Yet when they stop arsing around for the sake of it, Blink-182 write some very good pop songs. [Aug 2001, p.124]

An interesting stopover on a journey marked by constant curiosity. [Oct 2019, p.110]

No longer ahead of his time, he has a deft enough touch to keep irrelevance at bay. [Jan 2003, p.120]

Neither subtle nor very shocking, it still sounds as if Manson, Countess Bathory-style, has received a shot of fresh blood. [Nov 2017, p.111]

A curio, for sure, but worth saddling up for. [Dec 2018, p.114]

He remains a maestro at the mixing desk, even as the album's split-down-the-middle concept undermines his genre-splicing strengths. [Jan 2020, p.106]

This feels like a flying visit through an impromptu victory party. [Dec 2015, p.107]

Their second album may not pack many surprises, but vocalist Haley Shea proves engaging company. [Apr 2020, p.113]

Completists will be delighted that songs as good as Cars Can't Escape and Kicking Television have been rescued from the dead zone of soundtracks and bonus discs but there's a lot of competent Americana and superfluous concert material to get through. [Jan 2015, p.139]

They often strain too hard to showcase their musicianship. [Apr 2008, p.112]

Though the younger Dylan hasn't the gravitas of those old masters, his best songs such as 'Will It Grow,' have an easy downbeat charm. [Aug 2008, p.135]

At times--'Little Secrets,' despite its kiddie choir, 'The Reeling' and 'Moth's Wings'--it's a little too cloneishly Jake Shears for comfort. At other, though, they soar with MGMT-esque widescreen vitality. [Jun 2009, p.130]

Older, possibly wiser, cleaner and sounding as majestically ramshackle as ever. The only snag is that their new album is a live recap of their career highlights with no new songs to justify it as a comeback. [Aug 2017, p.108]

Broadcast are detached and austere, but mesmerised by their discoveries in the radiophonic workshop. Current single Echo's Answer and the unusually upbeat Come On Let's Go are the best places to start, but this is a classic case of an album working as a whole. Hard work, but compelling.

Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine is still their touchstone, with dreamy vocals almost obliterated beneath washes of distoortion on "I Just Want To See Your face" and "Reprobate!," but they also thorw curveballs. [Apr 2010, p.119]

The band's simmering anger are leavened by a sophisticated musical backdrop utilising brass and keyboards. [Sep 2017, p.109]

The result is one of his most rounded, fulfilling solo records. [Jul 2014, p.111]

At times his magpie approach lacks focus, but when it all clicks Blunt achieves a transcendental beauty. [Aug 2013, p.95]

Cantaloupe Island, for instance, hit the target, even if it's no match for the Herbie Hancock original. But with more cabaret material such as Me And My Shadow's louche duet with Sarah Silverman, you really wish you'd been there first time around. [Jan 2019, p.109]

More Than and We Both Know's saturnine piano chords offer a novel contrast to crisp synth-pop such as Somebody Who, where their talent for alluring yet artless arrangements really comes into its own. [Nov 2013, p.102]

While a creditable effort, it's unlikely to be a record that drags their heads too far above the parapet. [Jan 2016, p.114]

As an act of Catharsis, Storm Damage was clearly an important one for the singer, even if ultimately it yields mixed results. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Rizzle Kicks are a pop prospect with a winning charm you just can't teach. [Dec. 2011 p. 137]

Battered by love yet ever hopeful, and with a fetching drawl to match, her story songs might occupy familar alt-country terrain, but surrounding herself with some top LA session men helps give Asking For Flowers that extra bit of class. [May 2008, p.130]

Foward Russia! drop the post punk sound and art-school posing in favour of an emo reinvention.... It works best when they don't overcook it. [May 2008, p.134]

Something... is sumptuously produced art-rock, heavily influenced by Sonic Youth and Dinosaur, Jr., but presented with a fresh-faced optimism. [Sep 2008, p.141

MU.ZZ.LE is more crackly, lo-fi trip-hop, like something beamed in from another planet. [Feb 2012, p.110]

Five years in, they've still to learn that less can sometimes be more. [Jun 2016, p.112]