The songs often seem over-anxious to build to show-stopping choruses. [Nov 2005, p.94]

Feels depends on a balancing act between brilliance and whimsy, and some may need convincing that a purposely childlike band... is not twee. [Nov 2005, p.110]

Occasionally, they lapse into their own shuffling comfort zone, but there's always a pixel-level attention to detail here. [Nov 2005, p.102]

A pleasant surprise: engaging, exciting, and a much better album than most bands can muster after 25 years together. [Nov 2005, p.106]

A moody and restrained affair. [Oct 2005, p.108]

Their heaviest to date. [Nov 2005, p.108]

A surreal, tender, revealing record. [Nov 2005, p.104]

Good enough that you barely notice Macca, Prince and the other obligatory guests. [Dec 2005, p.100]

In general, the album's too bare, reserved and repetitive to be easily loved by many. But it is brave, from a man still in motion. [Oct 2005, p.104]

A curiously anemic listen. [Feb 2006, p.78]

Beguiling. [Oct 2005, p.107]

The world is certainly overdue proper acquaintance with The Constantines. [Nov 2005, p.98]

This is MF Doom's most accessible moment to date. [Nov 2005, p.108]

The Runners Four displays intuitive melody and a childlike disregard for convention that's captivating enough to overcome any saccharine tendencies. [Dec 2005, p.116]

The album's meandering latter stages drag a little, but overall Cinder provides a grand musical landscape. [Nov 2005, p.114]

Neither embarrassing nor unenjoyable, then, but still an exercise bearing a cautionary sting. [Nov 2005, p.98]

Keys hasn't the charisma to indulge in the inter-song banter here, which breaks up any soulful flow that might develop despite her sharp, hectoring vocals. [Jan 2006, p.108]

A work of rejuvenating power on which Weller and his long-serving band attain a new sense of purpose and focus. [Nov 2005, p.94]

Starts powerfully... [but] fizzles out with corny ballads. [Nov 2005, p.111]

Fans of Fad Gadget and Add N To (X) take note. [Nov 2005, p.108]

In taming their eccentricity, Dios (Malos) have also lost some of their dreamy romanticism along the way. [Mar 2006, p.98]

Early Man pull off metal with a back-to-basics swagger--even if their relentless assault does get a bit samey by the end. [Nov 2005, p.111]

Dark cabaret with an unhinged, dervish energy. [Feb 2006, p.70]

Unlike the solar-powered efforts of The Thrills or The Polyphonic Spree, they understand, like The Beach Boys before them, that the best way to soundtrack a broken heart is to drench it in sunny three-part harmonies. [Jul 2005, p.102]

There's now a sardonic wit to these break-up ballads. [Dec 2005, p.120]

There's a real effort to forge beauty out of chaos without losing any of the chaos. [Album of the Month, Jan 2006, p.100]

As strong as this record is, there's a way to go to make good on the promise of its title. [Nov 2005, p.92]

Working with a major label has brought a new sheen to the Ladytronic wall of sound. [Oct 2005, p.94]

[A] triumphant resurrection. [Nov 2005, p.96]

There's nothing particularly profound here, but the combination of skanking, roots-reggae rhythms and O'Connor's still-gorgeous voice... is a winning one. [Nov 2005, p.106]

Contains the usual assortment of slurred tirades and workmanlike riffs, but it also features a smattering of minor Smith classics. [Nov 2005, p.96]

Lurch[es] from homecooked early Beck to the expansive hooks of Brian Wilson or Todd Rundgren. [Dec 2005, p.104]

Emily Haines is still secretly one of the most articulate, compelling performers in modern rock. [Feb 2006, p.70]

In among the glitch and twitch, however, lies the odd choice moment. [Nov 2005, p.114]

There is far too much going on at times. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Altogether lacking... is the crisp production that powered early hits like "Boo!", replaced by a rather unremarkable R&B job. [Nov 2005, p.94]

Musically at least, [Jacksonville] confirms Adams' restoration to rude health. [Oct 2005, p.106]

A cohesive album that is simultaneously Big Star-ish (but not slavishly so) and Chilton-like (but not depressingly so). [Oct 2005, p.98]

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

Wildflower is more satisfying, less self-consciously searching for radio-friendliness [than C'Mon C'mon]. [Nov 2005, p.100]

An essential half-term report. [Nov 2005, p.94]

Witty, tragi-comic lyrics layered over busy beats, strings and electronic flourishes which never sacrifice intimacy. [Nov 2005, p.114]

Like most of their work, it all sounds teasingly familiar. [Jun 2005, p.97]

All in all, another album of low-key brilliance. [Sep 2005, p.114]

Frequently appealing. [Nov 2005, p.103]

Deep, warm, fully rounded and with no slack, Prairie Wind is Neil at his best. [Oct 2005, p.101]

The trio has acquired the confidence to cherry-pick tropes from dark-rock's heritage and mould them into thier own glum grooves. [Mar 2006, p.100]

Sisters Of Mercy fans will remain defiantly nonplussed. [Nov 2005, p.103]

