Mild existential dread is delivered over a quietly forceful musical template that owes a lot to the third Velvet Underground album. [Jan 2014, p.127]

Another French fancy, then, though one likely to appeal only to those with more rarefied tastes. [Jan 2014, p.127]

The weightless combination of flambe-d guitars, glacial vocals and mid-tempo time signatures feels a bit like being trapped in a well-constructed airlock, easier to admire than enjoy. [Jan 2014, p.126]

[The songs are] played with enough ear-catching acuity to satiate your inner psych-pop gourmand. [Jan 2014, p.126]

Here comes Motorhead, oblivious, oddly unpredictable, deliciously bluesy, punky and rocking--simply magnificent. [Jan 2014, p.126]

It's a curious detour rather than a sturdy follow-up to 2012's Animal Joy, but as a distillation of all those scattered flyers and setlists, it's a quietly touching piece of memorabilia. [Jan 2014, p.125]

While the track titles may be minimal, his music teems with beguiling sonic quirks. [Jan 2014, p.125]

Their new album features more jangling indie-pop than before.... But when the similarly inclined Too Far Gone To Know and closer Fall Out Of Love suddenly stir as the Krauty riffing recommences, you're left pondering. [Jan 2014, p.125]

It's just that he has done all this better before. [Jan 2014, p.124]

Every track on Tender Madness sounds like it's been chiseled out of Mount Rushmore. [Jan 2014, p.124]

It still has an easy going charm and the odd surprise, but more spice would have helped cut through the pervading blandness. [Jan 2014, p.124]

The results are a no-less-entertaining 33 minutes of madness, like a Ramones album spun at 78 rpm. [Jan 2014, p.123]

It's a beautiful set of sweeping prairie ballads. [Jan 2014, p.122]

Even though his wit and word patterns still dazzle, they need a livelier canvas if the Eminem nostalgia experience is to be the thrilling one it should be. [Jan 2014, p.122]

Cults' combination of mid-'60s girl-group and cusp-of-the-'90s shoegazing is still bewitching but takes a more stripped-down form here, and packs more of a thwack. [Jan 2014, p.120]

Exotic, hip and exuding an effortless charm, Costa Blanca is a sophisticated treat from start to finish. [Jan 2014, p.120]

It's good, but he's better as part of the Gang. [Jan 2014, p.119]

Almost worth getting a hangover for. [Jan 2014, p.119]

Hynes can't resist tinkering with the formula and a pair of incongruous rap cameos disrupt a sketchy second half during which the feeling develops that Hynes is still holding back some of his best ideas for stars of a greater magnitude than himself. [Jan 2014, p.118]

Not quite as organic as they seem, their perfection lacks taste despite its polish. [Jan 2014, p.117]

The melodies here are fine, they do a job, but nothing backs up Gag's Warholian rhetoric or scales the barmy heights of Bad Romance. [Jan 2014, p.116]

A record that unfolds like a collection of short stories, occasionally hokey but more often affectingly vivid. [Feb 2014, p.108]

Too much else here is a plodding, monochrome take on '60s psychedelia, lacking in originality or imagination. [Mar 2013, p.108]

A surprisingly easy album to enjoy. [Mar 2013, p.105]

Melodic, expertly crafted and laced with wistful emotion, the only thing missing is the element of surprise. [Apr 2013, p.113]

Broken Down Gentlemen is unshowy and classily-executed folk. [Apr 2013, p.101]

Ambitious and beautifully wrought, Dear River should mark Barker's entry into the big leagues. [Sep 2013, p.98]

Hardly new territory, but there's enough melodic might here to suggest the six-piece might find success on a path already well-trodden by The Killers and others. [Nov 2013, p.105]