Shine is a work of subtlety and hushed intimacy that, at times, barely seems to exist at all. [May 2003, p.109]

Some songs haven't quite matured and a new mainstream polish sometimes dulls the emotional edge. [Aug 2003, p.102]

Comeliness and brutal candour in equal measure. [Jun 2003, p.92]

An engagingly quirky rock record. [Oct 2003, p.100]

A very understated record, the kind that will be treasured by diehards, pull in one or two casual bystanders and leave the world pretty much unchanged. [Apr 2003, p.106]

It's a record about being Madonna. [Jun 2003, p.90]

The results are just wonderful. [Sep 2003, p.112]

A haunting, left-field album of some class. [Jun 2003, p.96]

It's not all bad, though, as the album possesses a killer repertoire of filthy bass lines and an undeniable pedal-to-the-metal verve. [Aug 2003, p.116]

This debut has her trilling like Mariah Carey on fluffy R&B tunes. [Oct 2003, p.103]

As complex and remarkable as everything that preceded it. [Jun 2003, p.92]

Tough to endure even once. [Aug 2003, p.110]

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]

Beautiful stuff: sunny with a sad undertow, like The Beach Boys, Beck and The Beatles put in a blender. [Nov 2003, p.110]

At least Nickelback know how to write a tune. [Jul 2003, p.104]

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

She sounds gloriously rough-edged and authentic. [May 2003, p.114]

Most tracks follow a simple formula: the vocal from Don't Stop by the Stone Roses + layers of chimes + dog barks + crashing drums = mess. [Jun 2003, p.100]

A lesson in untouched simplicity, raw groove and my-woman-done-left-me throat wobbling. [Jun 2003, p.94]

A numbing montage of half-formed ideas and too-slick production. [Jul 2003, p.100]

In a world where Interpol already exist, it's hard to get too excited about the twitchy Anglophilia here. [Dec 2004, p.136]

A record sufficiently impressive to suggest that White Blood Cells caught Jack and Meg using only a fraction of their talents. [Apr 2003, p.98]

Once upon a time rock'n'roll was all about the sex you really shouldn't have. The Kills haven't forgotten. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Spikily brilliant. [Apr 2003, p.111]

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

Even the Sharks and the Jets might find ARE Weapons' street hassle a touch quaint. [May 2003, p.98]

Uneasy, strangely compelling listening. [Mar 2003, p.111]

His best since 1995s Is The Actor Happy? [May 2003, p.100]

At its best... Rules of Travel is deft adult pop; at worst... it's like Steel Magnolias scored by glib sessioneers. [May 2003, p.100]

Meteora is less an artistic endeavour than an exercise in target marketing. [May 2003, p.104]

Idlewild have added a new "dirty bomb" to their armoury: the emotional resonance of prime Morrissey/Marr. [Aug 2002, p.128]

A limited vocalist,... he's a far better pianist and arranger. [May 2003, p.104]

Where the big boys tick and twitch, Longwave merely plod. [Mar 2003, p.111]

Shows little departure from the Malkmus formula. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Sounds a lot like a world-weary J Mascis fronting Teenage Fanclub. [Mar 2003, p.108]

Reaffirms her gift for big hooks and wry lyrics. [May 2003, p.100]

Back to basics. [May 2003, p.100]

Us bristles with huge choruses and idiosyncratic lyrics, albeit suggesting that Pet Sounds is his record collection. [Apr 2003, p.111]

The most successful synthesis of their prog-tinged ambitions so far. [Apr 2003, p.102]

A rich quilt of Americana, as if the folk, country and rock strands were brought together in a starlit saloon somewhere near the border. [Jun 2003, p.106]

They're talented then, but also lucky that the strength of the decent songs outweighs the inclusion of the odd rough sketch, a studio jam, and an outright Chas & Dave-style stinker. [Dec 2002, p.103]

A fine album, offering quality tunes, if not clever punches. [May 2003, p.100]

Mood music in extremis. [Apr 2003, p.110]

Poignant and sincere, this is a Bill Callahan we could do with more of. [Jun 2003, p.104]

Log 22... finds them in familiar ground, each song dipped in its trademark melancholy no matter how frenzied the guitars get. [Jul 2003, p.100]

A rhythmic assurance helps Muggs navigate the flabby portentousness that has hampered Massive Attack of late. [Apr 2003, p.113]

As unique as ever. [Jun 2003, p.102]

The album's middle section is an exercise in restrained songcraft. [Mar 2003, p.114]

A fine souvenir of DiFranco's recent jazzy excursions. [May 2003, p.102]

This is complex, dense music that yields a little more with each play. [May 2003, p.106]

A less spirited affair, with little spark or enthusiasm. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Attempts to obscure the paucity of decent songs with endless guitar wittering. [Apr 2003, p.102]

