The Vines' place in the rock gene pool is shaped by elements of controlled guitar thrash, often complex harmony, bubblegum psychedelia and polished piano-driven ballads with an early Seventies whiff. [Aug 2002, p.116]

The first six tracks or so of Stone Love are as good a soundtrack to summer as you're likely to get this year... Thereafter it's an interminable sea of coma-inducing ballads. [Sep 2004, p.104]

It is definitely deserving of the cult status that it will inevitably earn. [Dec 2004, p.138]

Much of the album is like 1980 revisited and updated. [Jan 2003, p.115]

American show "Saturday Night Live" has a tradition of creating comedy heroes we don't quite get in the UK. Alongside Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell we can add The Lonely Island--essentially Flight Of The Conchords with more sperm jokes. [May 2009, p.91]

The jangly, offbeat "Ambulance Chaser" and the pretty, Radiohead-ish acoustic number "Loose Ends" both suggest that Ounsworth has retained some of his old band's arena-filling way with melody. [Apr 2017, p.26]

They have come remarkably close to achieving the contoured crispness and in-your-face immediacy of their greatest achievement. [Jun 2011, p.79]

There are some pretty melodies here, like “Bells”, “Hymn” and “An Intimate Distance”, but there are some tracks where Eno’s melodies are so minimal that they become quite mind-numbingly banal. [May 2022, p.26]

TMSR are a bit more focused and less shaggily psychedelic than [Broken Social Scene], but certainly never short on ideas. [Mar 2006, p.91]

Reduced to aural bones, Gossip's live show in Liverpool last year still rocks, but in a diminished way. [May 2008, p.100]

Little Boots emerges with a debut album that is disappointingly similar to the sound of 2001 or 2005. [Jul 2009, p.91]

Beautifully done, with great attention to textural detail. [Sep 2012, p.83]

While the veteran singer's heart is in the right place, she sabotages her messages via the spouting of generalisations and the use of abstract language, with typically grating, inelegant results. [Nov 2007, p.110]

An affectionate collection of Walker's songs. [Aug 2012, p.80]

Caught between Genesis and Crowded House, Guillemots end up careening between Melancholy, bombast and bad verse. [May 2011, p.87]

RoadKillOvercoat fattens his usual oblique rhymes into even more demanding, bombastic forms. [Apr 2007, p.93]

A familiar sound predominates: an impressive fanfare for a royal procession that never quite arrives. [Apr 2009, p.78]

Their selections here are a predictable roster of left-field rock dosed with Anglophilia. [Jan 2014, p.78]

With so many other similar vehicles available, there's not much reason to choose this one. [Jan 2016, p.78]

All round it makes for a slightly uncomfortable listen. [Apr 2010, p.90]

There's another side to the jaunty guitars and multi-tracked choruses that sometimes make Tunstall sound like she's singing an orange juice advert.... 'Beauty of Uncertainty' and the closer 'Paper Aeroplane' are stark and moody etudes as far removed from, say, Dido as it's possible to get.

Not unpleasant, but not likely to persuade the previously unpersuaded. [Nov 2017, p.39]

"Wolves Change Rivers" betrays his love for Erik Satie, but "For My Mother" [is] reassuring affection is unquestionably his own. [Jan 2019, p.21]

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

Rebel heart almost gets the balance right, but at 19 tracks, most in the industrial party-pop style of cheeseball producers Diplo and Avicii, there's simply too much going on. [Apr 2015, p.78]

It's all likable, seldom revelatory. [Feb 2015, p.80]

Certainly enough to impress the judges. [Jan 2008, p.93]

The pervading mood of ennui and desolation begs for some light relief, but the title track speaks volumes for her poise. [Dec 2010, p.104]

The sequel is at least that record's [Just Across The River] equal as he again revisits some of his best known songs. [Dec 2013, p.71]

"The Right Stuff" is carried along by a nifty percussive shuffle and lovely layered brass that make you wish the entire album carried their production imprint. [Apr 2015, p.76]

There's not much room for originality in the tiny space he stakes out between Petty, Chilton and Westerberg, but thanks to Cumming's easy charm and gift for simple , classic hooks, the likes of "Workin' It Out" and "Total Darkness" feel like old friends. [Jul 2015, p.73]

It's much less obstreperous than most of their earlier works. [Jul 2016, p.76]

