With this 30th outing there's a troubling sense of treading water. [Jul 2013, p.103]

It's a predictable sound, though there's a thrilling intensity here. [Jul 2013, p.110]

The naysayer might dismiss it as an elaborate pastiche, but this would be to miss the point of an often intoxicating LP that's more than the sum of its parts. [Jul 2013, p.108]

There's a substance and sense of space in these meditative moments that makes for a satisfying, deep listening experience. [Jul 2013, p.113]

The results are beautifully muted yet murkily enticing, evoking Robert Wyatt's pastoral-prog reverie Rock Bottom. [Jul 2013, p.111]

Amid all the wanton airy-fairyness, this is just brilliant pop music. [Jul 2013, p.106]

If From The Hills doesn't quite have the swing and swagger of 2012's self-titled EP, it shouldn't be hard to recapture that promise next time around. [Jul 2013, p.105]

[The title track] like the rest of this exceptional LP, works fine as one chapter in an elaborate concept opus, but is just as satisfying for those with both feet in reality. [Jul 2013, p.98]

It may be a little too low-key for its own good--Four Tet explores similar territory with more urgency--but it's full of dog-eared charm. [Jul 2013, p.104]

Settle may be a lot less rowdy than Basement Jaxx's bellwether 1999 album Remedy, but it pulls off a similarly timely coup by pulling together a number of clubland threads, imposing a keen pop sensibility and idiosyncratic vision, and riding the crest of a rising tide. [Jul 2013, p.104]

Surrounding themselves with wise old heads clearly helps, but The Days Run Away shows Frankie & Co have plenty ideas of their own. [Jul 2013, p.103]

If Emika's voice lets her down a bit in places, as a producer she knows how to mould it into strange and interesting shapes. [Jul 2013, p.103]

In upbeat pop mode, the quintet are impressive, but when slipping downtempo into ballads, Camera Obscura are in a league of their own. [Jul 2013, p.100]

It's hard not to think that CSS's moment has passed. [Jul 2013, p.101]

Here they sound as out of place as ever, and all the better for it. [Jul 2013, p.101]

They might be old, they might be poorly and they might be running scared from their wives, but on 13 Black Sabbath roll back the years and sound young again--and blacker than ever. [Jul 2013, p.102]

...Like Clockwork is a return to form. [Jul 2013, p.107]

Entirely meritless. [Apr 2013, p.104]

Chastising them for not reinventing the wheel seems churlish when they sound like they're having so much fun spinning the old one. [Apr 2013, p.111]

Often, though, it's just a bit pompous and boring. [Apr 2013, p.94]

It's mix of precision and passion reminds of Muse's debut. [Jun 2013, p.91]

It's a record to be applauded for its ambitions, even if the songs sometimes struggle to carry the weight. [Jun 2013, p.100]

Disturbingly sensual stuff. [Jun 2013, p.99]

There are moments the focus blurs. But it's the exception on an album that dynamic, dramatic and remarkable free of self-indulgence. [Jun 2013, p.99]

The Casadys' knack for sifting vivid, dreamy songs out of harrowing subject matter is no less potent here. [Jun 2013, p.96]

[Wiesenfeld has an] uncommon ear for texture and rhythm, albeit one compromised by a weakness for self-consciously introspective lyrics and highfalutin sixth form poetry. [Jun 2013, p.93]

As harrowing and honest as some lyrics may be, though, the intensely beautiful Southern Sky at least offers his "crooked arms" some redemption. [Sep 2012, p.104]

Once I Was An Eagle is entirely Laura Marling's trip--beautiful, heartfelt, searching, sublime, and thrillingly open-ended. [Jun 2013, p.92]