The gravel voice and self-penned songs are distinctive, and though he's not beyond over-emoting, this stakes claim on a wide territory in a bold manner. [Jul 2009, p.95]

Haunting lamentations that owe as much to the Jewish Klezmer and US folk traditions as to Slint. [May 2005, p.110]

More of a safe record than a spectacular one. [May 2018, p.35]

It's a sequel of sorts to Democrazy, but sounds infinitely more accomplished--undoubtedly part of the technological point that he's making here. [Mar 2011, p.91]

Pallett's pallid voice fails to dramatise the narrative or really engage the listener. As a calling card for future soundtrack commissions, however, it should succeed splendidly. [Feb 2010, p.84]

For every blissful "Mannie's Smile" there's some Bontempi bossanova or a fretless bass ballad like "Breathing Easy" that swims in kitsch. [Sep 2018, p.30]

As an oasis of calm in a world of noise and chaos, it's easy to understand her appeal. [Jan 2006, p.114]

"Close To You" confirms how much she sounds like Karen Carpenter but, amid the over-familiar songs, most interesting are the relative obscurities. [Dec 2016, p.35]

Not everything works as well, but its entertaining enough and a portion of proceeds go to charity. [Dec 2014, p.76]

All Of A Sudden... rather falls under the shadow of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but there's ample majesty in its climactic moments to recommend it. [Mar 2007, p.79]

Lovely for a few songs, the narcoleptic, yet semi-cinematic visions risk homogeneity by the album's end. [Mar 2017, p.35]

He reins in the Liberace-meets-Lenny Bruce schtick on his sixth album, a curiously anodyne effort helmed by Berlin electro buccaneer Boyz Noize. [Oct 2010, p.89]

A mildly Enya-fied take on the kind of astringent orchestral punk pumped out by Montreal's Constellation label, it has its moments. [Mar 2016, p.77]

It's honest and immediate, but predictable. [Apr 2015, p.73]

Lyrically, it's the darkness that maintains its grip, sometimes alarmingly so. [Jul 2016, p.74]

There are traces of Rio's fantastic lipglossed silliness, but overall the arty party pop of All You Need IS now feels like an attempt to rescue a venerable British band long damaged by poor decisions. [Mar 2011, p.88]

There are still touches of the Streolab/Broadcast school of archaic electronics, but Alpers' melodies are now fuller and richer, and texturally Bachelorette brims with contrast. [Jul 2011, p.77]

It's the originals that resonate, contrasting with a featherweight cover of Townes van Zandt's "Waiting Around To Die." [Mar 2003, p.97]

An oddly one-note follow-up. [Sep 2012, p.76]

It's more fireside snooze than woodland romp. [Oct 2013, p.68]

Those bel canto melodies will still be a little syrupy for some. [Jun 2007, p.94]

It's harder to fault the tunes, however, smeared thick with QOTSA sludge or pretty 'Dakota' clones 'It Means Nothing' and 'Daisy Lane.' [Nov 2007, p.123]

Welcome tweaks to the template, but Schnauss could do with taking a more dramatic step out of his comfort zone. [Feb 2013, p.78]

The album is most fun when it plays up to the contours of Karen O's idiosyncratic voice. [Apr 2019, p.32]

It probably made for a more interesting theatrical experience than it does standalone album, but if the form--expressive, exaggerated musical drama--is a bit unfamiliar, then Albarn's insidious tunes are not. [Oct 2008, p.101]

If the results are amiable rather than arresting, at this far down the road, that's surely enough. [Apr 2015, p.75]

It's a sincere but over-comfortable trawl-lovers of the man's rockin' fire will be disappointed. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

Arcade Dynamics is marginally more developed than previous releases. [Mar 2011, p.88]

All good fun, but inevitably, without Taylor's Longing vocals, it feels a bit like playing a piano with the black keys removed. [Jan 2010, p. 112]

His 2021 solo debut Times topped the UK dance chart and, the follow-up offers more of the same adrenaline rush. [Feb 2023, p.32]

Certainly it is a record of two halves, its first batch of corroded box jams smothered in hiss, including two listless cuts with Sampha. [Jan 2021, p.21]

More rock music should be this reduced and addictive--but they'll have to think long and hard about self-parody some time soon. [Sep 2011, p.105]

The tracks are so sparse and lo-fi as to fell half-finished, and Svenonius' smouldering delivery fails to catch fire. [Dec 2017, p.27]