The second album is a little more groove-oriented than the trio's 2014 debut LA Spark. [Nov 2016, p.40]

A spirited album that runs the gamut from pop to pop-punk to punk. Not everything works. [Jan 2021, p.23]

The Dirty Nil relive those innocent times when callow rock'n'rollers made noise designed to drive grown-ups batshit. [Feb 2021, p.27]

Many of these songs also feel like polite recital pieces, stripped of high drama, so that Wilson often sounds like a shadow of himself. [Dec 2021, p.35]

Their fifh album reveals no radical stylistic shift. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Something of a let-down. [May 2003, p.98]

The Church are, against the odds, still a dreamily appealing proposition. [Mar 2004, p.100]

[A] moody, edgy album. [Mar 2002, p.104]

An unexpectedly impressive comeback. [Apr 2019, p.32]

Connoisseurs of 1972 will be forced to conclude the poor boy's got sunstroke. [May 2006, p.119]

Fears that Sitek's heavy hand will smother Miranda's songs, though, are largely dispelled. [Mar 2010, p.88]

The seething mood is familiar but the cursory electro beats offer little of the grimy richness of primetime Tricky. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Fortunately, they haven't forsaken their natural songwriting strengths. [Aug 2016, p.70]

Blessed with a baritone unmatched in modern pop, he delivers 15 exquisite ditties. [May 2006, p.108]

If it's a little predictable, it's still easy on the ears. [Jul 2007, p.127]

Only the too-obvious "Lady Liberty stumbles, but even that song is redeemed by a road-hardened band that adds a twangy stateliness to Farrar's outrage. [Apr 2019, p.36]

Had Lofgren trusted his considerable gifts to carry these earnest songs, Mountains would've been a more satisfying album. [Aug 2023, p.34]

A cameo from run The jewels is a final treat on an album full of them. [Apr 2016, p.76]

On the five tracks sung solely by the Blind Boys, the record comes off as Vernon intended.... By contrast, the remaining six, each featuring a contemporary guest artists, are problematic. [Dec 2013, p.65]

Despite the scattered and itinerant nature of the process, there's a pleasing coherence and warmth to the record. [Apr 2023, p.26]

Sea Sew is a subtle and intricately woven set of songs that seeps further into you with every listening. [Sep 2009, p.84]

Last Night is ambitious, mature and noisy. [Nov 2013, p.78]

The fall and Dead Kennedys are the key influences here. [Dec 2010, p.109]

It attempt to meld guitars with '80s Europop much like Phoenix has done, to the extent that single "One Way Trigger" sounds like A-Ha. The experiment is often successful. [Apr 2013, p.78]

More conservative than 2001's Melody AM, with little of the twinkling, yodelling mania that distinguished them from their late-night-friendly peers. [Aug 2005, p.103]

The Wilderness is more like a Junkies album as we'd previously appreciated them. [May 2012, p.71]

The roller-disco gallop of "Wallpaper" epitomises Be Your Own King's catwalk-sang-froid and quiet Joie de Vivre. [Mar 2013, p.69]

Knowingly nostalgic and highly polished, this rich debut contains retro-cool references but also chunky pop hooks. [Oct 2013, p.63]

There is much to enjoy in The Past We Leave Behind's darker moments. [May 2015, p.78]

17 endurance-defying tracks of gormless, soulless cookie-cutter corporate country, carting woefully trite homilies to smalltown values that leave the listener feeling uneasily like jackson's running from something. [May 2008, p.100]

It can feel a little slack-jawed, its dreaminess concealing slight lack of substance. [Sep 2014, p.71]

Will massage the shoulders of fans of Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, Neil Young and Kevin Shields.

