As ever, there's not a hint of irony in the air. [Mar 2008, p.107]

[A] forgettable collection of rheumy blues and soul rock. [May 2013, p.98]

Settles for inoffensiveness rather than innovation. [Oct 2002, p.118]

Sadly, anybody hoping for Pavement's off-kilter melody and cryptic lyrics will be disappointed. [Dec 2009, p. 126]

Imbruglia's thin voice can't keep pace with the excellent but demanding Everything Goes and Sunlight, while the half-dozen ballads aspire only to T'Pau's China In Your Hand. [#184, p.137]

Where once he dreamed of Fireflies, now Young just sounds burned out. [Oct 2012, p.108]

Many of [the debut's] ragged edges have been smoothed out, and in the process some of The Zutons' collective personality has gone. [May 2006, p.122]

Likely to frustrate fans of folk music as much as fans of 10,000 Maniacs, Twice Told tales is a double disappointment. [Jun 2015, p.99]

The San Francisco band plum for a gleaming Bright Lights, Big City sound that instead evokes visions of Crockett and Tubbs. [Jun 2012, p.111]

This follow-up is still falls between Dido's mild AOR and Lily Allen's bouncier moments while being as memorable as neither. [Mar 2009, p.101]

The thing about prog rock is that it is supposed to progress. [Mar 2002, p.122]

This second LP, though, sees the four-piece flit between the two camps with varying degrees of success. [May 2015, p.103]

The polished alt-rock on show here may be serviceable and vaguely reminiscent of Hole circa Live Through This, but it also lacks any of the band's own DNA. [Jun 2015, p.100]

It's hard to find anything here that will break them out of the retro-rock ghetto and into the 21st century. [Sep 2016, p.102]

Often the orchestra feels under-used on what, for the most part, are some disappointingly inert reinterpretations. [Nov 2012, p.89]

Despite the presence of original Patti Smith Group members Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, this lacks the buzz of her past material.

The yearning fluidity of the vocals is checked, unfortunately by guitars that fail to detonate. [Jun 2011, p.114]

Desperately slim pickings... betray this release's roots as a mere EP. [Jan 2004, p.116]

The paper-thin arrangements ensure there's little here to give psych-rock peers such as Tame Impala and Temples any sleepless nights. [Dec 2015, p.109]

Boys Noize forged a path through the same noisy colours [as Justice and Digitalism] without ever acquiring the cultural baggage. [Nov 2012, p.89]

While cleverly mocking late-20s thwarted ambitions and McJob drudgery, Wolf offers little by way of an alternative, his lyrics ultimately as hollow as the cynical Generation X irony of the '90s. [Nov 2012, p.112]

Ultimately, this is dour stuff reminiscent of a yogic Sting. [Dec 2006, p.138]

[Natalie Bergman's] undoubtedly gifted, but the end result feels as passionless as a first date at Starbucks. [Apr 2013, p.112]

In fact Gahan, whose ill health hampered the making of Ultra, has rarely sound more potent. This time it's Martin Gore who's out of puff. No amount of fashionable tweaking can hide the flimsiness of his offerings...

What is surprising is how lacklustre an affair it turns out to be. [Oct 2004, p.128]

It's very easy on the ear, but, as on the Jose Gonzalez collaboration Estrella De Dos Caras, it needs focus. [Sep 2007, p.99]

See You In Magic happily throws in every hoary old cliche in the book. [June 2008, p.149]

It's not all bad, but Global suggest the hardest-working man in experimental pop needs a lie down. [Jun 2015, p.111]