Feels oddly half-baked. [Apr 2003, p.100]

It's terrifically exciting stuff. [Apr 2003, p.101]

Gone are most of the Beck-ish hip hop stylings, back is the bespoke indiecraft of spidery guitars, loose drums and oblique lyricism. [Mar 2003, p.108]

An exquisite addition to the canon. [Apr 2003, p.104]

He sings with surprising forthrightness yet these 10 electronic daydreams are not songs in any conventional sense. [May 2003, p.100]

A melange of preposterously angular guitar exercises, accomplished balladry and portentous doggerel. [Mar 2003, p.111]

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]

The Ataris transcend the four-square melodic thud of their contemporaries with a gentle melancholy and poetic ambition. [May 2003, p.98]

They've still managed to convert their technological shortcomings into some fuzzed-out, genuinely energised rocking. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Though low on hooks, the ragged and faster songs are sweetened by the vocal interplay between Hersh and Donelly. [Apr 2003, p.104]

Splendid, splenetic stuff. [Apr 2003, p.102]

It's clever, zesty and kaleidoscopic and sometimes... quite brilliant. [Aug 2002, p.121]

It's raised a notch by the seductive combination of just-grimy-enough production and smooth vocals. [Jun 2003, p.96]

Draws heavily on Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys.... It would take a dazzling collection to sound anything other than a poor relation to such synth titans, and this plainly isn't it. [July 2002, p.108]

Sun-kissed, deeply Beach Boys-esque music that will provide comfort to those who wondered what happened to the Wilco of 1999's Summerteeth. [Mar 2003, p.111]

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

His diluted indie-whine does become obnoxious over the long haul. [Mar 2003, p.104]

Comes laden with flashy A-list cameos. [Jun 2003, p.96]

Human Conditions is not a musical disaster on the scale of Heathen Chemistry. It's just that, from Richard Ashcroft, more is expected. [Nov 2002, p.98]

The album rallies at the halfway point, becoming a straightforward old-fashioned metal affair. [Sep 2002, p.102]

Music for thirtysomething teenagers, and none the worse for that. [Jun 2003, p.92]

There is a fluid coherence to the project.

Drummer Jim White and guitarist Mick Turner lend understated support throughout, but it's Ellis's eloquent bow that captivates. [Mar 2003, p.103]

Her most rounded album.... However, many lyrics have taken a sudden, baffling turn into mystical territory making this two steps forward and one back. [May 2003, p.114]

All 10 songs yield more delights with every hearing. [May 2003, p.112]

An absolute masterclass in thoughtful, emotional songwriting. [Apr 2003, p.104]

It's some indication of Feast of Wire's accomplished evocation of Arizona's old weirdness that it makes you want to go to Tucson. [Mar 2003, p.104]

Like the '70s, then, but much more fun. [Nov 2002, p.98]

It's not exactly a party, but Marshall's songwriting and cooing delivery remain fierce and otherly, redolent of romantic encounters in strange wood cabins. [Mar 2003, p.114]

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

Juke joint heaven. [May 2003, p.106]

Oozes convention. [Jun 2003, p.98]

Everything comes dripping in portent and seems too in love with its own seriousness to excite any emotions. [Mar 2003, p.106]

A fiddly disappointment, as centreless as a B-sides collection. [Oct 2002, p.117]

Unrest follows a clean electronic trajectory, which manages to project both urban complexity and domestic quiet, while Oye's free-associative lyrics meander amiably here, there and nowhere. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Trouble is, they're often only half-good songs. [Feb 2003, p.94]

His rap style isn't as distinctive as Ja Rule or DMX, but as the singalong Many Men (Wish Death) shows, with Eminem on his team, there's no stopping him. [May 2003, p.98]

An eerily precise facsimile of the grandiose, broken-down dream rock of The Verve.... Close your eyes and it could be 1997 again. [Nov 2002, p.105]

Boomslang labours under the delusion that The Stone Roses' Second Coming was a good idea worth pursuing in greater detail. [Feb 2003, p.100]

A more mature mix of intelligent guitar tunes and acoustic noodling. [Oct 2002, p.113]

In its own fragile way, a delight. [Mar 2003, p.111]

The results are vintage sounding yet wholly fresh. [Feb 2003, p.98]

So ill-conceived and shoddily executed it could well finish them off altogether. [Feb 2003, p.102]

This genuinely feels like a fresh start rather than time-killing. [Mar 2003, p.100]

Inevitably, it's a bit of a mess.... But if you like Poe, or Reed, and can tolerate the incoherence, there's fun to be had. [Feb 2003, p.105]

His most poignant and accessible work to date. [Feb 2003, p.96]