Ambitious, yes, inventive, sometimes, but waiting for those rare moments of clarity is like trying to catch a cloud in a colander. [Nov 208, p.118]

Their chart-friendly clothes fit them well. [Oct 2007, p.98]

Stronger on revved-up dancehall than coffee-table soul, it's on the collaborations they really come into their own. [Feb 2011, p.125]

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

It's all very melancholy and mysterious, as you'd imagine, but the production has a pleasingly seductive, 12st-century sheen. [Dec 2013, p.103]

Okereke's voice, at times feels a bit too up close and personal. [Dec 2014, p.111]

Both the Reid brothers' nice and nasty sides are represented. [May 2007, p.128]

The harmonies never reach the heights of say, Toro Y Moi--though Night In The Ocean's fusion of hip-hop thud and buzzing shoegaze guitars shows a welcome willingness to try. [Mar 2012, p.113]

Trash Talk's speed punk is the musical equivalent of the third can of Red Bull: a great idea at the time, but may well produce a headache after. [Dec 2012, p.113]

Fink runs the folk gamut from A and B quite beautifully. [Aug 2014, p.106]

While they are likely to appease their devotees with this solid, if unadventurous record, it seems that Death Cab For Cutie will continue preaching to the converted. [Apr 2015, p.110]

eXquire has charisma to burn and the beats are engagingly woozy. But the contrast between eight-minute epic Nothing's What It Seems: Short Film and the sex raps of FCK Boy! and I Love Hoes show that some things never change. [Sep 2019, p.115]

What might have been a solid, politically-tinged LP is let down by poodle-yelped vocals. [Jun 2014, p.104]

The sound of a man finding freedom, it's an impressive reincarnation. [Mar 2016, p.112]

Once again, then, it's a case of could do better. [Apr 2008, p.115]

In other words, the man's a ham, but a terrific one. [Aug 2009, p.109]

Hemingway's Whiskey is very much par for the course. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Fans of No Age and Best Coast will recognize the formula here - but what the band lack in originality they compensate for in energetic spark. [May 2012, p.93]

For the most part Hot Cakes leaves you with the sense that The Darkness' reinvigoration will delight those longing for rock to rediscover the fun button. [Sep 2012, p.106]

For his eighth album, he has returned to renowned metal producer Ed Stasium, who delivers both high-impact guitar and sufficient clarity for enjoyment of Heat's droll way with words. [Apr 2002, p.120]

With deeply average tunes and deeply average rapping throughout, not even an appearance by Carlos Santana on Babylon Feeling can turn things around.

Like the '70s, then, but much more fun. [Nov 2002, p.98]

THe jazzy stylings are a mixed blessing... [but] her fans will not be disappointed. [Mar 2003, p.101]

It's all terrifically boring, naturally, but her voice is exquisite. [Nov 2004, p.117]

As long as you're up for more mood and texture experiments there's plenty of interest. [Dec. 2011 p. 135]

It's very easy on the ear, but, as on the Jose Gonzalez collaboration Estrella De Dos Caras, it needs focus. [Sep 2007, p.99]

The debut is a mix of styles classic and unorthodox, mythic American themes and sounds overlapping with futuristic textures. [Jan 2010, p.119]

With arrangements pared back to the bone, it's that strange, slurred voice where all the attention is focused, meaning there's no hiding place at all. [Nov 2012, p.99]

A welcome outing from an overlooked talent. [Nov 2012, p.105]

The results are mixed. [Apr 2013, p.94]

There's nothing groundbreaking here, but these songs will surely be lots of fun to play live. [Dec 2016, p.115]

A red letter day for fans of classic songwriting. [Aug 2005, p.132]

Crackling with the background ambience of heckle and cheer, it's a decent attempt at bottling live lightning, if a slightly self-satisfied one. [#361, p.107]

While not all the songs manage to really sink their teeth in, the overall smoky, neon-lit atmosphere is an intoxicating one. [May 2017, p.111]

Though consistently strong, in the absence of dancers or plot it's hard to make sense of this subtle album's jolting transitions between subtle mood pieces and bombastic orchestral techno. [Apr 2011, p.106]

So while fourth album Shogun is impressive, Trivium continues ro make "...And Justice For All" when they could do with a "Black Album" instead. [Nov2008, p.107]

Subculture stands up well: an accomplished set of ska, pop and reggae. [Aug 2015, p.112]

Ridin', Porn Star and Slammin' are as disposably trashy as their titles suggest, and even the trowelled-on angst of Slit My Wrists and Whiskey In The Morning sounds like a pool party at a Beverley Hills bordello.

There's no revist from the muse that delivered the exquisite Temptation Eyes back in 1990. [Sep 2001, p.107]

Coy, genail and funny... a potent antidote to the usual chill-out porridge. [#184, p.140]

Derivative, but there's artistry and some rattling tunes among the noise and confusion. [March 2012, p.112]

While their new setting can't quite extinguish their thoughtful charms, it has trampled on their mystique. [Apr 2014, p.103]

The sound of a band running on empty. [Jan 2016, p.115]

Lindberg is dedicated to atmosphere, and if these songs are disconcertingly hazy as they move through the dry ice, they just about hold a twisted shape of their own. [Jan 2016, p.111]

It won't dethrone Endtroducing... from the pantheon but at last Davis has rediscovered the hidden door to that entrancing night-time world. [Aug 2016, p.111]

Danilova's vocals occasionally get bogged own in the contemporary pop production, but this foray from murky fringes into the mainstream deserves success. [Nov 2014, p.121]

