Alongside an early double hit of the two best pop songs the band have written in a decade and a rabble rousing take on their own Sproston Green, the album sees Tim Burgess pay respect to lifelong influence Crass. [Sep 2010, p.118]

Those two moments ["Powerless" and "Waiting All Night"] aside, Home is a very satisfying debut. [May 2013, p.107]

The demos remind you that Stevens doesn't need much more than a guitar and an iPhone to work his magic. [Feb 2018, p.119]

A return with soul and fire. [Oct 2013, p.110]

Although they're heavily fracking the '70s, they're doing so with a punky precision that keeps them on the right side of oddball. [Dec 2016, p.113]

Their self-titled debut crackles with youthful brio. [May 2018, p.111]

Whether it's some twangy rockabilly or a thoroughbred country lament, their aim is always true. [Feb 2013, p.107]

An altogether more polished affair [than debut, Good Evening]. [April 2012, p.106]

Daft, complex, and beautiful, it's also his best yet. [Jul 2009, p.133]

Synthetica's relentless efficiency feels a tad mechanical. [Jul 2012, p.107]

Genuinely anarchic and surprising. [Dec 2004, p.148]

The imaginative scope of this debut shows why expectations have been raised, his hazy soundscapes and blurred falsetto recalling Animal Collective's more strung-out moments. [Mar 2010, p.110]

The disco squelch and vocoder melodies of Falcon Jab recall Discovery-era Daft Punk, but what gives this an extra dimension and warmth is Stroud's guitar playing. [Aug 2008, p.140]

Born This Way feels like the first proper Lady Gaga album. [Aug. 2011, p. 114]

These 13 songs do the simple things, but do them wonderfully well. [May 2005, p.106]

It's hardly original, but is frequently beautiful. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Coming over not unlike Belle & Sebastian with muted horns and liltingly voices, sounds gently ebb and flow. [Jun 2011, p.110]

Warrior, a moderate improvement of her disappointing debut Animal. [Jan 2013, p.106]

At times his magpie approach lacks focus, but when it all clicks Blunt achieves a transcendental beauty. [Aug 2013, p.95]

If her band's 28-minute-long debut album doesn't quite possess that same ferel delinquency [as the live shows], it still has teeth that bite. [Feb 2018, p.116]

Other artists might have engaged in some sort of artistic progression by now, but this is what Black Lips do. They bend to no one's will but their own. [Jul 2017, p.104]

It's an album that more than makes up for Franz Ferdinand's extended absence. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Though their lyrical scope remains limited, they work hard to deliver the kind of catharsis you'd associate with a cherished coming-of-age movie. [Jul 2020, p.106]

After a rocky couple of years, Good Evening New York City is proof that Paul McCartney's mojo appears full recharged. [Jan 2010, p. 116]

Dimensional People III is the key. Its multi-layered ambience is indicative of the record as a whole and it serves to highlight this duo's zest for reinvention. [Jun 2018, p.113]

They have their moments, including the electro-rock riffs on Bambi, but elsewhere the lack of variety soon grates. [Sep 2010, p.121]

Impressive. ... The gravitational pull of easy-going '70s jazz-funk is felt throughout. [Feb 2018, p.112]

The result is a more direct sound. [Apr 2011, p.106]

Though the symphonic funk samples that power his free-flowing wordplay sound as if they could do with an upgrade. [Apr 2011, p.95]

Steel-plated national treasures hit the epic button. [Sept. 2010, p. 117]

Vocally, Fogerty still shreds, and this lively album omits enough of his gems to hint at a sequel. [Aug 2013, p.97]

It occasionally goes Heartbeat but Jackson largely swerves pastiche with his knack for limpid romanticism and muzzy atmosphere. [May 2014, p.120]

Each of these tracks makes the case for Foo Fighters' horizons successfully expanding, in the way the acoustic side of "In Your Honor" didn't. [Oct 2007, p.87]

