If anything the sisters take too traditional an approach, and where their live shows are freewheeling and fun, Tell Tales sounds mannered and prim. [May 2012, p.95]

Her most rounded album.... However, many lyrics have taken a sudden, baffling turn into mystical territory making this two steps forward and one back. [May 2003, p.114]

His new project is even more deranged, much of its sounding like Butthole Surfers driving at you on a space-age steamroller. [Jun 2013, p.93]

Like most blockbusters, the script is predictable - topics include no-good men, being hard and how great Eve is - but this is designed for booming out of car stereos rather than close listening.

Gibson's music has a strange timelessness faded and well-mulched, though there are moments when the mood proves a little too sludgy to be memorable. [Jul 2015, p.106]

It's all very pleasant, but a lot of it does drift past without leaving much of an impression. [Oct 2019, p.106]

The intensity of his pain is inescapable in this exhausting explanation of what really becomes of the broken-hearted. [Oct 2004, p.124]

The results are entertaining and witty, as well as educational, even if at times the tunes have to perform contortions to squeeze all the lyrics in. [Jul 2010, p.141]

The California band's doomy gothic arias sound unsettling and bold once more. [Sep 2007, p.91]

The magic isn't totally absent, but this self-conscious debut falls just short of the hype they've garnered on US blogs. [Oct 2010, p.111]

While the limitations of their two-man line-up means that the music never takes flight in quite the same way, the austere likes of 'Fly Low Carrion Crow' still leaves an indelible mark. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Its surreal mix of chamber-pop, electro-funk and avant-garde noise is well executed, but it's so scatter shot, that, ultimately, it frustrates. [Nov 2007, p.137]

The accompanying impression of sincerity is enough to save unashamedly sentimental tunes such as Wedding Party and Two Children from mawkishness. [Jul 2012, p.96]

A daunting 32 tracks and some typically uneven quality control. However, there's a renewed freshness here. [Jun 2017, p.106]

In small doses, it's insightful and infectious, but after a whole album's worth of introspection Kasher starts to sound like a bit of a whinge bag. [Jan 2011, p.138]

Nothing quite matches its [Snow's] shock and awe and there's some of the old water-treading in Falling, but there's menace in the repetition of "my tears well up and cry for you" on the spooked Petals and she's never sounded quite so otherworldly as she does on Corduroy Legs. [Jul 2016, p.113]

Joyously propulsive... [Yet] there's little deviation from a straightforward palette of sticky basslines and boom-bap rhythms. [May 2012, p.95]

A concise soundtrack of garage racket, gospel-informed blues, glam balladry and piano confessionals. [Jun 205, p.104]

Peace Is The Mission feels like too much of a splurge to be enjoyable right through. [Jul 2015, p.109]

Inevitably, the revolution zeal dissipates, but their crowd-pleasing instincts remian intact. [May 2010, p.117]

Amid all the wanton airy-fairyness, this is just brilliant pop music. [Jul 2013, p.106]

They've mastered sounding unhurried but supertight. [August 2011, p. 113]

Crow still rocks. [Apr 2002, p.111]

A follow-up that's both more consistent and more predictable. [Sep 2013, p.104]

Quarter-hearted anthems such as Winner fail to recapture the desperate glamour and delicate optimism of their best work, making Elysium the definition of a mixed bag. [Oct 2012, p.104]

A dreamy, atmospheric record. [Oct 2012, p.98]

Bizarre and not a little perverse. [Apr 2007, p.117]

Rock Island will leave intrepid listeners feeling like they've glimpsed many shades of paradise. [Apr 2018, p.112]

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

Happyness's second LP is deceptively well thought-out, deftly constructed around unusual chord changes, and laced with subtly eyebrow raising sonics. ... Making you wonder just how impactful this able trio might be if they properly pulled their finger out. [Jun 2017, p.106]

The lean on their punk metal roots as rawness and straightforward riffing dominate in an album that, despite missing Keenan, does recall their early-'80s heft. [Mar 2012, p.105]

His third album shows his mic skills to be only marginally above average--though given the right vintage soul groove he can raise his game. [Jan 2011, p.138]

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]

The acoustic-only, antique-sounding folks songs of Realism are superficially less abrasive than 2008's Distortion, but beneath they still articulate black-humoured romanticism. [Feb 2010, p. 111]

