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]

When they strain for sexy modernity... it's as appealing as Mr. Burns writhing round in satin sheets. [Nov 2004, p.119]

The general rule with Offspring albums is that their buoyant Californian punk will always be pockmarked by two wildly irritating songs. So it is with Days Go By.

This Kind Of Love is unlikely to rekindle fresh interest. [July 2008, p.111]

Aside from the relatively oomph-laden, piano-driven 'Sharing A Gibson Withh Martin Luther King Jr.' and a lonesome cover of Don Williams's 'I Believe In You,' there's barely a melody to savour. [Nov 2008, p.118]

When Allien adds a taste of techno's rhythmic grunt, some focus is briefly achieved, but unfortunately it happens all too briefly. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Sadly, it plonks them squarely in the polished but unremarkable heartland of inoffensive US shopping mall metal. [Jun 2013, p.99]

Nashville at its most belligerently formulaic. [Nov 2002, p.105]

Has only occasional flashes of inspiration. [Jan 2002, p.107]

Entertaining in the same way as an episode of Joey: pretty dumb, fairly funny, and you're glad it's over in under half an hour. [Feb 2006, p.100]

Strip away the Victorian undertaker drag, and Strange House is disappointingly insubstantial. [Apr 2007, p.116]

Too much of the rest comes dangerously close to ordinariness. [Mar 2017, p.115]

Only the stripped-down electro of 'Here Comes My DJ' shows anything like his old form. [Apr 2009, p.105]

Although RZA tries crisply updating his trademark murk for the new rap age, the results rarely cohere. [Jan 2002, p.108]

It's all terribly cute and jaunty, with twee melodies and playground lyrics to the fore. [May 2009, p.107]

A lot of the songs are too eager to please... when they stop trying too hard - like on the woozy, out of phase Holes - they create something far odder and infinitely more interesting. [May 2012, p.96]

There is talent here. If only it could've been matched to a few more original ideas. [Aug 2012, p.105]

Too often, these songs feel as though they're being executed with an arched eyebrow, Lewis Jr. peering knowingly from behind the curtain with a nod and a wink. [Aug 2012, p.110]

For the most part, this band still sounds grounded by an emo rulebook long since torn up. [Sep 2004, p.123]

More often than not his approach feels too clinical to really engage. [Apr 2006, p.120]

While impeccably executed, as ever, a little more warmth and a little less ego wouldn't have gone amiss. [Dec 2009, p. 126]

It's claustrophobic at best, and, after a while, a little tiring. [Feb 2019, p.108]

Each and every track is subservient to a formula which demands a whistling filter sweep, a rattling, super-hyped snare roll and the inevitable canyon-deep drop before it all goes nuts. [Dec 2012, p.113]

{Bejar's] fondness for drenching songs in production so muddy that they end up as little more than smears of noise. [May 2008, p.130]

Erland Oye and Eirik Boe's voices cannon off each other appealingly enough on 'Boat Behind,' but the album drifts in the manner of nick Drake out-takes and by the time you've waded through 13 dawdling tracks, it's a struggle to recall any of them. [Nov 2009, p.109]

Amidst all this, the trio's scratching feels peripheral, and when it does take centre stage, is underwhelming. [Jul 2004, p.127]

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

Not without some good moments, but bereft of magic. [Feb. 2012 p. 104]

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

10 unfortunately remains mired in irrelevance. [Jan 2003, p.120]

While his message is clear, the means of conveying it comes up wanting. [Sep 2012, p.98]

Brassbound is more convincing than their debut.... But it's hardly adventurous. [Jul 2005, p.113]

When countless Miracles anthologies exist, anyone who reaches for this is a bigger clown than the weepy one in Smokey's song. [Dec 2014, p.116]

Everything Is Borrowed is a huge disappointment, riding in on the crest of the huge disappointment that was Skinner's previous album. [Oct 2008, p.140

The yelpy, sub-Beasties rapping from Clams Baker renders Whale city all but unlistenable. A shame, because the backing tracks' raucous Fall-isms consititute a long-anticipated high-energy flipside to the smacky languor of Adamczewski's main band. [Jul 2018, p.118]

The default mode is now so soft as to resemble a big bowl of ice cream for a man who's lost his dentures. [Jul 2013, p.103]

Trash Talk's speed punk is the musical equivalent of the third can of Red Bull: a great idea at the time, but may well produce a headache after. [Dec 2012, p.113]

Anyone unfamiliar with Sheffield's rich musical heritage could be left thinking the city's main legacy was maudlin ballads for the Saga set. [Dec 2008, p.128]

By recreating Britpop's also-runs so faithfully, Superfood run the risk of becoming one themselves. [Dec 2014, p.116]

It's executive producer Eminem and his tin ear for a beat who dominate the LP's direction--or, rather, lack of it. [Dec 2012, p.112]

A missed open goal. [Aug 2015, p.110]

At album length the apologetic beats and tuneful but numbed vocals quickly pall, and it neither delivers one the wig-flipping promised by the intricate Ocean Floor nor the narco-pop of Disappeared and Turn 2 U. [Aug 2012, p.111]

While Love Grows Out Of Thin Air spins exquisite patterns from chiming synths and electronic blips, The Magic In You sounds like Empire Of The Sun remixed by Jean-Michel Jarre. And not in a good way. [Jan 2017, p.112]

Not for the first time, you find yourself wondering whether Squarepusher is taking the piss. [Dec 2010, p.113]

Unlike, say, fellow old-time Americana acolytes Mercury Rev, Beachwood Sparks lack sufficient melodic brio and steadfastly refuse to make any concessions to 21st century life. [Nov 2001, p.116]

The third album from James Morrison isn't the musical enlightenment that its title suggests, but rather another sturdy, if predictable, collection of soul-tinged, Radio-2 friendly pop tunes. [Nov. 2011, p. 139]

Trust have a problem in Robert Alfon's unengaging, reedy mid-range quiver of a voice. [Dec 2012, p.114]

Craig David seems to have accepted he's destined to occupy the middle of the road. Trouble is, it's still not clear which road he's on. [Dec 2007, p.115]

A couple of hours negotiating the treacherous whirlpools of Waters's fears, paranoia and loathing can still prove a slog, mind, no matter how stately the settings.