As a musical representation of physical and mental decline, it is morbidly compelling. But in the wrong mood, it's a bit of a trudge. [Feb 2016, p.75]

Green's songs are memorable and his subtle orchestrations effective, while his lovely, burnished, Dean Martin-ish baritone voice glues it all together. [Apr 2008, p.90]

Cooing fragmentary, dreamlike lyrics in a fuzzy-warm purr, this young singer's kittenish vocal affectations will grate on some... [but] Dillon redeems her whimsy with promising nods towards Bjork, Joanna Newsom and Lykke Li. [Jan 2012, p.84]

A solid if formulaic record. [Nov 2010, p.94]

It's a riot of scattershot styles. [Jun 2013, p.81]

The rather prissy album versions are given room to breathe and take on a rather more energetic cabaret feel. [Nov 2009, p.109]

It starts promisingly.... Elsewhere, sadly, The Traveling Kind is rather a plod. [Jun 2015, p.84]

In their careers, this band might prove to be a sideshow. But right now, it's one with the possibility of being as gripping as the main event. [Jan 2010, p. 104]

Ten years ago this hand-stitched tapestry of astral-jazz harp, dusty acoustics, crackling breakbeats, music-box twinkles and twitchy "Intelligent Dance Music" might have seemed bravely genre-bending, but now it's as cosy a pair of favourite slippers. [Feb 2010, p.84]

It has its moments. [Nov 2016, p.39]

There's a naivety at play here, recalling Daniel Johnston, Vashti Bunyan and Syd Barrett. [Jul 2006, p.86]

Songs packed with macabre humour, melodic contortion and gruesome discord. [Mar 2019, p.27]

Darnielle dresses songs of romance, heartache, and travel in elegant leaps of language. [Mar 2008, p.96]

These veteran North Carolinians invariably put out albums of spirit, vim and polished Americana, with songs that boast powerful melodies and gorgeous harmonies. [Oct 2010, p.89]

A grandiose power metal pomposity that marshals such gusts of keyboard and flowery, Yngwie Malmsteen guitar duelling it basically feels like a climax strung out over 60 minutes; epic in short bursts, slightly tiring in the long haul. [Nov 2008, p.92]

Much like The Head And The Heart, it's all mid-paced, with subject matter also inevitably static. [Oct 2020, p.32]

Feeling more airbrushed than lo-fi. [Jul 2011, p.79]

As usual, Pollard sabotages his commercial potential with weak production values and occasionally straining vocals. [Dec 2006, p.121]

It's likable enough, but pretty much interchangeable with the seven studio albums that preceded it. [Nov 2010, p.94]

This album is overflowing with ideas that the band don't have the means--or, indeed, the patience--to explore fully. [Feb 2009, p.85]

An ambitious collaborative affair showcasing female and non-binary musicians. [Jun 2025, p.33]

This is a soundscape bordered by The Flaming Lips and the Pixies, and mapped with verve. [Mar 2010, p.81]

Moments of startling beauty emerge from the fuzz-drenched experiments. [Sep 2005, p.112]

Simple acoustic music lined with occasional piano and an inglenook voice owing much to early Joni Mitchell or Carole King. [Aug 2006, p.93]

His 2012 debut Silent Congas was somewhat piecemeal, but I Need New Eyes feels more developed, less contrived. [Nov 2015, p.76]

It's all a little too eagerly oddball at times, but generally avoids the trapdoor marked Novelty. [Dec 2014, p.78]

He's backed by an orthodox guitar/bass/drums trio, which sometimes renders inert his unorthodox rhymes. [Apr 2015, p.76]

Haines' mean-spirited gifts abide, but Airfix cannot mend a broken spirit. [Jun 2018, p.28]

The collection is a little frontloaded, petering out with some tracks of solo guitar, bass and drums. [Feb 2011, p.82]

As a whole it feel overfamiliar, with little of the cohesiveness that made, say, Les Revenants so powerful. [Oct 2018, p.30]

Sonically exhilarating, yet the lyrical content remains as alluring as vomit on a Sunday morning pavement. [Sep 2001, p.104]

Danilova's vocals have a cadence that hovers between uplifting and exhaustingly overwrought, but fans at least will love these vivid, live-feeling renditions. [Sep 2013, p.97]

Although at times it can sound a little too carefully planned, there are some wonderful moments. [Jun 2017, p.23]

