Ambitions here, you feel, do not extend far beyond ‘a good time, all the time’-–it’s probably telling that the band name derives from a cocktail lounge on Sunset Boulevard-–but then, Moretti probably wouldn’t want it any other way.

The less mannered material shines brightest. [Apr 2012, p.75]

Remarkable less for the tunes than the sheer, punchy exuberance on show. [Dec 2001, p.120]

Sincere but Hokey homilies test the patience, but she brings imaginative vocal skills and real life experiences to "White Room," which displays a certain determined character. [Jun 2011, p.86]

Once again, Daschanel demonstrates a deep understanding and irony-free love of innocent, old-school pop craft in her writing, but too many of the chorus hooks pass by without sticking, and aome of the stacked-up vocal arrangements sag under their own weight. [May 2010, p.102]

Light and airy, pretty in parts, but devoid of muscle, grit or originality. [May 2002, p.96]

The Antlers, fronted by the sepulcral warble of Peter Silberman, manage to distinguish themselves slightly from these shuffling, mournful legions by bringing to bear a gently epic sensibility that verges on the orchestral. [Jul 2011, p.77]

Guitar fans will particularly enjoy tracks like "Life Pass" and "Let It Out," where the solos are enjoyably garish. [Sep 2016, p.73]

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? is no return to the glory days, it is a credible reprise of their old-school rolling and one-two punch, spiked with heavy psychedelic guitar. [Dec 2020, p.36]

Although the songs are both traditional and modern, the mood of gentle awe and foreboding wonder is all of a piece. [Nov 2006, p.102]

Accelerate is a simple, pragmatic record built on an uncomfortable truth: sometimes, even the best bands have to retrace their steps, if only to remind themselves what they're really good at.

Ultimately you're left frustrated by the safety first approach. [Mar 2014, p.71]

This is a "Talk Of the Town" of the mind, and he is clearly in his elemnt. [Dec 2008, p.100

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

Heady and infused with whimsy, their second full-length flows effortlessly from dreamy girl-group pop to electro-bossa nova. [Feb 2009, p.76]

Treasury Library Canada feels less whimsical and more polished, although Hamilton still sticks closely to his signature mix of rich acoustic chamber-pop arrangemnts and quietly barbed lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.107]

It ain't always pretty. [Oct 2009, p.104]

Too many songs like "Spiral" lapse into mere pleasantness, but the clockwork body music of tracks like "Middle" and "Lady Luck" is compelling. [Jun 2011, p.86]

There are moments when the orchestrated bathos feels promising. .... But the lyrical clunkers pile up and ultimately capsize an intriguing venture into sophisti-pop. [Aug 2024, p.39]

Drew's desire to be all things to all 'hoods is the weakness of the soundtrack to his debut movie. [Oct 2012, p.86]

There's a little too much preciousness here. [Oct 2014, p.72]

The gambit [space-age sheen and quantised grooves] works on the trippy title track and the confrontational "If You Want It," but elsewhere it robs the band's hyper-rhythmic attack of its viscerally human feel. [Jan 2017, p.28]

A much more orthodox, plaid-shirted affair that draws heavily from the early '70s. [Jan 2016, p.73]

While house purists might find it juvenile, and there are some aimless passages, the lo-fi production is beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.87]

If you had Yamagata bagged as "winsome singer-songwriter," the breadth and ambition of this double-disc will knock you sideways. [Apr 2009, p.105]

Some of the music here illustrates the limitations of the formula, sometimes lapsing into lumpy blues-rock or new-age noodling. [May 2016, p.70]

It's all very tasteful and refined, but ultimately feels a little bloodless. [Feb 2024, p.30]

It's solid stuff. But he's got a way to go to rise above his influences. [Jun 2011, p.86]

They've got a food ear for summer anthems but Jungle lacks the knowing self-deprecation and tender lyricism of Hot Chip or Metronomy, so all you're left with here is a pleasant pastiche. [Aug 2014, p.75]

Rough-hewn thrills abound. [Jan 2019, p.21]

This is one record on which his ultimate masterplan to weld R&B sass to thumping club beats comes good. [Aug 2010, p.84]

Fellow Pretender James Walbourne provides deft guitar and keyboard accompaniment, but it’s the personality and allure of a distinctive voice that keeps you in the parlour. [Jul 2021, p.27]

