A daydream of a record, one well worth drifting off into. [Aug 2012, p.115]

It's less direct than before, but still strangely, powerfully beautiful. [Jan 2013, p.103]

You can hear where the money went, even if her voice is far from the soaring force of yore. [Nov 2009, p.114]

Acceptable but never stellar. [Dec 2003, p.121]

Less fixatedly house-centric than before, I'm Leaving incorporates fuzzy dance-rock under the influence of girl groups and New Order. [Jul 2013, p.106]

[Neil Arthur] is still in strong voice, his spare, pop-savvy synths tracks are a fitting canvas for his absurdist, trenchant narratives. [Apr 2015, p.97]

[Clinic] has misplaced the groove and settled for a rut. [Sep 2004, p.117]

This slick set taps the same pop bounce of 2004's "Calling Out."

White Women has all the depth and staying power of a Christmas cracker joke. [Jun 2014, p.106]

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]

Los Angeleans' Paul Simon-channelling second LP. [Sept. 2011, p. 110]

Things unravel with the folky fuzz of closer Aphorismic Wasteland Blues, but for a band whose charm is enjoyably slack'n'sleazy that's kind if the point. [Apr 2014, p.112]

A listening experience every bit as intense and idiosyncratic as Ecks himself. [Sep. 2016, p.106]

If The Killers hadn't got there first with Hot Fuss, The Bravery's debut would have been revolutionary. Instead it is merely a brilliant pop record. [Apr 2005, p.115]

A second Oasis album to better "Standing On the Shoulders Of Giants" and "Heathen Chemistry," but one too, that promises so much only to fall so short. [Nov 208, p.104]

Lacking the chutzpah of Beyonce or a signature voice to rival Mary J Blige, it's another curiously polite mix of soul and pop hip hop. [Dec 2007, p.118]

Fascinating thumbnails of the blissful, abstract funk which was to come. [May 2012, p.115]

It's incontestably menopausal, but fairly dapper with it. [Oct 2006, p.122]

Everybody is a sweet-voiced cross between Colbie Caillat and Lisa Loeb's fourth LP and, even without the stately strings on the genuinely affecting Sort Of, it would be her most accomplished yet. [Dec 2009, p. 119]

It's business as usual rather than a breakthrough. [Nov 2007, p.138]

It walks to the wobbly line between the sparkling and the indulgent with the former just about winning out. [Aug 2018, p.116]

It sounds like [he's having a lark]. [Jul 2012, p.108]

It's good in places, sporadically very good, but is no significant step up from their debut. [Oct 2012, p.113]

Quietly confessional and ever so slightly disturbing. [Oct 2009, p.117]

Themes of fun, sun and beach-bum ennui pervade, but even if it fails to reach the summery stoner highs of their previous record, there's no denying The Only Place's indomitable West Coast pop-rock melodies and sugary thrills. [Jun 2012, p.97]

At times rapturous, it's the title track's mix of dub effects and PiL-inspired vocals that grabs the ears most effectively. [Jun 2011, p.107]

Trespassing is magnificent is its competence, but sadly, it doesn't appear to have an actual beating heart in it anywhere. [Aug 2012, p.102]

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]

There are some crisp pop tunes--Next To Nothing; So Easy, So Cool--but the country-tinged folk of Convince Us and Say Goodbye reek of "will this do?" [Nov 2003, p.124]

[Fat John's] hyper-literate, cosmically inclined stylings can't help but humanise -- and eventually soften -- the hard burn of circuitry. [Aug 2003, p.111]

A winsome, musically surprising outing. [Jul 2004, p.114]

A wildly inventive, often sprawling opus, comprising a multitude of styles from boisterous guitar rock to psychedelic nonsense.

MACHINA/the machines of God is, mostly, a wonderful rock album.

