Lyrics are of a cut-and-paste nature and largely unintelligible, yet sonically speaking there are layers at work here that deserves to be revisisted. [Nov 2009, p.114]

With Pedro de Dios Barcelo's vocals so Andalusian-accented even other Spaniards have trouble following. No Matter: their readiness to rumble transcends such trifles. [Feb 2016, p.111]

A commanding debut. [Jun 2005, p.113]

There are eager minds at work here. [Apr 2013, p.110]

It's one of their finest. [May 2013, p.98]

While he's lost more of his craft, he's rarely sounded so at ease with himself. [Dec 2014, p.109]

Much of it is an inventive, hio-hop-inflected delight. [Jul 2006, p.112]

Tracks such as the arresting Human League-meets-Georgio-Moroder fusion 'One Day' and the gloriously uninhibited finale 'Happy House' remian an irresistible invitation onto the dancefloor. [May 2009, p.113]

Unlike other wannabes, Pink shares Madonna's two best assets: a keen eye for the next collaborator to further her cause and the ability to sound like Pink no matter what shape her cause takes. [Dec 2003, p.133]

Gibb's style is frustratingly monotonic. [Sep 2004, p.119]

So is it White Ladder II? In a word, "yes." [Nov 2002, p.94]

More summery than a sombrero and probably just as unfashionable. [Sep 2003, p.112]

It is only when she tries something a little different that Macy comes unstuck.

A familiar blend of clipped funk, jazz nuances and airy musings. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Admittedly Maas is hardly reinventing the wheel here, but there's a freshness and pace that's been missing too long. [Mar 2002, p.126]

DJ Babu looks to the old school for his mix of melody and beats, giving the whole project a fluid and classy feel with more than a nod to their heroes, Run DMC. [#184, p.130]

Wilfully artful and obtuse. [Aug 2004, p.107]

At first listening, this feels vexingly inconsequential, but after a few loosening listens the music's slight but simple pleasures shine through.

His approach provides an intriguing adjunct to other boundary-pushing talents from further down the coast such as Vince Staples. [May 2017, p.111]

Orthodoxy is dispensed with here, with varible results. [Nov 2009, p.103]

An intoxicating approximation of Beach House's gauzy atmospherics. They replicate them skillfully enough but you can't help feeling they're ultimately trying to move into a space that's already taken. [Nov 2017, p.107]

In many ways Chapman just sings the same song over and over. [Oct 2005, p.115]

On their amiably unvarnished debut, they're a bit punky, a little folky, even a bit rockabilly, but always refreshingly themselves. [May 2010, p.126]

The grandstanding result sounds like U@ if Bono had decided tattoos, obscure piercings and the occasional sore-throated growl were the way forward. [Jan 2011, p.135]

Hope delivers the sort of soaring melodies and driving riffs eschewed by their emo contemporaries. [May 2011, p.115]

[The album] is a thing of unstated, fragile beauty. [Oct 2012, p.104]

True, like an armful of regrettable tattoos it may have transitory allure, but its nasty, brutish and short appeal will do for now. [Jul 2015, p.104]

A small but perfectly formed addition to his [Anton Newcombe's] stellar back catalogue. [Dec 2015, p.104]

Some newer tracks while still enjoyably bleak, play straighter with acoustic guitars and a lot of vocal noodling, though it never feels like Radio 2-friendly folk pop is where Parker's strengths lie. [Jul 2017, p.112]

A record lyrically concerned with trying to find inner peace and a sense of community within a troubled wider world. Perfect sounds and sentiments for these times, then. [Summer 2020, p.98]

This thoughtfully constructed and often enchanting record manages to mark itself out from the crowd. [Feb 2019, p.110]

Feel[s] like an album to be admired rather than enjoyed. [Jun 2006, p.115]

It makes a refreshing change from the studied cool of Moretti's paymasters. [Dec 2008, p.130]

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]

Everything is invigorated by both the quality of songwriting and singer Adam Stephen's wrenching trouble-he's-seen vocals. [Nov 2012, p.108]

[The band's] hardcore sound is as tricky to keep up with as ever. [Mar 2013, p.101]

Eraser Stargazer will be anathema to many, but its twitchy 29 minutes carry fabulous voltage. [May 2016, p.109]

Some may carp at the lyrics, but at 47, Kay retains pole position as pop's most revved-up playboy. [May 2017, p.107]

This second album us far from flawless, with too many songs outstaying their welcome. [Sep 2013, p.98]

Newcomers might well benefit from starting nearer the beginning, but this is one space saga that's worth persevering with. [Jun 2010, p.120]

They sound like a band expanding their horizons with success. [Mar 2012, p. 100]

Pleasing, brain-squeezing racket. [Aug 2012, p.95]

Banner's rasped raps are as direct and filthy as ever. [Jan 2006, p.124]

While the maverick spirit that drives this pair is admirable, it doesn't make the end result any more enjoyable. [Apr 2008, p.102]

Add some successful diversions and you'll find a gloriously grown-up spectacle here. [Jul 2012, p.108]

Reveals a keen mind at work. [Nov 2005, p.123]

It still has an easy going charm and the odd surprise, but more spice would have helped cut through the pervading blandness. [Jan 2014, p.124]

The paper-thin arrangements ensure there's little here to give psych-rock peers such as Tame Impala and Temples any sleepless nights. [Dec 2015, p.109]

Finds Zevon reverting to a fuller, plumper, back-to-the-'80s sound. [July 2002, p.122]

No matter how much frenetic energy is exuded, Title TK fails to ignite The Breeders' former fire. [May 2002, p.108]

Even on a daft live album, he refuses to coast. [May 2004, p.106]

The chill out crowd, and anyone else unbothered by such walk-ons, will happily drift off to the rich, inevitably orchestral backdrop, thinking it ever so classy. Which, of course, it is.

