A compelling record, in which the moments of sudden tenderness stand strongest. [Jul 2014, p.105]

Playland is better than its predecessor in pretty much every respect. The songs are better, the palette broader and there's a genuine sense of Marr hitting his stride as a solo artist. [Nov 2014, p.103]

Seasick Steve has settled into his stride with a seventh studio album that breaks no new ground but comfortably vaults the bar of his own setting. [Apr 2015, p.109]

His low-key, unhurried approach is unchanged. [May 2015, p.107]

As film music the score's consciously unobtrusive. [Apr 2015, p.94]

Curious, gorgeous and a little bit off its rocker. [Aug 2015, p.109]

This feels like a flying visit through an impromptu victory party. [Dec 2015, p.107]

The big indie-rock of Sleepy Hallow is beaten in the chirpy stakes only by the vaguely Afrobeat of This Little Sister while McIntyre's melancholy of old takes on Titanic proportions for the pleasing Why Do They Go So Soon. [May 2016, p.113]

Abrasive textures win out over melody, and the odd flashes of In rainbows-era Radiohead only serve to underline the inaccessibility of the rest of the material. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Intimate without being indulgent, the crackly production only enhances the home-baked mood. [Summer 2018, p.113]

Not a bad record, just one that needs to get out more. [Feb 2019, p.116]

Even when the centre spins out, Lennox's naive melodies make his indulgence sound strangely inviting. [Mar 2019, p.116]

Even when the music threatens to sag into MOR dullness, as on Slow Burn Love, Almond's unmistakable voice - equal measures of defiance and fragility - lifts it up high.[Mar 2020, p.114]

If the songwriting isn't quite up to the standard of 1992's high-water mark It's A Shame About Ray, The Lemonheads marks a welcome return. [Oct 2006, p.122]

Only Break's lapse into unreconstructed arena-rock strikes a jarring note. [Jul 2016, p.107]

A 1991-2001 covers record is an odd move after just two solo albums, but he carries it off with unusual choices and twinkling instrumentation. [June 2008, p.137]

Gentle, droll and - bar the disappointingly immature Oh Shucks - mercifully free of knob gags, Minor Love is charming. [Feb 2010, p. 108]

Still Corners show that they're not just marking time and counting sheep. [Jul 2013, p.110]

Long Wave seems like great fun for Jeff Lynne, less so for the rest of us. [Dec 2012, p.111]

Kelis is blessed with a unique voice. [Nov 2006, p.143]

The songs themselves, delivered via polished neo-soul and roots-reggae arrangements, seldom push beyond the retro comfort zone. [Apr 2012, p.98]

As always with the finest of Eels albums, Everett's loss is the listener's gain. [May 2014, p.110]

What Sun Structures lacks is a bit of fire in its belly. [Mar 2014, p.109]

Hard to pin down, and all the better for it. [Jun 2012, p.111]

Thir second album is suitably heavy on post-adolescent angst but, for all frontman Andy Hull's best efforts, singularly lacking it's own voice. [Jun 2009, p.134]

Until the follow-up to 2006's excellent "The Crane Wife," this makes for an adequate stopgap. [May 2008, p.136]

Impossibly energetic, joyously extreme and a little bit exhausting. [Jan 2018, p.114]

It all makes for an engaging and frequently charming solo debut. [Nov 2010, p.114]

A return to form that shares DNA with Madonna's Ray Of Light, it combines Dido's introspection with meditative electronica. [May 2019, p.111]

The music is let down by clunky lyrics. [Feb 2011]

It's a heady, exuberant mix, although the mystifyingly reduced vocal contribution of Jamie's husband Derek in turn reduces their uniqueness. [Nov 2008, p.123]

To a drumless folk palette of voice, guitar, piano and cello, he deftly blends his own compositions with covers of The Psychedelic Furs, Roxy Music and The Doors into a sweetly morose song suite that examines the heartsick mature male, post-love affair, wondering what it's all about. [Oct 2014, p.110]

Weird and wonderful. [May 2006, p.129]

While no disaster, the enterprise does smack of Vonda Shepard's coffee shop warbling. [Jan 2003, p.121]

Stealing the riff from Sweet Jane wholesale as the basis of a song would seem to speak of a band who aren't exactly pushing the envelope or alive to the possibility of change. [Aug 2001, p.128]

Seal The Deal opens with a rollicking piano intro that's longer than the rest of the song, guitars are abandoned in favour of exhilarating keyboard riffs, and the background use of birdsong and bagpipes is commonplace in Quasi's world. And it's a better place for it.

