Ferry has covered so much ground that it's hard not to repeat himself. [Apr 2002, p.112]

This band aren't about confrontation, and to those attuned, this is exactly their strength. [Jun 2013, p.109]

It sometimes sounds like it was prodded out on a tablet. At other times, the production and the plus-sized pop tunes are perfectly matched. It's an ongoing struggle between DIY and deluxe, with the latter just about winning. [Aug 2017, p.109]

The Grocery [is] riveting. If Manchester Orchestra are guilty of being a tad too serene elsewhere, it must also be noted that sounding beautiful is a good problem to have. [Sep 2017, p.113]

Omori hits the sweet spots--butterfly-inducing money notes, wistful minor-key switch-ups--but rarely excites more than cordial admiration. [Sep 2018, p.117]

She has good songs, but no great songs. [Aug 2003, p.105]

It's got some fine, graceful tunes. [May 2006, p.128]

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

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]

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

The overall sense is that for all its unhinged eclecticism, Control is the product of a fiendishly inventive mind. If he can find focus, he'll be a real force. [Apr 2015, p.99]

If it sounds oh-so-ironic, it isn't; the Handsomes may exisit on country's oddball fringe, but they're no comedy act. [May 2009, p.112]

A collection of songs that are either from or reflect different eras of his work--all linked by his idiosyncratically engaging vocals and melodies. [Jun 2013, p.108]

Yet while the sound of these songs is often great, the bad news is that most of the songs themselves leave little lasting impression.

She's convinced an army of writers and producers... to furnish her with above-average R&B to pant suggestively over. [Sep 2006, p.108]

Slightly wan and wispy. [Feb 2016, p.119]

The results are anything but fluid, instead capturing the lawless, conflicting thrills of cultural anarchy. [Apr 2019, p.110]

They excel most on energetic, darkly comic songs. [Jun 2017, p.110]

Tobacco keeps things instrumental, lathering on freakish analogue effects but rejecting dance music's stylistic tics in favour of a pleasingly warped relative of space rock. [Aug 2009, p.112]

An uneasy hybrid of furious, three-minute punkers and would-be anthemic ballads in the time-honoured Ramones style. [Aug 2003, p.115]

While his satanic-hick shtick hasn't evolved an iota since the first Hellbilly Deluxe, there's no denying that he knows his audience. [Mar 2010, p.97]

Lovable, albeit irritatingly so.

Go Forth is addictively oblique stuff, veering joyously between budget Gary Numan, scene elder statesmen Fugazi and the Pixies in their surf-rock period. Shredding instinct and convention along the way, Harrington has forged something compellingly original here. [Nov 2001]

Dizzy might feel wobbly on their feet, but Baby Teeth gives them an impressively solid foundation on which to build. [Sep 2018, p.110]

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

If there is a sense that this is The Strokes' last chance to carve an enduring career for themselves, then it's a challenge they've decided to tackle without any reinvention of their trademark sound. [Feb 2006, p.96]

What we have here is a Killers record made without the Killers that sounds like The Killers and is almost as good as The Killers, but not quite. [Oct 2010, p.101]

However appealing Sugar Mountain may be to some, the storytelling alone will prove too much for others. [Jan 2009, p.127]

Edgar Jones offers up grit and depth often lacking in modern production. [Jun 2017, p.109]

There's no doubting her sonic ambitions, the glowing multitracked vocals and eclectic instrumentation here resembling a kind of lo-fi, one-woman version of Animal Collective. [Jun 2009, p.117]

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

It's the sinuous, propulsive bass of Malka Spigel (Newman's wife and co-founder of the Swim~label) that takes centre stage, never more so than on instrumental opener Faster, the first of several tracks to invoke the ghost of New order. [Jan 2010, p. 119]

While there's plenty to admire, Magic Chairs feels like th work of a band who can't quite allow themselves to make the anthemic indie-rock of which they're clearly capable. [Mar 2010, p.101]

Enigmatic dubstep maestro's spooky follow-up. [Aug. 2011, p. 127]

There are moments of brilliance--the title track features a stunning guitar section, while Every Little Thing is a powerful reminder of the importance of self-forgiveness--yet First Flower occasionally fails to live up to its predecessor. [Nov 2018, p.102]

A big talent but no Billie Holiday. [Sep 2013, p.102]

Generally there's a lightness here he'd do well to retain. [Oct 2006, p.118]

Their vampiric draining of the past cleverly becomes an energizing indie infusion. [Nov. 2011, p. 142]

Artistically, it struggles to cross the velvet rope and push on into greatness. [Jan 2011, p.134]

His sometimes-still-too-warbly voice is the main instrument on this follow-up, but it's pockmarked with new friends' influence. [May 2013, p.96]

Hardly essential, but brimming with late summery charms. [Nov 2009, p.101]

Brand New Eyes sounds like an energised romp through the diary of a small-town American gal--albeit one struggling to reconcile Christian views with the celebrity afforded by more than two million album sales. [Nov 2009, p.111]

When the songs are powerful enough, it all works gorgeously. But elsewhere, songs as Ordinary Life or Nigel & Fiona drift towards diluted boho chic. [Nov 2001, p.122]

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

A sweetly gloomy affair mostly for guitars and voice. [Aug 2017, p.105]

Often sad yet always warmly sympathetic, it's a well-weighted, smartly observed collection of attractive pop. [Jun 2010, p.132]

A little too straightforward. [Oct 2019, p.110]

Part cipher, part siren, Minogue's odd power is underlined: it's not always clear quite what she does, but she does it brilliantly. [Aug 2012, p.115]

So, does it match expectations? No. [Jan 2005, p.122]

If a tad skronky in parts and slight at 28 minutes, the deep grooves of IC-01 pull you in. [Dec 2018, p.114]

It's definitely soul [Vic Godard's] way. [Nov 2014, p.111]

They are a band still in search of that one killer track. [Mar 2017, p.108]

An exhilarating melange of '60s-style close harmonies, unashamedly funky guitars and psychedelia. [Aug 2009, p.112]

Using everything from string quartets to jet turbines, metal sheets and electric guitar, it moves from being severely irritating to moments of great beauty. Worth persevering with, if you're willing to go the emotional distance.

