This time, Lemmy Gurtowsky and Dan Jones are joined by guitarist Zach Brower and drummer Cole Lanier. The pair have slowed them down in a good way. [Apr 2015, p.97]

He's a terrific piano player, a gift put to exquisite use on this collection of old jazz standards. [Jun 2009, p.132]

The occasionally super Supermodel is an album of transition rather than a definitive statement. [Apr 2014, p.113]

While these songs feel debulked, The Coral still can't square-peg their music to fit in neatly. [Aug 2018, p.117]

The key track is We Can't Have Nice Things, envisaged by its writer as a George Jones lost love ballad, an turned into a gripping country soul psychodrama. [Aug 2012, p.96]

The submarine disco of Currents suggests people subject to forces they cannot control, while Lost Boys triggers a very '80s-style melancholia. [Oct 2016, p.110]

Warm, understated and authoritative, Day Breaks demands you lean in and listen. [Dec 2016, p.109]

Robin Carlsson has transcended myriad label problems to transform herself into the most glamorous and most fascinating electro-pop diva. [July 2010, p. 139]

Impeccable taste and genuine love shines through like sunlight on grimy garage windows. [Dec 2012, p.99]

A secret deconstruction of normative notions of romance, with early tasters handed out ribbon-wrapped in Mills & Boon novels. [Feb 2016, p.107]

The punchy power-pop of Mission Control owes more to the Foo Fighters. [July 2008, p.113]

With its grunted refrain and tinkling xylophone, this strange group manage to out-weird even Waits himself. [May 2008, p.141]

The melodies here are fine, they do a job, but nothing backs up Gag's Warholian rhetoric or scales the barmy heights of Bad Romance. [Jan 2014, p.116]

There's no shortage of character. [Mar 2015, p.119]

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

Overall this is splendid nonsense. [Jul 2009, p.128]

The result is a marriage of indie pop and dance music, containing a number of tracks that are just a remix away from clubland glory. [Apr 2009, p.111]

Their cult status is unlikely to change, which is good news for those who like their music warts and all. [Apr 2009, p.108]

If there is a criticism, it's that they lack thier own, unique sound, but this is still a breezily pleasing summer-evoking effort. [Jul 2009, p.122]

If they tend toward the opaque, a soothing vibraphone or twinkling guitar arpeggio is never too far away. [Oct 2009, p.108]

Many of the songs on this fourth LP begin promisingly enough, but some lose their way when frontman Alexei Barrow and bassist Kelly Southern pitch in with mildly hysterical vocals, the clashing combination descending into a shouty mess. [May 2014, p.113]

The intended fully immersive Sensurround experience eludes them, leaving just an occasionally diverting breeze. [Aug 2017, p.105]

What's lacking are a few copper-bottomed pop melodies to bind it all together; the kind of thing his collaborators normally provide, in other words. He's beter as a team player. [Mar 2010, p.101]

Their debut album sits comfortably between the party-heart, old skool shape-throwing of Jurassic Five and the darker weedscapes of Cypress Hill.

Twista's overshadowed by West, but with jacked-up soul tunes such as Overnight Celebrity the result, who cares?

Alas, they undermine themselves with a weedy production which too often gives proceedings a demo-ish air. [Mar 2005, p.99]

You have to salute Jaar's ambitious, freewheeling approach, but a little more cohesion would've sealed it. [Dec 2016, p.109]

At times mesmerising, at others merely patience-testing, it nevertheless stays true to Darko's vision of himself as a man apart. [Nov 2015, p.103]

There are less stirring points--England, for instance, never really seems to move, and album closer Please Let Me Let It Go is a little too somnambulant. [Nov 2014, p.104]

For a record that initially seems nothing more than a charming little reverie, it's difficult to shake off. [Dec 2012, p.102]

Even if she sometimes strays into down-home schmaltz, the world of alt-folk would be poorer without her. [Apr 2007, p.122]

The follow-up isn't quite so startling [as his debut] and the horrible guitar indulgence of Dear Friend is his first major misstep, but assisted by Jackson Browne, David Crosby, assorted Heartbreakers, Roy Harper and Wilco's Patrick Sansome he's evolved. [Dec 2013, p.117]

