A proper soul album which hooks you with the first pneumatic beat and draws you deeper with every heady atmosphere and vivid emotion. [Jan 2004, p.111]

Missy and Timbaland give us what we've come to expect--the sexiest, most ear-popping, jaw-dropping fusion of old-school rap tribute, sparse R&B, mutant bhangra, and beat innovation on Planet Pop. [Feb 2004, p.100]

They cook up an almighty storm, but as winds go, it's rather hollow. [Feb 2004, p.105]

At times [Folklore] is too self-satisfied, throwing everything available into the mix in what seems like a desperate bid to grab some cred. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Unconvincing and safe. [Feb 2004, p.102]

Almost classic Green. [Jan 2004, p.114]

This collection is laced with a compelling sense of psychosis. [Dec 2003, p.156]

The majority of material... is forgettable. [Dec 2003, p.118]

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

Mercifully, the original Let It Be remains on sale. [Dec 2003, p.146]

Mostly, it's tight but standard. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Excellent, although not quite the epoch-defining triumph its hype suggested it might be. [Jan 2004, p.108]

Rock's response is to ease off the hip hop and get back to the '70s, and it works. [Apr 2004, p.114]

Unlike other wannabes, Pink shares Madonna's two best assets: a keen eye for the next collaborator to further her cause and the ability to sound like Pink no matter what shape her cause takes. [Dec 2003, p.133]

A shadowy affair, overflowing with fractured breaks, amoebic bass and emotive, medieval chords. [Nov 2003, p.120]

At times, he thinks as laterally as Pavement's Stephen Malkmus. [Feb 2004, p.102]

A stoned gas. [Dec 2003, p.123]

Part 1's eight deluxe country rock essays all impress. [Feb 2004, p.98]

His fourth album sees credible Jean making a timely return. [Dec 2003, p.129]

McLachlan's gorgeous voice has always been her strength, and even Pierre Marchand's soft-rock production can't diminish its power. [Mar 2004, p.107]

With Kozelek's compelling ache of a voice to the fore, his star deserves to wax anew. [Mar 2004, p.113]

Acceptable but never stellar. [Dec 2003, p.121]

No one could have expected the four Stooges reunion tunes to sound so young and furious. [Nov 2003, p.120]

Desperately slim pickings... betray this release's roots as a mere EP. [Jan 2004, p.116]

They don't quite escape the shadow of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai, but there's something rather joyous about this unadorned rock dynamic. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Genuinely and heart-stoppingly bittersweet. [jul 2003, p.112]

At excessive volume, Payable On Death sounds like a state-of-the-art metal album, but there's a painful dearth of decent ideas. [Jan 2004, p.118]

Pretty much everything a second album needs to be, it's like Is This It but more emotional, more colourful, slightly better. [Nov 2003, p.102]

It's uniformly good, apart from Bob Mould's new house direction, which gets laughs for all the wrong reasons. [Jan 2004, p.124]

A moribund collection of ragged but never rugged songs. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Most of Kish Kash sounds like the album they intended to make after Remedy. [Nov 2003, p.106]

The songwriting here is less striking than that showcased on recent best of. [Dec 2003, p.130]

Treat Yourself With Kindness... calls to mind what Morrissey and Marr might have come up with if requested to soundtrack the closing credits of It's A Wonderful Life. [Mar 2003, p.102]

The pleasure rapidly dissipates over 17 formulaic numbers, some of which come with an accordion. [May 2004, p.98]

There's plenty of regret and "emotional disgust," but it's applied with piercing guitar lines that resemble a soppier Interpol. [Mar 2004, p.112]

Splits evenly into out-and-out rockers and downhome folk. [Nov 2003, p.123]

Not quite a masterpiece, Echoes still shows why New York rock currently feels a million times more exciting than Britain's woefully safe equivalent. [Oct 2003, p.114]

A leap forward. [Apr 2004, p.120]

This is exciting but competent American punk by numbers. [Nov 2003, p.114]

Melodic without being vibrant or actually that pretty, these are songs that seem to sink into themselves. [Nov 2003, p.123]

It's all wonderfully sensual, only there's no passion or intensity. [Feb 2004, p.105]

Some of the shorter tracks feel like distractions, but when the fragile mixture of field recordings, samples from radio broadcasts and twanging folk instruments comes into focus, the results are quietly fascinating. [Dec 2003, p.120]

A perfeclty poised, richly textured set of light-footed psychedelic pop. [Sep 2003, p.101]

A meditation on modern urban life that lets the city shine with mystery, menace and grace. [Jan 2004, p.118]

This most recalls their masterful Through The Trees, only with pedal steel, banjo, bowed saw and some of their best harmony vocals yet. [Oct 2003, p.104]

Diminished by their willingness to splash about in the post-Tortoise shallows. [Dec 2003, p.124]

Proffers a newfound poignancy. [Nov 2003, p.110]

It's essentially ambient comedy cabaret. [Nov 2003, p.117]

Their weak spots (feyness, smugness, shallowness) remain. [Nov 2003, p.104]

For once, the return to form tag rings true. [Dec 2003, p.129]

