It's when Hutchison's sinister demeanor matches the darkness of the music that Owl John works best. [Oct 2014, p.116]

Works on the age-old theory that if it ain't broke, don't fix it--and it is all the better for it. [Jul 2005, p.120]

It sounds twee and, in parts it is, but it's leavened by their unrelenting world-weariness. [May 2007, p.123]

It's addictively brilliant. [Nov 2019, p.108]

The influences may be retro, but La Roux use them as the starting point for something fresh. [Jul 2009, p.114]

Hip hop heavy weights stop squabbling for long enough to justify their star billing. [Oct 2011, p.116]

To Survive, however, ignites enough fireworks of its own. [July 2008, p.1112]

Dark nights of the soul rarely come with soundtracks this compelling. [Oct 2015, p.103]

You want to like Broadcast. But they don't make it easy. [Oct 2005, p.115]

Droll, baffling and brilliant in equal measure. [Mar 2002, p.128]

An LP of sleek, sophisticated and teasingly soulful tunes. Eerily introverted one moment, warm and open the next, Essence demands attention but makes for an intriguing, rewarding experience.

The mood is too heavy for far too long, but some good songs and more cohesive, melodic structures augur well for this damaged daughter's future. [Sep 2001, p.115]

If there's a weakness, it's that the fulid, four-MC set-up masks a lack of lyrical depth.

This is aching ramshackle folk rock. [June 2002, p.124]

This unabashedly jolly outing manages to be both simultaneously charming and irritating. [Feb 2003, p.106]

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]

Nicholas Drain Lowe, now 62, remains sweetly lethal with a tune. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Possibly the most polished album Adams has produced, Moves is bigger and grander than its DIY indie-rock sound may suggest. [Feb 2013, p.110]

The mood is largely one of milky wistfulness, but the clever textural detail means these songs are more than stylistic cloning. [Sep 2014, p.108]

"The doctor said I've passed my peak/All my eggs are dying/In my 20s I'm antique," she groans on Holiday resort. her Verve and wit protest otherwise. [Apr 2019, p.113]

These songs sparkle with a gentle joy, their warm softness as alluring as a swimming pool on a hot afternoon. [Jul 2019, p.109]

Rogers remains her forcefully idiosyncratic self throughout, endlessly impressive in her ability to draw on electro-pop history yet not be beholden to its past. [Summer 201, p.115]

By eerie last track 80 Ondula, all moody Vangelis synths and bad-acid vibes, there comes the realisation it's actually the sinister undertone that lurks beneath all Jenkinson's esoteric soundscapes which makes them so compelling. [Mar 2020, p.122]

Naturally, it's an immaculately stoned affair. ... You might not be able to teach old punks new tricks, but who cares when they perform as well as this. [May 2020, p.115]

Yet for all the sharp hooks and rhythmic twists, the album sags in the middle. [Apr 2008, p.127]

This follow up to Psychic Chasms displays similarly exhilarating aural ambitions. [Nov. 2011, p. 139]

One thing that hasn't changed is Thorn's voice, which is as warming and mellow as ever. [Apr 2007, p.122]

What's lacking are a few copper-bottomed pop melodies to bind it all together; the kind of thing his collaborators normally provide, in other words. He's beter as a team player. [Mar 2010, p.101]