He thrives when bringing gravitas to the sparse blues of Soul Of a Man and extraordinary tenderness to the Low Anthem Charlie Darwin. [Jun 2012, p.105]

Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me is fuelled by issues addressed in Jeremy Bolm's furiously screamed, raw and sometimes, frustratingly po-faced vocals. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

Clever, but not clever-clever. [Nov 2012, p98]

A notch above an off-cuts collection. [Aug 2006, p.116]

The less devout should keep a pinch of salt on stand-by. [Oct 2007, p.100]

[It has] abundant warmth, melodiousness and spontaneity--and fewer full-tilt stylistic shifts than earlier records. [Jan 2012, p.127]

Molina and cohorts turn their limited resources into an exercise in compelling minimalism. [#184, p.144]

It's... strangely coy, preferring to camp it up than give in to full-on indecency. Which isn't to say it doesn't have its moments. [Jul 2003, p.101]

At Times, Tenderness teeters on schmaltz, but Souther's way with a simple melody usually pulls it back. [Jul 2015, p.113]

While good, clean, hedonistic fun, it feels over-familiar, like somewhere you've visited once too often. [Jan 2002, p.97]

[Deluxe's] successor is equally likeable. [Oct 2017, p.108]

While there is greater subtlety at play than when he was in Gallows, he still sounds at his most thrilling on the more aggressive material. [Oct 2015, p.104]

Throbbing synth-pop from husband-and-wife duo. [Aug. 2011, p. 120]

Previous music shine through while new material inevitable has the scrappiness of work assembled posthumously with Peep's childlike drawl sprawling over markedly lighter beats than the dark pop-punk rap he coined. [Feb 2020, p.112]

It's messy, it takes time to sink in, but it's worth it. [Sep 2007, p.100]

There's almost too much bubbling up in their heads. [May 2020, p.109]

A bright and breezy sophomore that occasionally hints at darker themes. [Dec. 2001 p. 127]

Yet for all the sharp hooks and rhythmic twists, the album sags in the middle. [Apr 2008, p.127]

A collection that delves deeper than her previous albums. [Mar 2015, p.111]

Harmless fluff. [Nov 2008, p.114]

His hard-hitting electro is basic, but brutally effective dancefloor fare. [Feb 2009, p.119]

It's not to say he's workmanlike, but he does the job. [May 2015, p.110]

If Bob Dylan can do it, so can Tori Amos, whose own nod to the festive season, Midwinter Graces, is a rather more palatable, ornately arranged selection of self-penned songs and such carols as Star Of wonder and Emmanuel. [Jan 2010, p. 126]

No help coming consequently offers a welcome contrast to murder-ballad reciting neo-folkers. [Jun 2011, p.116]

Milwaukee songstress's first offering. [Feb. 2011, p. 123]

The music here only rarely matches up. [Nov 2002, p.96]

This follow-up sees them up the ante slightly. one Man Army is packed with big songs, windswept harmonies, swashbuckling choruses, and less appealingly, big guitar solos when all you wanted was a key change. [Jun 2012, p.105]

All a bit silly, but actually quite good. [Apr 2003, p.104]

Canadian electro duo's dreamy fourth album. [Aug. 2011, p. 120]

An even more spare-sounding album. [Mar 2005, p.100]

Solid rather than inspired. [Oct 2011, p.117]

The manic arrangements sometimes overwhelm, but there are worse places to drown than Baths' ball-pit of an imagination. [Jan 2018, p.106]

There's a pleasing mundanity to their lyrical scope. [Feb 2020, p.115]

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

Imagination and maturity abound, energy less so, although it bodes well for the next album. [Dec. 2001 p. 127]

Shelby struggles to get her dues outside conventional country circles, but Tears, Lies And Alibis is far from conventional. [Nov 2010, p.111]

Strangeland isn't much of a diversion from their fame-bringing formula. [Jun 2012, p.105]

This latest ventures proves equally unconventional [as his collaboration with Sufjan Stevens and his Kenny Dennis EP], the half-hour running time and Cohn's deadbeat rhymes both at odds with the rap mainstream. [Sep 2012, p.111]

A curious third outing. [Oct 2005, p.117]

A four-part story in the record's centre is propelled by a whirligig of percussion that rapidly becomes total overwhelm[ing]. But in its final 20 minutes the album finds steadier ground, allowing space for Deacon's undaunted imagination to come into its own. [Mar 2020, p.117]

Mostly it's quality urban pop that achieves its goal, but by sacrificing her personality. [Apr 2008, p.107]

The only gripe here is that the odd longueur makes Historian solid rather than spectacular. [May 2018, p.107]

The 15th album of punk-tinged metal has enough spark to show that they can still dance with the Devil. [Apr 2013, p.100]

Song quality is key: at home writing cheery or wistful postcards rather than deep and meaningful navel-gazing, Ringo had yarns to spin, vibes to spread and lucky stars to thank. [May 2015, p.112]

At 15 tracks long there's occasionally some saggy moments, but with plenty of verve and sparkle in the main, The Melodic's debut proves unexpectedly life-affirming. [Apr 2014, p.115]

At its best, Cadenza is a thoroughly captivating listen. [Jun 2011, p.114]

In cinematic terms, not a bomb. But not a blockbuster, either. [Sep 2017, p.116]

Electronic outfit return after a decade and a half. [March 2011, p. 114]

At times, strangely purging - and almost euphoric - most of MMXII still sounds like the end of civilisation as we know it. [Jun 2012, p.106]

Dark and knotty, Open takes a while to win you over but when it does, it hangs around in your head like an unpaid debt.