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

Electra Heart sounds high on concept, low on songs. [Jun 2012, p.108]

Trying to find a sense of humour amidst the walloping woe is exhausting. [Aug 2009, p.107]

Butler's attempts at the old guitar dramatics are hopelessly overwrought. [Jul 2005, p.115]

Canadian rocker goes live and (almost) solo. [Jan. 2011, p. 135]

The songs themselves, delivered via polished neo-soul and roots-reggae arrangements, seldom push beyond the retro comfort zone. [Apr 2012, p.98]

Rendered with all the warmth of a fax machine. [Sep 2004, p.117]

[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

Perplexingly, the arrangements are so sparse that there's not quite enough fully formed songs to carry the album off. [Nov 2009, p.112]

Like all jokes, it's not as funny second time around. [Jul 2003, p.110]

Often seems willfully inscrutable. [Sep 2004, p.120]

They make a noise disquietingly similar to The Dandy Warhols, only without the wit or the tunes. [Apr 2003, p.114]

They've delivered their weakest set of songs to date. [Oct 2007, p.98]

The 11-strong-Mex ensemble's Latinised arrangements are intricate but lifeless. [Apr 2016, p.111]

Old Growth blurs mearly into a long yawn. [Mar 2008, p.103]

It features much gastly US po-punk. but Robert Smith and Franz Ferdinand take on songs from former Alice In Wonderland productions and just about win. [May 2010, p.125]

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]

There's no faulting the brilliant playing, but by restricting themselves to exploring a fairly unevolved musical form they forever repeat its limitations. [April 2012, p.90]

Essentially, it sounds exactly like each of her four previous albums. Sure, she's consistent, but does she never tire of forever sounding the same...?

Pointless drifting that fails to grip even on repeated listening. [Jun 2005, p.118]

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]

Beautiful Creature dwells too self-indulgently in a faux naïve girlish tone...

Much of what follows sounds like he's set his overdriven synths to autopilot with vocalists Keith Flint and Maxim Reality reduced to the odd irate interjection. [Dec 2018, p.113]

The broadening of the palate is certainly welcome but there still remains a nagging sense that, over a whole album, a lack of emotional heft renders them as frothy as ever. [Mar 2015, p.110]

11 new songs of singularly cloying contentment; no soaring highs, no debilitating lows, just minor pop platitudes with hollow, echoing centres.

Loaded sounds like a Last Shadow Puppets album filler, right down to the Turner-ish vocal delivery while others such as Wrong Side Of Life are hopelessly overwrought. [Sep 2018, p.114]

Sonically, his second solo effort is dry and unimaginative. [Feb 2003, p.97]

It ditches classic thrash for bland classic rock. [Aug 2013, p.96]

Too much of the rest--an urgent Mr. Lif aside--is seriously lacking in flavour. [Apr 2008, p.112]

This is wishy-washy music for moody goth-lite teens. [Apr 2014, p.112]

The [album] may be icily impressive ... but long before the end you're left wishing that 2:54 would occasionally pull back the curtains and let a little sunshine in. [Jun 2012 p.96]

Fusing dubstep and rock worked for Pendulum but it's all too easy to get the balance wrong. Josh and Tony Friend's efforts have succeeded in getting their singles onto Radio 1's A-list, but it's an idea that stalls on their debut album. [Mar 2013, p.107]

[Control] finds Bazan wearily retreading themese of religion and relationships. [May 2002, p.119]

There are only so many ways to do deep, woozy bass overlaid with gentle harmonies and a clipped beat, and Haelos exhaust them around track seven. [May 2016, p.109]

Day Before We Went To War, co-written by Brian Eno, inflects mundane details with enigmatic dread in a similar fashion to the frostbitten adult pop if ABBA's final years. If only you could hear this colder, bolder Dido in every song. [Apr 2013, p.101]

A sameness of mood is not helped by debatable lyrics. [Apr 2014, p.106]

There's nothing of similarly instant appeal [of 'Torn'] to be found on Come To Life, despite the presense of three tracks co-written by Chris Martin. [Nov 2009, p.114]

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

Their music lacks any trace of sophistication or nuance. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Entertaining in the flesh maybe, but a considerably less engaging proposition on record. [Jan 2008, p.105]

Unfortunately, Kowalczyk's conceited couplets belong to the dark ages. [Nov 2001, p.124]

Her attempts to swagger on songs like Dirty Dog will fool nobody. [Aug 2004, p.112]

Lack[s] both the energy of Sebadoh and the quirkiness of his Folk Implosion project. [Mar 2005, p.98]

He's re-engaged the formula of sweet, James Taylor-ish vocals, lyrical inoffensiveness... and a laid-back Jack Johnson-like musicality where 5/6 embraces cruise ship reggae. [May 2012, p.101]

These stripped-down efforts offer an insight into the singer's writing methods, but not much else. [Feb 2005, p.102]

A patchy affair. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Tasteful and muted, it's one for the connoisseur, not the casual fan. [Jun 2011, p.120]

Too much of Feathers sounds like extended noodling jams. [May 2005, p.121]

With nary a tune in earshot, it sounds like an explosion in a guitar shop. [Oct 2006, p.124]