Citay's fourth album hasn't moved far from the excessive Black Sabbath/led Zeppelin grind of their self-titled 2006 debut. Dream Get Together does, however, show more finesse. [Mar 2010, p.98]

It's a record to be applauded for its ambitions, even if the songs sometimes struggle to carry the weight. [Jun 2013, p.100]

A highly polished R&B-pop collection about every millennial issue from empowerment and self-love to mental health. [Sep 2019, p.112]

It's too wordy by half, but underneath the psychobabble lies the most solid collection of AOR you're likely to encounter this year. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Rush sound like they're slowly but audibly running out of puff. [July 2002, p.118]

ADHD-powered hardcore New York punk. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]

For the most part, Beyond Good & Evil roots itself between Metallica, nu-metal and the slightly psychedelic ambience of '85's Love: the band's pre-metal apex. [Aug 2001, p.124]

McLamb's vocals still sometimes fall the wrong side of the impassioned/histrionic divide, but this is a far more coherent album than its predecessor. [Sep 2013, p.104]

Unbearably stark. [Nov 2006, p.136]

While album two adds flavours from the Mediterranean and Iran, the fundamental intent is the same with less-is-more funk beats and bass providing an opiated shagpile foundation for Mark Speer's light-touch guitar lines. [Apr 2018, p.111]

A bit of a gimmick maybe, but one that pays off, with Mellencamp relishing his role as grizzled troubadour steeped in the rootsy traditions of America's rural South. [Oct 2010, p.111]

When they hit their still groovy '50s psychedelic rock stride on 'Second Sight' or the bonkers hippy wig-out 'Song of Love/Narayana,' the truth is that Kalu Shaker still aren't so awful after all. [Sept 2007, p.92]

When they stop bing so smart, Join With Us becomes more rewarding. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Rudolf's sound is his own on an album full of scarf-waving choruses, insistent hooks and surprisingly reflective lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.104]

No album with a nursery rhyme like Bongo Bill takes itself seriously, but even when he tackles the titular Persephone having her eternal hippy idealism rudely punctured, there's still a kindly smile on Tilbrook's lips. [Feb 2014, p.121]

Seemingly compiled by the toss of a coin, Can't forget is a hotch-potch of old staples, two new songs and two covers. [Jun 2015, p.102]

Continues in the same vein as its predecessor, matching Lynne's soulful vocals with an array of catchy tunes. [#184, p.140]

It's brimming with what he does well: competent, poppy-yet-street mixtures of rap, reggae, R&B and brazen cover versions. [July 2002, p.110]

At its best it's a combination that offers a kind of Lynchian allure. ... Elsewhere, thought, it can all seem a little passive, a chill-out zone somewhere along Route 66. [Sep 2018, p.118]

Ultimately, floating voters will lament the lack of a flat-out glam and/or electro-disco belter to rival their hits. [Oct 2017, p.111]

Coda mopped up odds and sods and two new discs include Page and Plant's 1972 recordings with the Bombay Orchestra. [Sep 2015, p.121]

West Coast eccentrics' second ambitious offering. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]

If there's a weakness it's the lack of an obvious pop banger. [Dec 2017, p.113]

Wed 21 is a great place to enter Molina's world, but doesn't tell fans anything they don't already know. [Dec 2013, p.110]

As a coherent album it's flawed, then, but with more consistent songwriting one senses they could be contenders next time around. [Apr 2016, p.107]

Enthusiasts for dooomy extremes will find much to love here. [Apr 2015, p.97]

Symphonica feels supper-club safe. [Apr 2014, p.103]

Crass, brash, open freeway excess at its best. If only he didn't spend half the album apologising for them. [Jul 2004, p.118]

At Glastonbury she dazzled; here she plays it safe. [Sept. 2011, p. 105]

Though frontman Tom Dougall's subdued vocals prove a little one-note over an album, the ground's certainly safer than it was three-fifth of Toy's old band. [Oct 2012, p.112]

While the icy Joy Division guitar chords and singer Davide Jones's faux-cockney delivery never sound entirely natural, their energy is compulsive. [Jul 2005, p.113]