Everything here feels like a Xerox of something that's been done before.[Oct 2014, p.102]

With arrangements pared back to the bone, it's that strange, slurred voice where all the attention is focused, meaning there's no hiding place at all. [Nov 2012, p.99]

While The Sweet Escape is not as garishly over-the-top as its predecessor, Stefani maintains an admirably off-kilter sound, catchy yet electronically edgy. [Feb 2007, p.106]

Unforced and rewarding. [Feb 2016, p.119]

Power has a surprisingly cohesive feel, even as it shifts from the Beach Boys-infused harmonies of On Your Own to Prettiest Ones Fly Highest's hazy, Frank Ocean-like R&B, with only the slinky house beats of Cool Like Me sounding a false note. [Jan 2015, p.125]

Basically, it's a Megadeth album; no more, no less, no change. [Jan 2012, p.124]

HIs fourth album is a step up from the patchy "Awfully Deep." [Oct 2008, p.150]

[She] sticks to the formula of soft-spoken polemical raps and gritty lo-fi beats. [Mar 2012, p. 97]

For Much of Bashed Out, emotion is shown rather than told, but once the layers have been unpicked, it's obviously special. [May 2015, p.112]

It shows a poetic MVC pursuing catharsis for emotional scars, societal ills and mispent time. [Jul 2009, p.121]

The sextet have simply folowed their instincts and made a gloriously upbeat pop collection, packed with kitchen-sink productions and thumping choruses, invariably underpinned by Rasmus Nagel's stentorian keyboards. [Apr 2010, p.106]

[They] have shifted further toward airy accessibility. [Jun 2004, p.107]

Rather kite-flying itself, Kweller prides shooting the breeze over true direction, but there are enough emotional gusts here to ensure he regularly soars. [Jun 2012, p.106]

It's an album that sounds somehow both old and new, resembling Bibio and Yeasayer rewriting Brian Wilson's back catalogue. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

Kozelek swerves self-indulgence by writing with an arid humour. [Sep 2012, p.112]

A rugged, roaring listen. [Oct 2011, p.117]

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

She's good and snarky on Charmer. [Nov 2012, p. 101]

He surprises with an unexpectedly stark romanticism inspired at least partly by his love for Isaac Hayes and Ray Charles. [Jan 2017, p.108]

Not quite as beautifully forlorn as 2003's Long Gone Before Daylight. [Nov 2005, p.123]

It's warmth and occasional flashes of wisdom ensure it's a dignified protest at modern life rather than just the mitherings of an old(er) man. [Jan 2015, p.132]

The Helio Sequence add lucioous electronic icing to their songs but too often this mearly masks predictable indie rock. [Mar 2008, p.104]

There's nothing wrong with the songs that make up its second act, save that each is as woozy, wistful and gossamer-fragile as the next. [June 2008, p.140]

Solid ground is simply beautiful, David Davison's reedy warble offset by a ghostly mellotron, while campfire strum-along Was and power-pop gem Israeli Caves are proof that their melodic detour was well worth the effort. [Nov 2010, p.111]

Swapping The Hold Steady's white-knuckled intensity for skeletal drums and echoing guitar gives Finn's voice more room to manoeuvre. A welcome change of pace. [Mar 2012, p. 100]

Since reforming in 1990, founder Jean-Herve Peron and Werner Diermaier have been prolific, touring the world and recording a series of albums that have never quite scaled the heights of those early works. Cest Com... is no exception, though it's best moments provide a showcase for Diermaier's extraordinary percussion. [May 2009, p.112]

When it works, it's exhilarating, but elsewhere the poor lamb sounds a touch jaded. [Feb 2003, p.96]

This fifth album shouldn't disappoint them [their fans]. [Jun 2011, p.114]

Solid rather than spectacular. [June 2002, p.110]

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

While there may not be anything startingly new here, there is a definite sense of ease with Murphy's past. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

In time, Devils & Dust will be regarded as an inspired stopgap. [Jun 2005, p.105]

Anyone who wants a bold new direction from Jeff Tweedy may find Sukierae disappointing. [Oct 2014, p.120]

There's nothing here for Jones to be ashamed of. [Sept. 2010, p. 115]

They are slowly getting closer to realising their original aim. [Mar 2016, p.109]

We Are Undone is just a little too well put together to convince. [Mar 2015, p.118]

This kitchen-sink hybrid works remarkably well. [Nov 2008, p.117]

It's hard to recall specific songs once they're over and the tracks not sung in French puncture the atmosphere a bit, but overall, oil lamp projector-lit vibe is an enjoyable one. [Jun 2016, p.113]

Only Break's lapse into unreconstructed arena-rock strikes a jarring note. [Jul 2016, p.107]

The future of pop? Only if you've read too many fashion magazines. [June 2002, p.111]

Emphathetic, female-friendly and always one step removed from the Nashville machine, Carpenter brought a welcome touch of class to country music in the early '90s. Though she's nowhere near the force of yore, those same attributes shine through on The Age of Miracles. [Jun 2010, p.132]

The mood is too heavy for far too long, but some good songs and more cohesive, melodic structures augur well for this damaged daughter's future. [Sep 2001, p.115]

He tackles unexpected covers to pleasing effect. [Mar 2002, p.120]

The music is let down by clunky lyrics. [Feb 2011]

Even its most unlistenable moments command attention with a ferocity that most musicians get nowhere near. [Mar 2004, p.98]

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

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

La Futura is better when ZZ Top and producer Rick Rubin mess with the formula. [Nov 2012, p.112]