Frontman Matt Tuck leaves no cliche unturned in his angst-ridden lyrics and the second half of the album is weighed down by the leaden balladry. [Oct 2015, p.104]

The album is fine enough, undeniably modish and much better than you might anticipate. [June 2008, p.136]

An album that's--unusually--both disorienting and immensely tedious. [Nov 2012, p.103]

There's no doubt Glasvegas are on the side of the angels; they just need to remember that the Devil is in the detail. [May 2011, p.108]

Overall this is splendid nonsense. [Jul 2009, p.128]

The jazzier the arrangements, however, the more effective his soul-searching becomes. [Nov 2010, p.105]

It's all a bit of a mess, with even more arresting efforts--Julia Holter's seraphic turn on These Creatures and Swipe To The Right's giddy Cyndi Lauper-assisted disco--sounding like they belong on different albums. [Jul 2016, p.109]

They're onto something here. [May 2015, p.115]

The Endless River is an unsatisfying way for Pink Floyd to cease trading. [Dec 2014, p.107]

It's very difficult to see the tough-talking Devils Night as anything other than a slightly tweaked re-run of The Marshall Mathers LP. [#180, p.100]

Most songs need both depth and edge. With Love Frequency, Klaxons have tuned in. What they really need to do, however, is freak out. [Jul 2014, p.105]

His debut combines melodic dubstep with a dose of Timbaland-style R&B. [Dec. 2001 p. 127]

Ultimately, it's good to know they're out there straining every nerve, vein and eyeball, even if those who'll want to listen to it more than twice are surely few. [Jun 2012, p.101]

While her normal source of junior raunch [Max Martin] churns out the usual fesity hits... the remaining chastity-endorsing mush is nowhere near as exciting. [Dec 2001, p.131]

The 11th Bunnymen album is a reminder that the elegiac guitars and uplifting choruses of indie rock were invented by this band way back in the ealy '80s. [Nov 2009, p.104]

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

This time, there's a bankable chorus or barbed sentiment for every mirror-ball moment, not just on the singles. [Sep 2001, p.112]

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

The sparse sound that he produces means it's more entertaining to watch his trickery than to listen to it. [Apr 2008, p.117]

Third time around there's some deviation from the formula, but the lack of subtlety is a little wearing. [May 2013, p.95]

There are too many songs here set to the same humdrum pace. But those are the sort of flaws you expect from a debut. [May 2013, p.112]

Drowners wear their influences with pride, but their charm is all their own. [Mar 2014, p.112]

The won't slay any kings without more killer choruses. [Apr 2013, p.111]

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

Bad Blood feels strangely anemic.[Apr 2013, p.95]

His best work to date because, at last, he actually sounds awake--even if much of the record remains music for dozing in hammocks to. [Apr 2005, p.122]

Their gentle, dreamy glide sounds like Foals without the hubbud. [Apr 2013, p.111]

Good, but should have been better. [Mar 2006, p.109]

The occasionally super Supermodel is an album of transition rather than a definitive statement. [Apr 2014, p.113]

This finds the Californians bulking out five lead-footed new tracks with live versions of their handful of hits. The whiff of desperation. [Oct 2010, p.103]

Only Haim's contribution to Red Eye enlivens the tedium. [Aug 2013, p.99]

Fallen Empires is typically and unashamedly arena-friendly bombast ... leavened by leader Gary Lightbody's often appealing insecurity.[Dec. 2011 p. 134]

A risible attempt to recapture long-vanished glories. [Nov 2007, p.137]

It's hard to discern quite what Oakenfold himself brings to the party. [July 2002, p.117]

Where Marilyn Manson is dark and introspective, Godhead are much more outgoing.

These recordings feel more an exercise in keeping Buckley's name alive than effectively deepening his work. [Apr 2016, p.106]

What once sounded thrilling and new now merely sounds tired and repetitive. [Nov 2004, p.127]

Manson the man at least seems re-energised here....The same cannot always be said for his band; their limp glam metal consistently threatens to undermine the performance. [Jul 2009, p.127]

Their debut presents tuneful, superior indie rock and bittersweet lyricism. [Sep 2011, p.119]

Despite the hysterical crowd response, Live From Dakota is as meat'n'potatoes as its creators. [May 2006, p.130]

Taking into account the great things expected of those once promising likely lads, Romance At Short Notice offers only more disappointment. [Aug 2008, p.144]

His first studio album in sedven years is an indigestible hotchpotch containing everything from heavier-than-thou riffing to ill-judged tilt at Puccini's Nessun Dorma. [May 2010, p.126]

While Oakey's lyrics still have a near-surreal banality, with Privilege surely the most bizarre song yet to tackle the credit crunch, the two-finger riffs of Sky and Get Together are as addictive as ever. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Unfortunately the stamina isn't there and other tracks hold all the surprise of a Kate Hudson rom-com. [Oct 2012, p.95]

They can still write a tune but they've done away with much of what made them unique. [Jul 2013, p.101]

The musical similarities to old muckers Coldplay might smack of cynicism, but you can't fault their ambition. [Jun 2014, p.108]

An assured start, though he'll need to be braver next time round. [Aug 2014, p.115]

It's all very valve, very analogue, and Kongos' morality feel equally antiquated. [Oct 2014, p.113]

Lyrically unambitious, musically on its laurels, there's no oomph here. [Jul 2015, p.113]

A five-year sabbatical finds them both refreshed and free of rancour. [Mar 2016, p.111]

Sadly though, the pairing of this reflective Rod with 2018's ultra-slick production and some route-one songs often disappoints. [Nov 2018, p.112]

