Some rubbishy funk aside, Robinson sounds more energised than he has in ages. [Nov 2002, p.113]

McCabe details a stoner's humdrum city life a touch too convincingly at times, but the spirit of musical adventure is nonetheless commendable. [May 2004, p.111]

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

It's Hield's increased confidence as a singer that is most striking. [Jul 2012, p.102]

Compared with the clever appropriations of others who share his historical interests Manual veers close to pastiche. [Dec 2012, p.101]

This is easily her best album in 20 years. [Oct 2007, p.105]

Thankfully, it avoids the easy traps of earnestness or tweeness, and emerges as an intriguing, convincing listen. [Jan 2013, p.108]

'Love Is Free' ambles pleasantly, 'Gasoline' is 'All I Wanna Do' revisted and 'Detours' itself would grace any Best of. [Mar 2008, p.100]

Eitzel's own understated standards, 'All My Love,' 'The Sleeping Beauty' and Who You Are' show signs of a more optimistic, softly rocking side. [Mar 2008, p.100]

Both in the lyrical themes and in its sound, we are floating in familiar space. [May 2017, p.104]

It's good to have them back. [Apr 2008, p.102]

More of the same, then. [Apr 2016, p.117]

It's folk, yes, but with a wickedness instead of a waistcoat. [Feb 2013, p.113]

It was a smart move [to enlist Tim,] Goldsworthy's attention to detail forcing the band up a gear. [July 2008, p.101]

The two have a great dynamic--potentially even a special one--its just not fully realised here. [Jun 2016, p.108]

It hasn't got all the best tunes, but this bullishly self-titled album hits the target like a hair-dyed, tattooed William Tell. [May 2013, p.111]

I Got Your Number is a sexy, snarling glam rocker, Wonder recalls Smashing Pumpkins at their sunniest and Stuck In A Rut has the strut of prime-time Black Crowes. [Dec 2009, p. 110]

It's not all bad, though, as the album possesses a killer repertoire of filthy bass lines and an undeniable pedal-to-the-metal verve. [Aug 2003, p.116]

Such is the electronic murk elsewhere, it feels better to dabble your toes in this record than plunge right in. [May 2011, p.120]

Simon Le Bon's croon oozes with charisma throughout and the elegant, new wave pop hooks of their heyday are revisited. [May 2011, p.126]

Like LCD [Soundsystem], Out Hud spice up electronic grooves with lithe basslines and post-punk guitars, albeit with less finesse. [Apr 2005, p.123]

It's hard not to conclude that it's Rubin's strong tiller hand giving thee 13 songs new-found clarity, focus and energy that too often drifted away from the Stones in a cloud of patchouli when left alone. [Oct 2014, p.120]

It's taut, slick and more transatlantic than its predecessor but they lose some of the quirks that gave their debut much of its charm. [Oct 2012, p.112]

They're much more at ease losing themselves in power-pop harmonies on Lazy Bones and embracing '60s garage on Stop When The Red Lights Flash. [Jan 2013, p.108]

Their 11th LP will remind newcomers of Metallica's buffed-up chugga-chugga, but also, a trifle disappointingly, of late-era Iron Maiden's blanded-out chest-beating anthemics. [Apr 2016, p.101]

Their fourth album proves more than just a trendy daliance, placing them at the cutting edge being honed by Dirty Projectirs and TV On The Radio. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Fever Dream's AOR and folk stylings see Watt picking over the bones of his life, ruminating on such themes of love, loss and family in a wry, wise and unsentimental manner. [Jun 2016, p.117]

Yet the band's mastery of mood often comes at the expense of memorability, with the melodies and refrains of individual tracks tending to merge into a single mass of bittersweet malaise. [Jul 2018, p.112]

Things tail off towards the end--'Infidels Of The World Unite' is a clumsy stab at politics, but is so vague it might be about anything-but overall this is impressive enough. [Jun 2009, p.122]

Idlewild's Roddy Woomble has made a surprisingly decent stab of his concurrent career as a born-again folkie. [May 2011, p.126]

Cafarella's falsetto takes some getting used to, but the strategy pays off handsomly on the title track's chiimiing melody and the angular strut of recent single "Disconnected," even if the high point is actually DFA-worthy disco epic "Criss Cross." [May 2010, p.126]

