Distractions aside, this is a fine record. [May 2016, p.114]

A starkly modern folk record centered on a narrative of a mother leaving her family. [Jul 2018, p.114]

Though the symphonic funk samples that power his free-flowing wordplay sound as if they could do with an upgrade. [Apr 2011, p.95]

It's breathless and occasionally shallow, but never less than entertaining. [Summer 2018, p.114]

Slight by comparison with 2009's "Merriweather Post Pavilion," but not without it's own charm. [Feb 2010, p.116]

Serviceable camp pop as it is, there's little here to attract anyone who hasn't already bought into Gossip. [Jun 2012, p.102]

For all its rosy glow of nostalgia, it's essentially just another Robbie Williams album--occasionally spectacular, more frequently merely solid. [Nov 2005, p.116]

These are songs concerned with the transient, the fleeting, but no matter how long this partnership endures, this is a solid monument. [Apr 2019, p.110]

The Brooklyn trio have delivered an impressively bonkers set comprising three EPs. [Nov 2007, p.134]

Despite a few lapses into gross sentimentality, Lucky One sucessfully maintains that allusion [that the past 50 years or so never happened] thanks to some spot-on period arrangements. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Their rough edged-folk has been planed a little smoother, and a breakthrough seems feasible. [April 2012, p.90]

The narrow emotional and musical range suggests Kygo doesn't have unexplored depths, but he doesn't need them. [#361, p.111]

They're far from failed experiments, but they do reinforce the notion that Necro Deathmort are much better at making atonal soundscapes. [Jul 2016, p.112]

Though this is a return to Matthews's more meandering ways, some lessons about conciseness have plainly been learned. [Nov 2002, p.108]

Good, but should have been better. [Mar 2006, p.109]

The array of styles that are spliced together--space rock, electronica, trip-hop, orchestral flourishes--fail to add up to a cohesive whole. [Sep 2012, p.97]

A remarkable balancing act. [Jan 2007, p.150]

Clearly, motherhood has only improved her sense of fun. [Oct 2007, p.106]

These songs aren't in line with much contemporary R&B, but reach for something more retro, and on tracks such as Teach You, a kind of Broadway grandeur. The strange result is that they in fact sound refreshingly modern. [Apr 2019, p.113]

As her voice took centre stage on the original recordings too, the effect of stripping away almost everything else isn't that radical. Still, for anyone unfamiliar with Foster's work, this represents an excellent starting point. [Mar 2016, p.110]

They can't sustain the quality over an entire album, however, and the inspiration dries up halfway through. [Apr 2008, p.112]

There are one too many nondescript instrumentals. [Aug 2008, p.139]

It's sweetly out of step with prevailing pop trends, but it will certainly strike a chord with anyone who has ever had their heart broken. [Jul 2018, p.108]

Traces of Interpol, The Chameleons and post-rock heavies Trans Am are all over these songs, but if Fews don't wear their influences lightly, they know how to show them off to dark advantage. [Jul 2016, p.106]

You can hear where the money went, even if her voice is far from the soaring force of yore. [Nov 2009, p.114]

The occasional bit of mannered filler slows things up slightly, but elsewhere all is groovy and enigmatic hauteur. [Dec 2002, p.107]

It occasionally goes Heartbeat but Jackson largely swerves pastiche with his knack for limpid romanticism and muzzy atmosphere. [May 2014, p.120]

While the lyrical freedom of Dear Diary, My Vietnam, and Family Portrait is refreshing, stylistically they are less than revolutionary. [Jan 2002, p.105]