It's heavy-hitting, but the price paid is the loss of the subtle details that made them unique. [Jul 2011, p.111]

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]

While Glenn gamely belts out every song like it's a Broadway audition, his band's appeal remains some distance short of universal. [Aug 2014, p.111]

There's much daftness along the way. [Aug 2002, p.121]

Baby Monkey has nothing of the danger, adventure or indeed chemical frisson that defined rave culture--it's just smug sonic wallpaper. [Mar 2004, p.113]

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

Mostly, though, it's the well-trodden formula of soggy lyrics and wan, rather aimless melodies the main purpose of which seems to be not to offend. [Jul 2004, p.113]

It's marooned in novelty. [Apr 2005, p.121]

Their quirky, inventive take on hip hop deserve a bigger audience. [Mar 2009, p.98]

He certainly pushes the right commercial buttons. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Big Talk are less grandoise and more low-key than his dayjob, thought, and these 12 tracks do sag in the middle when this eponymous debut takes a detour into pub rock with No Whiskey and Girl At Sunrise. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]

On Old Sock, he sings some that are to him as comfy as and to us as whiffy as the album's title. [May 2013, p.99]

"Being herself" has resulted in her blandest record yet: it drifts from nondescript disco-pop and cloying R&B to woefully ersatz glam stomp. [July 2010, p. 132]

Blatant Queen rip-off Heaven Knows is fun, but it all goes wrong when she breaks out ballads. [Apr 2014, p.116]

If the whole is too eclectic to eclipse the sum of its parts, it's an exhilarating diversion. [Apr 2009, p.100]

This could have all ended in Tears For Fears, but their winning seriousness is matched by a penchant for a grandiose but hummable melody. [Feb 2009, p.119]

Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson prove to be a depressingly ordinary package of overblown melodies and musty lyrical cliches, expensively ribboned with choirs and orchestras. [Sep 2010, p.116]

[In The Now] doesn't stray too far from the latter-day Bee Gee template as songs such a s Grand Illusion, Star Crossed Lovers and the swooning ballad The Long Goodbye combine harmonies with memorable melodies. [Nov 2016, p.105]

Textbook soft rock. [Jul 2006, p.111]

It might be the best album Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill have put together since 1984's "Sparkle In The Rain." [Jun 2009, p.131]

An extended celebration of shopping, partying, and exercising youthful hormones. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Their boldest and best album for years. [Jan 2012, p.124]

The Magnificent Tree is accomplished, just unsensational. It nails the neo-'60s trip-hop set down by Mono and Olive but then tries too hard to have a finger in other pies.

The only area in which JC tops Justin is cheesy double entendres. [Jun 2004, p.96]

Cull the arrogance, the laziness, the ill-considered ignorance, the (that word yet again) sneering, and there wouldn't be a better album than Know Your Enemy, and not just of this year. Cull the brave lyrics, the moments of inspiration, the songs to treasure and the moments of honesty and, were it available in dogfood form, you wouldn't feed Know Your Enemy to your hounds.

Aided by Pixies producer Gil Norton, they've audibly thrown everything at By Default. [#361, p.107]

Sadly, anybody hoping for Pavement's off-kilter melody and cryptic lyrics will be disappointed. [Dec 2009, p. 126]

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

Stereophonics have never sounded so brooding, mysterious and -- dammit -- sexy. [Apr 2005, p.122]

And while there's no escaping the notion This Is War would be easier to love could Leto decide whether he wanted to be in U2, Linkin park, or Marillion, one can't help but admire his style. [Jan 2010, p. 117]

Whether that relatively small selection of highlights justifies buying this package is a moot point. It may depend on whether there is something of interest in the sound of great talent stuck in a deep rut. [Nov 2016, p.116]

Not much helped by their enervating vocals, debut release Native To is lo-fi '80s-influenced synth-pop that simply comes and goes, serving no discernible purpose at all. [Jul 2011, p.120]

It's his intermittent, embarrassing rapping [that is the problem]. [Oct 2011, p.113]

Nu-metallers try to recapture former glories. Fail.

As ever, there's not a hint of irony in the air. [Mar 2008, p.107]

Hardly essential, but brimming with late summery charms. [Nov 2009, p.101]

A return to their roots. [Aug 2006, p.113]

While these acoustic poems are often twee and contrived, the woman remains ultimately unpretentious. [Jul 2006, p.114]

They may still want to party every night, but it would take a Kiss Kasket full of Viagra to animate this limp cock rock. [Dec 2009, p. 116]

[Several songs are] saved by Walsh's unerring ability to produce a wonderful guitar solo from the bottom of the pack. Sadly, it's not enough to transform this into the great comeback album you keep willing it to be. [Aug 2012, p.111

The Music generate their songs like a smoke machine--vaguely atmospheric but ultimately lacking in substance. [Oct 2004, p.124]

It's the gritty funk of the title track and production turns from Mark Ronson and Donae's that make this an outstanding hip hop album, establishing Bizzle as a worthy rival to the similarly eclectic Dizzee Rascal. [Nov 2009, p.109]

The wan disco of Sugar And Bullets and Another Land's sub Depeche Mode pastiche show a fatal lack of creative daring. [Sep 2013, p.106]

It's all resolutely urbane and largely unmemorable. [Dec 2013, p.110]

Grouplove need to strip their whole schtick back and start again. [Mar 2014, p.113]

If iPods came with a button that randomly spliced tracks together it would sound like this. [Dec 2004, p.137]

There's a slightly dated stadium-house feel to th rest.... Still, when he thrills, he truly thrills. [Apr 2008, p.108]