[In the UK], he's still something of a curiousity and likely to remain so, despite Tristeza Maleza's sweet, summery lilt and the Bob Marley-like festival anthem 'Politik Kills.'

The arrival of J Mascis for Giving It All Away lightens the mood, but it's impossible to shake the sense Sugar is the sound of a band in transition. [Oct 2010, p.107]

Asleep at Heaven’s Gate is still as polite and polished as the "edgy" mainstream dramas it will no doubt continue to soundtrack. [June 2008, p.146]

Fog is about as far from his work with Will Oldham as it's possible to be while still playing the guitar. [Feb 2013, p.101]

Certainly, there's an absurdity about the great man wrapping his frail tonsils around vocally acrobatic piece like Stormy Weather. Yet, his passion for the task of rescuing these poetic tunes from cultural obscurity is palpable. [Jun 2017, p.106]

The Low Highway has the brains and passion of Earle's last few releases, even if it's not especially surprising. [May 2013, p.100]

Ultimately, Iradelphic never really amounts to more than the sum of its parts. [May 2012, p.94]

Their stance is still refreshingly at odds with the mainstream. [Oct 2009, p.105]

A sleek fusion of minimal bass, subtle breakbeats and surpise vocalists. [Apr 2010, p.111]

A much more focused and funky set than Embrya. [Oct 2001, p.127]

[Cohn reprises] his thick, often indecipherable Midwestern accent, but with spot-on timing and flashes of surreal wordplay. [Aug 2013, p.104]

The folky reworking off The Raconteurs' Caroline Drama is an improvement on the original and the stark version of Love Is The Truth, originally written for a coke ad, outweighs the bombast of the released version. [Nov 2016, p.117]

The mood of their music often feels a little stuck, though. [Oct 2012, p.100]

The desire to do something different is admirable, but the results are unfocused, like a collection of B-sides to singles that never existed. [Dec 2016, p.112]

Much of Brighter Wounds is beautifully textured and sonically impressive but songs feel constructed from carefully plotted blueprints, which doesn't leave much room for nuance. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Fans of Owl City and The Postal Service will relish such good clean fun, quite literally when Dadone warbles, "Don't let the bathwater get too high" on Starring. [Oct 2010, p.107]

While there are few surprises, there is much to enjoy. [Feb 2013, p.101]

More often, Double Roses settles for a tastefully ornamented Nashville smoulder. [Jun 2017, p.106]

It's remarkably poised, a level gaze that could give a little more away. [May 2019, p.111]

[The] sun-flecked sense of bliss is present throughout and halfway through they even drop in something approaching a conventional pop song with the cooling breeze of Already Gone. That lightness of touch is the real revelation here. [Jul 2018, p.118]

If anything the sisters take too traditional an approach, and where their live shows are freewheeling and fun, Tell Tales sounds mannered and prim. [May 2012, p.95]

Her most rounded album.... However, many lyrics have taken a sudden, baffling turn into mystical territory making this two steps forward and one back. [May 2003, p.114]

His new project is even more deranged, much of its sounding like Butthole Surfers driving at you on a space-age steamroller. [Jun 2013, p.93]

Like most blockbusters, the script is predictable - topics include no-good men, being hard and how great Eve is - but this is designed for booming out of car stereos rather than close listening.

Gibson's music has a strange timelessness faded and well-mulched, though there are moments when the mood proves a little too sludgy to be memorable. [Jul 2015, p.106]

It's all very pleasant, but a lot of it does drift past without leaving much of an impression. [Oct 2019, p.106]

The intensity of his pain is inescapable in this exhausting explanation of what really becomes of the broken-hearted. [Oct 2004, p.124]

The results are entertaining and witty, as well as educational, even if at times the tunes have to perform contortions to squeeze all the lyrics in. [Jul 2010, p.141]