The resulting clash of classicial forms and electronics is a startling mix of chance and design. [Oct 2009, p.108]

There's enough deviation from Lowe's fastidiously tasteful norm to prevent YU descending into dullness. [Jul 2019, p.113]

Fans will appreciate Yo La Tengo reinventing their own The Ballad Of Red Buckets and Deeper Into Movies from noisy chaos to whispered, but still intense, quiet. [Oct 2015, p.117]

Insane, but in a good way. [Nov 2005, p.123]

Yet however familiar its themes may be, they all seem reinvigorated... by Petty's songwriting smarts and fantastically weathered vocals. [Sep 2006, p.110]

A dense sci-fi metropolis, rich in atmosphere, but light in the edge and unpredictability of urban life. [Nov 2013, p.111]

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

Memory reverts to his early-noughties down-tempo incarnation as OCS, which only illuminates his frailties as a singer/lyricist. [Dec 2017, p.109]

The Aliens' album often has the wide-eyed beauty of Brian Wilson or Jonathan Richman. [Apr 2007, p.120]

Though the quality rarely dips, at almost 2 hours long it does get rather wearing. [Aug 2009, p.110]

Standouts Everybody Wants To Be Famous and Something For Your M.I.N.D.. The rest divides between disposable cut-and-paste experiments and breezy indie-dance, at least making up in energy what it lacks in depth. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Represents a career high for the Chili Peppers. [Jun 2006, p.106]

Fixers keep their cosmic meanderings well anchored with strong pop hooks throughout. [Jun 2012, p.101]

It's a low-pressure affair that variously recalls such non-rocking reference points as Phillip Glass, Debussy and Chopin. [Sep 2012, p.100]

A solid, tribal-sounding collection of dramatic, literate rock with cello, brass and hints of frosty country. [Dec 2013, p.111]

The 1991 session hasn't aged well--the bongos are a problem, but 10 years later they'd mastered the art of subtle delivery. [Jul 2014, p.123]

[A] coolly unnerving full-length debut. [Apr 2015, p.102]

The follow-up to 2009's Everything To Nothing crackles with energy. [Jun 2011, p.119]

Unbearably stark. [Nov 2006, p.136]

Here they lean too heavily on space-age boogie-rock. [Jul 2019, p.110]

Once cosmic scallies dazzled by pop's sepia-tinted past, Butterfly House is proof that The Coral;s psychedelic pop is now just as beautiful. [Aug 2010, p.118]

Magic's problem is that the two Bruces don't sit together comfortably. [Nov 2007, p.132]

If the songs on St. Catherine are remarkably pretty, there's also a lurking sense that their beauty isn't built to last forever. [Aug 2015, p.104]

A long and winding and faithfully atmospheric cover of Pink Floyd's Echoes that closes the album is perhaps the main attraction here, but too much of what precedes it tends to waft away into the ether. [Jul 2019, p.114]

Geographically, one would here have to imagine a borough between The Stills and The Walkmen. [Nov 2004, p.120]

A credible effort, then, but not so groundbreaking as to prompt deep re-evaluation of their place in the world. [Aug 2017, p.109]

The only life in these monochrome songs comes from some feedback on Lazy Rain and squalling jazz horns on Revanchism. [Oct 2001, p.130]

Simone and Amedeo Pace weave intricate musical patterns on a collection of songs distinguished by their fundamental lack of tunes. Aside from the exuberant frisson of This Is Not, the album staggers unsteadily between serene chamber pop, looping layered electronics and shouty, full-on hyperactive thrashy punk...