Their Macabre storytelling and aura of imminent violence lend themselves well to Twitch's vintage synths, and suspenseful effects. [Jul 2011, p.119]

Here his long-established yet lumpy backers The Blokes too often impede his thoughtful lyrics. [Apr 2008, p.102]

The Keychain Collection isn't far removed from James Blake, though the subtle melodies are all his own. [Apr 2012, p.98]

It all adds up to an impressive first step that ticks plenty of the right boxes, as does Duffy herself. [Apr 2008, p.100]

An acquired taste. [Jul 2005, p.119]

Misch's fluid songwriting is still to the fore, as on the title track's loose-limbed shimmy, heightened by an uplifting string arrangement. [Jun 2020, p.102]

Drifting, dreamy and at times, driving, it's further proof of the Swede's eclecticism. [Oct 2011, p.120]

If Noah And The Whale's The First Days Of Spring dealt with identical subject matter from a 20-year-old's perspective, 46-year-old Everett's tale is darker and more adult. And painfully brilliant. [Feb 2010, p. 104]

It's the perfect balance of serious pop and pop that doesn't take itself too seriously. [Dec 2019, p.107]

Concise at just 30 minutes, perhaps explaining why "the concept" is not fully realised, but it's still unlikely you'll hear a better anti-fascist-Marxist-electro-pop record all year. [May 2013, p.106]

There's not an original thought in the quartet's heads, giving them free reign to gleefully exhume the corpses of Black Sabbath and Kyuss with hulking riffs and bear-like voices. [Apr 2008, p.107]

Clearlake have headed into deeper, darker waters. [Feb 2006, p.101]

A proper, reggae-tinged rock album. [Jun 2003, p.104]

As radio-friendly as Radiohead are not. [Sep 2001, p.120]

The songwriting here is less striking than that showcased on recent best of. [Dec 2003, p.130]

Unusually direct. [Jun 2004, p.98]

Much of it is lovely, but marred somewhat by the whispery sub-Kate Bush vocals of Kristin Valtysdottir. [Apr 2004, p.117]

There's still heart and soul in that funny old voice. [Nov 2004, p.118]

The raggedy, pared-back approach puts the spotlight right back where it should be: on Moorer herself. [May 2004, p.106]

While the second project has iuts moments--'Venice' is beautifully undersatetd--the juxtaposition doesn't really come off and you're left wondering why these weren't simply kept as two disctnct EPs. [Mar 2009, p.96]

There's plenty of classic rock sodge, but Communion's execution alone feels admirably daring. [Sep 2009, p.95]

There's undeniably something new and intriguing going on here. [Jul 2012, p.95]

There's no shortage of good ideas, and Brettin clearly doesn't take himself too seriously, but next time he'd be advised to leave the bong at the studio door. [Nov 2015, p.112]

An excruciating listen. [May 2006, p.129]

Spx's voice is a thing of wonder - rich, deep and stomach-tighteningly emotional. [Jun 2012, p.99]

In shifting from decks to band, he has also checked the imagination which marked him as an original. [Sep 2005, p.114]

While the country-slanted Keeper doesn't stray far musically from what's gone before, the mood is more upbeat. [Nov. 2011, p. 128]

It's an engagingly ramshackle record, off its hinges, but never off the peg. [Apr 2018, p.106]

[Songs] worth revelling in. [May 2012, p.98]

Overall this is a deliberately austere affair. [Sep 2014, p.113]

Not oversold, sensitively handled and direct, consider the tribute a success. [Feb 2014, p.112]

The most Tricky-like he's sounded in years. [Oct 2017, p.104]

There's preciousness here, but so what? Craftmen out to care. [Sep 2011, p.114]

Priorities is inspired by the post-hardcore of Hundred reasons, Reuben and Hell Is For Heroes. [Sep 2012, p.110]

It's mix of precision and passion reminds of Muse's debut. [Jun 2013, p.91]

