Only the relatively jolly Escape Song is worth excavating from the morass. [Nov 2002, p.97]

His falsetto voice, cutesy pitched-up female backing vocals and playground chant hooks are the stuff of kiddy pop. [Oct 2004, p.123]

Eminem has never sounded more like a man out of time. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Often the players transform the hushed originals into rousing barnstormers, although diehards might baulk at the cluttered performances and newcomers may wonder what seperates the "Prince" from other raggle-taggle troubadours. [Nov 2008, p.107]

For all its feverish bluster, this... is patchy at best. [Sep 2003, p.102]

What might have been a solid, politically-tinged LP is let down by poodle-yelped vocals. [Jun 2014, p.104]

Glynne's voice is a powerful weapon to secure audience submission, yet it quickly becomes a weak link, making Florence Welch sound like Vashti Bunyan. [Sep 2015, p.112]

For the majority of Tyranny, it's almost impossible to understand what's going on or why. [Nov 2014, p.121]

Most of the musical elements remain over-familiar-swelling strings, understated beats, the odd crackly blues sample. [Nov 2013, p.111]

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

Lyrically trying to hard, and musically under-achieving, it amounts to no more than a shonky indie take on something that, when the pairing is right, can be truly magical. [Feb 2013, p.105]

Too often the reworkings of the songs are either not different enough, or ... just plain boring. [May 2012, p.91]

Half of Zoomer suggests Beck being produced by Aphex Twin, but elsewhere his flimsy songwriting is drowned out by percussive clatter. [Nov 2002, p.106]

Most... is either shapeless mush or verging on self-parody. [Apr 2006, p.116]

The Black Keys may have as much in common with the conventional '70s blues-rock of Canned Heat and Free as they do with the more left-field THe White Stripes. [Oct 2006, p.118]

It's his intermittent, embarrassing rapping [that is the problem]. [Oct 2011, p.113]

Even a saint would find their patience severely tried by this. [Oct 2003, p.118]

Their eighth record underlies their enduring problem: the songs are adequate but anaemic; the playing is slick, seamless and the wrong side of polite. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Takes him out of the bedroom and into the bar room and, as a result, it's a much drearier affair. [Apr 2005, p.120]

You can't argue with the boldness of the move, but it's hard to know who really wants a sensible Sic Alps. [Oct 2012, p.110]

The result is confusion, of what the band really wishes to be. [Nov 2015, p.109]

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]

White Women has all the depth and staying power of a Christmas cracker joke. [Jun 2014, p.106]

Too melodic for metal fans and too heavy for the pop-punk kids who made them famous. [Nov 2004, p.127]

Alas, from [the first two tracks]... the pair slip first into mediocrity and then the standbys of those who have run out of inspiration: backwards recording and pointless noodling. [Jun 2006, p.115]

Her sauntering melodies struggle under the weight of their worthy load. [Aug 2006, p.110]

Although it's all competently realised, it's hard to escape the feeling that this has been done many times over before. [Jun 2015, p.108]

In its own vapid, curiously sexless way, Life For Rent is actually fascinating stuff, so set against the usual rules of successful music that it starts to look oddly revolutionary. [Oct 2003, p.99]