The grooves stay warm and loopy. [Jan 2013, p.108]

Its pleasures lie almost entirely in the storytelling, bolstered by Mueler's between-songs narration. [Dec 2012, p.110]

A blissful blip that produced one of the '90s' finest rock albums. [Jan 2013, p.121]

The passage of time sometimes has a way of making youthful politicking seem naive, but not here. [Jan 2013, p.121]

Arbez keeps things interesting by twisting the formula. [Jan 2013, p.113]

Fans of Prefab Sprout, The Go-Betweens and Saint Etienne could do a lot worse than give their cerebral Canadian counterparts a go. [Jan 2013, p.110]

The occasional clunker's certainly not enough to take the shine off a solid, consistent album. [Jan 2013, p.110]

On his impressive second album, the LA-born R&B auteur offers fresh options for mainstream urban pop. [Jan 2013, p.110]

A band with swagger once again. [Jan 2013, p.109]

More depth, and a few metaphorical tidal waves, wouldn't go amiss. [Jan 2013, p.109]

Carry Me Back feels like a sidestep towards a more traditional sound. [Jan 2013, p.108]

They're much more at ease losing themselves in power-pop harmonies on Lazy Bones and embracing '60s garage on Stop When The Red Lights Flash. [Jan 2013, p.108]

Thankfully, it avoids the easy traps of earnestness or tweeness, and emerges as an intriguing, convincing listen. [Jan 2013, p.108]

This is a swig of all that's gone before, chased down with much warmer production. [Jan 2013, p.107]

At it's best, it's impeccable. [Jan 2013, p.107]

She's not ready to call time just yet. [Jan 2013, p.105]

The Violence is ambitious in Hayman's homemade, almost hesitant way, but his vision goes far beyond any other current independent artist, and is a true treasure. [Jan 2013, p.105]

[Glass's] lyrics are often buried in the mix, but no amount of production occultation can hide the fact that the likes of Plague are excelsior anthems for the End Times. [Jan 2013, p.103]

While Sing The Delta isn't DeMent's best work, it's full of understated, sharply observed songs. [Jan 2013, p.102]

It's very diversity makes it a little impersonal and even arch, but there are strong songs here and a retrospective disc shows there's plenty more where they came from. [Jan 2013, p.102]

A rather lovely bedtime listen. [Jan 2013, p.101]

Maybe he's not the kind of artist you need to hear stripped down. [Jan 2013, p.101]

Nothing really stands out like the best thing here, Make The World Move, featuring fellow Voice Judge, Cee-Lo Green. [Jan 2013, p.101]

Good pop needs light and shade to grow up, it seems, and so does Example. [Jan 2013, p100]

Tulisa struggles to get to grips with the predictably generic R&B ballads, but when the pace is upped and she shouts along to Young and the feisty M.I.A.-lite Live It Up, the personality that has turned her into a phenomenon of out times transcends her obvious limitations. [Jan 2013, p.112]

Bish Bosch is an album even fans won't necessarily play often, but on those special occasions, as per title, it very much does the job. [Jan 2013, p.104]

It's less direct than before, but still strangely, powerfully beautiful. [Jan 2013, p.103]

Warrior, a moderate improvement of her disappointing debut Animal. [Jan 2013, p.106]