Only the relatively jolly Escape Song is worth excavating from the morass. [Nov 2002, p.97]

The only top notch effort is the title track--Cash's first composition for years and among the best he's ever written. [Jan 2003, p.114]

Perfectly pleasant, but with none of the edge that might mark them as another Arcade Fire. [Oct 2005, p.117]

There's a raw urgency to the album that belies its dated influences. [Oct 2003, p.108]

Subtle, suggestive songs. [May 2005, p.117]

She sings [everything] so prettily that you wonder just how authentic her misery really is. [Aug 2006, p.113]

This debut shows his skills are undiminished, boasting some A-grade production. [Jun 2009, p.122]

As confusing or thought-provoking as ever, depending on how far you want to walk down Costello's mazy career path. [Jul 2009, p.118]

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]

This world music/indie rock mix is countered by the affecting melancholy of their quieter moments. [Nov. 2011, p. 143]

London's electronic wunderkind explores just about every other avenue in post rave dance music. [jam 2012, p.123]

Essentially, it's post rock without the waiting around - all the songs here are straight arrowed and straight-forward, but never predictable. [Oct 2011, p. 125]

It's 10 years since MHS were hailed as the next big thing, and with this album MacIntyre may finally repay those hopes. [Feb 2012, p.108]

Tasteful as well as gifted. [May 2012, p.105]

Ambition too often trumps listenability. [Oct 2012, p.104]

Whenever the album bares its claws, such as on Joe's Cult and the soaring Horses, it demonstrates just how good it would have been with a dash more daring. [Nov 2012, p.104]

It's executive producer Eminem and his tin ear for a beat who dominate the LP's direction--or, rather, lack of it. [Dec 2012, p.112]

Ring makes it work by resisting the urge to do anything that resembles grandiose. [Apr 2013, p.94]

There are flashes of greatness here. [Apr 2013, p.110]

Purists may lament the loss of some immediacy to his songs. [Jun 2013, p.95]

The next crossover metal band has arrived. [Nov 2013, p.101]

Breathlessly current in its maxed-out production, but also properly robust, Bitter Rivals should turn Sleigh Bells into serious contenders. [Dec 2013, p.104]

Although Lion City's best moments come with the fusion of African and Western psychedelic rock to ambient atmospherics, standout song Justice will suit anyone who's ever wondered what might happen were Bruce Springsteen to write a blue-collar anthem with African rhythms. [Jun 2014, p.108]

A welcome reversal of fortunes. [Aug 2015, p.112]

Separations, divorce, remarriage and kids all feed into 12 tracks of disastrous love, welcome redemption and rekindled fire, but not everything works. [May 2016, p.111]

As ghostly grey as an autumn fog, it's definitely a record for when the rain's hammering on the windowpanes at home. [Sep 2016, p.102]

If the question is whether they're moving Busted forwards, then the answer is a resounding, robotic, synth-laden yes. [Dec 2016, p.105]

Fans will find few surprises on this full-length debut, which opens with Silhouette's emo-soul ballad and throughout maintains a mood pitched somewhere between tortured and despairing. [Apr 2017, p.111]

Smart, witty and warm. [Dec 2017, p.113

The result is an album that feels mystifyingly oblique, but also unburdened with the pursuit of anything bar a gentle beauty. [Aug 2018, p.111]

Her's mine post-punk and new wave with a tasteful restraint, fusing Scritti Polotti's twinkling, slinky grooves with the luminous lugubriousness of Orange Juice to create something that feels distinctly theirs. [Sep 2018, p.113]

A deeply satisfying upgrade. [Feb 2019, p.115]

A little too straightforward. [Oct 2019, p.110]

Ultimately, you're left wishing that Panic at the Disco had more to say about their own generation, instead of mimicking that of their parents'. [May 2008, p.134]

Superb. [May 2012, p.105]

For all its chiseled flirtation, what Anything In Return fails to offer is any real emotion. [Feb 2013, p.112]

Fog is about as far from his work with Will Oldham as it's possible to be while still playing the guitar. [Feb 2013, p.101]

Williams should inject more urgency to his sound. [June 2008, p.148]

There's more than enough for a killer accompaniment to his book, but as a standalone album, Let love needs a tougher edit. [Oct 2019, p.106]

It's simple fare, true, but wholly enjoyable for it. [Jun 2010, p.124]

Mirror's In The Sky's bewitching yet minimal folktronica [is] dominated by the most rudimentary of beats and weird little keyboards. [Apr 2014, p.109]

Slurrup follows last summer's Korp Sole Roller and tones down the ornate arrangements for a more straightforward '60s British beat boom approach. The problem is it makes him sound pretty ordinary. [Feb 2015, p.110]

Get Lost is a deliberate break with the woozy synths of his earlier work. The rest of the LP doesn't quite follow through n that adventurousness. [Aug 2017, p.112]

Perplexingly, the arrangements are so sparse that there's not quite enough fully formed songs to carry the album off. [Nov 2009, p.112]

An intriguing record, it takes bending acid-folk as its base camp but is at its most interesting when exploring more unexpected musical universes. [Feb 2015, p.110]

Grand Archives have been together for less than 18 months, but their polished debut suggests a far longer gestation period. [Apr 2008, p.107]

As with a lot of their work it can occasionally lack bite, some fire in their impeccably tasteful bellies. [Nov 2019, p.108]

A giddy blend of nostalgia and invention that'll do just fine for starters. [Dec. 2011 p. 136]

