Selway is a songwriter still new to the task and yet already leaning in toward middle age, and the perspective he brings to writing adult rock music is both fresh and contemplatively knowing. [Nov 2014, p.117]

This isn't a bold project and they haven't been expanded nearly enough. [Feb 2016, p.118]

[Passover] can be frustratingly sparse in places. [Apr 2018, p.106]

There's an element of "always the same but always... the same" here--but when Pollard hits his cryptically emotive cruising altitude on Carapace or The Rally Boys the guitars accelerate around their pilot, his chose songwriting vehicle always flies. [Apr 2019, p.113]

The old fervour remains intact. In truth, their third LP holds few surprises. [Feb 2009, p.116]

Naysayers may write this off as a derivative mash up of early-'90s indie moves, but on Empire Kasabian have become bigger than the sum of their record collections. [Oct 2006, p.116]

It spares us her bluesy, commercially unfriendly side and as a result she's made her best record since, yes, "Relish."

Her most purely enjoyable album since 1978's Easter. [May 2007, p.120]

The Deserters produces a gently psychedelic kind of romantic chamber-pop. [Jan 2013, p.113]

Story Of The Year manage to stand out from the melodic post-hardcore morass due to the sheer stength of their anthems, That said, there's little new on this fourth album. [Apr 2010, p.106]

A Thousand Heys plays so much like the product of a band wigging out in a garage you can almost smell the Castrol GTX. [Jun 2011, p.119]

Their sixth album uses the same unbending template as ever, but does so with the best songwriting since 2005's Howl. [Apr 2013, p.95]

Not for everyone. [Jun 2005, p.120]

Erland Oye and Eirik Boe's voices cannon off each other appealingly enough on 'Boat Behind,' but the album drifts in the manner of nick Drake out-takes and by the time you've waded through 13 dawdling tracks, it's a struggle to recall any of them. [Nov 2009, p.109]

His ninth record is ramshackle and there's a lot of it, but it's always entertaining. [Feb 2013, p.101]

Even when it isn't actually good, this is quality froth. [Sep 2001, p.114]

The results, while respectfully chocolate box pretty, make Enya seem like a bomb-making radical. [Nov 2002, p.109]

A rare treat, with Jones' stripped-back, largely acoustic band brilliantly framing that voice... [Nov. 2000, p.109]

There is something unceasingly engaging about Trans Am. [Apr 2004, p.122]

Wretched. [Dec 2003, p.124]

At her best she's thrilling and her hits with Timbaland, 'The Way I Are' and 'Scream,' still cackle brilliantly, but at 70 minutes there's too much flab and the ballads drag horribly. [Jul 2009, p.124]

There's stirring emotion to 'Pale Horses' restrained mournfulness and the soulful vocals on the minimal 'Walk With Me,' though it can sound as if has a button on his laptiop that wafts this stuff out automatically. [Aug 2009, p.108]

It's exhausting but charming. [Aug 2009, p.104]

All We Need is a lot more powerful, and a heap more fun, when it aims for transcendence. [Dec 2015, p.112]

There are also welcome flashes of their own identity. ... At 14 songs, however, that saccharine sheen starts to grate a little. [Aug 2020, p.102]

Whether Faust is actually music has been debated since their 1971 debut, but whichever side you take, it's brilliant to have Peron and Diermaier still asking the question. [Jan 2015, p.125]

A wasted opportunity. [Dec 2016, p.109]

Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine is still their touchstone, with dreamy vocals almost obliterated beneath washes of distoortion on "I Just Want To See Your face" and "Reprobate!," but they also thorw curveballs. [Apr 2010, p.119]

Duets guns unerringly for lounge-y stasis, swerving any trace of the funk, grit or bile which make Morrison such a unique treasure.... Criminal. [May 2015, p.108]

Sometimes his curious fusion works. ... Sometimes it doesn't. [Feb 2020, p.115]

For every riveting set piece... there are meandering nonentities such as the title track. [Mar 2005, p.98]

This ragbag of an album suggests the tying up of loose ends before impending reinvention. [Jan 2008, p.118]

It's pulled down by too many mid-paced ballads and inordinate length. [Aug 2017, p.104]

Long-awaited debut from the sweary Brooklyn collective. [Feb. 2011, p. 120]

Music this uplifting, this inspirational, belongs among the stars. [Dec 2011, p.120]

The orchestral pieces with their abrupt phrasing and lumpen scales, merely sound like one of those conceptual "jokes" no one except artworld insiders are in on. [Apr 2014, p.105]

As ever, songs veer between the nigglingly infectious and cliched slush. [May 2003, p.109]

Old school, but somehow not old hat. [Feb 2009, p.113]

1990s show more ambition on the follow-up. [May 2009, p.107]

Lyrical concerns are accordingly way less uptight and conceptual. [May 2013, p.99]

Catastrophically, she's given up her trademark fruity sex rhymes, which leaves just mundane braggadocio and an unhealthy obsession with her ex-lover, Notorious BIG. [May 2003, p.109]

Predictable, but not unpleasantly so. [Feb 2007, p.105]

It's atmospheric and even moving, but sometimes feels like drowning slowly in a flotation tank with The Bends playing on repeat shuffle. [Sep 2016, p.111]

Sadly, Better Nature is the sound of a band barricading themselves into their own comfort zones. [Apr 2016, p.115]

A sombre listen, but a rewarding one. [Apr 2013, p.103]

Just Because, Youth and Poverty and the simmering Finale show there's genuine craft here too. Thrilling. [Feb 2011, p.117]

