He lets the currents take it where they will, from the churning tumult of The Wave to the cresting, Bon Iver-ish Broken. [Dec 2019, p.113]

There are moments of genuine wonder. [Jan 2012, p.120]

Singer and girl-Iggy Jemina Pearl's the star, bringing admirable conviction to her tales of boredom, drug-taking and, in the case of the Perky 'Food Fight,' "extra cheese in your face." [Apr 2008, p.102]

it's not without charm, but you might find yourself wanting to like What Now more than you actually do. [Jun 2017, p.112]

An altogether more polished affair [than debut, Good Evening]. [April 2012, p.106]

Wilson's fragile vocals dominate, but her sidekicks add musical lightness. [Aug 2017, p.110]

Hawley wields his guitar with fresh zeal, unfurling long, turbulent solos while his chocolatey baritone is less Roy Orbison, more Mark Lanegan. But the songwriting lags behind the sound. [Jun 2012, p.104]

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

There's no doubting their enthusiasm but it seems Death In Vegas have compiled a list of great cult albums rather than actually making one themselves. [Oct 2002, p.102]

Swedish electro-pop hipsters take understatement to a new high. [Aug. 2011, p. 117]

The result is at once fluid and fractured, with a restless experimental edge that never quite allows the beat to settle into anything approaching a predictable pattern. [Sep 2011, p.104]

The surreal stoner wit of vintage Little feat is still missed, but this is perfectly respectable business as usual. [Sep 2012, p105]

Although none of the newcomers quite supply the killer touch, the flow of soft-rock shimmies and cowbell-driven R&B lives up to the guestlist's promise. [Dec 2005, p.156]

The songs here are a familiar mix of wry life observations and clever covers. [Nov 2012, p.96]

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]

The State Of Things confirms RATM will be following the Arctic Monkeys down the MI and onto the nation's radios for sometime yet. [Nov 2007, p.145]

More variety is needed and it's all been done before, but rarely with such a sense of fun. [Apr 2008, p.108]

The shine wears off before the final, 14th, song. But it's fun until then. [May 2018, p.111]

Glistening, handcrafted pop. [April 2012, p.106]

Well-connected New Jerseyite's fifth solo album. [March 2011, p. 117]

It's the way Margo Timmins' distinctive, kohl-eyed delivery melts into Notes Falling Slow's funereal throb that remains the band's USP. [Jul 2004, p.113]

In all that attention to detail, there's flair and fire enough to quash the qualms and revel in people doing something over and doing it right. [Sep 2012, p.97]

They make a decent stab at it. But with such an overfamiliar sound, it smacks too much of the World Cup exit montage. [Oct 2011, p.117]

At times, Leaneagh and Ryan Olson, her co-conspirator, glance off power-balladry, but when they ditch the linear, Poliça find their true form. [Mar 2020, p.119]

Attention Deficit Domination goes straight for the doom-rock jugular. [Jan 2012, p.120]

Rodriguez digs deeper into rave and party culture here. [Jun 2020, p.97]

While some of it is great, much of Francis Trouble chugs amiably along without really sinking its teeth in. [May 2018, p.111]

As Desolation Sounds progresses, so the mood becomes more considered and expansive. [May 2015, p.105]

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]

An album largely split between moments of hushed intimacy and gonzoid rocksers that tend to pitch themselves between The Replacements, Tom Petty and -- presumably unwittingly -- U2 circa War. [Oct 2002, p.101]

Fearless strides forth from Neil's number one son. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

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

Its delicately observed song cycle unfolds like a novella or short film, with tracks that might seem slight isolation gaining resonance in situ. [Dec 2015, p.108]

He's turned his back on electro flourishes in favour of a melodic approach... It works. [Dec. 2001 p. 126]

It's packed with clever songwriting, wry observations and occasional Leonard Cohen-esque dark foreboding. [Jan 2012, p.120]

Functional but fun. [May 2010, p.122]

Mount Moriah give the Southern tradition an indie-rock twist that's more effective the further they go. [Apr 2013, p.107]

Drone metal linchpin, with guest Kurt Cobain. [Jan. 2011, p. 150]

It's a little one-paced and unlikely to win prizes for originality, but King Con has enough kooky charm to entertain, if not enchant. [April 2012, p.107]

Building a forthright sound on upfront drums, piano and Stephen Patterson's angsty vocals, tracks including Burundi-drumming lead single Percussion gun and the suspenseful groover Right Where They Left are a winning balance of art-indie mope and pop energy. [Feb 2010, p. 113]

An album of tuneful but calculated pop-rock to be admired rather than loved.

There are few surprises here: white trash raps hollered over a musical backdrop that sounds like an evil pub rock band.

It's hardly original, but is frequently beautiful. [Feb 2011, p.123]

His straitjacket is an entrenched reliance on "lighters aloft" ballads, or, ironically, Oasis-derived anthems. [Dec 2002, p.113]

A familiar bag of tricks. [Sep 2003, p.101]

A dark, violent and relentless listen. [Sep 2011, p.110]

At first listening, this feels vexingly inconsequential, but after a few loosening listens the music's slight but simple pleasures shine through.