They're better when operating at full-throttle, as on the muscular Blood and carefree Our Ego, but for music intended to elevate, the rest remains strangely earthbound. [Feb 2014, p.118]

Sea Sew exudes the sort of simple, homespun charm that many strive to achieve but so few succeed in pulling off. [Jun 2009, p.123]

They remain most compelling when Hanna lets rip, as on the propulsive, grinding 'Me & Mary.' [Mar 2009, p.93]

Beans is also in eclectic mood, delivering word association freestyles over a dizzying array of instrumental backdrops. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Retro, but in no way passe, it's little wonder that kindred spirit Mark Ronson recently proclaimed himself a fan. [Oct 2009, p.112]

Goddess In The Doorway is the work of a man who is generally interested and occasionally inspired. [#184, p.135]

Lavigne displays a musical guile way beyond her years. [Sep 2002, p.109]

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

The band's power chorus-penning know-how is evident each of these slick and sometimes over-polished ten tracks. [Jun 2011, p.125]

False Idols might fall short of such heights [of his debut], but at least sounds like the same person made it to the studio. [Jul 2013, p.111]

Charming but once-paced opener from Denver couple. [July 2011, p. 120]

While I Got You's rock-solid funk shows they know how to work up a sweat, the emotional themes don't always connect with equal force, Hatcher sounding most impassioned on 306, an ode to his ageing Peugeot hatchback. [Sep 2018, p.114]

It's actually the album's introspective second half which proves most affecting. [Dec 2016, p.110]

It doesn't always work.... But when they hit their hypnotic stride on the pulsating title track and the languidly poppy Talk, there's loveliness and invention to spare. [Nov 2015, p.104]

Flawed though it is, this brave and canny album hits the reset button and buys her a future. [Jan 2017, p.105]

The sense of the singer reclaiming a little of himself with these meditative jams is unmistakable. [Jul 2012, p.109]

All life's disastrous lows are here on a career-high album. [Nov 2014, p.121]

You would not have predicted, however, he'd settle for an album of songs that sound like leftovers from the Dear Science sessions. [Sep 2010, p.116]

Simply crazed speedcore played over actual cattle auctions. [Jan. 2012, p. 120]

It doesn't keep up the quality all the way through but given his relentless enthusiasm from start to finish, El Khatib is probably used to people not keeping up with him. [Oct 2013, p.101]

Not for the casual listener, but enormously rewarding if you hanker for some NY loft space in your croft house. [Feb 2014, p.115]

The warm production, matched to their adoption of modern techno aesthetics, has upped the intensity of the sonic kink. [Apr 2015, p.98]

There are toe-curling moments. ... However, their voices are a convivial fit, most effectively on the gentle 22nd Street and the harsher, more restless Night Shift and both escape, dignity intact. [Jun 2018, p.114]

It might be the best album Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill have put together since 1984's "Sparkle In The Rain." [Jun 2009, p.131]

Adds a touch of wistfulness to his usually slurred vocals. [Nov 2002, p.106]

Amid such fussy eclecticism, however, they can't always stop Lucius sounding like an idea for a great band rather than the real thing. [May 2014, p.113]

Earle isn't breaking any boundaries here, and he runs out of steam before the closing Goodbye Michelangelo, but he's doing what he does best--and that's better than most. [Aug 2017, p.105]

The focus on Darnielle's wonderfully evocative phrasing makes his songs sound like enigmatic fragments of short stories. [May 2011, p.120]

True, he lacks bandmate 50 Cent's raw charisma. But his leisurely delivery carries weight. [Mar 2011, p.101]

While her normal source of junior raunch [Max Martin] churns out the usual fesity hits... the remaining chastity-endorsing mush is nowhere near as exciting. [Dec 2001, p.131]

Mastodon return to the dense riffing of old. [Aug 2014, p.109]

It's the amped-up riff in the middle of Offspring Are Blank that best sums up their playful approach. They often flex their muscles without feeling the need to land a killer blow. [Aug 2012, p.97]

At times [Folklore] is too self-satisfied, throwing everything available into the mix in what seems like a desperate bid to grab some cred. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Predictably claustrophobic listening.... When they come up for air, Interpol have the tunes to match all the mannered gloom. [Sep 2002, p.107]