West Coast eccentrics' second ambitious offering. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]

The result is a mighty leap forwards. [Jun 2010, p.128]

Excitingly, War's chaotic punk and the frantic Guilty All The Same are as raw as they've ever been, but The Hunting Party is the sound of Linkin Park coming in from the cold. [Aug 2014, p.109]

Shiny, but oddly inert. [Oct 2015, p.111]

Life With You brims with both songwriting confidence and, the lovelorn title track withstanding, righteous anger. [Oct 2007, p.105]

Streamlines their punk blasts as they aim for a wider audience. [Oct 2012, p.98]

Some toy-keyboard boogie-woogie and Krautrock expansiveness add to its charm. [Feb 2013, p.105]

One to bask in. [May 2013, p.94]

All told, a sunny delight. [Oct 2013, p.107]

Almost every track on this fifth LP is thematically inspired by a historical figure, which intrudes in the spoken passages of Sunday Neurosis, but otherwise inspires some of their most exciting music to date. [Jun 2014, p.119]

Walk Dance Talk Sing is most effective when, rather than relying on the tunes to work their magic, they lock the groove into a freewheeling funk-motoriik. [Jul 2015, p.102]

Ridha's focus here isn't on beauty but the beats. [Jul 2016, p.104]

Gong have become their own tribute band. But it works. [Nov 2016, p.107]

A record that feels dates, despite its archly poptimistic style. [Jun 2019, p.112]

It's all terribly cute and jaunty, with twee melodies and playground lyrics to the fore. [May 2009, p.107]

Their third album is another bony bundle of modern neuroses. [Apr 2009, p.108]

Hayward drums like h e needs your attention right now, Moore plays like an apocalypse, and it's all loud, snappy and catchy as hell. [Jan 2018, p.109]

Essentially, it's another Dixie Chicks record with Robison's more expressive vocals replacing Maines's twang. [July 2010, p. 129]

A superbly consistent R&B collection. [May 2007, p.123]

Those seeking more of the same will not be disappointed. [Dec 2006, p.128]

Targets all things "bling" with the same mix of bitter storytelling and star guests, only it's not as funny. [Jul 2003, p.111]

[Saloman's] sharply observed tales of lost love and hopeless hopes fit Lord's airy vocals snugly. [Jun 2004, p.102]

Swinging, scratchy indie-pop, with see-sawing melodies, emotive vocals and frustrated tales. [Jul 2004, p.127]

An altogether more satisfying supply of air punching, stadium sized choruses. [Jun 2004, p.103]

Outrage! Is Now makes a convincing fist of them not sounding like a band pushing 40. [Oct 2017, p.100]

This enticingly dusky debut reveals a welcome underside to their home city of Tallinn's sometimes cloying indie-pop scene. [May 2018, p.111]

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

There's nothing here that feels truly essential. [Apr 2007, p.122]

Goulding is packed with intriguing contradictions and you can sense most of them on Lights.[Apr 2010, p.107]

He seems content to occupy the same '90s underground niche he's always done. [Jun 2013, p.90]

There's nothing radically different on offer, but fans will take heart from the sound of a band re-energised. [Mar 2007, p.112]

A sad waste of everyone's time. [Jun 2009, p.119]

The real delights are the dreamily sinister instrumental sections. [Dec 2012, p.100]

It's a compelling mix, although the gaseous atmospheres and subtle melodies of Unbalancing Acts and To Swim drift too far toward shapelessness. It's a highly promising debut nonetheless. [Jul 2016, p.111]

[It] mines a similar seam of hard rock to that pursued by countrymen Wolfmother, only without so many Black Sabbath influences. [May 2007, p.129]

Luna is pleasing rather than groundbreaking. [Oct 2008, p.139]

It's annoyingly catchy. [Sep 2016, p.113]

The Straight Hits! feels so unlike 2011's exquisitely miserable Last Of The Country Gentlemen. Pearson wrote the LP according to five songwriting "pillars" and the constraints, paradoxically, have freed him up. [Jun 2018, p.114]

Good pop needs light and shade to grow up, it seems, and so does Example. [Jan 2013, p100]

As ever, his lyrics are oblique yet thought-provoking, if sometimes unwieldy. [Sep 2012, p.112]

Sex Change is the sound of a band having fun. [Mar 2007, p.117]

The faithful will be overjoyed: despite the optimistic title there's nothing new here, only a distillation of trace elements from previous outings. [Oct 2002, p.106]

Astonishingly good. [Jul 2004, p.127]

The rumble of My God's bigger Than Your God offers some respite, but can't save a disappointing return. [Oct 2010, p.121]

The fact remains that Take The Crown is a disappointment. [Dec 2012, p.99]

There's a lightness of touch from Turner and his band (and producer Catherine Marks) that makes No Man's Land a welcome diversion. [Sep 2019, p.116]

Storm & Grace is a likeable record if not a startling one. [Nov 2012, p.92]

There are moments of glorious burning distortion on Solara and Marchin' On, but its real riches are much more subtle. [Dec 2018, p.115]

A handsomely crafted affair of aching sincerity and a light pleasing soulful touch. What's missing are a couple of standout tracks to get the ball rolling. [Feb 2011, p.124]

The lack of any overt passion, energy and fresh ideas makes a numbing and sadly all too predictable listen. [Dec 2008, p.128]

Anyone unfamiliar with Sheffield's rich musical heritage could be left thinking the city's main legacy was maudlin ballads for the Saga set. [Dec 2008, p.128]

As a kind of '90s bedsit atmosphere plug-in, it works perfectly. [Jan 2012, p.124]