It's a record to be applauded for its ambitions, even if the songs sometimes struggle to carry the weight. [Jun 2013, p.100]

Lanegan is among the most pungent ingredients in modern music and these new recipes capture his strength. [Apr 2015, p.105]

Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose is a fine record, but the restraint shows. [Jun 2018, p.115]

Things go awry in places... but somewhere in a parallel universe Molly Ringwald is running down a high school corridor to the sound of The Killers. [Jul 2004, p.116]

The quartet's unhurried groove-based approach makes for a captivating listen. [Jun 2009, p.134]

The title's maths may not add up, but he's onto a winning formula. [Feb. 2011, p. 115]

Potent incantations such as Nissim and, particularly, the two tracks with Warp's sinister rapper Gonjasufi, prove this to be a wonderfully bananas breakthrough. [Oct 2012, p.100]

Easier to admire than actually like. [Oct 2003, p.114]

There's nothing wrong with this record... Yet it's only on Feel The Beat, in which he lets his ego off the leash, that LL gets into gear. [Oct 2004, p.128]

Dark and knotty, Open takes a while to win you over but when it does, it hangs around in your head like an unpaid debt.

At time innovative, but as with much alternative hip-hop, one for the previously converted. [Sep 2011, p.104]

Rainy's debut ends up as a near-perfect album from an approaching summer. [Apr 2014, p.117]

This one has it's moments, but somehow never quite catches fire. [Oct 2017, p.106]

Two Vines is a leap forward for pop's most enchanting odd couple. [Dec 2016, p.102]

Miserable and insipid. [Dec 2004, p.130]

Not quite as organic as they seem, their perfection lacks taste despite its polish. [Jan 2014, p.117]

The weightless combination of flambe-d guitars, glacial vocals and mid-tempo time signatures feels a bit like being trapped in a well-constructed airlock, easier to admire than enjoy. [Jan 2014, p.126]

The 11-song set is drizzled with plenty of that Minogue jus. [Apr 2014, p.117]

Conjures a magical, cut'n'paste dimension where genteel lounge sways to disembodied voices, clicks and bleeps. [Apr 2005, p.126]

Ultimately, though, it's her own barnstroming commitment and sheer affability that steer things safely home. [Dec 2008, p.123]

Helmet have fleshed out their minimalist grinding with proper tunes, but the question remains: will anyone care these days? [Nov 2010, p.105]

Gomez's future seems cloudy, but with these nine tracks, Ottewell has a fighting chance. [Mar 2011, p.112]

This is a patterned Wellington boot of a record, more suited to looking boho at a festival then actually having a splash around in the swamp of the human soul. [Aug 2013, p.104]

Though resolutely glum, their debut is alluring in its foggy melancholia. [#361, p.111]

It won't give the Foo Fighters sleepless nights, but it's fun while it lasts. [Jan 2020, p.109]

Everything Now offers an underwhelming kind of overload: too much, but still not quite enough. [Aug 2017, p.113]

There's the occasional intriguing beat and nods to musical theatre. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Frontman Krayg Burton's voice is a desperately weak instrument, his whispered snatches of melody never quite coalescing into memorable tunes. [Feb 2006, p.102]

They've bottled the lightning in an album of satirical wit, edgy intelligence and what fans crave most of all, raw power. [Jun 2013, p.105]

Twenty-two tracks long, Total is an eclectic joyride through myriad musical styles; the beauty being that none sticks around long enough to get boring. [Jul 2011, p.119]

While it's hard to feel moved, it's impossible not to admire the craftsmanship. [Mar 2005, p.101]

Hardly coherent, enough of the disparate strands hang together to make it curiously moreish. [Oct 2011, p.112]

Not a wholly convincing return. [May 2005, p.110]

Aside from the cavernous 'Tension' mosty of the tracks here are disappointingly interchangeable. [Nov 2009, p.114]

It's that sense of doing just enough but no more that permeates this album, at times rendering it laid back to the point of disengaged.

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

They make a noise disquietingly similar to The Dandy Warhols, only without the wit or the tunes. [Apr 2003, p.114]

Compelling stuff. [Jun 2011, p.120]

Harmless fluff. [Nov 2008, p.114]

An ambitious and surprisingly accomplished album. [May 2004, p.104]

At only 37 minutes long, it never outstays its welcome. [May 2013, p.99]

In stepping out of their comfort zone and trading in their previous identity, it seems Travis haven't yet decided who or what they now want to be. [Oct 2008, p.144]

Their self-indulgent scrawl is writ so large it would be impossibly cloying when if it were all as good. Which it isn't, not by a long shot. [Jan 2016, p.109]

There's a definite vim here; all they need to do now is to add in a little more of their own DNA. [Apr 2014, p.119]

He remains, ultimately, doom-laden. [Nov 2004, p.125]

The absence of a monstrous lead track, though, suggests the appeal will remain selective. [Apr 2011, p.110]

There is talent here. If only it could've been matched to a few more original ideas. [Aug 2012, p.105]

Guerolito's songs dissolve in an anonymous stream of chugging electro and dub effects. [Feb 2006, p.101]

An album that should have seen Flynn take a step closer to Messrs Marling and Mumford has, sadly, been moulded into a bit of a snoozefest. [Nov 2013, p.102]

Drifts past pleasantly enough, but fails to make an impact. [Feb. 2012, p.101]

Bipolar Texan tunesmith Daniel Johnston will never be more than an acquired taste. [Dec 2009, p. 126]

At first it's almost intriguing, then alienating, then irritating; ultimately you're reminded why you never really listened to Animal Collective until they discovered the joys of a good tune. [Sep 2012, p.100]