An excruciating listen. [May 2006, p.129]

Melodic, understated, yet with much natural warmth too, Ritter's time has surely come. [Apr 2006, p.119]

Its wilful lack of song structure may make for a think-piece album rather than a jukebox favourite, but it's hard to deny its still-powerful magic. [May 2006, p.137]

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

It's hardly revolutionary and nothing eclipses their finest career moment At Your Funeral, but there's nothing too wrong here. [Jun 2006, p.118]

Green is a one-man game of musical consequences, mismatched but endlessly fascinating. [May 2006, p.124]

Mogis finds a spectrum of hues in their previously monochrome sound. [Apr 2006, p.113]

It's a record that might even disappoint on first listen, but one that reveals many subtleties and wonders over time. [May 2006, p.118]

What we are left with is a sense of something not quite finished... It makes Ringleader Of The Tormentors feel like a transitional album. [Apr 2006, p.108]

Be warned: wisdom, soul searching and politics often lead to earnest power chords and clenched fists when coupled with poodle rock. [May 2006, p.123]

Their most focused album to date. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Nicholls has regained his muse in spectacular style. [May 2006, p.129]

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

Like Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash before her, she's turned to the likes of Will Oldham, Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard for source material, and turns in an album of love, pain, suffering and redemption to rival any of them. [May 2006, p.130]

Electronic showboating even the original authors would struggle to identify. [May 2006, p.138]

At times Return To The Sea can be too clever for its own good. But there's also an ambition here that's hard to knock. [May 2006, p.126]

At times they lack the focus to quite surmount their influences. [Aug 2006, p.117]

With each mid-tempo riff swamped by syrupy harmonies and machine-tooled strings, this is metal with the edges filed down and all the soul sucked out. [May 2006, p.128]

Against the odds, the band have managed to keep things small and strange, and learned a few thrilling new tricks along the way. [Apr 2006, p.110]

He remains rap's finest storyteller. [Jun 2006, p.115]

Sounding suitably big and blustery, it's also stuffed with lots of positive thinking and hopes for a better tomorrow. [May 2006, p.128]

As much as The Back Room is a victory for style, it also strikes a blow for substance. [Aug 2005, p.135]

Rarely has he sung this well. [Feb 2006, p.99]

Strangely addictive. [Mar 2006, p.110]

The dual-drumkit, tribal incantations and ominous drones have a pleasing menace but when you factor in the "concept"... patience starts to wane. [Mar 2006, p.111]

Get To Leave and Paradise Here Abouts unite Gelb's notoriously scattered logic into music showcasing an immense generosity of spirit and poetic warmth. [May 2006, p.124]

His masturbatory approach to the stroking of his muse is very nearly obscene. [Apr 2006, p.114]

A charming album. [May 2006, p.128]

A move to [Spain] has imbued Rouse's songs with sunshine. [May 2006, p.130]

Here it seems desperation has resulted in rockier, more rewarding work. [May 2006, p.130]

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]

One of those albums that grabs your attention without ever having to shout at you. [May 2006, p.131]

One of the year's most inventive debuts. [Jul 2004, p.114]

Smart, sophisticated, noodly--what else would you expect? [Apr 2006, p.113]

A rousing debut. [Aug 2005, p.123]

Highly theatrical, camp and not a little shrill. [Apr 2006, p.116]

Sees a great guitarist becoming a great songwriter. [Apr 2006, p.113]

A commanding debut. [Jun 2005, p.113]

Supernature sounds brilliantly here and now. Less coldly perverse than Black Cherry, it's also a lot of fun. [Sep 2005, p.110]

It's a sterling testimony to both the songwriting skills of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and bassist Tony Barber's crisp production that Buzzcocks still sound so undeniably valid. [Apr 2006, p.112]

A sumptuous record that leans heavily on familiar Floyd themes. [Apr 2006, p.111]

With no fresh ideas or strong melodies to lighten the mood, [Sadier's] icy hauteur makes for bland and featureless listening. [Apr 2006, p.120]

Most... is either shapeless mush or verging on self-parody. [Apr 2006, p.116]

While the sense of danger that characterised 1997's Mogwai Young Team or 2001's Rock Action might have abated, Mr Beast shows a band who have lost none of their bark or their bite. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Play[s] the kitsch-folk game with real panache. [Feb 2006, p.101]

Exhibits a grace and richness that is sometimes absent from Case's self-regarding live shows. [Apr 2006, p.112]

A return to his best work. [Apr 2006, p.116]

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

It's hard to see it as anything more than another mildly diverting whim. [Apr 2006, p.116]