Butler's gang of misfits may fall further below the radar on the back of this, but artistically he's on to something. [Jun 2014, p.112]

Perfect Darkness further reinforces his reputation as the closest there is to a latter-day John Martyn. [Jul 2011, p.102]

Succeeds in sounding exotic. [Jun 2006, p.115]

But while their second album is lyrically all quiet desperation, boasting such giveaway titles as Once I Was Pretty and The Disappearance Of My Youth, musically it's an altogether more uplifting proposition of stately A-ha styled synth-pop. [Feb 2010, p. 112]

The sound of a seasoned crafstman at work, One For The Ghost is a record that radiates his customary warmth and intelligence. [Mar 2018, p.104]

Words are what sustain Push The Sky Away. [Mar 2013, p.97]

It spares us her bluesy, commercially unfriendly side and as a result she's made her best record since, yes, "Relish."

An intriguingly woozy melange of out-of-focus vocals, feedback squalls and metronomic beats, everything coming together just so on the compelling 'Nothing Ever Happened.' [Nov 2008, p.121]

What she lacks in lyrical maturity, she makes up for in heartful conviction, channelled through a voice that's by turns sweet, savage and gut-wrenchingly vulnerable. [Apr 2009, p.110]

Songs such as Ripe For Love and merry Nightmare are lengthier and more fully realised than anything he's attempted before but they remain enveloped in a fog of gauzy effects and disconcerting time changes. [May 2015, p.111]

It's not his strongest, but facinating none the less. [Nov 2009, p.110]

There is, too, much, that is pretty and whimsical, but less substantial. Another accomplished set, but the real Fyfe Dangerfield should stand up. [Mar 2010, p.98]

It's when Pentz dials it down that it gets interesting. [Jun 2013, p.101]

It is sufficiently gritty to at least keep her in the game. [May 2011, p.126]

Opinions will still be divided--Murdoch as literary giant or self-important art school berk?--as, over 25 tracks, there's evidence of both. [Jul 2005, p.129]

She's at her most compelling when the rhythmic cross-currents come with a deep dark undertow. [Jul 2012, p.103]

Django Django have proved they can blur the boundaries: now they need definition. [Feb 2018, p.114]

As a singer, Kylie still sounds about 15 and her voice sometimes struggles not to be engulfed by the swells of strings and legions of backing singers. Nevertheless, for the most part, this is quality stuff. [Dec 2012, p.101]

More depth, and a few metaphorical tidal waves, wouldn't go amiss. [Jan 2013, p.109]

There are enough decent moments here for this to represent a step back in the right direction. [Apr 2016, p.117]

In the end, though, to fixate on these 33 songs' serial flaws and occasional bad odours is to miss the essential point. The music amounts to a compelling period piece. [July 2008, p.116]

Utilitarian is hardly an artistic leap yet is indisputably still Napalm Death. [Mar 2012, p.105]

This record will quicken the pulse of no one, but then chin-stroking does require a certain musical mellowness. [Jul 2009, p.127]

An acquired taste, but an enjoyable one. [May 2013, p.94]

While it's a policy of extremes that occasionally leaves little room for light and shade, it makes for an occasionally thrilling debut--ambitious, noisy and, most importantly, packed full of tunes. [Nov 2009, p.103]

Her sweet vocals and country-ish musical tilt recall Cat Power, but with a fresh and affirming, rather than jaded, worldview. [Oct 2009, p.112]

Strange, but strangely compelling, too. [Jun 2012, p.97]

The results may not add to a fanbase that struggles to extend beyond the UK and the good folk of Belgium and Germany, but Editors give themselves a new lease of life here. [Aug 2013, p.94]

Lese Majesty is a trip to be sure, but the destination remains unclear. [Sep 2014, p.114]

It's a welcome return. [Jul 2012, p.104]

An enjoyable conflation of nose-rock influences, mostly tracking back to the post-hardcore scene of the late '80s. [Mar 2017, p.112]

Magic's problem is that the two Bruces don't sit together comfortably. [Nov 2007, p.132]

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

The familiarity of the material is offset by the uniqueness of the approach. [Aug 2017, p.104]

Food is grown-up, womanly, but for all the hearth-and-home warmth, it doesn't forget the way to a listener's heart is through their ears. [May 2014, p.109]

