Cinematic, loaded and decadent. [Sep 2003, p.109]

The most intimate record of the year, and one of the warmest. [Oct 2003, p.113]

There's a thin line between quirky powerpop and being They Might Be Giants. [Feb 2004, p.106]

Much of Love & Life... is a procession of syrupy ballads with added self-help litanies. [Nov 2003, p.113]

Poignant beyond words... but never mawkish. [Dec 2003, p.140]

They wouldn't be totally awful if Client A could actually sing. [Oct 2003, p.103]

An uneasy hybrid of furious, three-minute punkers and would-be anthemic ballads in the time-honoured Ramones style. [Aug 2003, p.115]

While dull moments are few and far between, there's little among these 19 tracks to rival such hummable past glories as Time Bomb or Roots Radicals. [Oct 2003, p.113]

As synth-rock rebirths go, it's highly convincing. [Jun 2003, p.95]

The lesser known shoo-ins often struggle. [Sep 2003, p.104]

Their brand of ant music has matured and expanded noticeably since ANThology. [Sep 2003, p.98]

There are moments where the glory years are emulated.... Even so, after 17 long years, both band and audience deserve better than a wandful of magic and some rehashes. [Oct 2003, p.102]

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

An intelligent, well-crafted and catchy mix of funk, rap, soul and right-on sloganeering. [Jul 2003, p.104]

Reveal[s] a finely tuned pop ear setting them apart from the noisier kids in the punk playground. [Feb 2004, p.98]

Greendale is a bonkers, utterly headstrong conceit. Let's hope that Neil Young never stops having them. [Sep 2003, p.111]

While rough and a little patchy, it's a cracking debut nonetheless. [Aug 2003, p.108]

Overall this is brain music of remarkable potency. [Aug 2003, p.102]

This is the sound of a superstar in the making. [Nov 2003, p.107]

Way more inventive than the garage-blues hordes. [Sep 2003, p.111]

Pop doesn't get much more gloriously trashy than this. [Apr 2003, p.108]

For all its feverish bluster, this... is patchy at best. [Sep 2003, p.102]

Even a saint would find their patience severely tried by this. [Oct 2003, p.118]

Sound[s] authentically retro without ever veering into Lenny Kravitz territory. [Sep 2003, p.101]

Without resorting to difficult time signatures or moaning about the desperate pain of it all, [Luke] Steele has found a wonky path away from rock's mor restrictive conventions while still engaging positively with the world. [Aug 2003, p.113]

Infinitely bland. [Oct 2003, p.111]

This is a band consolidating their talents rather than simply showcasing them. [Aug 2003, p.108]

They've made a fine pop record without compromising their trademark quirkiness.... The band's best work to date. [Aug 2003, p.114]

[Fat John's] hyper-literate, cosmically inclined stylings can't help but humanise -- and eventually soften -- the hard burn of circuitry. [Aug 2003, p.111]

As ever, when the beats go uptempo, things go awry... but there's life in the giant-haired lady yet. [Jun 2003, p.98]

For the most part it's how you'd imagine: classy, laid-back, so lush it's a wonder the sleeve isn't made out of velvet, trendy beyond human experience and exceptionally well-sung. [Aug 2003, p.115]

Fannypack might already be sick of the Beastie Boys comparisons, but it works on too may levels to be ignored. [Oct 2003, p.104]

While there are plaintive acoustic moments, listen closely and [Oliveri's] inciting listeners to necrophiliac cannibalism. [Aug 2003, p.110]

It is the quieter songs, like the beautiful Throwing Stones, that make this record the most charming Rubin has produced since Donovan's comeback. [May 2003, p.111]

There are so many idiotically composed adverts between tracks, you wonder if you haven't tuned into a local radio station by accident. [Sep 2003, p.99]

Its brilliance lies in sifting the wheat from the enormous quantity of thenameless movement's chaff. [Aug 2003, p.119]

An audacious, bold and provocative artistic statement, an album that raises the bar for any rock band who aspire to re-writing the rulebook. [Aug 2003, p.101]

It's almost a carbon copy of their early work. [Sep 2003, p.101]

Sound[s] as much half-finished, stoner bumbling as personal offbeat vision. [Aug 2003, p.104]

If not as catchy (or stroppy) as Avril Lavigne, she is never less than efficient. [Aug 2003, p.102]

Embarrassing. [Dec 2003, p.134]

She has good songs, but no great songs. [Aug 2003, p.105]

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]

It's the simple beauty that overwhelms here. [Sep 2003, p.98]

The year-round sunshine [of new home L.A.] seems to have induced creative lethargy, sapping the adventure that elevated his last album. [Jun 2003, p.106]

They've crucially learned that musical light and shade need not only be flaring explosions, but melodic sunrises too. [Jul 2003, p.109]

Recommended to any rap fan suffering from bling fatigue. [May 2004, p.110]

A startling collection of heart-bruising ballads reminiscent of Nick Cave at his most maudlin. [Aug 2003, p.115]

It makes for a wonderfully warm way of celebrating life. [Aug 2003, p.102]

There's a new sense of darkness and despair at their core. [Dec 2003, p.124]

