No shocks here, but a laudably short and sharp effort. [June 2008, p.94]

Often feels more afterthought than addition. On form, however, few write or sing human frailty with Neil Finn’s poise. [Jul 2021, p.25]

Young Blood is far darker than 2020’s soulful El Dorado. “Blood On The Tracks”, which chugs along behind a swampy, cowbell-accented groove, provides relief from the monolithic heaviness, which becomes enervating on the generic “Hard Working Man”. [Sep 2022, p.26]

Others paying respects are Steve Earle, Kid Rock and Lucinda Williams, though the inclusion of Lee Ann Womack and Faith Hill dilutes the overall impact. [Apr 2011, p.90]

The tunes remain no more exotic than a British cottage pie, and all the meat and potatoes that entails. [Feb 2011, p.79]

T&C are more approachable than most, replacing numbing virtuosity with a kind of meditative warmth. [May 2002, p.110]

The pair share a fascination for esoterica and ritual, and it’s this impulse that powers their new collaboration, Jinxed By Being. [Aug 2024, p.40]

A sparse, occasionally foreboding mood weighs on these 13 cues, appropriate to Richter's increasingly prolific contributions ti European arthouse soundtracks. [Aug 2010, p.93]

Even though the Neptunes have long gone off the boil, their contributions are so much better than those of the other assembled "star" producers. [Jan 2012, p.96]

Pleasingly, the most difficult thing about the album is its name. [Dec 2008, p.116]

There's an inherent creepiness in his frequently audacious work that makes it hard to connect with on an emotional level. [Jul 2018, p.33]

In places it's impressively monolithic. [Feb 2011, p.82]

A set of 14 patrimonial ballads drawn from all corners of Britain's folk heritage. [Jun 2015, p.69]

Most of these songs remain too simple to bear the weight if their fuller, more conventional arrangements. As a result, St. Catherine often feels stodgy. [Aug 2015, p.73]

Atheist's Cornea fares best when shooting for extremes. [Sep 2015, p.73]

It's far from original, but nonetheless highly effective, and the sweaty, lad-friendly nature of the title betrays its inherent good humour. [Aug 2011, p.82]

There's plenty to admire--not least "Without You" and "Innocence"--but you sense their moment may have passed. [Oct 2014, p.71]

Like all the best of heavy metal, effortless dumb good fun. [Nov 2011, p.89]

Nothing sounds more dated than an ageing futurist, and it's only when Trent cuts loose... that we get a glimpse of the world-beater we know he can be. [May 2007, p.103]

It's all craftily entertaining, but loopy lead single 'Paris Is Burning' is the one track that escapes pastiche. [Oct 2008, p.94]

Wolf's twofold skillfulness and stirring guest performances compensate for the sometimes overcooked arrangements. [Apr 2010, p.109]

A move into electric guitar, Hammond organ and bass bring mixed results. [Aug 2013, p.79]

Their fourth LP together sees them ditch the punky uptempo tracks and instead wallow in mournful, funereal meditations that don't leave White with much to do. [Dec 2019, p.35]

At times the elemental pounding can become an aural bludgeoning. [Oct 2014, p.80]

Evident is a sizeable debt to '80s electropop. [Aug 2006, p.84]

This is a seriously dense and elaborate album. [Nov 2011, p.94]

At times here it feels like Debbie Harry took a wrong turn on the way to Studio 54 and wound up with Shed 7.

The result is a little pick 'n' mix, but the delivery is great and songwriting assured. [Mar 2015, p.77]

Depleted, but not defeated. [Mar 2013, p.92]

Too often, Belong manages the almost interesting feat of sounding both overcooked and half-baked. [May 2017, p.39]

A triptych of gauzy electro-country duests show what they can do when they shake off some of their self-conscious wackiness. [Dec 2008, p.92]

Their no-frills shtick excites in small doses. [Apr 2011, p.89]

The result is alternatively maddening and satisfying. [Apr 2014, p.74]

A rockabilly Jesus And Mary Chain. [Mar 2003, p.114]

While they could use a second tune, this has bags of vitality and personality. [Sep 2009, p.84]

The chamber-pop arrangements make pretentiously snarled lyrics slip down smoothly. [Oct 2005, p.108]

The emphasis tends to be on hooks, not heart. [May 2005, p.100]

