It's a shame that the album starts so blandly. [Sep 2014, p.109]

Their most exceptional record yet. [Jun 2016, p.115]

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]

It's hard not to conclude that it's Rubin's strong tiller hand giving thee 13 songs new-found clarity, focus and energy that too often drifted away from the Stones in a cloud of patchouli when left alone. [Oct 2014, p.120]

They still know their way around a pretty tune, though, and they still understand the value of smart sweetness. [#361, p.112]

At its best it's a combination that offers a kind of Lynchian allure. ... Elsewhere, thought, it can all seem a little passive, a chill-out zone somewhere along Route 66. [Sep 2018, p.118]

Forty years after The Stooges' debut album, Iggy Pop is still heading blindly into the unknown. [Jul 2009, p.116]

Slight by comparison with 2009's "Merriweather Post Pavilion," but not without it's own charm. [Feb 2010, p.116]

This Ronson-produced collection of swinging '60s pop and blue-eyed soul is still well-crafted, with standouts. The problem is Merriweather's voice, which is technically agile but emotionally anodyne. [Jul 2009, p.127]

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

ILY,IC is marred by the wrong kind of heaviness: Jon Philpot's ponderous vocals or the histrionic art-school thump of Idle Heart and Kiss Me Crazy are reminders that there are other bands (School of Seven Bells, Active Child) doing this sort of dark drama with more guile. [May 2012, p.91]

They've unfortunately discovered dance music several years too late. [Dec 2002, p.112]

A sprightly collection of provocative pop. [Jan 2004, p.122]

Messy but addictive. [Jan 2012, p.123]

After a promising start too much else glides by as a wash of warm, organic--yet unremarkable--background music. A Shame. [May 2011, p.116]

By packing 21 tracks onto a half-hour running time, he never gets stuck too long in one grove. [Sep 2011, p.104]

True, he sometimes overdoes the theatrical flourishes, but high drama is what this record is all about, so he can be forgiven for that. [Jun 2013, p.108]

His fourth album doesn't really sound like a club set at all. [Oct 2016, p.113]

There are no hidden depths to find here, but sugar rushes aplenty. [Sep 2017, p.106]

If a tad skronky in parts and slight at 28 minutes, the deep grooves of IC-01 pull you in. [Dec 2018, p.114]

Tom Vek's charm has lost its spark. [July 2011, p. 121]

Never straying far thereafter, it all makes for a heavily addictive, comfortably numbing kind of experience. [Jul 2009, p.131]

It confirms the suspicion that Bugg really could go all the way to the top. [Dec 2013, p.106]

An odd, deliberately unpunchy comeback. [Aug 2016, p.114]

The mood here is still adolescent but with a growing emotional and musical sophistication. [Jul 2015, p.115]

It's a boring splodge on the pop landscape, so relentlessly samey and entitled. [Aug 2017, p.106]

They've lost their way on the follow-up. [Jul 2012, p.97]

Hercules And Love affair team up. Again. Indeed, their debut album as Jessica 6 bears an uncanny resemblance to that of their fellow New York disco hipsters. [July 2011, p. 114]

It's a more commercial, fuller album, even if it does slightly lack the spirit of their previous work. [May 2013, p.105]

Almost worth getting a hangover for. [Jan 2014, p.119]

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]

Lyrically, though, he's got strangely little of interest to say, no a particularly distinctive way of saying it. [Nov 2010, p.111]

As a daring experiment which flies in the face of the derivative tendencies evident in the modern music industry, it succeeds. [Dec 2004, p.140]

Selway understands that he starts with a blank slate and that his extracurricular activity need sound neither drummery nor Radiohead-esque. Instead, he's blessed with a warm and gentle voice, he sings of heart, hearth and on the aching "broken Promises," the death of his mother in 2006. [Sep 2010, p.120]

While the thumping psych-rock of Rollercoaster shines a light on the fears that still plague her, it's lead single For The First Time that makes for the most refreshing and cathartic moment. [Apr 2020, p.105]

Outbursts sees them returned to a duo and the acoustic cut'n'thrust of old. [Apr 2010, p.120]

[It] is the stirring, rounded collection leader Glen Hansard has hinted at since they formed in 1990. [Feb 2007, p.99]

Experimental and confusing... Oberst's voice struggles to hit home through the effects. [Jan 2005, p.129]

As this flits from widescreen country soul to palpitating Meat Loaf theatrics, the overriding impression is of a band that's having a blast. [July 2008, p.99]

More engaging doom from the download kings. [March 2011, p. 101]

It won't dethrone his great works, but there's heart in abundance. [Nove. 2010, p. 117]

In stark contrast to their finest work (1993's "brown" album, 1999's The Middle Of Nowhere), the magic moments never add up to an epic, morphing whole.

It's far from perfect but still worthy of investigation. [Oct 2012, p.97]

This is the best yet from Kathleen Hanna's trio. [Nov 2004, p.130]

It sounds like the album Courtney Love might have made had she not spent periods of the past decade blitzed to the back teeth. Which is a (very) good thing, by the way. [Jul 2009, p.132]

Whether psychedelic riffing or crooning over strings, theirs is top-notch garage pop. [May 2007, p.126]

Their music now comes wrapped in gauzy textures more reminiscent of local hero Toro Y Moi. [Jul 2011, p.111]

The Californian four-piece's follow-up is less inspired, however, lacking any memorable tunes or winning hoks to distract from Nathan Willett's grating falsetto, and much of the album is heavy going. [Oct 2008, p.141]

Phillip Labonte's melodic vocals give the Massachussetts quintet an edge over their contemporaries, and the songwriting and classy production here suggests they're set for bigger things. [Oct 2008, p.141]

The end result is 10 songs that switch direction with ear-pricking regularity and generally avoid the sub-Oasis ladrock you might have expected Ifans to churn out. [Oct 2008, p.143]