Respite is offered up by the lilting Don't Go Outside, which reveals a beating heart beneath the conceptual framework. [Mar 2020, p.120]

Full of borrowed ideas put together in a not unpleasant or unoriginal way, their sound is still too close to the myriad other wannabes trailing in The Libertines' and Razorlight's wake. [Oct 2006, p.119]

It's all very cinematic and atmospheric but with lyrics offering a light, sixth-form poetry vibe, much here is easy to bid adieu to. [May 2020, p.109]

Its opening five minutes posit the sound of "war machinery" grinding slowly to the point of metallic cacophony, but there are many more intriguing pieces afoot. [Jan 2014, p.122]

Classic heartbreak stuff. [Mar 2012, p.97]

The result is like a more chaotic Nirvana or Dinosaur Jr, with gentle diversions into geeky indie, drone-rock and fuzz-pop that only enhance the racket-making around it. [Apr 2013, p.109]

Her collaborations, from Foo Fighters to Ray Charles. [Jan. 2011, p. 151]

Fizzes with poppy yet streetwise energy. [April 2012, p.94]

Her multiple selves clash more often than they connect. [Aug 2020, p.110]

There's an intimacy to these songs that makes it feel like you're intruding on some private sorrow, but there's no denying their ability to sustain a mood. [Jun 2009, p.117]

Separations, divorce, remarriage and kids all feed into 12 tracks of disastrous love, welcome redemption and rekindled fire, but not everything works. [May 2016, p.111]

Pete Wareham's group balances playfulness and tunes with rhythmic invention and experiementalism, arriving somewhere between punk and prog. [Aug 2009, p.101]

Ultimately, Futures is Bleed American Part Two. [Nov 2004, p.118]

The follow-up to 2009's Everything To Nothing crackles with energy. [Jun 2011, p.119]

This is a warped beach record tailor-made for heads' holidays. [Sep 2018, p.118]

Confusion's left in its wake, of course, but such is the price of the peaks. [Oct 2017, p.100]

Second album is polished, though its anthemic pop-metalcore suffers from thinking its better than it is. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

Irwin peppers her songs with Southern Gothic characters, while her keening, naive voice suggests remote mountains where dark deeds are the norm. [Oct 23012, p.94]

The likes of 'Americans Abroad' and 'White People For Peace' pick up where Green Day's "American Idiot" left off, channelling righteous fury into a racket that's as vigorous as it's earnest. [Sep 2007, p.88]

It's great at times, but far more work than it should be. [Jan 2012, p.127]

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]

A little too heavily indebted to fellow Aussies Nick Cave and The Triffids' late David McComb, even if that's not a bad place to be coming form. [Mar 2009, p.105]

His low-key, unhurried approach is unchanged. [May 2015, p.107]

They're less assured on the more experimental numbers. [Aug 2020, p.109]

Plain Rap lacks the talents of Fatlip and Slimkid and it shows. The smart, polished Pharcyde backings - rich in jazz and rare groove - are still in evidence, but it's easy to miss the gawky verbals of all four rappers.

The follow-up to last year's scene-defining debut, Aerial, is every bit as good. On Lost, Huismans takes dubstep's booming sub-bass and frozen atmospherics and adds fuzzy keyboards and a spiralling vocal sample. [Dec 2009, p. 111]

Its breezy mix of acid pop, acoustic whimsy and sunshine funk drifts by with all the staying power of a warm afternoon. [Aug 2018, p.108]

At their worst The Stratford 4... are as far out as a Chapterhouse B-side. When they hit their freaked-out stride, however... they shake off the enervation and kick up some genuine rock'n'rool aggro. [Oct 2003, p.114]

It's a deeply Manchester album: melodic yet substantial, uplifting and acceptable to football fan and student alike. [May 2002, p.109]

This third album won't appease the doubters, the sound of their previous Billboard chart-crashing album now polished until it gleams like chrome. [Jun 2010, p.120]

His debut solo LP nods more to the latter [Cracker rather than Camper Van Beethoven]. [Jun 2011, p.119]

Lynne and Moorer are at their best on the straight country material, but their take on The Killers' My List usurps the original. Sadly, things take a turn for the worse later. [Sep 2017, p.113]

If the question is whether they're moving Busted forwards, then the answer is a resounding, robotic, synth-laden yes. [Dec 2016, p.105]

Too often proceedings feel half-baked. [May 2007, p.123]

Intriguing though Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is, it remains unclear how he and his peculiar talent will thrive out there. [Oct 2007, p.104]

Breezy sort of fun to be had. [Jan 2012, p.126]

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

Powerful, atmospheric, but not for the fainthearted. [April 2012, p.94]

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]

Here, they may have taken self-effacement too far. [May 2003, p.114]

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]

Pressure And Time is a powerful, soulful affair full of strut and swagger. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

It's The Black Keys, Florence Welch and Julian Casablancas who walk the line between homage and reinvention most deftly. [Sep 2011, p.114]

Dawson's vision is exceptional; his sound is harder to follow. [Dec 2019, p.109]

There's decent adult pop to be had. [Jan 2016, p.111]

The album's first half is anchored by the hypnotic undertow of Pulls, but the mood intensifies later with RGB's distortion beats and Bird Milk's cocky electro-strut proving Gallear's at his best when sparring against more robust rhythms. [Dec 2014, p.109]

They don't sustain the quality of songwriting throughout, but this is a promising start.

The lyrical flash and chop-socky samples signify business as usual, but at heart 8 Diagrams is a bold move into deeper, mellower terrritory, and certainly a vast improvement on 2001's "Iron Flag." [Feb 2008, p.93]

The mix of therapy sessions and swooning love songs make for a slightly confused LP but not an unenjoyable one. [May 2018, p.108]

Their second album finds them full of anthemic swagger and brio. [Mar 2012, p. 97]

It's pastiche, certainly, but of a pleasingly arresting kind. [Jul 2009, p.118]