The naked, more soul-leaning titke track works nicely, as do the almost cosmic jazz explorations of "Didn't Come To argue" featuring Monica Martin), but for all the heavy sentiment and weight here, the results sometimes feel hollow. [May 2026, p.26]

Overall... the mood remains one of pleasant inconsequence. [Apr 2007, p.94]

Sky Larkin ultimately remain a little too Haley Mills. [Sep 2010, p.102]

The resultant 37-minute piece is atypical of wither band's work, aiming for something more freeform. And meandering.... Still, when it hinges together, Words absolves itself. [Dec 2014, p.80]

While they are at their most comfortable when laying down the ZZ Top meets Black Flag hardcore boogie of 'Skull Socks and Rope Shoes,' it's difficult not to be charmed by their wit, style and salute to Southern rock. [Sep 2008, p.89]

Finn remains an astute and supremely compassionate songwriter, but musically, New War is often mellow to the point of lethargic. It's best when it showcases his deep eccentricities. [May 2019, p.27]

These tracks feel less like performances than private reveries on which the listener eavesdrops. [Aug 2006, p.108]

Odds and sods, then, but not without appeal. [Jan 2008, p.101]

A solo album that sounds like a series of song sketches. [Feb 2009, p.89]

Much of the rest, alas, suggests a gift not for clairvoyance but invisibility. [May 2011, p.94]

An adventurous solo outing. [Oct 2002, p.112]

Throughout, his mellowness of tone is the album's defining feature. Miraculously, thanks to the minutiae of the arrangements, it's a sound that never becomes one dimensional. [Oct 2009, p.96]

So while it can get a bit too diffuse and self consciously complex, when the quartet breaks into something gorgeous (like the joyous tagliatelle of guitars that wriggles and wrinkles through "Uda Hah") you'll suspend your cynicism. [Jan 2010, p. 124]

Within And Without charts a familiar shimmery beachscape between Julee Cruise and Lynchpop, early OMD and Slowdive. A couple tracks emerge from the haze. [Aug 2011, p.89]

Merritt's pure voice is mostly accompanied by gentle piano on a set of songs that ultimately lack the fire of her earlier work. [June 2008, p.100]

The new line up and improved prodution give songs more space, but haven't hindered the jaunty, lo-fi, eclectic iindie that made "Moonbeams" such a treat. [Sep 2009, p.101]

Outbursts takes them full circle, back to their salad days as a melodic, acoustic folk-pop duo on simple, ringing, uplifting songs such as "Sea Change," "never Stops" and "Will Power," while the Radiohead-influenced "Radio Silence" hint at a grander ambition. [Apr 2010, p.106]

The songs--period pieces, admirably researched--lack that spark that turns pastiche into profundity. [Dec 2015, p.73]

North Star Deserter is among his finest, sublimating Chesnutt's occasional tendency to cloying whimsy in gothic folk backdrops. [Oct 2007, p.87]

Some good, powerful rock songs aside, this is a strange, honest, but not altogether convincing way to go out. [Mar 2018, p.32]

It's appealing stuff--Lil Wayne is a fan--while the pair's wit suggests they'll continue to stay ahead of the critical curve. [Sep 2008, p.85]

All round, the party vibe oozes self-confidence. [Dec 2010, p.90]

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

Once the shock subsides, it's quite charming. [Apr 2011, p.89]

Singer Orlando Weeks' new themes of intimacy and dependence, add emotional scope to a band blossoming from their spindly beginnings into a meaty prospect capable of doing goth XTC, jolly Joy Divisiion, and sword-dancing Strokes. [Jun 2009, p.92]

Once you get over the initial shock of Kelis' raw-throated take on country-rock on "Friday Fish Fry," the culinary theme becomes another ingredient that never quite blends into a tasty dish. [May 2014, p.76]

Signals a further burst of creativity, suggesting there are still great things to come from the Australian Lennon & McCartney. [Jul 2002, p.123]

While there are still some occasional bright spots, it never quite regains its earlier momentum. [Aug 2012, p.69]

Three of the 10 R&B covers he's recorded before, while the five original compositions faithfully plough his familiar tropes. [Oct 2017, p.35]

Their syrupy soft-rock instrumentals, here in abundance, stacked like fluffy breakfast pancakes, are moreishly, but the gimmick wear thin pretty quickly. [Aug 2015, p.78]

Basar is marred by a couple of misguided forays into coffee-table trip-hop, but when Africaine 808 aim for the dancefloor, they usually hit the spot. [Feb 2016, p.71]

