It's not an obvious fit, and with all songs apparently written in the space of just three days there's distinctly rushed, work-in-progress feel that does nobody any favours. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Even if the songs aren't much more than workmanlike, they're good enough to showcase the man's still mighty roar and shattering guitar playing. [Jan 2011, p.142]

It still has its winning moments. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Her collaborations, from Foo Fighters to Ray Charles. [Jan. 2011, p. 151]

Drone metal linchpin, with guest Kurt Cobain. [Jan. 2011, p. 150]

Co-produced in the US by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, Twin Shadow is assured hipster status in his adopted New York home. [Jan 2011, p.142]

It isn't just that it's (mostly) a covers album, more that so many of the selections are so uninspired. [Jan 2011, p.139]

His third album shows his mic skills to be only marginally above average--though given the right vintage soul groove he can raise his game. [Jan 2011, p.138]

In small doses, it's insightful and infectious, but after a whole album's worth of introspection Kasher starts to sound like a bit of a whinge bag. [Jan 2011, p.138]

Artistically, it struggles to cross the velvet rope and push on into greatness. [Jan 2011, p.134]

What makes this record so impressive is how effortlessly he has claimed his big pop moment without sounding compromised, and how easily he makes his producers bend to his strengths instead of vice versa. [Jan 2011, p.132]

Chained as they are to the demands of the dancefloor, there's a little room for subtlety in these frantic mash-ups of Coldplay and Empire Of The Sun, but then whoever did their thinking under strobe lights? [Dec 2010, p.115]

Dazzling with its intensity, the futuristic splice of swooping symphonics and grimy looped percussion once again sets Stevens in his own orbit. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Wonder of the Younger shows they're still expanding their songwriting palette with out sacrificing the hooks or pop smarts. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Hemingway's Whiskey is very much par for the course. [Dec 2010, p.114]

An extended celebration of shopping, partying, and exercising youthful hormones. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Shontelle's diva vocal is pitch-perfect, but given Rihanna's bust-up with Chris Brown the domestic abuse subtext seems ill-judged at best. [Dec 2010, p.113]

Not for the first time, you find yourself wondering whether Squarepusher is taking the piss. [Dec 2010, p.113]

Steve's boy finally finds his voice on this third record. [Dec 29010, p.104]

Rushes to the head aside, Progress is a triumph musically, conceptually, personally. [Dec 2010, p.100]

Like so much of his troubled catalogue, it disarms you with its beauty. [Dec 2010, p.124]

The Promise itself is a strange thing, less a companion to Darkness than the blueprint for a lost sequel to Born To Run. [Dec 2010, p.118]

The Union has pulled off the canny trick of allowing Elton to revisit his past, while still sounding like a songwriter looking and moving confidently towards the future. [Dec 2010, p.106]

Cudi is very much in a world of his own. [Dec 2010, p.110]

Barbed but Gregarious. [Dec 2020, p.110]

Not surprisingly, To Dreamers doesn't stray far from what's gone before. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Their first full album polishes some rough edges down to a soft-focus burr as synths eddy away in a fog of sound that is often only given direct form by the haphazard beats beneath. [Dec 2010, p.113]

The likes of Up The Junction and Cool For Cats still sound fabulous, but it's a mystery why they didn't just remaster one of their collections. [Dec 2010, p.114]