Her sense of foreboding remains intact, as does her way with a spooked Portishead-esque rhythm and a keeningly intelligent lyric. [May 2011, p.119]

Derivative/ Certainly. Mesmerising? Definitely. [Jul 2012, p.104]

At times they resemble a pumped-up Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but it's not all "you want some?" antagonism. [Mar 2019, p.120]

The opening first half of their fifth album is hard work, constructed songs high on atmosphere but lacking memorable tunes, easy to admire, difficult to love. Thankfully, they contary buggers save the best til last. [June 2008, p.138]

There's still the odd detour into eerie atmospherics, but essentially this is electronica for people who fine The Knife hard going, with recent Kylie collaboration, Whistle, providing a final dusting of pop sugar. [Oct 2013, p.106]

Filth's fondness for combining high-minded conceptualism with base British humour is actually their strong point. [Dec 2008, p.123]

Staying true to a 20-year career of uncompromising extremity, it will take commitment to breach this seventh album's walls of noise. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

He'll never repeat Play's monumental success, of course, but he's building a might back catalogue. [July 2011, p. 116]

The harsh tones and minimal melodies may not carry universal appeal, but then Kuperus and Miller have always preferred to dance in the shadows. [Jul 2013, p.99]

The album's slow, soporific pace can mean it sounds similar from song to song, but Okumu's voice pivots everything. [Jul 2012, p.104]

Even if the songwriting... doesn't always match the musicianship, there's something addictively funky going on here. [Feb 2007, p.102]

The occasional clunker's certainly not enough to take the shine off a solid, consistent album. [Jan 2013, p.110]

As always, Scott overdoes it--and frequently--but when Modern Blues is good, it's very good indeed. [Feb 2015, p.117]

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

Uniquely weird, as usual. [May 2008, p.130]

Public Service Broadcasting stitched archive audio footage into evocative instrumentals. [Mar 2015, p.114]

It's clear Russell was a true renaissance man, as at home with thoughtful guitar pop as he was with New York disco. [Dec 2008, p.143]

Like his dad, he's more of a declaimer than a singer, but that's still plenty good enough to get his politicised sloganeering across. [Dec 2008, p.130]

Love Is Dead's songs, however, don't so much burrow into your brain as thwack you over the head, and the band's tendency to fashion refrains from little more than the song titles means some tracks are memorable simply by dint of merciless repetition. [Jul 2018, p.114]

Horehound's strengths are also its weaknesses--the rush with which it came together, the sense that it amounts to Jack White playing to type. But like Jack White, too, when it's good, it's very, very good. [Aug 2009, p.102]

Log 22... finds them in familiar ground, each song dipped in its trademark melancholy no matter how frenzied the guitars get. [Jul 2003, p.100]

This isn't quite their peak (not least since it seems to have been recorded in a shed next to a motorway), but when they hit their stride it's clear why they're so revered, most thrillingly on the anthem that is, 1,2,3, Partyy!, the stentorian Forget Yourself or the beguiling closer, Slow Faucet. [Jan 2010, p. 122]

It holds its own, just. [May 2002, p.114]

Fluff, maybe, but very entertaining fluff. [Dec 2009, p. 115]

At the end of Monoform, the first track on Leeds five-piece Vessels' second, album, you can pretty much hear the sound of impending collapse, as if the band has begun to implode in the mix.It's at once terrifying and exhilarating. [May 2011, p.127]

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here falls from the same mould [as 1992's Dirt]. [Jul 2013, p.99]

Features typically fragile thumbnail sketches like New Haven Comet. [Feb 2003, p.105]

At its best when following pop inspirations on Torn Maps or Turtle, it's still a challenge--just less so than the 11-minute jazz-rock freak-outs of old. [Aug 2013, p.95]

In the end, the try-everything approach works out: if only because Girls' scatterbrained classic rock patchwork is so idiosyncratically odd. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Celebration Rock delivers more of the same good-time guitar-pop anthems about girls and night on the tiles, delivered at breakneck velocity and near-deafening volume. [Jul 2012, p.104]

The hypnotic techno loop of Dicker's Dream provides forward momentum, though it's the more contemplative moments, from No Reflection's sparkle to Moon In Water's limpid ambience, which shine brightest. [Jan 2019, p.113]

The fact remains that Take The Crown is a disappointment. [Dec 2012, p.99]