A sweetly brain-scrambling experience. [Apr 2006, p.114]

Whilte thoughtfully put together, Push The Heart is hardly a venture into uncharted territory. [Apr 2006, p.119]

Genuinely ear-popping... utterly mesmeric. [Apr 2006, p.119]

A feeling of "not a lot happening" pervades. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Their jittery new-wave revivalism isn't unique, but their sparse rock attack still yields rewards. [May 2006, p.130]

Guitar pop at its most ecstatic. [Apr 2006, p.113]

Intriguing, ambitious, but flawed. [Apr 2006, p.116]

Until they learn to absorb their influences more cleverly, all this good work might be undone. [Jul 2005, p.119]

Beguiling, high-density productions. [Apr 2006, p.119]

They spend half their time griping that they haven't got girlfriends and the other half whining that they've just been dumped. [Apr 2006, p.114]

Their break-up songs are built around a dynamic of sweet boy-girl harmonies and bursts of swearing. [Mar 2006, p.109]

Sound[s] like out-takes from [Daft Punk's] Discovery. [Jun 2005, p.118]

This is certainly no party album, and its colours are almost exclusively monochrome, but its majesty reigns supreme. [Sep 2005, p.112]

So no, it's not perfect. But Whatever People Say... has that edge, that thrill that comes only when a band have hit the zeitgeist hard and timed the punch to perfection. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Essentially it's Ray Of Light without Madonna. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Follows a smilar pattern to 2003's Monday At The Hug And Pint, fleshing out their deceptively simple songs with expanded arrangements and quicker tempos. [Dec 2005, p.148]

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

If none are the kind of songs likely to be remembered with misty-eyed affection in another 40 years, they at least entertainingly tackle matters few others would. [Mar 2006, p.104]

An oddly anonymous disappointment. [Apr 2006, p.113]

The fact they're doing this in their early 20s verges on the astonishing. [Mar 2006, p.111]

Everett comes on here like a less grizzled Tom Waits with a side order of Kurt Weill. [Apr 2006, p.113]

So migraine-inducing that the Crazy Frog would seem like light relief. [May 2006, p.129]

There is something dispiriting about trawling through so many songs which show glimpses of lucidity, even brilliance, but always seem to either nod off or descend into chaos by the end. [Jan 2006, p.120]

Oddly muted. [Feb 2006, p.104]

Crackles with the cocky, hormonal exuberance of youth: it's a profoundly teenage album. [Aug 2005, p.126]

When samba's beat is uppermost, the music takes off. [May 2006, p.129]

The wild rhythms, unusual arrangements and often manic energy of the selections here still resonate. [Jan 2006, p.139]

The presence of more filler than is comfortable does not detract from the creative health in evidence on the better songs. [Feb 2006, p.100]

It's marooned in novelty. [Apr 2005, p.121]

Engaging stuff. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Tunstall has Norah Jones's throaty catch, Dido's warmth, plus a winning way with a soaring chorus. [Jan 2005, p.130]

Well crafted, easy-on-the-ear janglepop which chugs along in a jaunty fashion. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Impressively, all this is delivered with sufficient panache to make it sound fresh and exciting, rather than merely eager to please. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Intricate yet funky, it mostly comes together to mesmeric effect. [Mar 2006, p.111]

There's no denying its stout hart. [Apr 2006, p.113]

Even if... it never quite adds up to more than the sum of its parts, it's never less than a pleasure to listen to. [Apr 2006, p.119]

Homebrewed splendour. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Strikes a winning formula of DIY integrity and big bucks sheen. [Mar 2006, p.110]

The slower numbers dawdle. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Three tracks in you realise with horror that [it] is a concept album. Worse, it's a concept album of kitchen-sink dramas about Tony The Milkman and Doris The Housewife set to Saint Etienne's dated indie disco. [Jul 2005, p.120]

It tries to be everything at once, with varying results. [Oct 2005, p.114]

Her most natural fit. [Feb 2006, p.102]

Clearlake have headed into deeper, darker waters. [Feb 2006, p.101]

Full of blissful harmonies that glide by one after another. [Mar 2006, p.107]

The real stars... are Lewis's songs. [Feb 2006, p.103]

A fun if disposable diversion. [Feb 2006, p.105]

Pollard's ear for a pop hook remains unswerving. [Mar 2006, p.109]

Votolato invokes real empathy with the drifters, losers and hard-done-by who populate his songs, not unlike a more folky Elliott Smith. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Bristling with invention. [Dec 2005, p.156]