There's an appealing openness and lack of guile to much of Sign. [#215, p.66]

A decent film soundtrack. [#219, p.74]

In isolation, no individual song is particularly memorable but together they add up to a musical vision you just can't ignore. [#215, p.52]

The new, mature De La means traditional pop over brash artistry, religion over irony, and conformity over the extraordinary. [#215, p.59]

A pleasurable collection of comfortably played, understated, slightly skewed songs with smart lyrics. [#214, p.52]

Superficially, Lovage is a continuation of the Handsome Boy Modeling School aesthetic that collides HipHop, rock and electronica into an ironic hipster epic. [#213, p. 59]

Sandoval's overly stylised vocals really start to grate over the distance of a whole LP. [#213, p.65]

Not enough of Drukqs confidently breaks new ground, and too often James falls back on the all too familiar dysfunctional jitterbeat which has typified Aphex output since 1996's Richard D James album. [#212, p.55]

Negotiate Steve Osborne's rather dated stadium Techno-rock production, and there's plenty to stimulate here... [#211, p.70]

Its infusion of HipHop drum programs, Old Skool electronics, rabblerousing calls-to-arms and repetitive guitar riffs is highly addictive. [#213, p.58]

Still sounds like the work of someone desperate to gain the approval of the Drag City clique. [#215, p.69]

Let It Come Down suffers just a little from Pierce's presumably healthier outlook. [#211, p.66]

At the heart of Rain On Lens, [Callahan] comes clean for the first time: Smog is subjective, not omnipotent. Hardly a psyche stripped bare, but at least it's a start. [#211, p.65]

There is a kind of exuberance you thought went out of fashion with The B-52s. [#211, p.66]

To expand simple love songs into extravagantly gilded showstoppers is to risk lapsing into bombast. But for all their love of musical saws and [Jonathan] Donahue's quavering voice, Mercury Rev are unashamedly grandiose, and their references may be too in thrall to the rock hegemony for some. [#210, p.60]

What's lacking on Date Of Birth, though, is any sort of excitement. [#212, p.75]

Consistently entertaining. [#215, p.69]

There's everything to like about this release, but nothing to grip or to enage the senses... Stereolab have now defined and refined themselves to a point where they are almost invisible. [#211, p.53]

In the end, Vespertine commits its magic by daring to go places more obvious and more human than one would have ever expected. [#210, p.52]

It's fair to say that not much new ground is broken here, but it's remarkable how endearing their blend of chugging underground pop and frail ragas still sounds. [#210, p.66]

Fans of Anderson's trademark spoken word phrasing, with pregnant pauses, raised eyebrows and question mark endings, won't be disappointed. [#211, p.52]

Finding Iggy as confused as ever, Beat 'Em up ranks alongside New Values and Blah, Blah, Blah as yet another missed opportunity. (#209, p.60)

Much of this fascinating, infuriating record is defined by his commingling of HipHop, Electro, dancehall, and, most problematically, stadium alt.rock... Some of it is just odd enough to work. [#209, p.62]

What's striking is that he's less wacky than he's ever been, instead pursuing a rougher, more complex sound. [#208, p.66]

They're both adept at the refined art of turning nothing new into something memorable. [#207, p.61]

Pleasant, yes, but not much more.... Too many of these 'songs' snap off at around the three or four minute mark, just as they start to get interesting.... It sounds consistently half-there. [#208, p.52]

Double Figure is as good as anything they have done. [#207, p.65]

However difficult is might appear on first hearing, his music is at once curiously involving and constantly inviting. [#209, p.59]