The occasional tune shines through, but ultimately too much of the material sounds like it's aimlessly ad-libbed. [Oct 2008, p.147]

It's a frustratingly inconsistent affair. [Aug 2013, p.97]

Solid, if a bit derivative. [Oct 2010, p.116]

This record passes right through you. [Feb 2013, p.104]

She makes the most with what she's got, along with a decent strike rate for pulling radio-friendly hooks out of the hat. [Sep 2010, p.122]

If we forget her Lenny Henry-esque Jamaican accent on the title track's Ziggy Marley duet, she's on sterling form. [Aug 2008, p.143]

Rather like Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante's solo work, Malone pootles around the margins of commerciality, nodding to the avant mischief of Buthole Surfers and engaging folksy clatter of Devandra Banhart, while on Driftwood Heart the vocals are almost oepratic. [Dec 2009, p. 120]

L.A.-based quintet unleash positively euphoric debut. [Oct 2011, p.120]

It doesn't quite touch the invention of the people who inspired it. [Dec 2012, p.100]

Between The Walls is a fascinating insight into the creative process that crackles electrically between Taylor, John Coxon, Charles Hayward, and Pat Thomas. [Aug 2013, p.93]

The only disappointment that, at barely half-an-hour, there isn't a bit more of it. [Oct 2015, p.113]

They're at their most effective when they ease back on the aggro, as on the luminous Side Effects or the '60s-garage pop-influenced Two Birds. [Nov 2017, p.107]

Cantaloupe Island, for instance, hit the target, even if it's no match for the Herbie Hancock original. But with more cabaret material such as Me And My Shadow's louche duet with Sarah Silverman, you really wish you'd been there first time around. [Jan 2019, p.109]

The spare production on their second album is less indebted to the post-punk era. [July 2010, p. 129]

The results are entertaining and witty, as well as educational, even if at times the tunes have to perform contortions to squeeze all the lyrics in. [Jul 2010, p.141]

The result is confusion, of what the band really wishes to be. [Nov 2015, p.109]

Too many of Coxon's conceptual songs are crucified on the cross of his man-child voice, neither weird enough to beguile nor strong enough to hold your attention. [Jun 2009, p.124]

If there's a problem, it's Bubba's one-track rhymes. All he ever talks about is himself. [Jun 2006, p.119]

Beautiful Creature dwells too self-indulgently in a faux naïve girlish tone...

When they stop bing so smart, Join With Us becomes more rewarding. [Mar 2008, p.106]

This improbable return could almost be a relic excavated from their mid-'70s heyday. [Dec 2012, p.110]

[Pure Love] spiritedly serves up a full album's worth of way-above-par songs, which are radio friendly. [Mar 2013, p.109]

A major breakthrough beckons. [Mar 2014, p.120]

Somewhat muted follow-up. [Oct 2018, p.111]

Masterful and poignant, it reveals Mason to be a heavyweight talent. [Apr 2007, p.119]

They make all the right moves on this brilliant debut. [Jun 2017, p.106]

Junk is deeply uncool, uncoolly deep, and utterly magnifique. [May 2016, p.115]

Rockabilly queen gets the Jack White treatment. [Feb. 2011, p. 118]

There's greater scope here [more] than ever before, with the gentle llyena providing space before Cavaletta's riot of detuned radios, car alarms and struggling internet connections. [Feb 2008, p.99]

Ominous fourth album from the masters of emotional turbulence. [Oct. 2010, p. 118]

This third full-length solo record is a rich blend of different genres that, despite its rampant eclecticism, never jars. [Nov. 2011, p. 128]

So There seems far more a compositional exercise for Folds rather than an album for the wider public. [Oct 2015, p.108]

Leblanc doesn't break new ground, but he treads his haunted patch with quiet grace. [Sep 2012, p.104]

This latest studio offering is equally tricky to categorise. The mood, though, never overwhelms. [Dec 2013, p.105]

Much of what follows sounds like he's set his overdriven synths to autopilot with vocalists Keith Flint and Maxim Reality reduced to the odd irate interjection. [Dec 2018, p.113]

Exhuasting but rewarding too. [Dec 2008, p.135]

