could easily induce headaches. But within there is substance and odd beauty. [Apr 2016, p.109]

Despite some affecting songs and intriguing production quirks, it lacks that kind of magic [of his 1970s albums]. [Jul 2005, p.113]

This debut proves equally effervescent. [Apr 2011, p.109]

Silver Steps and Slow Cathedral Melt are all howled melancholy, and equally exciting are Triccs' sonic twists and turns, even if they are exhausting, exhilarating listens.

Compared to the rapid evolution happening elsewhere (not least from his old rival James Blake), Woon here sounds like he's performing with the safety-catch on. [Dec 2015, p.110]

Perhaps Codes And Keys's seemingly illogical sequencing of songs makes sense if they wish to lure their audience into thinking it's as-you-were. But it's not: things are different and better. [July 2011, p. 110]

Their fifth album is more about the song and less groove-based than their previous output. [Jun 2013, p.90]

It's an undeniably chin-stroking effort, songs revolving with quiet, Dire Straits-ian grace around a pedal-steel guitar, while a variety of vocalists take his musical atmospherics and run with them. [May 2008, p.135]

On this debut LP they layer Britpop cheer with glam, funk, electro and Beach Boys harmonies, in a manner that's both tuneful and arch. [Jun 2009, p.123]

Presenting a more elegiac, frigid sound than recent albums, the songs, notably the Mogwai-meets-Morricone Make, show rhythmic agitation and conversing guitars finding resolution in horns and massed voices. [Jan 10, p. 119]

It's bold and gimmick-free--proof there's no shame in covering old ground. [May 2009, p.116]

Negotiate the idea that you're eavesdropping on a social anthropology seminar and ther are thrills to be had. [Nov 2009, p.110]

Admirers of The Boo Radleys, the group Carr side-stepped stardom with in the '90s in favour of eclectic cult-dom, will appreciate the sophisticated dance-pop, rock, soul and Brian Wilson-like orchestral curlicues in evidence. [Dec 2017, p.102]

A refreshing listen. [Dec 2009, p.120]