Vide Noir unspools with cinematic seamlessness, as quicksilver psychedelic buffers bridge its 12 tracks, which shift between folk, country and heartland rock. [Jun 2018, p.30]

This appears to be a case of limited resources and/or dubious decisions undermining a potentially captivating album. [May 2015, p.76]

The songs are often gently ironic '70s orchestral pop with overtones of striped caps and Edwardian moustaches. [Aug 2009, p.90]

There are some creative dead-ends, but there is enough here to warrant a reappraisal. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Not quite the rebirth it might have been, but a welcome retread. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Her career path - Staten Island barista to MySpace to Old Navy commercial-is less conventional than her songs, which build from folkie beginnings to big, optimistic pop choruses. [Dec 2009, p. 103]

Some of her best singing in years. [Sep 2002, p.114]

There is beauty aplenty in these 10 songs, but anyone yearning for the delicious ache of old will find it only fleetingly. [Feb 2011, p.92]

Glossy and glamorous, maybe, but it feels like a beautiful-designed dead end. [Oct 2018, p.37]

Buck 65 returns to abstract hip hop, but injects it with cool, psych jazz and '70s cinematic funk. [Dec 2007, p.86]

Same Old Man won't upend the form-book, but it's an agreeably unpretentious addition to the Indiana-born veteran's canon. [June 2008, p.93]

Inherit strips back rock, baring its constituent parts without flourish or fanfare. [Aug 2008, p.93]

The World Is Yours contains repetition aplenty: but no hesitation or deviation. [Feb 2011, p.93]

A rum selection of Zoom collaborations with everyone from Dua Lipa to Lil Nas X, that old keenness is still there, though only on "It's a Sin," his Brits team-up with Olly Alexander. [Dec 2021, p.29]

It’s all interestingly varied stuff, although the chopping and changing of styles makes it hard to get a handle on who The Voidz really want to be. [Oct 2024, p.33]

Stomping Eurodisco almost-anthems rub shoulders with crying-on-the-dancefloor confessionals, although the 31-year-old diva's plastic-punkette teen-rebel pose grates at times. [Aug 2010, p.93]

Eventually, the unrelenting aggressiveness of Typhoons becomes exhausting; better to ignite a playlist by tossing in one of these potent cherry bombs. [Jun 2021, p.31]

A sometimes mystifying but often inspired work. [May 2018, p.22]

Their sound is an accident born of naivety, but their unabashed love for '80s indie is unmistakeable. [Feb 2009, p.89]

Despite Chris Martin's underdeveloped lyrics – "Be an anthem for your times" at least explains his motivation – there's something reassuring in their ham-fisted urge to bring people together. ... Glam-stomper "People Of The Pride" or well-meaning power ballad "Let Somebody Go," and instrumentals harking back to earlier Eno adventures offer pleasant reprieves. [Dec 2021, p.25]

The bulk... is given over to rolling, near-baroque piano balladry. [Nov 2004, p.102]

Ashcroft's ornery, sometimes conspiratorial resentment of authority and spiritually minded uplift feel of the moment. [Nov 2025, 28]

The finest moments... prove to be the same stripped-down verbally deft hip-hop that made their name. [Oct 2005, p.100]

On their fourth album, all pretense at rootsy authenticity is gone--this is machine-tooled stadium pop, with producer Paul Epworth in the Brian Eno role. [Jan 2019, p.22]

There's a touch of mum-at-the-disco about the dancier numbers, but the sweet acoustica of "Some Kind Of love" and the wispy electronica of the title track still underpin earwormy hooks that won't be denied. [Apr 2019, p.28]

Sadier's intonation can be awkward, but her compassionate yet detached voice remains as affecting as ever. [Nov 2010, p.97]

'Fire' and 'Drugs' certainly boasts the head-in-the-speakers mania of old, but it's the more meditative 'Vision' that suggests a future beyond Rizla conventions. [July 2008, p.104]

It's only on the lengthy, ambient, vaporous "La Sirena" and the pretty, dramatic ballad "ICU" that everything gels together. [Dec 2023, p.31]

Folds' third solo album is filled with songs about breakups, laced with some low-key experimentalism and, of course, a lot of keyboard pounding. [Nov 2008, p.94]

The Gallic tendency to prettify everything into anodyne melodic gloop occasionally jars. [Jun 2020, p.38]

It's an ingenious arrangement, featuring juddering, minimal percussion, spare piano chords and vocoders that soar to the edge of the studiosphere, worth the price of the album alone. [Mar 2012, p.84]