It's a solid album. [Mar 2013, p.99]

This is a n intriguing mini epic of double-drummed grooves and skronking noise. [Jan 2015, p.131]

They too often tip into adolescent parent-scaring anguish. [Mar 2014, p.121]

There's a new post-punk, white-funk edge to their sound on the glorious 'Debbie' that surely comes from Bird's new locale, While 'Lazy (Lazy)' slinks along with Talking Heads-esque subtlety. [Sep 2007, p.88]

Sounds something like a male-fronted Cardigans... [Aug 2001, p.141]

Gene have found a soulful and reflective edge that's brought them close to matching the grace and guile promised by their debut, and best album, Olympian.

It's perverse, contrary and, on stand-out tracks No Home Without Its Sire and Just For Love, surprisingly engaging. [Aug 2002, p.120]

In an age when marketing departments rule, Scott has fashioned an album of epic intent that gamely goes its own way.

This is as cynical a mish-mash of popular trends as you can imagine. [May 2004, p.106]

There is so little personality or variety that when Lornaderek turns out to be a 30-second birthday ansaphone message from his mum and dad, it is not a gimmick but a touching highlight.

Most of it... suggests that New York's time is, once again, imminent. [Aug 2003, p.119]

Their second album is a melange of found sounds (Piero Umiliani, Nancy Sinatra, Harry Belafonte), daft titles (Duckweb & Fishlip, Barry Normal Eyes, Busyness Mans Lunch) and much studio jiggery-pokery. The result is a surprisingly viable whole... There's nothing of substance, despite the swearing on A Lot Of Stick (But Not Much Carrot), but it's fair fun while it lasts.

[An] album of considerable grace and poise. [Apr 2005, p.116]

Octahedron bucks the band's trend for obfuscation, though; conventional song structures are very much in evidence, while its relatively trim 49-minute running time is on par with some of Mars Volta's more involved live jams. [Jul 2009, p.127]

The 41-year-old Frenchman's fourth repeats the same formula 12 times: namely, get someone from the world of hip hop/R&B to sing over a pumping house groove. [Oct 2009, p.111]

Alive As You Are is a harmony-packed, relaxed affair, reminiscent of mid-period Byrds and Tom Petty, with the influence of The Beatles often hovering near. [Sept. 2010, p. 114]

Corey Taylor's side project finds him ditching both the mask and the won't-tidy-my-bedroom ire in favour of more eardrum-friendly grunge redux. [Oct 2010, p.103]

Makes a perfect case for music as therapy. [May 2012, p.91]

The result is persuasive, likable grown-up pop without that off-putting jazz-hands factor. [Nov 2012, p.99]

The main problem is that the wooly songs struggle to match the grandstanding conceit. [Feb 2013, p.101]

The default mode is now so soft as to resemble a big bowl of ice cream for a man who's lost his dentures. [Jul 2013, p.103]

Scroobius will always smack of Marmite, but he's shaken off some of the whiff of student poet, even addressing bling culture without sounding like a finger-wagging cliche on Gold Teeth. [Nov 2013, p.105]

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]

[When Paloma] revert to classicism, she proves there's more than one way to skin the "vintage" cat by adopting the persona of an exuberant disco diva, invoking the spirit of '70s glitter ball goddesses such as Teena Marie or Alicia Bridges. She wears it surprisingly well. [Apr 2014, p.108]

This album gently shimmers when you want it to dazzle. [Jun 2014, p.121]

Dark and pummelling, making it hard to digest in one sitting. [May 2016, p.116]

Curious fans of contemporary pop-house acts such as Disclosure might find the spartan style forbidding, but once Dunn hits his groove it's impossible not to feel the force. [Feb 2018, p.108]

It's hardly surprisingly that it's less interesting musically than it is lyrically. ... That said, there's not a dull moment here. [Jul 2018, p.111]

Often the beats are so clumpy that the vocals are left trying to drag things forward. [Nov 2018, p.109]