Mostly the mood is dark. Kinda seductive, too. [Jun 2006, p.120]

This is a terrific, sustained album. [Aug 2006, p.93]

The emotional distance in their music is hard to bridge. [Jun 2006, p.126]

Comes across like a hi-fi version of Tom Waits at his gnarliest. [Jun 2006, p.92]

Guthrie folds delicate electronic treatments into his statuesque, joyous melodies. [Jul 2006, p.95]

Rather than a departure from the zig-zag folktronica of The Beta Band, [it is] more an incremental shift in oddness. [Jun 2006, p.105]

This doesn't disappoint. [Jun 2006, p.114]

Adopting Franz Ferdinand's arty edginess and the raw energy of the Pistols, Art Brut tilt at everything from the ephemeral nature of popular culture to erectile dysfunction. [Jun 2005, p.100]

DM's production is unfocused but showy and the album's postmodern lurches suggest a frustrating attention defecit disorder. [Jun 2006, p.90]

For those of us who prefer Neil when he's plugged-in and splenetic, it's tempting to call the album his best since 1990's Ragged Glory. Living With War, though, is too much of a frontline dispatch, too consumed with the present, to be easily catalogued for posterity. [Jul 2006, p.82]

Snapping snare, pump-organ and wiry guitar frame Jenkins' mood of stoned baroque beautifully. [Jun 2006, p.122]

These rattling songs... feel like disturbing European fairy tales. [Jun 2006, p.97]

Everything now seems as worn out and used up as Lytle's subjects, along with the imagery that brings them to life. [Jun 2006, p.108]

[It] is such an unassuming creation that the deceptively vast scale of its ambition only becomes apparent after several listens. [Jun 2006, p.103]

By turns poppy, cerebral and conceptually cute. [Jun 2006, p.106]

The supersized culmination of the Chili Peppers' artistic journey. [Jun 2006, p.102]

A comeback of unexpected maturity and power. [Jun 2006, p.110]

So much of Eyes Open is nearly, but not quite. [Jun 2006, p.114]

Intriguing. [Jul 2007, p.116]

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

It's impressive... but it will be interesting to see whether his undoubted talent will flourish beyond such a conceit. [Sep 2006, p.83]

One of the most intriguing walls of sound since My Bloody Valentine circa Isn't Anything. [Jul 2006, p.97]

Talk of Simpatico as the band's Sandinista! is, in truth, wide of the mark. It's better seen as a footpath linking the claustrophobia of their early work with the Black Country funk of Wonderland, while hinting at a way forward. [May 2006, p.124]

It understandably struggles with a weightiness, an emotional claustrophobia. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Only emphasises their problems. [Jul 2006, p.92]

Fortunately, the sturdy rock instrumentation of Green Day producer Rob Cavallo serves to tamp down her pervasive air of self-importance while minimising the cringe factor in her lyrics. [Jul 2006, p.98]

At best this sees them hold their own. [Jul 2006, p.101]

If their songs occasionally resemble the power ballads that grunge supposedly outmoded, that's the price of being a truly potent classic rock band. [Jun 2006, p.109]

As daunting as its title suggests. [Jul 2006, p.114]

Amazingly, it somehow avoids the drivel of The Darkness by sheer gleeful abandon. [Jun 2006, p.98]

A sprinkle of Flaming Lips fairy-dust may be just what the genre needs to slip its genre straitjacket. [Jul 2006, p.114]

A fine showing. [Jul 2006, p.84]

An erratic mix of mundane, London-centric Skinnerisms and out-of-focus political ire. [Sep 2005, p.100]

If there's any justice, the stadiums of tomorrow await them. [Apr 2006, p.105]

The setting may have changed, the soundtrack is boosted and richer, grimier yet cleaner, but Skinner's predicaments remain the same. [May 2006, p.110]

A powerful example of how songs reverberate through the years to accrue contemporary meaning. [Jun 2006, p.92]

Riley has mellowed with age, so the politicking is shot through with humour. [Jun 2006, p.94]

All The Roadrunning isn't quite the success they would have hoped. The problem, perversely enough, lies in the disparity of voices. [May 2006, p.126]

Vent and Nunez revel in their experiments like science nerds let loose in the lab. [Jul 2006, p.111]

A somewhat humourless affair. [Jun 2006, p.115]

The best tracks... are almost as good as Television's monumental Marquee Moon. [May 2006, p.100]

Spiky, lyrical, quiveringly pretty. [May 2006, p.100]

Another melodic, meticulous, faintly redundant restoration job. [Jul 2006, p.90]

A fearsome blast. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Without the scuffed overload of his teenage releases, it's obvious that these are newly minted. [May 2006, p.98]

Fairly mundane. [Aug 2006, p.86]

While the debut was full of witty, Sparksy songs, Yes, Virginia is awash with mawkishly earnest ballads that suggest Tori Amos after a spell at drama school. [May 2006, p.104]

A Blessing... is perhaps a more personal and introspective record than usual. But truly there's still a lot to marvel at. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Clever-clever, emotional-emotional avant-pop. [Jun 2006, p.100]

