Twenty-two tracks long, Total is an eclectic joyride through myriad musical styles; the beauty being that none sticks around long enough to get boring. [Jul 2011, p.119]

Hugely likeable, terribly noisy and cute, as well as being jammed with proper pop songs... [Nov. 2000, p.102]

She's finally rediscovered what made her so intriguing(the hooks, the sharp lyrics, the energy) in the first place. [Oct 2016, p.113]

Their second album...doesn't quite venture out into shark-infested experimental waters but it does prove that there's more to The Drums than fishy pastiche. [Oct 2011, p.113]

His second album evokes a fragmented, at times nightmarish, digital world. [Dec 2017, p.113]

In creating a party record that will easily translate to the festival season's main stages they've also reversed out of the narrow tunnel that, for all their adventure, they were being led into by the bombastic Xtrmntr and Evil Heat. [Jul 2006, p.110]

Think Spiritualized with a Native American obsession. [Dec 2006, p.133]

Occasionally there's a little too much going on... Overall, though, Gartside remains intriguing. [Jul 2006, p.116]

While it's impossible to shrug off the feeling they've been here before, [Inside The Ships] remains involving. [Nov. 2011, p. 140]

His sixth album has a political slant, but the message is subtler than his controversial 2000 ditty, 'Bill Gates Must Die.'

Surprisingly addictive. [Dec. 2011 p. 124]

He's still more lyrically adept than most peers, with a warm, lilting voice that skips across the tracks; he still get diverted by the occasional flaccid soul tune, as on the dreary No Place To Run; and he can still spark up a tune. [May 2018, p.114]

Dull production and a workmanlike band let her down on the rockier numbers, but if Desveaux ever finds the right arranger the sky is her only limit. [Oct 2008, p.147]

Not Music presents more of their signature future-retro pop exotica. [Dec. 2010, p. 114]

Despite its strengths, No Mythologies To Follow is still a touch green. [Apr 2014, p.115]

Some workmanlike settings, but when the vocals spar and catch the tune just right, it all soars with a gospel-like wonder. [Aug 2017, p.100]

Attempts to keep one foot in the streets and another in the mainstream, and largely succeeds. [May 2012, p.102]

Its 18 tracks somewhere between the ghostly dancefloor sway of Fever Ray and modern classical composition. [Jun 2011, p.120]

The songs here convey life's troubles - failing relationships, feelings of rootlessness - with an unfeasibly languid, almost opiated calm.

Their second album in 10 months is every bit as unvarnished as its predecessor. [Oct 2016, p.109]

An eyebrow-raising mish-mash of cheap keyboard and guitar sounds and DIY grooves..... an awkward, yet occasionally beautiful listening experience.

These tales of iron-age blacksmiths, 17th-century highwaymen and modern-day ecological disaster are brilliantly told, long on smart wordplay, but light on tunes. [Jun 2014, p.103]

Pleasant, but it's never particularly special. [Jul 2005, p.120]

Lekman is an intriguing bedsit poet whose whispered ramblings can sometimes melt the heart. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Highlights aren't hard to find. ... But there's a fair amount of flab too, and at 78 minutes long there's the sense that Rare Birds is too sprawling for its own good. [May 2018, p.114]

Herren's wall-of-noise productions were clearly a big influence, alongside shoegazing indie bands and Joy Division, though nothing that follows quite measures up to spectacular opening lamundernodisguise, somehow reminiscent of both MGMT and gothic folk troupe Espers. [Dec 2008, p.133]

There is too little variety on show and the lack of breathing space is more likely to induce mild claustrophobia than any genuine excitement. [May 2016, p.118]

It still has its winning moments. [Jan 2011, p.142]