Boasts and breakbeats are in short supply here. Instead, over gloomy strings, and pounding martial drums, Cudi rails against celebrity culture, confesses to coke-fuelled rages and even contemplates suicide. [Dec 2010, p.97]

Doesn't quite make it into the Thompson solo Top 10.... But it's good to have him back. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Martyn's voice has taken a few knocks, but the weathered quality adds character. [May 2014, p.77]

Some of it sounds like coffee-shop background fodder. [Apr 2006, p.96]

Musically, affairs lack Manson's customary anthemic poise, but tracks like "Heart-Shaped Glasses" draw on Berlin-era Bowie and Iggy's The Idiot with brooding panache. [Jul 2007, p.107]

The diversity here is testament to the sheer scope of his [Leon Russell's] writing. [Oct 2023, p.37]

It's ambitious, triumphantly executed stuff--melodically, lyrically, Tim Oxley-Rice is a vastly superior songsmith to Chris Martin--and will doubtless shortly be inescapable. But you can't shake the dispiriting feeling it might have all been expressly commissioned by Dave Cameron for the opening night of London 2012.

What Labyrinthes lacks in instant anthems, it makes up for in rich melodies, grand orchestration, and blooming arrangements, that stop short of bombast. [Jun 2009, p.92]

It's edgeless, overly polite, and arranged within an inch of its life. There's little room to move. [Apr 2015, p.71]

Fun, if inessential. [Aug 2011, p.93]

They're now coming across as though they're seriously indecisive, unable to take their upbeat dance-punk to its extremes. Tellingly, As If takes off when the group remove their vocals from centrestage. [Nov 2015, p.69]

Harvey maybe a bit too in love with a crunchy delay/distortion footswitch combo, but the likes of "Space Monkeys," he and his younger guys make a creditable, spacey blues. [Jan 2017, p.27]

Now in ihis late sixties, Miller's white soul voice and economical guitar-playing still pack a punch, while veteran R&B singer Sonny Charles assists with some well-placed harmonies. [Aug 2010, p.88]

It's hard to imagine anyone but the previously committed fan will be signing up here. [Sep 2010, p.99]

While the material is frequently just serviceable, the arrangements are inspired thanks to the virtuosic interplay of JaRon Marshall's gilded piano, Brendan Bond's percolating basslines and Quesada's sizzling solos. [Dec 2023, p.27]

There are flashes of thrilling chaos but all too often they are contained and subdued by fussy programming.

This, the follow-up to his lo-fi 2010 debut Learning is a dark business. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Spinnerette sees the former Distillers leader at the head of a band not dissimilar to that run by her husband, Josh Homme. [Jul 2009, p.101]

Ringo Deathstarr here reveal their maxi-cranked, MBV/Jesus and Mary Chain adoration in full. [March 2011, p. 99]

Attention Please sits at the softer end of the spectrum, a melodic set showcasing the sultry vocals of guitarist Wata. [Jul 2011, p.79]

Tracks such as "Where Ya Going?" and "Chicken Out"... make them sound like Southport's answer to ZZ Top. But there's plenty more going on that doesn't involve such dumbing-down. [Jul 2004, p.107]

Luckily he's such a gifted performer that, even if you don't know what he's saying, you kind of know what he means. [Feb 2005, p.76]

Though often pretty rather than memorable, there's enough vibrancy here to outlast the summer. [Jul 2005, p.90]

"Turn Your Heart Back On" shows the pair can still cut it when the moment is right. [May 2026, p.33]

It's bookended by two tracks that pastiche liquid funk and jungle with such faithfulness they might seem pointless to anyone but nostalgic former ravers, but in between there's much to love. [Jan 2012, p.104]

An occasionally frustrating listen, but never a dull one. [Apr 2017, p.28]

Kin still sounds like the work of a clued-up hipster who doesn't particularly like the grimly effective pop songs that she's able to write. [Oct 2016, p.40]

The fact that Feathers never really goes anywhere is beside the point. [May 2005, p.106]

Swans' Michael Gira and Douglas J. McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb sound very much at home. ... Elsewhere, more experimental link-ups slow the tempo, but create some intriguing collisions. [Apr 2017, p.23]

Its muted feel is accented by folk-blues tones that rarely break out of a shuffle, enlivened only by some buzzing electric guitar cameos by guests including Johnny Depp and Bob Mould. [Mar 2015, p.84]