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]

Black Cherry this ain't, then. As a companion piece to its genius predecessor, though, Supernature iis planty to be going on with. [Sep 2005, p.108]

Shelley deliver[s] his best songs in years. [Apr 2006, p.96]

It's probably the most personal project of Gilmour's career. [Apr 2006, p.108]

It's sleek, goth-leaning alt.pop, but ILYBICD's music ultimately leaves less of an impression than their band name. [May 2006, p.109]

Their naggingly overused Farfisa is balanced by otherwise beautifully layered, complex arrangements of trombone, electronics and harmony vox. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Mudhoney these days, for all their pioneer status, mostly just sound like a regular, decent rock band. [Apr 2006, p.105]

Mr Beast, by Mogwai's normally formidable standards, underwhelms. [Apr 2006, p.96]

Recalls Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in the way it mingles dark and light, hard and soft, innocence and experience. [Feb 2006, p.80]

With Fox Confessor, she has defiantly come into her own. [Apr 2006, p.106]

A quietly glorious affair. [Apr 2006, p.110]

From start to finish it's an anti-diva joy. [Apr 2006, p.110]

It would be fanciful, not to mention disrespectful, to say that Morrison has waited his whole career to make this album. But he makes it sound like he has. [Apr 2006, p.96]

A downbeat, solipsistic but utterly beautiful amalgam of mood-altering substances and 1980s alt.rock. [Mar 2006, p.100]

It's the vivid, virulent product of the Maels' warped imaginations. [Mar 2006, p.90]

Even fans of their main groups might feel that its sole purpose is to emphasise the 'trial' in 'terrestrial'. [May 2006, p.124]

Inhabiting the same last-dance ballroom as Portishead's noir torch songs, this monument to ennui is prettily impressive. [Mar 2006, p.90]

Part inspired, part impenetrable. [Mar 2006, p.104]

Smoothes the edges between Jamaican sound-system bass, calypso rhythm, Middle Eastern melody and vintage soul. [Apr 2006, p.110]

It manages to be forceful and intricate in equal amounts. [May 2006, p.129]

At times, it's as if he's paying homage to his touchstones rather than using them for grist. [Apr 2006, p.114]

Their sound is now driven by a dark undertow, with heavy psych-rock and muscly R&B inflections. [May 2006, p.119]

The band's trademark guitars [are] so polished you can almost whiff the Mr Sheen. [Apr 2006, p.98]

A mini masterwork of magic-realist Britpop melodrama. [Apr 2006, p.108]

Nine Black Alps possess a secret weapon befitting a band whose emergence sparked a transatlantic A&R scramble: tunes. [Jun 2005, p.104]

A sampling tour de force, but short on soul. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Whether you love or hate The Research will depend upon your tolerance for cheap keyboards. [Mar 2006, p.103]

Arbez not only shatters the risible notion that dance music is currently unwell, he also presents thrilling new ways of approaching pop, folk and rock'n'roll. [May 2005, p.100]

It's certainly more assured and less wilfully angsty than Cast Of Thousands. However, it still lacks the special unified mood or thread of Asleep. [Oct 2005, p.110]

The thrill it provides will send a shiver of recognition through anyone who grew up with The Specials, The Smiths or Parklife. [Album of the Month, March 2006, p.86]

Even when Orbit treads water--which by and large he is with this record--the ripples resonate beautifully. [Mar 2006, p.104]

The implausible but winning transformation is complete: Arab Strap have made a genuinely uplifting record. [Dec 2005, p.109]

An uneven mix. [Feb 2006, p.70]

A singular, rhapsodic triumph. [Apr 2007, p.94]

A beguiling mix made more loveable by its melancholic core. [Aug 2006, p.100]

A great album but, compared to their live shows, this is like listening to a circus. [Aug 2006, p.100]

The raw poetic facade occasionally cracks, but there is something special here. [Mar 2006, p.88]

Initially seems more listener-friendly than Volume 1... [but] Congotronics remains radical listening. [Jan 2006, p.125]

At their best when strings and horns--even a sousaphone--let some air flood through a dense mix, they could even be an American Supergrass in waiting. [Sep 2006, p.89]

Beneath their limpid surfaces, Mark "E" Everett's songs are volatile dollops of emotional explosive. [Mar 2006, p.98]

While often inscrutable, it's seldom boring. [Jun 2006, p.110]

A self-indulgent but sporadically compelling mess. [Jan 2006, p.102]

It's an odd confection, part digitally-lush Spector-pop, part Dido-esque thirtysomething ennui. [Feb 2006, p.68]

Some occasional local-band lyricism proves to be an Achilles Heel. [Sep 2005, p.108]

A warm, subtle set of midtempo cruisers. [May 2006, p.114]

Mullins is a solid, occasionally platitudinous songwriter whose rustic tales don't approach the wry, wise gifts of similar artists like Johns Prine and Hiatt. [Mar 2006, p.88]

As primers go, it's close to definitive. [Mar 2006, p.112]

A career milestone. [Mar 2006, p.91]

Mileage left in the gag yet. [Apr 2005, p.108]

Without altering her style drastically, Orton has broadened her approach on what is her most accomplished record to date. [Mar 2006, p.94]

A bunch of amazing songs that combine the passion of early Sinead O'Connor with the craft of Christine McVie. [Jan 2005, p.124]

Their best effort yet. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Hard not to admire his audacity as much as his ear for a great drivetime radio riff.

His cluttered beatscapes suggest random sounds in search of a meaning. [Mar 2006, p.103]

The 'contemporary classical' tag doesn't do justice to their cinematic, intense instrumental narratives. [Mar 2006, p.104]

Collett's debut album reveals him as an alt.country confessionalist akin to Paul Westerberg. [Apr 2006, p.108]

His home-recorded approach reaches imaginatively beyond glossy pastiche. [Mar 2006, p.90]

Recall[s] the tin-pot vigour and gutsy emotional bite of... Guided By Voices. [Mar 2006, p.94]

The occasional ordinary moment confirms a suspicion that Sway only really excels when he's playing the comic foil. [Mar 2006, p.88]

This is a cool dance album... but Tiga lacks that all-important 'X factor'. [Mar 2006, p.100]

If Saint Etienne are finally growing up, this wistful adulthood becomes them. [Jul 2005, p.96]

It's primitive, geezerish stuff but lacks, say, the finesse and humour of contemporary Mike Skinner's work. [Oct 2005, p.112]