Walk Dance Talk Sing is most effective when, rather than relying on the tunes to work their magic, they lock the groove into a freewheeling funk-motoriik. [Jul 2015, p.102]

Though fatally flawed, Invincible does boast its fair share of sonic exhilaration. [#184, p.132]

By turns beguiling and unnerving, at times it feels like an exercise in disorientation. [Sep 2018, p.113]

A daydream of a record, one well worth drifting off into. [Aug 2012, p.115]

Pleasing though it is, [it] doesn't run too deep. [Sep 2015, p.112]

At times, there's tantalising echoes of Radiohead at their most accessible alongside more soulful diversions. [Sep 2013, p.104]

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

Suffice to say, the issues addressed here are as big as the music. [Nov. 2011, p. 142]

The result is disjointed but fun--and way more entertaining than Chinese Democracy. [Jun 2010, p.131]

A deep listen. [Apr 2017, p.111]

In parts, [the album] is certainly worth it. [Jan 2013, p.113]

His ninth record is ramshackle and there's a lot of it, but it's always entertaining. [Feb 2013, p.101]

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

This is a catchy, cocky, Avril Lavigne-y debut, its surface gloss making up for an ultimate lack of depth. [Nov 2008, p.118]

The '80s influence remain close to the surface secodn time around and Ryan James's lyrics are still hardly full of cheer, but it's a leap forwards. [Feb 2015, p.111]

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]

Exists in the blurry middle ground that separates provocative experimental art from utter nonsense. [Nov 2004, p.130]

There are moments the focus blurs. But it's the exception on an album that dynamic, dramatic and remarkable free of self-indulgence. [Jun 2013, p.99]

That's not to say these 11 tracks lack merit, just impact, such highly-strung, right-angled songs as Right In Time frequently becoming bogged down in experimentation. [Jun 2003, p.96]

If From The Hills doesn't quite have the swing and swagger of 2012's self-titled EP, it shouldn't be hard to recapture that promise next time around. [Jul 2013, p.105]

LoveHateTragedy is a compendium of modern rock styles, glued together by Papa Roach's exuberance and Shaddix's outsized persona. [July 2002, p.119]

Sadly, there's also a depressing quantity of mush and devotion, totally at odds with his grinding best. [Sep 2001, p.122]

There are enough thrilling moments on Black Dialogue to justify the collaboration. [Apr 2005, p.123]

But for a little judicious editing, it's a pleasure we could have shared with him. [Oct 2012, p.99]

A band clearly in awe of Jarvis Cocker's lyrics and the sound of spiky guitars. [Jul 2005, p.119]

The spark that made initial albums such as Bug so special is still missing. [May 2007, p.123]

[In the UK], he's still something of a curiousity and likely to remain so, despite Tristeza Maleza's sweet, summery lilt and the Bob Marley-like festival anthem 'Politik Kills.'

The arrival of J Mascis for Giving It All Away lightens the mood, but it's impossible to shake the sense Sugar is the sound of a band in transition. [Oct 2010, p.107]

Asleep at Heaven’s Gate is still as polite and polished as the "edgy" mainstream dramas it will no doubt continue to soundtrack. [June 2008, p.146]

Fog is about as far from his work with Will Oldham as it's possible to be while still playing the guitar. [Feb 2013, p.101]

Certainly, there's an absurdity about the great man wrapping his frail tonsils around vocally acrobatic piece like Stormy Weather. Yet, his passion for the task of rescuing these poetic tunes from cultural obscurity is palpable. [Jun 2017, p.106]

The Low Highway has the brains and passion of Earle's last few releases, even if it's not especially surprising. [May 2013, p.100]

Ultimately, Iradelphic never really amounts to more than the sum of its parts. [May 2012, p.94]

Their stance is still refreshingly at odds with the mainstream. [Oct 2009, p.105]

A sleek fusion of minimal bass, subtle breakbeats and surpise vocalists. [Apr 2010, p.111]

A much more focused and funky set than Embrya. [Oct 2001, p.127]

[Cohn reprises] his thick, often indecipherable Midwestern accent, but with spot-on timing and flashes of surreal wordplay. [Aug 2013, p.104]

The folky reworking off The Raconteurs' Caroline Drama is an improvement on the original and the stark version of Love Is The Truth, originally written for a coke ad, outweighs the bombast of the released version. [Nov 2016, p.117]

The mood of their music often feels a little stuck, though. [Oct 2012, p.100]

The desire to do something different is admirable, but the results are unfocused, like a collection of B-sides to singles that never existed. [Dec 2016, p.112]

Much of Brighter Wounds is beautifully textured and sonically impressive but songs feel constructed from carefully plotted blueprints, which doesn't leave much room for nuance. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Fans of Owl City and The Postal Service will relish such good clean fun, quite literally when Dadone warbles, "Don't let the bathwater get too high" on Starring. [Oct 2010, p.107]

While there are few surprises, there is much to enjoy. [Feb 2013, p.101]

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