Spring Heel Jack exist in that increasingly exciting no-man's land where clubland and modern jazz call a truce and have a kickabout.

Compellingly bleak is a tough mood to sustain, however, and tracks sucj as 'Interrupted' edge them toward generic stadium territory. [Nov 2009, p.112]

Deeply unengaging. [May 2012, p.94]

It's the same stark template of vocals, acoustic guitars and assorted surprising adornments, but they save themselves from the overworthy trap by those voices. [Sep 2013, p.100]

Adding bassist Jonana Bolme has sharpened focus, but its' frontman Sam Coomes's guitar that brings a new strut to typically droll psychodrama such as "repusion." [Apr 2010, p.119]

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

Retro, but in no way passe, it's little wonder that kindred spirit Mark Ronson recently proclaimed himself a fan. [Oct 2009, p.112]

It's a sterling testimony to both the songwriting skills of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and bassist Tony Barber's crisp production that Buzzcocks still sound so undeniably valid. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Nothing here sounds forced. [Jun 2017, p.102]

Long-term aficionados will enjoy the sinuous throb of King Of Bones, while those thinking of rejoining the party, the expansive voodoo rattle of Haunt shows the band's mastery of (bad) mood has only matured with age. [Feb 2018, p.108]

They still sound confident and all-conquering. [May 2015, p.103]

Completely unexpected, utterly brilliant. [Feb 2019, p.116]

Gumption is slow, resolute, low on dazzling epiphanies but high on atmosphere and texture. [Mar 2016, p.119]

Avonmore doesn't quite match 2010's fine comeback solo album, Olympia. [Jan 2015, p.125]

There's almost a manic feel to it. [Jul 2017, p.114]

Strikes the right balance between rock ballast and frayed pop beauty. [Sep 2011, p. 101]

While he's not breaking any boundaries, when Moore keeps the tempo up.... he's as good as any other would-be Moroder, even if the title track's lyrics and FM swagger owes as much to US soft rock behemoths Foreigner as it does to Studio 54. [Jun 2012, p.107]

This is the rarity of a hits collection from a band still at the top of their game. There's plenty more to come. [Jan 2014, p.131]

A little extra salt in his songwriting and he could yet conjure up a classic. [May 2015, p.100]

A missed open goal. [Aug 2015, p.110]

It's a mess, but it's never less than an absorbing one. [May 2016, p.107]

The spindly riffs and skiffle-y arrangements are as tightly wound as ever, while Bid's mocking lyrics have seldom been so waspish. [Oct 2016, p.109]

While the music is mellow, his stories can be tricky. [Aug 2017, p.107]

It's a quietly bewitching LP, storied and subtle and sweet. [Dec 2018, p.107]

It's not settling down as anyone else might know it, but Revelation is the unlikely but lovely sound of a plan coming together. [Jul 2014, p.119]

Tracks can occasionally patter past without triggering the same fight-or-flight response, but when their machinery really gears up, they remain masters of electronic mood. [Aug 2016, p.115]

It;s the mesmerising sonic weave which provides the intrigue. [Oct 2011, p.117]

It's just that he has done all this better before. [Jan 2014, p.124]

The fact they're doing this in their early 20s verges on the astonishing. [Mar 2006, p.111]

[A] palatable solo debut. [Oct 2007, p.101]

A superbly restorative tonic for troubled times. [Sep 2020, p.108]

Addictive R&B hooks and all-dancin', all-lovin' subject matter boosted with hot production tweaks. [Jun 2004, p.107]

Angles fits 10 songs into a brisk 34 minutes and doesn't waste time gunning for gravitas. [Apr 2011, p.92]

If the results are sometimes insubstantial, they can also be richly atmospheric. [Oct 2009, p.118]

Harvey's voice is not worthy of heavyweight songwriting. Still, when the songs are lighter, he succeeds. [Oct 2005, p.117]

Their new album features more jangling indie-pop than before.... But when the similarly inclined Too Far Gone To Know and closer Fall Out Of Love suddenly stir as the Krauty riffing recommences, you're left pondering. [Jan 2014, p.125]

Not the breakthrough they crave but a highly engaging 45 minutes nonetheless. [May 2014, p.118]

The core subject matter remains Gedge's mordantly fatalistic view of love but the ambitious nature of the project seems to have put a spring back in his step. [Oct 2016, p.113]

His diluted indie-whine does become obnoxious over the long haul. [Mar 2003, p.104]

Where once they clanged, Neubaten now purr, the pervading mood of restrained grandeur, leavened with itchy, almost pop touches. [Apr 2004, p.110]

Their best yet. [Sep 2001, p.120]

Half of Zoomer suggests Beck being produced by Aphex Twin, but elsewhere his flimsy songwriting is drowned out by percussive clatter. [Nov 2002, p.106]

Beautifully written, played and sung, but just once it would be nice to hear a bit of distortion, a fluffed note and some real soul. [Jun 2004, p.96]

A proper soul album which hooks you with the first pneumatic beat and draws you deeper with every heady atmosphere and vivid emotion. [Jan 2004, p.111]

The Donnas have reached the legal drinking age in their native California, even if their foxy glam/punk-rock remains fixated on teenage preoccupations...

Wonderful Wonderful is a glossy indie-pop album with sonics as slick and glistening as a brand-new Vegas skyscraper. [Oct 2017, p.110]