It's slightly more accessible than his previous work. [Sep 2013, p.102]

They share a love for the kind of heady jams previously lost in the mists of the '70s psychedelia, Shadow's On Behalf's shimmering harmonies and loose-knit rhythms drawing inspirations from such exponents of starry-eyed soul as David Axelrod and Rotary Connection. [Oct 2011, p.130]

It's mainly successful: co-written with Ed Sheeran, new acoustic single Say You Love Me may ebe a relation of Extreme's More Than Words, but elsewhere stories are told more vividly, with non-showboating vocalist Ware infusing the songs with restrained emotion. [Nov 2014, p.114]

A cheap production slightly undermines, but the world is hers. [Mar 2007, p.111]

Lonely, Dear offers another helping of sweet melancholy on Hall Music. [Nov. 2011, p. 142]

Move over, Devendra Banhart: there's a new bunch of bohemian music kooks in town. [Apr 2008, p.115]

It's defiantly idiosyncratic and at times genuinely bonkers, yet despite that, Crab Day never once feels willfully obtuse or--that dreadful work--"kooky." [May 2016, p.105]

Dark and pummelling, making it hard to digest in one sitting. [May 2016, p.116]

When they equal their best source material, they're brilliant; but when that material is merely daft, they're less good. [Jun 2013, p.104]

Their trad arrangements of others' songs are bewitching, but it's a pity they don't pen more original songs. [Nov 2009, p.112]

Alas, for all its genuine charm and the way the two Johns genre-hop without leaving footprints, The Spine lacks the spark of true greatness. [Aug 2004, p.119]

Loewenstein's debut is pretty impressive. [Aug 2002, p.128]

Though more than pastiche, it's not pop genius yet either. [Aug 2006, p.114]

Her solo incarnation is finer-framed, a collection of country-dusted ballads and Laurel canyon laments run through a Kurt Vile filter. [Feb 2019, p.115]

It would be a solid album for someone like Annie, For The Ting Tings, though, it suggests there's no way back from Nowheresville. [Nov 2014, p.118]

Free Somehow has its moments, but as ever, there's something missing. [May 2008, p.141]

The results may inevitably resemble a compilation, but the calm, luxurious and emotional Dive Deep is their most satisfying outing since they stopped being famous. [Mar 2008, p.107]

Polica have made another good record, but there may never be a Polica album as good as the one inside your head. [Mar 2016, p.112]

Full marks for originality, then, but it's definitely something you have to be in the mood for. [Mar 2015, p.116]

On a concept album about felleing sad and lonely in clubland, and the instrumental flash is balanced out by forlorn lyrics. [Oct 2008, p.149]

What really fascinates is the way Davidge pulls the musical strings throughout. [Mar 2014, p.111]

Their fifth album builds on 2007's well-received "Abandoned Language," with MC Dalek's rhymes playing second fiddle to producer Oktopus's darkly imaginative soundscapes. [Mar 2009, p.96]

There's plenty of classic rock sodge, but Communion's execution alone feels admirably daring. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Having given himself just eight tracks to play with, Broder ends up with more ideas than he has songs to fit them into. [Jul 2016, p.106]

It makes for a meditative, transportive listening experience, exemplified best on the elegiac piano and swelling strings of opener Haar. [Jul 2019, p.109]

Slideling ditches the Bunnymen's arch neo-psychedelia in favour of four-square indie-rock. [May 2003, p.110]

The woozy G-funk of 2 Minute Warning and 1800's crunk rat-a-tat show his trademark drawl has lost none of its subtle menace, though too often it's left to guest cameos to supply the spark - rising R&B star Jazmine Sullivan brushing her host aside on soul-powered highlight Different Languages. [Jan 2010, p. 118]

A straightforward, warm-sounding album. [Dec 2004, p.138]