Musically it's formulaic, with plodding college rock verses morphing into bellowing, nu-metal choruses. [Dec 2003, p.121]

A familiar blend of clipped funk, jazz nuances and airy musings. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Such moments of wry genius make a very special record. [Oct 2003, p.104]

Disappointingly straight-laced. [Jul 2003, p.104]

Whatever her technical gifts as a vocalist, there remains something chilly and self-satisfied about the woman's brand of soul-baring that makes it awfully hard to swallow. [Jul 2003, p.108]

As admirable as Radiohead's quest ongoing quest to ignore expectations, tear up the manual and proudly rebel against the limitations of 4/4 time seems, some of Hail To The Thief comes dangerously close to being all experimentalism and precious little substance. [Jul 2003, p.98]

They've never sounded this heavy or this pissed off. [Jul 2003, p.106]

They even give Madonna's I Deserve It a new level of dignity. [Jan 2004, p.118]

Curiously compelling for something so minimal, it's like nothing else around. [Jul 2003, p.110]

It's the songs not the approach which set her apart. [Aug 2003, p.116]

[A] measured and thoughtful set of intelligent pop tunes. [Oct 2003, p.114]

Superior to both the last two Mode albums and [Martin] Gore's recent solo effort, Counterfeit 2. [Jul 2003, p.103]

She has never sounded brighter or more infectious. [Nov 2003, p.117]

Some of the sharpest beats and catchiest tunes ever to grace a dance LP. [Jun 2003, p.93]

[Has] a sunnier, jangly guitar pop backdrop. [Jul 2003, p.102]

Continues to adhere firmly to the rootsy rock of fellow travellers Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows, while their earnest musicianship and hard work will delight fans of that sort of thing. [Aug 2003, p.115]

A leftfield classic. [Oct 2003, p.100]

An all-conquering white female rap crew? It's been a long time coming and, on the strength of this debut, may be arriving sooner than you think. [Jun 2003, p.105]

Thankfully... this reissue comes with a bonus instrumental disc, allowing the orchestral menace to speak for itself. [Oct 2003, p.127]

Most of it... suggests that New York's time is, once again, imminent. [Aug 2003, p.119]

Musically, these tracks take in '60s flavour Farfisa-sounds, abstract electronica and, on Citizens Nowhere, the neglected style clash of hip hop and glam rock. [Jun 2003, p.98]

Presents Led Zeppelin in all their ragged glory and heavy splendour. [Jul 2003, p.119]

Its kitsch-free excellence confirms Hawley as a balladeer of the very highest order. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Another dollop of rock sludge with a remarkably honest title. [Aug 2003, p.115]

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]

Something rather lovely with a jittery edge that halts proceedings well before they arrive at saccharine-sweet. [Aug 2003, p.115]

Unhinged but snow-cool. [Apr 2004, p.114]

The feelgood hit of the summer? Quite possibly. [Sep 2003, p.110]

The usual blend of knockabout punk rock, nutty-boy ska and witty lyrics. [Jul 2003, p.108]

In a genre considered creatively bankrupt, this is genuinely new metal. [Jul 2003, p.102]

Like his debut, From Every Sphere chokes on moments of indigestible excess. [Mar 2003, p.108]

A treat. [Jul 2003, p.108]

The good news is that Grotesque rocks like a bastard.... Not so good news is that Manson's shock shtick still lacks real substance. [Jun 2003, p.103]

Alkaline Trio subvert their perky, zinging three chord mall-punk with misanthropy, melancholy and alcohol-sodden, world-weary wisdom. [Jun 2003, p.92]

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

The absence of Liz Fraser's warbling--or indeed vocal distractions of any kind--means it comes and goes without leaving any lasting impression. [May 2003, p.106]

Slideling ditches the Bunnymen's arch neo-psychedelia in favour of four-square indie-rock. [May 2003, p.110]

This is maverick electronica without the headaches. [Jul 2003, p.103]

Exhausting, but borderline brilliant too. [May 2003, p.102]

Lamb have finally perfected the trip hop/classical fusion they discovered on their career-high Gorecki, though the beatific sumptuousness of their sound can be overwhelming.

Sounds like a malfunctioning iPod loaded with The Neptunes, Aphex Twin circa Windowlicker and The Last Poets--only with all the fragments miraculously falling in just the right places. [Jun 2003, p.104]

A record of jerky, twilit, hard-edged electro.... But for all its experiment and inconsistency, Black Cherry is still a thoroughly likeable album. [May 2003, p.101]

Oh how it drags. [Aug 2003, p.106]

Imagine if a Morrissey-style frontman--sharp, tender and taboo-breaking--was also sexual. [May 2003, p.107]

There are guitars, but they are rarely central. The beat-driven tracks veer towards the arty, white boy-with-beatbox line of Talking Heads and The Clash. [May 2003, p.96]

While his taste is textbook classic, his arrangements are not. [May 2003, p.104]

An impressive pop artefact, propelling its creators clear of the current garage-rock morass.... It's the sound, if not the smell, of teen spirit. [May 2003, p.111]

It's startlingly spirited stuff. [Aug 2003, p.116]