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

This is an album steeped in classicism while still creating its own world. It just lacks the killer song. [Oct 2006, p.127]

Singer and girl-Iggy Jemina Pearl's the star, bringing admirable conviction to her tales of boredom, drug-taking and, in the case of the Perky 'Food Fight,' "extra cheese in your face." [Apr 2008, p.102]

Few singers examine the pathology of heartbreak so expertly. [Nov 2016, p.102]

Pleasant but unremarkable. [Apr 2006, p.116]

It may ultimately be as disposable as dime-store popping candy, its sugar rush still hits the spot. [Nov 2008, p.107]

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

For all its wit and occasional beauty, Passionoia lacks the killer anthem that would make the band genuine subversives rather than cult wags. [Mar 2003, p.102]

The future of pop? Only if you've read too many fashion magazines. [June 2002, p.111]

Something rather lovely with a jittery edge that halts proceedings well before they arrive at saccharine-sweet. [Aug 2003, p.115]

It's all wonderfully sensual, only there's no passion or intensity. [Feb 2004, p.105]

Now more than ever Richard Ashcroft is comfortable with music that strays alarmingly close to the Middle Of The Road.

If this really is a farewell, Bright Eyes is at least going out with an apocalyptic bang. [March 2011, p. 100]

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

Occasionally frustrating and sometimes even a little soapy, Mechanical Bull has its flaws, but it also brims with personality and passion. [Oct 2013, p.104]

A 26-minute tsunami which hurtles by in a Fiery Furnances-esque blur. [Aug 209, p.112]

In places, The Boombox Ballads is too shambling for its own good. [Oct 2015, p.113]

Sketched out over a dozen songs, the idea doesn't quite hang together. [May 2005, p.114]

The result is a return to the giddy highs of their heyday. [Aug 2017, p.107]

It's hard not to feel disappointed by the sense that a band who have raised their game so many times have nowhere new to go. [May 2009, p.114]

Whether anyone would actually buy it is debatable, but certainly everyone should hear it. [Aug 2009, p.110]

With elements of Afrobeat, house and indie rock, E Volo Love is an assured affair, [Feb 2012, p.107]

Swapping The Hold Steady's white-knuckled intensity for skeletal drums and echoing guitar gives Finn's voice more room to manoeuvre. A welcome change of pace. [Mar 2012, p. 100]

Sadly this spirit of renewal doesn't translate to the music. [Sep 2010, p.114]

Lyrically and musically, as remarkable an album as you'll hear all 2014. [Mar 2014, p.119]

DVA's full-length debut Pretty Ugly feels more late night than early morning, cutting a swathe through dubstep, future soul and jittery electronica. [Apr 2012, p.98]

Entrancing. [Mar 2012, p.102]

Unfortunately, the old pop standards--including two popularised by Brenda Lee--are all syrup and no spark. [May 2017, p.107]

The gloomy beats prove best suited to Pusha's own sinister drawl. [Feb 2012, p.104]

It's a confusing affair, where [Urie] foolishly tries to croon like Frank Sinatra on the title track and never quite nails down whatever the big idea was supposed to be. Still, there are moments to cherish. [Feb 2016, p.115]

So the crude arithmetic of Day & Age is not encouraging: four great songs, two so-so ones and four duds. But the spirit in which it was made merits goodwill. [Dec 2008, p.124]

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

While they chug along merrily, they lack the great songs that would distinguish them from the herd. [April 2012, p.98]

There are moments when their balance is perfect and the Fleetwood Mac tumble of Feel It Coming Near or the parting-mists of the title track keep their undoubted talents in sharp focus. [Jun 2012, p.111]

No flame then, but her light shows no sign of going out. [Jan 2013, p.112]

Functional yet uninspiring, Optica is pop as Ikea catalog. [Jun 2013, p.104]

They're mysterious but persuasive sonic realities. [Apr 2019, p.118]

They still sound a bit like a millennial Fleetwood Mac with a love of En Vogue--and they've retained a bit of sonic weirdness. [Aug 2017, p.104]

Ditto's one-of-a-kind voice still bestrides everything, sometimes gutsy and soulful, sometimes oddly sweet. [Jul 2009, p.130]

Beautifully low-key, gently life-affirming. [Sep 2018, p.110]

This is Elton's best album since, well, Captain Fantastic. [Oct 2006, p.118]

There are songs here that are terrific.... But 3121 wouldn't be a Prince album if it wasn't also full of filler. [May 2006, p.119]

They run short on tunes during the album's second half, but by powering through 10 songs in 33 minutes they at least opt to burn-out rather than fade away. [Oct 2013, p.110]

If there is a sense that this is The Strokes' last chance to carve an enduring career for themselves, then it's a challenge they've decided to tackle without any reinvention of their trademark sound. [Feb 2006, p.96]

Adamson's not abandoned the scary swing tunes that made David Lynch a fan... merely added another gear. [Oct 2002, p.100]

The thing about prog rock is that it is supposed to progress. [Mar 2002, p.122]

At their worst, Pearl Jam witter on pointlessly.... When Pearl Jam gel, though, it's close to special.

Wisely, Bloodflowers is every crotchet a Cure album. True, there's no blatant hit single - one of those sudden shifts into gloriously barmy pop frenzy - but there's still ample compensation to be had...

Contains a clutch of crowd-pleasingly brutal anthems...

There's a welcome freshness here. [June 2008, p.137]