It's a shame that the album starts so blandly. [Sep 2014, p.109]

Their most exceptional record yet. [Jun 2016, p.115]

Thumpers work hard to trigger instant nostalgia for summers past but the longest shadows cast over their work are those of Animal Collective and Flaming Lips. [Jul 2014, p.117]

It's hard not to conclude that it's Rubin's strong tiller hand giving thee 13 songs new-found clarity, focus and energy that too often drifted away from the Stones in a cloud of patchouli when left alone. [Oct 2014, p.120]

They still know their way around a pretty tune, though, and they still understand the value of smart sweetness. [#361, p.112]

At its best it's a combination that offers a kind of Lynchian allure. ... Elsewhere, thought, it can all seem a little passive, a chill-out zone somewhere along Route 66. [Sep 2018, p.118]

Forty years after The Stooges' debut album, Iggy Pop is still heading blindly into the unknown. [Jul 2009, p.116]

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

This Ronson-produced collection of swinging '60s pop and blue-eyed soul is still well-crafted, with standouts. The problem is Merriweather's voice, which is technically agile but emotionally anodyne. [Jul 2009, p.127]

Bristling with invention. [Dec 2005, p.156]

ILY,IC is marred by the wrong kind of heaviness: Jon Philpot's ponderous vocals or the histrionic art-school thump of Idle Heart and Kiss Me Crazy are reminders that there are other bands (School of Seven Bells, Active Child) doing this sort of dark drama with more guile. [May 2012, p.91]

They've unfortunately discovered dance music several years too late. [Dec 2002, p.112]

A sprightly collection of provocative pop. [Jan 2004, p.122]

Messy but addictive. [Jan 2012, p.123]

After a promising start too much else glides by as a wash of warm, organic--yet unremarkable--background music. A Shame. [May 2011, p.116]

By packing 21 tracks onto a half-hour running time, he never gets stuck too long in one grove. [Sep 2011, p.104]

True, he sometimes overdoes the theatrical flourishes, but high drama is what this record is all about, so he can be forgiven for that. [Jun 2013, p.108]

His fourth album doesn't really sound like a club set at all. [Oct 2016, p.113]

There are no hidden depths to find here, but sugar rushes aplenty. [Sep 2017, p.106]

If a tad skronky in parts and slight at 28 minutes, the deep grooves of IC-01 pull you in. [Dec 2018, p.114]

Tom Vek's charm has lost its spark. [July 2011, p. 121]

Never straying far thereafter, it all makes for a heavily addictive, comfortably numbing kind of experience. [Jul 2009, p.131]

It confirms the suspicion that Bugg really could go all the way to the top. [Dec 2013, p.106]

An odd, deliberately unpunchy comeback. [Aug 2016, p.114]

The mood here is still adolescent but with a growing emotional and musical sophistication. [Jul 2015, p.115]

It's a boring splodge on the pop landscape, so relentlessly samey and entitled. [Aug 2017, p.106]

They've lost their way on the follow-up. [Jul 2012, p.97]

Hercules And Love affair team up. Again. Indeed, their debut album as Jessica 6 bears an uncanny resemblance to that of their fellow New York disco hipsters. [July 2011, p. 114]