Their now drab and dense psychedelia has been "updated" with the occasional drum machine but is still populated by willowy, damaged girls called Esmeralda and songs with "chrome" in the title.

Nellyville doesn't really have any side streets unexplored by the previous Country Grammar, but it's all so good-natured it's hard to object. [Sep 2002, p.111]

A triumph. [Jul 2004, p.124]

A well put-together record, just lacking in heart. [Oct 2018, p.119]

Their sound brilliantly pays homage equally to the sparkling melodies of C86 and the lunk-headed bounce of punk rock. [Apr 2011, p.110]

An exuberant mash-up of all sounds urban. [July 2011, p. 111]

Fizzing with ideas, their future looks bright. [May 2012, p.93]

Songs such as "Don't Ask" strike, but with nothing to sweeten the blow. The sound of baby going out with the bath water, in short. [Apr 2010, p.109]

While Wonderful Crazy Night lacks a truly great Elton John song, he sounds more driven than he has in years. [Mar 2016, p.108]

His fifth and final Streets album turns into his best since "A Grand Don't Come For Free." [Feb 2011, p.123]

If Pajama Club resembles anything, it's a Neil Finn solo album, although Dead Leg and Can't Put It Down Until It Ends are as well-crafted as anything he's offered since Crowded House's pomp. [Nov. 2011, p. 139]

Unlikely to return them to chart orbit. [Mar 2012, p. 97]

Too often proceedings feel half-baked. [May 2007, p.123]

An exquisite, unexpected gem. [Jun 2012, p.102]

Herren's wall-of-noise productions were clearly a big influence, alongside shoegazing indie bands and Joy Division, though nothing that follows quite measures up to spectacular opening lamundernodisguise, somehow reminiscent of both MGMT and gothic folk troupe Espers. [Dec 2008, p.133]

They are at their best when bandleader Torquil Campbell and muse Amy Millan share the mic. [Nov 2007, p.147]

Along with Johnston's clanging, winningly direct originals, there are contributions from fellow alt-rock comrades such as Eleanor Friedberger and, perhaps more surprisingly, Jake Bugg. [May 2013, p.104]

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

Worth spending time with. [Jul 2014, p.110]

The star throughout Joyland is Spedding's guitar, but the record isn't entirely all his own show. [Apr 2015, p.111]

It's only on lightweight tracks Army and Devotions that Delirium drags. [Jan 2016, p.107]

[They] have stretched their wings. [Jun 2006, p.119]

Takes him out of the bedroom and into the bar room and, as a result, it's a much drearier affair. [Apr 2005, p.120]

Together [Mt Sims] and Leila forge a suitably avant-garde partnership ... conjuring up a febrile, vital rush of looped, monotone vocals, buzzing electronics and fractured beats. [Feb 2012, p. 107]

Fever Dream is a dizzying rush of exuberance and emotion. [Aug 2019, p.115]

Band Of Skulls may be taking a slow route to the top, but the peak is definitely within view. [May 2014, p.107]

Like most of his albums of the last decade, NonStopErotik covers all his stylistic bases. [May 2010, p.115]

This is easily is best work to date. [Oct 2013, p.104]

Braver Than We Are is the best thing either has done in decades, addressing as it does both Meat Loaf's less powerful voice and [Jim] Steinman's enormous back catalogue. [Oct 2016, p.109]

They appear to have found their level: one of rock's best-kept secrets. [May 2007, p.124]

