There isn't quite enough to genuinely stand out from the crowd. [May 2013, p.98]

Fans of No Age and Best Coast will recognize the formula here - but what the band lack in originality they compensate for in energetic spark. [May 2012, p.93]

Winning UK indie rock/US power-pop fusion. [Feb. 2011, p. 113]

It's an enjoyable debut, but a few more surprises like [a saxophone solo in Who Are You] would've helped mix things up. [#361, p.115]

Tracks can occasionally patter past without triggering the same fight-or-flight response, but when their machinery really gears up, they remain masters of electronic mood. [Aug 2016, p.115]

A mixed bag, then, but still uniquely one of Herbert's own. [Jul 2015, p.107]

A pop culture enthusiast, Luke Haines once again shows his uncanny ability to beat vivid and idiosyncratic new narratives from leathery sacred cows. [Jun 2014, p.111]

A welcome reversal of fortunes. [Aug 2015, p.112]

INHeaven's potential is huge, it's just not fully realised here. [Oct 2017, p.105]

Not the new sound of now, perhaps, but they play with enough fury to make the ancestors proud. [Sep 2015, p.117]

The album's title is a nod to America's addiction to prescription drugs, while the 21st-century pop production gloss of Actual Pain, for example, hides an inner turmoil. [Oct 2018, p.111]

Until they learn to absorb their influences more cleverly, all this good work might be undone. [Jul 2005, p.119]

There are songs here that are terrific.... But 3121 wouldn't be a Prince album if it wasn't also full of filler. [May 2006, p.119]

A set of forward-thinking pop reminiscent of Sign O' The Times-era Prince. [Oct 2006, p.115]

Those familiar with their late-'80s classics will be glad to hear them back on form, though it's hard to see this winning over many new fans. [Nov 2007, p.144]

The North Carolina quartet's banjo lopes alongside their classy Americana tunes. [Oct 2010, p.104]

Bianchi drops his usual mix of samples and programming for traditional instruments, including banjo and glockenspiel to create a very modern, kind of folk music. [Dec 2008, p.133]

Ring makes it work by resisting the urge to do anything that resembles grandiose. [Apr 2013, p.94]

A solid, rather than remarkable record. [Summer 2019, p.115]

Yet despite the quality of Can't Get Back To The Baseline and the Kinks-like Give Me A Letter, several semi-acoustic fillers -- of which the dreary, You Are Amazing is the worst offender -- water down the album as a whole.

Stick with it, though, as the last song, the elegant memorial Somehow The Wonder of Life Prevails, turns out to be a piece of quiet and hugely emotional brilliance. [Aug 2013, p.100]

Their second album is a melange of found sounds (Piero Umiliani, Nancy Sinatra, Harry Belafonte), daft titles (Duckweb & Fishlip, Barry Normal Eyes, Busyness Mans Lunch) and much studio jiggery-pokery. The result is a surprisingly viable whole... There's nothing of substance, despite the swearing on A Lot Of Stick (But Not Much Carrot), but it's fair fun while it lasts.

The likes of the gnarled, rough-edged Rollin' & Tumblin' serve as vital pieces of living history from the last of a generation. [Dec 2001, p.120]

Here he crafts some intoxicatingly beautiful music all built around the sparkling chime of his 12-string guitar. Inevitably it recalls The Byrds. [Sep 2013, p.99]

Ambition aplenty, but spread too thinly. [Apr 2020, p.111]

This live effort confirms what many suspected of Ditto all along: she makes for a terrifically ballsy rock star. [May 2008, p.134]

They pack in an astounding brutality reminiscent of Napalm Death's grueling grindcore. [May 2013, p.99]

The Decemberists have never sounded more ordinary. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]