This raw, unsettling album's backstory, rendered through protesting guitars, is what gives it its defiant edge. [Nov 2013, p.102]

A little more thematic variation would be welcome, but there are worse soundtracks to the chaos of the new decade. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Monuments is an enjoyably straightforward rock album. [Jan 2015, p.128]

Anyone able to go to sleep without checking the wardrobe for monsters is unlikely to find much of interest here. [Dec. 2011 p. 137]

Though wildly hit and miss, Keep Your Dream, is never more fun than when going completely over the top. [Feb 2012, p.110]

The end result is 10 songs that switch direction with ear-pricking regularity and generally avoid the sub-Oasis ladrock you might have expected Ifans to churn out. [Oct 2008, p.143]

For a band who sing so often about matters of the heart and emotional connection, much of Trouble Will Find Me sounds oddly on autopilot. [Jun 2013, p.106]

It's fun for sure but perhaps not quite the game-changer everyone--or, at least, the band themselves--was hoping for. [Jul 2014, p.112]

Desperation proves that only modest mellowing has taken place in the interim. [Aug 2013, p.103]

A collection of delicate, woozy and otherworldly electronics. [Sep 2013, p.99]

As rock, soul and funk steep together, the overriding sense is that Kravitz would prefer to be the leering loverman than the seer. [Oct 2011, p.124]

If there's one gripe, it's that the quality control becomes a little more relaxed as For The Company progresses. [Dec 2015, p.110]

Sometimes the results a re a bit too wilfully weird. ... When his songs are sturdier though, Blau is an intriguing figure. [Jan 2018, p.106]

They could do with stretching out a little. [Feb 2018, p.115]

The attitude's still present and correct, but there's also a nagging, Pixies-like surf melodies of Drive and the serrated riffs of Springfield Cannonball. [Jan 2015, p.122]

There's a welcome freshness here. [June 2008, p.137]

He's less convincing when he rocks, but he understands both depth and beauty. [Mar 2015, p.104]

Tennessee Pusher pushes their envelope further still. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Here honing the bright and distinctively Nordic sound that enlivened 2014's International, they even flirt with becoming a pop group, albeit one wearing its '80s fixation with pride. [Jun 2016, p.113]

A tad more focus and she'll be there. [April 2012, p.102]

Hemming's voice has an authentic catch, but for all the lyrical loneliness, his lavish arrangements are packed with ideas. [May 2015, p.107]

The embryo that is Manic Expressive promises much from the future. [Nov 2001, p.122]

The shoutiness that made their previous two albums a tiring listen hasn't been entirely banished, but they have taken it down several notches, while also dialing down several notches. [Jun 2010, p.133]

There are echoes of Bibio's pastoral folktronica woven throughout. [Sep 2017, p.110]

Although Lion City's best moments come with the fusion of African and Western psychedelic rock to ambient atmospherics, standout song Justice will suit anyone who's ever wondered what might happen were Bruce Springsteen to write a blue-collar anthem with African rhythms. [Jun 2014, p.108]

Themes of displacement, disillusion, and druggy ennui speak of a band who are no longer enjoying themselves. A shame, because when singer Andrew Savage shakes himself free from the torpor, his anger becomes an energy. [Jul 2014, p.112]

This one has it's moments, but somehow never quite catches fire. [Oct 2017, p.106]

A heavyweight, goth-rock death trip, awash with mangled guitars and horror-film atmospherics. [Nov. 2000, p.113]