Another like this and people will struggle to remember she was ever in another band. [Dec 2002, p.98]

The sort of glorious record Greenwich Village beatniks would make if they'd been hibernating for 40 years. [Feb 2004, p.102]

There's a raw urgency to the album that belies its dated influences. [Oct 2003, p.108]

Lyrical delights lurk round every turn. [Dec 2003, p.132]

Easier to admire than actually like. [Oct 2003, p.114]

In its own vapid, curiously sexless way, Life For Rent is actually fascinating stuff, so set against the usual rules of successful music that it starts to look oddly revolutionary. [Oct 2003, p.99]

Terrific stuff. [Dec 2003, p.129]

Though Matmos are undoubtedly the Willie Wonkas of ear candy, just occasionally The Civil War gets too anal. [Oct 2003, p.109]

A slow-burning but deeply impressive debut. [Sep 2002, p.109]

Bell has an instinctive feel for sound but, as Freak's teeth-grinding acid house nostalgia underlines, he won't find a new audience with this. [Oct 2003, p.108]

A second album full of ambition and epic arrangements so unexpected it knocks you sideways. [May 2004, p.108]

The musical scope is breathtaking. [Dec 2003, p.139]

There is one glaring drawback: so taboo-shredding are her lyrics, and so brutal her music, that she probably won't achieve the clout to which she obviously aspires. [Oct 2003, p.99]

The poppier bits like Jupiter Rising don't always work, but the darkly gritty Time In Babylon, in particular, shows just how far Harris has pushed the traditional country sound. [Oct 2003, p.104]

A joy from start to finish. [Dec 2003, p.124]

None of their new album will be remembered in a few years' time. Yet, like most fast food, there's very little wrong with it right now. [Dec 2003, p.130]

All very creditable though, for a man who once oozed vitriol, a tad bloodless. [Oct 2003, p.103]

A far more rounded proposition than 2000's water-treading Chocolate Starfish. [Dec 2003, p.132]

His witty baritone flow is more than a match for his masters. [Dec 2003, p.139]

A fine showcase for simmering, ethereal pop music. [Oct 2003, p.111]

So Damn Lucky and Trouble are lyrical ballads that succeed through understatement, but elsewhere Gravedigger is an awful, hectoring anti-war lament. [Jan 2004, p.117]

Speakerboxxx takes up where Stankonia left off.... The Love Below isn't really hip hop at all. Its sound and lyrics owe a huge debt to, inevitably, George Clinton. [Sep 2003, p.97]

This assured, intense record heralds the emergence of a major force. [Nov 2003, p.123]

It's when Bubba stays with his Southern roots... that he really shines. [Oct 2003, p.100]

A stark record that showcases her unsettlingly direct vocals. [Dec 2003, p.132]

There's nothing unlistenable... but nothing hugely inspiring, either. [Dec 2003, p.120]

There's plenty here to test the patience of even the sternest fan. [Dec 2003, p.122]

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

A fine start. [Mar 2004, p.113]

They might have a shelf life shorter than a pint of milk but, with a good tune underpinning each over-egged slice of rock pudding, are all the more thrilling for it. [Aug 2003, p.104]

Bowie's best music since Scary Monsters. [Oct 2003, p.101]

Amid such moments of clarity, however, there's the kind of meandering you originally expected from such an arty bunch. [Nov 2003, p.105]

There are some crisp pop tunes--Next To Nothing; So Easy, So Cool--but the country-tinged folk of Convince Us and Say Goodbye reek of "will this do?" [Nov 2003, p.124]

It's the kind of record you hate yourself for liking. [Dec 2003, p.132]

It retains all the allure of the most hypnotic electronica with none of the digital cliches. [Jan 2004, p.122]

Showcas[es] [Shields'] typically speaker-buckling white noise. [Nov 2003, p.126]

Most of it already sounds a decade old. [Dec 2003, p.137]

Unabashed whimsy merges seamlessly with melodious garage rock. [Jul 2003, p.100]

Mostly brilliant and, most surprising of all, never pretentious. [Oct 2003, p.102]

Finds their meld of expansive rock, country melodies and myriad other elements scraping truly inspirational heights. [Oct 2003, p.111]

An orgy of harmonica, squalling guitar, plodding ballads and ill-fitting minimalist trousers. What on earth is going on? [Oct 2003, p.113]

Suffers from the same faults as previous efforts: limp tunes, pompous guitar solos and an overhwlming sense of "Will this do?" [Sep 2003, p.98]

Jones's voice and melodic savvy means this album boasts--if you will--just enough entertainment to perform. [Jul 2003, p.109]

Sees WK adding a little more classic rock sensibility to his high-energy party metal. [Oct 2003, p.100]

Frequently explodes with ideas. [Oct 2003, p.112]

The Meadowlands represents an impressive triumph of persistence over talent. [Oct 2005, p.121]

For all its wit and occasional beauty, Passionoia lacks the killer anthem that would make the band genuine subversives rather than cult wags. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Most disappointing of all... is the drab nature of Ryder's contribution: slurred, incoherent, and largely based around drug stories and lots of swearing. [Aug 2003, p.103]