When they ease off the gas, such as on the relatively forgettable High and Afterglow, they can err towards pedestrian emo, but there's enough toughness here to see them comfortably over the line. [Apr 2018, p.108]

This is no dour social critique. In fact, his seventh album finds him energised following a period as a soundtrack hack in Los Angeles. [Aug 2008, p.145]

Nine albums later the sextet's mix of American pop classicism and Khmer-language vocals is ever more indivisible, the melting pot now also including African rhythms. [Apr 2015, p.99]

Pippen's lush tones are again a good foil for Defever's haunting music. [Oct 2002, p.109]

Whey-faced romantics in black clothing should form a queue. [Aug 2002, p.131]

But on his 14th album, this spiritual cowboy ("Home is where my horse is," he sings on Natural Forces) appears to have rediscovered his adolescent side. [Dec 2009, p. 119]

Featuring no less than 15 different songwriters, Fever is step-aerobic heaven, each song shiny, bouncy and as expertly arranged, if ultimately soulless, as one would expect from so many contributors.

An exercise in restraint. [Aug 2018, p.114]

The result is intense, fractured and uncomfortable. However, by continuing the trajectory of Mess, only deep-diving further into abstract electronics, it also reveals itself as a strangely exhilarating listen. It's a shame they didn't have time to explore it further. [Aug 2018, p.113]

Numan and collaborator Ade Fenton complement the narrative with a sand-blown, Eastern gothic mood, featuring use of Arabic scales, which evoke a desert within the human soul as much as any hypothetical desert Earth. [Oct 2017, p.107]

This is a ludicrously enjoyable record, shedding Razorlight's US-targeted bluster and awkwardly stalking that curious mid-70s musical patch where pub rock and glam shaded into punk. [Aug 2013, p.97

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

There are times even [Tom Clarke] threatens to get swallowed up in a swirling mix that leaves the post-dubstep scene decisively behind them. [Sep 2014, p.106]

Instead of intense rock, it's a more atmospheric piece of work. [Nov 2005, p.123]

It can ramble, but their landscape is so compelling, the scenic route is no punishment. [Dec 2018, p.108]

They spent three weeks recording this eclectic set of covers ranging from The Moody Blues to Spoon, all delivered with the steel-trap tightness of a touring band. [Jun 2010, p.128]

She's got some distance to travel before she's a truly mind-blowing, norm-shattering pop star. She's not the new Madonna, just a very naughty girl. [Oct 2010, p.117]

Not for the faint-hearted then, but there's definitely something to enjoy in its sheer bloody-mindlessness. [Mar 2015, p.117]

The disruptions continue on these post-classical keyboard pieces given extra depth by textured electronics, which create an underlying tension befitting the album's brief to examine possible ecological futures. [Jun 2017, p.109]

Terraplane pays tribute to the greats and puts 60-year-old Earle's own slant on living with a broken heart. [Apr 2015, p.99]

It bristles with roaring guitars and the whiskey-guzzling howl of Ben Ward. [Mar 2012, p.105]

Gardot mixes jazz and R&B with elegant string arrangements and acoustic guitars to beguiling, small-hour effect. [Mar 2009, p.98]

Ultimately, the outlook remains lucuratively overcast. [Dec 2009, p.137]

With a running time of barely half-an-hour, it seems likely to remain a minor footnote to Drozd and Coyne's already extensive back catalogue. [Sep 2014, p.106]

It's an album that shows the breadth of Harcourt's talent, certainly, but you can't help but miss the warm burr of his voice. [Jan 2019, p.109]

The bulk of the R&B tracks are gloopy. [Mar 2006, p.106]

Hey Venus! feels like a missed opportunity. [Sep 2007, p.94]

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 difficult to sit through, yes, but that could well be Herbert's smartest reflection of the times. [May 2019, p.112]

Impressive but so unblinkingly stern. [Oct 2013, p.101]

The best track here is named after a local town called Sheffield but the massive wall of guitars and tidal wave of drums and cymbals put you in mind of Happy Mondays or The Stone Roses in a tussle with The Jesus And Mary Chain. [Dec 2008, p.123]

Co-produced in the US by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, Twin Shadow is assured hipster status in his adopted New York home. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Despite the relaxed setting, these songs have a restless urgency. [Summer 2018, p.106]