Things go downhill as petty vindictiveness and insignificant beefs become the preferred themes. [Jan 2006, p.114]

Pleasantly discreet, resolutely unengaging. [Oct 2005, p.107]

Despite this record's twilight charms, the group may need to become more expansive if they want to head further out there. [Oct 2005, p.96]

McCulloch's misplaced his mystique, and resembles a pub singer with an over-extended tab, while Sergeant's guitar lines settle lazily at long-drawn borders. [Oct 2005, p.94]

Another blast of super-slick soul. [Aug 2005, p.102]

Every element of Certified is exaggerated.... It frequently makes for energised hip hop. [Jan 2006, p.105]

Stupendously silly but... indisputably proficient. [Nov 2005, p.103]

His is a gentler, pastoral treat. [Nov 2005, p.111]

A sweatstorm of strum and twang. [Dec 2005, p.106]

If there's a signpost that Cripple Crow isn't quite the record it could've been, it's that the most engaging moments here recall Banhart records past. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Brakes sound like The Jesus & Mary Chain with Tourette's. [Aug 2005, p.102]

If you're a fan, Where You Live is classic Chapman. [Oct 2005, p.94]

Adds extra confidence and clarity to the same basic ingredients. [Oct 2005, p.107]

A murky return to the denim'n'leather heartlands of 2000's Thirteen Tales. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Feels timid and trite. [Oct 2005, p.98]

With Calexico's sensitive muting of colour, Beam is clearly thriving throughout. [Nov 2005, p.112]

The band's blend of psychedelia and angular guitar menace is invigorating. [Jan 2006, p.112]

These are McCartney's most arresting songs for a long, long while. [Oct 2005, p.94]

Some fascinating music but... you suspect Parish's talents are best utilised as a collaborator. [Oct 2005, p.111]

Sigur Ros' alien beauty prescribes its own definition. [Oct 2005, p.112]

Rather desperately impersonates The Killers. [Mar 2006, p.94]

Super Furry Animals have just made perhaps the defining record of their career. [Sep 2005, p.100]

Rammed with stinging hooks and ringing harmonies. [Oct 2005, p.112]

Once you've digested the background information, tracks that seem slightly twee and aloof spring into focus. [Sep 2005, p.100]

A joyous, uninhibited and painlessly adventurous ride. [Oct 2005, p.124]

An understated, often truly lovely debut. [Apr 2006, p.106]

The success rate is variable. [Oct 2005, p.94]

Hawley resurrects ghosts of music past and breathes new, poignant life into their forms. [Oct 2005, p.110]

It's not their reworkings of songs by Charley Patton, Fred McDowell and RL Burnside that impress most here, but rather their own compositions. [Apr 2006, p.114]

There are some outstanding songs here, and Jagger turns in a series of performances that are their match, full of much defiant flouncing, strutting bitchiness, preening arrogance, snarling haughtiness and a typically provocative misogyny. [Album of the Month, Oct 2005, p.92]

The funk-noir backing means that Dulli is able to purr lyrics about "sexy ladies", debilitating cocaine habits and your standard-issue emotionally violent love affairs without sounding as trite as he perhaps should. [Mar 2006, p.104]

They sizzle with verve and invention. [Jun 2005, p.98]

Their failure to shift pace from a relentlessly wistful chug makes for an oddly exhausting listening experience. [Oct 2005, p.98]

A dozen songs of unremitting blandness by a man with absolutely nothing left to say. [Oct 2005, p.96]

The record feels lifeless. [Apr 2006, p.112]

Mostly brilliant. [Aug 2005, p.88]

A charming composite of Damon Gough's homespun insight and Edith Piaf's anguish. [May 2005, p.106]

Sparse, literate... and full of killer tunes. [Sep 2005, p.105]

There's emotional violence, spiritual leaps and supernatural powers lurking in the shadows. [Nov 2005, p.96]

By turns darker and more challenging than 2003's dazzling Electric Version. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Prove[s] Haas has more to offer than ear-crunching cacophony. [Sep 2005, p.105]

The only consistent thing about Infiniheart is its inconsistency. [Sep 2005, p.116]

Year Of Meteors is no flat-out masterpiece.... Still, Veirs is clearly moving in the right direction. [Sep 2005, p.102]

[The Warlocks] have replaced The Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3 with The Jesus And Mary Chain and Spiritualized as the objects of their affections, and Surgery is significantly less interesting as a result. [Oct 2005, p.110]

Bjork's vocals are a hypnotic midnight whisper, a continuation of Medulla's vocal layering techniques. [Sep 2005, p.117]

Warnings/Promises was written on acoustic guitar and fleshed out in the studiio--a tactic that bears mixed results. [Apr 2005, p.97]

Even as a covers band, Madness remain one step beyond. [Aug 2005, p.90]

The Outsider is delivered with the forthrightness, jive and firepower of a hip Southern Baptist preacher. [Aug 2005, p.102]

With just two original compositions, it looks as if they may be running out of steam. [Sep 2005, p.108]

Everything here roars. [May 2006, p.108]