While Martyn's voice has dropped an octave and lost a few notes along the way, that merely adds to the beaten and beating heart of these songs. [Jun 2014, p.114]

It all helps to bring out a soul and spirit that is hard to deny. [Jul 2014, p.110]

Revolt may not be the sonic revolution Tinley aspires to but reconfirms him as one of UK dance music originals. [Mar 2015, p.103]

While Vance's pipes are impressive--a mix of Van Morrison and John Fogerty--it's his lyrical googlies that hook you in. [#361, p.116]

It's on the final track, Punch, however, that they reach a brand of strung-out, sun-soaked lamentation that feels entirely of their own making. If only there were a little bit more of that elsewhere. [Aug 2017, p.100]

The result is as Russell surely intended. [Dec 2017, p.110]

There's polish here aplenty, yes, but less majesty. [Mar 2018, p.107]

The maestro's arpeggiators show no signs of seizing up, even if there's a touch of melancholia about Tangerine Dream-like opener First Movement and Clean Air. [Aug 2018, p.116]

Headaches and nausea are a possibility, so approach with caution. [Apr 2007, p.116]

It takes 18 songs before the real Chamillionaire shows up. [Nov 2007, p.126]

The fifth outing as Immersion finds the couple at their most sumptuous. [Summer 2018, p.110]

It reaffirms Mockasin's status as the maddest biscuit in the box. [Nov 2018, p.109]

There's nothing unlistenable... but nothing hugely inspiring, either. [Dec 2003, p.120]

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

An album that delivers plenty of thrills, even if the spills are now to be found elsewhere. [Oct 2014, p.104]

Rarely longer than three minutes, Zomby tracks don't make much sense in isolation but the cumulative effect over 80 minutes is moving in ways that are hard to explain. [Jul 2013, p.113]

Tidy enough indie pop, though the glowstick remains unwaved. [Feb 2007, p.99]

Any playfulness surrounding the album's titular pound-shop themes quickly evaporates amid a sound so spacious and tune-free as to border on emptiness. [Feb 2016, p.116]

This lean, adrenal debut fors one better, blurring the boundaries between dance and rock with a flair not seen since Hooky and co plugged in their keyboards in the early '80s. [Feb 2010, p.113]

This follow-up displays an admirable desire for transformation. [Jun 2018, p.111]

Post-punk quartet's first all-new record since 1995. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]

Rather kite-flying itself, Kweller prides shooting the breeze over true direction, but there are enough emotional gusts here to ensure he regularly soars. [Jun 2012, p.106]

It's an enjoyable debut, but a few more surprises like [a saxophone solo in Who Are You] would've helped mix things up. [#361, p.115]

Hologram's monotone new wave reeks of a school band rehearsal, released into the wild before its time and without its signature song. [Aug 2012, p.100]

There's an intimacy to these songs that makes it feel like you're intruding on some private sorrow, but there's no denying their ability to sustain a mood. [Jun 2009, p.117]

You Know Who You Are combines unpretentious lyrics of passing time, loss and the urgency of life with harmony-packed power-pop exuberance, recalling Teenage Fanclub, The dB's or, as on Believe You're Mine, Johnny Marr. [Apr 2016, p.112]

Lytle's melodic warmth provides a protective layer against the heartbreak and horror. [Nov 2012, p.101]

While not yet distinct enough to escape [Lily] Allen's shadow, as an empathetic soundtrack to similar growing pains Nash's debut hits its mark. [Sep 2007, p.86]

White it can still sound like samples waiting to be made into songs, on It's Not Me and Six Pack they reveal a canny knack with almost Motown-esque pop hooks. [Oct 2002, p.107]

The Beastie Boys have always been at their best when gleefully rhyming and stealing from a variety of sources--both musically and lyrically--and the self-imposed adherence to hip hop traditionalism here, and indeed musically on the album as a whole, rather subdues their famously free-form sonic palette. [Jul 2004, p.108]