A collection of loose - in fact, very loose - rock-n-roll with at least one foot in the '60s. [Dec. 2011 p. 136]

The threesome do manage to build up a decent head of steam on the motorik Just To Play, but Olivier's bored tones guarantee the feeling is fleeting. [Mar 2005, p.104]

They still sound a little too arch and buttoned-up to make a convincing transition from lab to club. [Jun 2014, p.111]

Her fifth solo album mixes positive-message R&B, hip hop and funk with variable and often unsubstantial results. [Mar 2010, p.110]

It's stunning stuff. The bar for the next Grizzly Bear album, already high after Veckatimist, is raised another notch. [Nov. 2011, p. 128]

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

A lovely, tender album. [Jun 2015, p.110]

The results are comprehensively bemusing, but Swedish is an exquisitely lulling language to listen to, and so the whole effect is oddly hypnotic. [Nov 2008, p.118]

Every track on Tender Madness sounds like it's been chiseled out of Mount Rushmore. [Jan 2014, p.124]

The virtuoso musicianship largely eclipses Henry Tremain's insipid vocals. [Feb 2013, p.112]

There's nothing remotely new here--and his hyper-ventilating yelp won't be for everyone--but it's a rollicking 40-minute ride. [Apr 2018, p.108]

One can't shake the feeling that This Is Acting was compromised from the start. [Mar 2016, p.114]

At his best, Jean writes great tunes that don't give a stuff for anyone else's criteria of cool, but amid the overlong skits/underlong songs of Ecleftic, and despite the super-silly brilliance of It Doesn't Matter, the lasting impression is of a talent at sea, cut off from his roots and uncertain of the path ahead.

The band's ability to rock out at the drop of a hat proves a pleasant surprise among the dopey reverie. [Jun 2006, p.115]

Highly intriguing. [Oct 2013, p.97]

The rest lumbers by in a blur of anaemic vocals and dull soundscapes. [Aug 2010, p.117]

Ditch square ideas of substance and solidity, though, and Hamburg Demonstrations is studded with wonderful moments, even some grander stretches. [Jan 2016, p.102]

The magic isn't totally absent, but this self-conscious debut falls just short of the hype they've garnered on US blogs. [Oct 2010, p.111]

A muscular piece of work... [but] a tangible sense of genuine passion is, ultimately, absent. [Jul 2005, p.112]

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

This second effort even has the edge on 2012's The Light The Dead See, with an extra-dazzling cinematic sweep to its orchestration, a poleaxing depth to its existential sorrows and a fabulously redemptive uplift in the climatic My Sun. [Dec 2015, p.107]

It's all overly familiar in the most reassuring way. [Jun 2009, p.125]

This is a collection of grooves rather than songs, but there's depth. [Sept. 2010, p. 113]

'Society' suggests therr's always been a hippy survivialist under the grunge plaid. [Dec 2007, p.124]

The best songs have some serious bite. [Apr 2015, p.108]

As a covers album, this is about as good as it gets. [Mar 2010, p.104]

Simple, yet irresistible. [May 2010, p.118]

The sense of creative retreat is disappointing. [Jan 2003, p.118]