Ultimately 24k Magic's luxe exterior writes cheques its soul can't cash. [Feb 2017, p.115]

There's plenty of evidence on Tonight... of attempts at broadening their palette, but it's usually by substituting jerky guitar for jerky synthesizer as the lead instrument. [Feb 2009, p.110]

There is slick virtuosity to all the playing here but it is her warm, witty presence that shines through. [Feb 2011, p.118]

They do succumb to indulgence--most pointedly on bloated eight-minuter Deep Water--but if you're prepared to allow them, they're just about worth it. [Jul 2011, p.116]

This sumptuous riddle of a record is a celebration of everything but normality. [Oct 2014, p.100]

As an attempt to connect while keeping aloof, it succeeds. [Feb 2015, p.108]

This mix of fearlessness, craft and believability is irresistible. [April 2012, p.90]

While the individual elements all sparkle, at times there are so many stylistic tics that the songs can get lost in the mix. [Oct 2016, p.106]

A dense dish to consume in one sitting, perhaps, but Bootsy's spicy narrations and undulating, jazz-informed basslines hold it all together. [Dec 2017, p.105]

Mockingbird Time, the band's first album in eight years, places them right back in the hazy glow of Laurel Canyon sunset. [Oct 2011, p.123]

Not surprisingly, To Dreamers doesn't stray far from what's gone before. [Dec 2010, p.114]

It really is hard to distinguish between the eight tracks here, but when a theme's this good, the variants are never going to be a problem. [Mar 2003, p.113]

Back to basics. [May 2003, p.100]

While there are plaintive acoustic moments, listen closely and [Oliveri's] inciting listeners to necrophiliac cannibalism. [Aug 2003, p.110]

The album's middle section is an exercise in restrained songcraft. [Mar 2003, p.114]

Be warned: wisdom, soul searching and politics often lead to earnest power chords and clenched fists when coupled with poodle rock. [May 2006, p.123]

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]

Once again it's a showcase for some dextrous prog-jazz metal guitar work that on occasion veers dangerously close to tuneless skronking. [Mar 2009, p.104]

Still Life rarely strays out of the comfort zone. [#361, p.117]

Where You Stand finds the quartet catching up with themselves and displaying real depth and maturity. [Sep 2013, p.108]

Best of all is Cruisin' FDR, which oozes carefree joie de vivre... as it transposes the Californian lifestyle to the East Coast, where even the dark sky is grey "in a beautiful way." [May 2012, p.102]

Fans of early Beck, Spacemen 3 and Galaxie 50 will love it. [Apr 2013, p.109]

It's a mostly dazzling performance, though on the histrionic Gone Insane, they get carried away by their own virtuosity. [Apr 2016, p.109]

Undeniably bold and ahead of its time, it also remains rather easier to admire from a safe distance than to actually like. Or listen to. [Nov 2008, p.121]

If Ski Mask fails to be a hit now, though, give it 20 years and it'll be cult gold. [Nov 2013, p.102]

[Disc 1] is impressive stuff--the sound of a muse regained. Pity the acoustic disc is nowhere near as good. [Jul 2005, p.109]

You'll fall for Peter Broderick's humour and ingenuity in the end. [Nov 2012, p.90]

Unashamedly retro, yes, but delivered with out irony--and at ear-ringing volume. [Dec 2012, p.105]

If there's a flaw, it's that Mathe's songwriting is more conventional than the arrangements. But there's no denying the emotion behind his heartfelt croon. [Sep 2013, p.97]

Plastics is a deeply impressive debut. [Aug 2014, p.105]

There's nothing here to suggest either a problem with what he's doing--Heavenly is as heavenly as its title suggests; Middle of Love shows how friendly Sexsmith can be; and the jaunty-sounding Eye Candy is covertly acerbic as they come--or that things will turn around for him. [Apr 2011, p.109]

The trouble is, for all its inventive wordplay and expert pastiches, Join Us swiftly becomes the musical equivalent of that witty, but rather-too-clever male party guest who always ends up going home alone. [Sept. 2011, p. 119]