What elevates Under The Covers above mimicry is the poignancy of the performances from all concerned. [May 2006, p.124]

Joyless but effective. [May 2006, p.124]

Built To Spill's blend of expressive guitar playing and light to moderate whining plays as well today as it did when the band emerged nearly 15 years ago. [Jul 2007, p.96]

Burns and Convertino prove they can play it relatively straight, without sacrificing Calexico's hard-earned status as a band that matters. [May 2006, p.104]

This is one mighty party album. [May 2006, p.105]

Elan Vital takes the visceral, intense beauty of... The New Romance and turns it up a notch. [May 2006, p.119]

There's a tendency to drift rather than fully engage, but... "Wolves" and... "Thin Blue Line"... dazzle with poetic imagery and invention. [Apr 2006, p.102]

It's a pity that the immaculate construction that is Ghosts now has an extension tacked on to it. [Apr 2006, p.119]

More organic and less electronic... but... still thrillingly left-field. [Jun 2006, p.106]

[Has] an uninspiring production line-up. [Jul 2006, p.101]

In Ze's hands Tropicalia is still a potent, living artistic force. [Jul 2006, p.118]

When they learn to perfect a climax without gaining flab, this band could be a truly transcendental prospect. [May 2006, p.129]

A small-hours gem. [Jun 2006, p.100]

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

Only in Victoria Bergman's singing on "Sunbeams" do you hear any of their early shaky charm. [Apr 2006, p.113]

Make no mistake, the Lips have done it: three astonishing LPs in a row. [May 2006, p.94]

Funnily enough, it's the lyrics that let Ringleader down the most. [Apr 2006, p.94]

Extremely mixed results. [May 2006, p.119]

The endless drug references now seem calculating rather than risque, while the daft lyrics simply grate. [Apr 2006, p.106]

Confounds all expectations. [May 2006, p.128]

Candyfloss choruses hamper Bubba's shots at a market-friendly take on his introspective style. [May 2006, p.122]

The London trio have wheeled in so many trunkloads of technical expertise to embellish the material that it starts to stagger under its own weight. [Nov 2006, p.128]

It's a remarkably seamless companion piece to her previous [compilation disc]. [May 2006, p.122]

Their debut's brevity and sharp hooks suggest a band with an acute sense of purpose. [Aug 2006, p.100]

They've yet to match the live genius of the [Arcade] Fire, but their album's got much more life than their static stage shows. [Aug 2006, p.95]

It's only when they change pace on "Cheated Hearts" and the equally poignant "Dudley"... that Bones makes its mark as a worthy successor to Fever. [Apr 2006, p.98]

A couple of missteps aside, this is Ghost's best since that '96 debut, Ironman. [Jun 2006, p.102]

A slickly accomplished affair, rarely inspirational. [Jul 2006, p.101]

This large, noisy album will probably satisfy Embrace enthusiasts while continuing to baffle those who can't see the point. [May 2006, p.105]

The qualities that once made The Verve the nation's top anthemists are recognisably intact on this new effort, from its stately pace to its burnished sense of grandeur. [Feb 2006, p.70]

Nobody else writes songs like Treacy. [Mar 2006, p.103]

Much of Drum's Not Dead suggests a Ligeti score for The Blair Witch Project as played by The Residents. [Mar 2006, p.88]

Feels freshly ironic and original. [Apr 2006, p.98]

What Harper's over-educated style can't replicate is his heroes' blazing souls. [Apr 2006, p.114]

An air of cheerful scepticism prevails over the 10 tracks, all bathed in the kind of dry, warm production favoured by early-'70s radio rock. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Beneath the cheery chug and carnival-like fizz beats a sombre heart. [Oct 2006, p.117]

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

[The] results [are] worryingly like a jam session between Ben Folds and John Bonham. [Apr 2006, p.110]

A deeply enjoyable pop-funk record. [May 2006, p.114]

Band Of Horses specialise in melodic melancholy with a sheen of hope. [May 2006, p.107]

It's clear The Essex Green have joined The New Pornographers and The Shins among indie-pop's most insinuating and accomplished bands. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Madlib stretches out impressively without vocalists to contain him, but you sense the real bangers have been saved for another occasion. [Jun 2006, p.106]

It's frequently chaotic, but instruments occasionally coalesce into unusual, oddly beautiful forms. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Touches of ska... and ethereal dream-rock... betray a penchant for late-'70s guitar experimentation, alchemised here by a brilliant pop sheen. [Jul 2004, p.101]

Morph... sounds utterly of a piece with Aja. [Apr 2006, p.104]

The likes of "Hard To Beat" and "Cash Machine" jack not just the offbeat skank and dubby bass of The Specials but some of their creeping dread and downbeat humanity as well. [Aug 2005, p.92]

The overall tone is bracingly sour but surprisingly accessible. [Apr 2006, p.98]

Throughout, Coxon's masterly musicianship and shameless enthusiasm for such modish fare pulses like an electric current. [Apr 2006, p.110]

Retains a uniform ambience of savage, unsmiling riffing. [Jun 2005, p.114]