The songs themselves are fascinating in their breadth, and if nothing else, The Visitor feels like Young's broadest album in some time. [Feb 2018, p.26]

He's continuing his romp through totally unfashionable styles, armed with his endearingly earnest voice and a lot of flutes. [Feb 2013, p.77]

They aren't up to the job. [Jul 2009, p.83]

It sounds more like sketchbook of snippets rather than fully formed tracks. Even so, it still tickles the pleasure zones with its goodtime swing and verve. [Aug 2011, p98]

This is songwriting with a stunning paint job, but with its training wheels still on. [Nov 2014, p.71]

Too many tracks are still founded on tiresome conceits. [Apr 2012, p.81]

Fuses the hormonal aggression that put Green Day on the map with punched-up modern-day production courtesy of Butch Walker and a razor-sharp mix by Tchad Blake. [Mar 2020, p.29]

Bainsbridge's achievement is to take a style of music defined by its emotional directness and render it mysterious, aloof and enthralling. [Dec 2014, p.77]

No longer quite so greasy, but rewardingly slick. [Oct 2014, p.80]

Free Your Mind, looks to the two summers of love--psychedelia in 1967 and rave in '89--for inspiration and is mixed by Tame Impala's guru Dave Fridmann, yet its tasteful blend of chugging acid and euphoric choruses means it resembles an elaborate Screamadelica pastiche. [Dec 2013, p.66]

There's a sense that the artificiality in the sound is being used to anaesthetise the raw emotion, but the sonic fractures can't disguise the loveliness of "A Sport And A Pastime" and "My Fair Lady." [Sep 2016, p.78]

That Gedge remains, at 51, stranded lyrically at a romantically disappointing post A-Level party is less cause for celebration. [Apr 2012, p.88]

There are enough moments of mercurial brilliance on May Your Marry Rich to suggest that the core duo of former student buddies Ryan Hendrix and Nick Turner are finally on to something. [Apr 2014, p.71]

Even if Howes favours an almost cosy retro futurism, the results are unpretentious and often lovely. [Feb 2016, p.77]

The sonic ambition is admirable. [Aug 2018, p.28]

It's generally a thoughtful collection: stripped back so as to not stamp on the originals. [Mar 2019, p.27]

This is their best set of songs since the band’s sex-crazed 2004 debut, continuing some of the debt-to-the-’80s feel of 2014’s Get Back on homage-paying tracks like “Nikki Go Sudden” and “Swollen Maps”. [Jun 2022, p.31]

Idiosyncratic to the last. [May 2026, p.29]

"Greetings From Mars" touches on Lana Del Rey's desolately pretty Americana, with Nagler's voice reserved yet reaching ecstatically high. [Apr 2026, p.36]

It's a modest sampler, with a feel more akin to 1961 than 2008. [May 2008, p.98]

Too much of the rest is forgettable. [Mar 2012, p.87]

Yorke aside, the attractions are few in Monkeytown. [Nov 2011, p.93]

One man's hurt is often another man's monotony. [Nov 2006, p.120]

Fronted by Jonas Stein formerly of adolescent punks Be Your Own Pet--the missing link between the Monkees and Dead Kennedys--are every bit as spirited as his old band. [Dec 2009, p.117]

To say Ladyhawk offer a pretty straightforward rock trip make them sound unadventurous, which they probably are, but also doesn't really do justice to the sheer head-nodding, play-loud-and-prosper enjoymenet this offers. [May 2008, p.102]

Freed from Torquil Campbell's mannered indie melodrama, she gives full rein to her inner country girl. [Jan 2010, p. 121]

They clearly asked Dave Fridmann to produce for his MGMT work rather than his exploratory Mercury Rev backstory. It's well, OK. [Mar 2010, p.90]

Producer Max Dingel fashions a crystal clear sound, full but never overblown, bringing an attractive universality to some very personal emotions. [Jun 2014, p.79]

Everything here remains personal, but it is also a cooler proposition. There's a degree of studio craft and narrative control here that Davies has never bettered. [Aug 2018, p.22]

As reassuringly familiar as it all sounds, the high point comes courtesy of an interloper, John Cooper Clarke shoehorning suitably rant-like poetry into the six-minute garage groove of "Let You Down." [Oct 2014, p.73]

Venture further into Our Version of Events and it's clear Sande has in fact modeled herself on Leona Lewis with a series of sappy ballads bulging with lyrical truisms. [Mar 2012, p.89]

High Life has none of its predecessor's busy, over-caffeinated temperament. [Aug 2014, p.73]

Whilst a gift for converting arrogance into entertainment has always been one of Jay-Z’s strongest suits, Kingdom Come skirts perilously close to the showboating that marred 2002’s bloated double album, The Blueprint 2.

Gahan's lyrical moochings are inevitably less assured without his umbilical cord to [Martin] Gore, at times bordering on moon-in-June banality. [Jun 2003, p.108]