A foursome without a single Ken among them, their self-titled debut is heavy psych-rock for those of a crepuscular calling, with Bearfight and Refined being the songs where they really up the power. [Oct 2008, p.153]

It's a mess, characteristically dark but the riffs are scruffy and their once-mesmerising power is gone. [May 2013, p.99]

Like a silent movie star who discovered she didn't sound like Janet Street-Porter when talkies came, the overwhelming feeling is one of relief and career continuation. [Dec 2013, p.102]

Ultimately, while(1<2) is overlong and never quite the cohesive masterpiece it wants to be, but there's tantalising evidence of a smart brain ticking away beneath those big Disney ears. [Aug 2014, p.114]

The overall sense is that for all its unhinged eclecticism, Control is the product of a fiendishly inventive mind. If he can find focus, he'll be a real force. [Apr 2015, p.99]

Everything that made their past albums so engaging--the lopsided melodies, frontman Tim Elsenburg's anguished drawl, those lazy Bacharach-style brass fills--is still here, but harnessed to better songs. [Jul 2015, p.114]

Prong's no-rills approach is a far better fit than, say, Slayer's patchy Undisputed Attitude from 1996.... They're less sure-footed on a raucous stab at Husker Du's Don't Want To Know If You're Lonely that bludgeons all the magic out of the original, however. [May 2015, p.109]

He's sounding like a contender again, something only Borrell himself would have ever betted on. [Dec 2018, p.113]

Just enough texture and colour to lift his affecting compositions above the neo-classical norm. [May 2020, p.104]

This fifth album doesn't differ radically from the previous four.... Newcomers, however, should start with 2003's more cohesive Transatlanticism. [Oct 2005, p.115]

For the majority of Tyranny, it's almost impossible to understand what's going on or why. [Nov 2014, p.121]

What it needs is some incident--a clanging glockenspiel, say. At least that would liven up proceedings a bit. [Aug 2005, p.129]

First album in seven years by dreamy Alabama duo. [Jan. 2011, p. 135]

On first listen, it's sufficiently preposterous to be amusing, but over time, predictably, becomes intrusive and annoying. [Sep 2016, p.114]

A remarkable balancing act. [Jan 2007, p.150]

An admirable tribute if frequently deafened by the echo of its tragic catalyst. [Jan 2012, p.121]

The overall effect is a little wayward at times, strangely touching at others, and nutso throughout. [May 2004, p.104]

Although this is certainly flawed, the Cardigans deserve kudos for recognising their faults, trying with all their might to rectify them. [Apr 2003, p.103]

The Search revisits the social commentary of Farrar's old band. [May 2007, p.129]

It isn't just that it's (mostly) a covers album, more that so many of the selections are so uninspired. [Jan 2011, p.139]

Brain-melting return from digital hardcore heroes. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]

But while their second album is lyrically all quiet desperation, boasting such giveaway titles as Once I Was Pretty and The Disappearance Of My Youth, musically it's an altogether more uplifting proposition of stately A-ha styled synth-pop. [Feb 2010, p. 112]

There's certainly enough thrills to go round, even if Idea Of Happiness is sometimes lacking the killer chorus that would take it to the next level. [Dec 2012, p.115]

It's easily five songs too long. ... But for the most part this is a nostalgic flashback to Santana's golden age. [Jun 2016, p.115]

An album of palatable Radio 1-friendly alt-rock. [Mar 2007, p.110]

Such are the highs, the weaker material suffers by comparison. [Sep 2004, p.111]

They're still here and they're still very good. [May 2013, p.93]

Hexes and such may be the stuff of teenaged girls' diary fantasies, but it's not hard to fall under The Pierces' spell. [Jun 2011, p.120]

It's a tough listen--although that might be the point. [Jul 2012, 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]

It's an unexpected grower. [Jan 2016, p.111]

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

Freed from the expectation of neatly crafted songs, Goddard gets in touch with his dance roots on a collection of largely instrumental grooves. [Jan 2010, p. 119]

The embryo that is Manic Expressive promises much from the future. [Nov 2001, p.122]

Only one track, Call Me, offers second listenability with its funky shuffle drums, Neil Young guitar raunch and doomster attitude... Otherwise, Freel's appeal depends on his ear for interesting noises. [Aug 2001, p.141]

It holds its own, just. [May 2002, p.114]

Fine for the dancefloor, less so the sofa. [Dec 2002, p.112]

Vol. Two will please Everclear's long-term fans with a return to their harder roots.

Black Market Music feels like a watershed, a merely good record after a great one, and that in itself is disappointing.

Not, perhaps, the best overview of their work, but bound to satisfy loyal fans. [Jan 2003, p.123]

Bianchi drops his usual mix of samples and programming for traditional instruments, including banjo and glockenspiel to create a very modern, kind of folk music. [Dec 2008, p.133]

Surprisingly addictive. [Dec. 2011 p. 124]

For the most part, their 11th album is the sound of a band getting back to their best. [Apr 2016, p.100]

Their ability to transport the listener to an imaginary Deep South truckers' bar in 1973 is peerless, while the deft funk-rock of 'Set In Stone' and 'Play the Fool' pay tribute to the slick musicianship and seemless meld of rootsy American music styles that The Doobie Brothers and Little Feat unleashed in their prime. [Nov 2008, p.110]

There is still plenty to enjoy here, though, especially Little Surprise, which occupies a similar territory to Mystery Jets at their best. [Jun 2011, p.124]

Stands as an apt reminder that she is the finest soul talent of her generation. [Dec 2005, p.152]

An experiment in performance art that'll put you in touch with your inner Brian Sewell. [Jul 2012, p.105]

A wry and considered thing. [Oct 2004, p.128]