While the album title may echo the Liverpool indie-pop outfit of Driving Away from Home fame, Iron Lung's brooding intensity and Peter Hook-inspired bassline sound as if they've been teleported directly from Factory records circa 1981. [Jan 2017, p.104]

A low-light delight. [Jul 2012, p.110]

Well worth exploring. [Oct 2013, p.102]

It's the most consistently enjoyable Malkmus/Jicks LP since his excellent self-titled album of 2001. [Feb 2014, p.117]

As ever the brush strokes are broad and the confrontation is intense but it's good to know their fire is afar from undimmed. [Apr 2015, p.95]

The mix may be familiar but it's still frequently thrilling. [Apr 2015, p.104]

New York's O'Death are a breathless proposition for the most part. [Nov 2008, p.118]

While their third third album won't win any prizes for innovation, it's pumped full of the kind of GM-modified anthems expressly tooled for both sticky-floored clubs and gigantic arenas. [Jul 2019, p.109]

It's an album that will send you to sleep, and to dreams of another dimension. [Jul 2016, p.114]

The voice may be thinning, but with age comes a quiet still wisdom. [Nov 2009, p.109]

Locates her coffee-cream vocals amid glossy settings ranging from hip hop to gurgling electronica and folk. [Nov 2002, p.105]

The 6ths is all about incongruity (where else could you find Gary Numan, 70-year-old folk diva Odetta and Sarah Cracknell sharing space?) and as such it`s an eclectic affair.

It's a mixed bag. [May 2014, p.114]

Throughout, his control is masterful: spry on Make It Up, clarion and clipped on Grief Is Not Coming, familiar and uncanny all at once. [Aug 2017, p.105]

They're still relentlessly heavy, just less hypnotically so. [Jul 2013, p.111]

The Convincer slots in smoothly behind 1998's Dig My Mood. [Oct 2001, p.126]

Thumpers work hard to trigger instant nostalgia for summers past but the longest shadows cast over their work are those of Animal Collective and Flaming Lips. [Jul 2014, p.117]

Sorrowful dance and defiant house beats wind throughout, bringing unity to the scattered sounds. [Oct 2019, p.109]

Tortured and in need of an edit, it's not for the casual listener. [Aug 2014, p.111]

Strives a little too hard to display their twitching eclecticism. [Feb 2006, p.101]

There's comfort in the intensely melodic Surfer's Lament, and if there must be impossibly soapy love songs, they might as well be as lovely as My Heart Belongs To You. [Feb 2014, p.119]

Absorbing, if not exactly inviting. [Apr 2015, p.100]

It's not the most direct communicator, but Panic Blooms still transmits its unease very effectively. [Jun 2018, p.106]

It is still a loose affair, but it allows the quartet to explore the far reaches of their songs rather than just wander folk's outer soloar system. [Nov 2009, p.103]

It proves to be an entertaining and profitable arrangement. [May 2010, p.112]

The dystopian mood ultimately delivers more chills than thrills. [Aug 2017, p.112]

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

While his debut's defiantly un-PC lyrics take inspiration from '90s gangsta mavericks such as Three 6 Mafia, the electronic murk that surrounds them on tracks such as Get Yah Head Bust is utterly of the moment. [Jul 2012, p.110]

It's still a quietly engaguing offering blessed with a lyrical lightness and organic Tucker Martine production. [Jul 2010, p.135]

Of the four new tracks, Just Like We Never Said Goodbye is the pick, evoking a John Hughes school disco scene soundtracked by Aphex Twin, though anyone feeling the package still lacks substance can select the full "Silicon" option at Sophie's webstore. [Feb 2016, p.118]

It still nods to The Velvet Underground and strung-out '80s pioneers Spacemen 3 and Loop, but chord changes are no longer as rare as Shane MacGowan's teeth, and there's more of a pop sensibility. [Dec 2013, p.117]

Hey Joy, the second track on The Districts' fourth LP, is a moment of near-perfection. ... It's a bar the rest of You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere never quite reaches, though, it comes close. [May 2020, p.106]