Huey's gruffy mannered vocals predominate--apparently the aim is to steer listeners to the originals, in which case, job done. [Jan 2011, p.94]

The likes of "Minimum Wage" and "Too Much Not Enough" sound like a youth-club band who've simultaneously overdosed on Haribo and the Gang Of Four, which is both preposterous and admirable behavior from people in their thirties. [Jun 2014, p.71]

Production touches aren't enough to elevate a set of songs that when stripped to their skeleton are sufficient if unspectacular. [Mar 2019, p.32]

Syrupy piano ballads remain a blind spot for Morris, who seems to be soundtracking ab imaginary Richard Curtis comedy n the sappy, soppy title track. But "rose Garden" is great, it's whopping Kate Bush-isms spliced with staccato mechanised beats. [Mar 2017, p.31]

This recurring tendency to grandiosity is especially frustrating given that less is generally more throughout the album. [Nov 2022, p.35]

For those of us in love with Something/Anything and A Wizard, A True Star, recent Rundgren LPs have us squinting our ears, trying to locate the genius hidden behind obfuscating layers of electronic bluster. [May 2013, p.76]

Chroma strikes a largely upbeat mood, producer Dan Carey foregrounding a McGuinness vocal that's more often irksome than endearing amid the skittering rockabilly beats and lively but derivative soundscapes. [Sep 2014, p.75]

This one needed longer in the incubator. [Jun 2015, p.81]

Pushing too hard, then or maybe not hard enough. [Jun 2012, p.79]

Either annoyingly sweet or refereshingly well-adjusted, depending on your mood. [Oct 2002, p.107]

As the strident piano ballads and flatly aggressive production pound on, though, it's more AGT than Kanye. [Jan 2020, p.25]

While clearly a cathartic outing, most of it slips into pretty formulaic and repetitive territory. [Sep 2025, p.29]

A lachrymose collection of Elvis Costello-rootsy, mid-Atlantic songs expertly constructed but running rather low on stardust. [Jul 2020, p.36]

Even a recreation of the harmonica sound from "When The Levee Breaks" on "The Falling Sky" and the same song's famous cavernous beat on "Sacred The Thread" can't help either song stick in the memory. [Sep 2023, p.27]

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

Other than the limp "Money," they ["Lose Control" and "Push Yourself"] pull these off pretty well--they're certainly more memorable than bog-standard guitar anthem "welcome To The Rave." [Mar 2013, p.69]

Angel Guts: Red Classroom is by turns darkly unsettling and unintentionally funny. [Mar 2014, p.85]

It still possesses a certain screwball charm, particularly the curdled croon of "I Don't Mind The Wait," but too often sounds like smug pastiche. [Nov 2021, p.30]

These pallid songs comprise a barely disguised homage. [Mar 2014, p.80]

It's hard to tell whether These People is an intentional, semi-Springsteenian work of self-reference, or whether Ashcroft just hasn't had any other ideas. [Jun 2016, p.69]

They could afford to take more liberties with the musical cliches thereof: listening to Gaslighter is a bit like eating 12 courses of dessert. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Few of these chugging bar-room stompers register as earworms, even after repeated listens. [Oct 2015, p.76]

Hard, and not necessarily rewarding, work. [Nov 2015, p.75]

What's here feels a bit decaffeinated, downbeat Moby-ish electronica over which Lynch speaks or sings in a shaky blues croon. [Sep 2013, p.91]

Echoes of Conor Oberst abound but the tunes lack the same charm, with even covers of Spacemen 3 (“Sound Of Confusion”) and Townes Van Zandt (“No Place To Fall”) unable to keep ears pricked up. [Dec 2024, p.37]

Its collision of tea-time melodrama and Gary Barlow make her sound more Pop Idol than pop idol. [Jun 2013, p.67]

They sound reinvigorated, if somewhat aimless. [Nov 2016, p.40]

Brian Jonestown do this stuff so much better. [Nov 2016, p.40]

She fails to stand out in a crowded marketplace. [Feb 2013, p.79]

Far the best things here are the relatively restrained title track and the acoustic ballad "Die Trying." Elsewhere, it's the stodgy gruel of yore. [Oct 2016, p.37]

Julia Shapiro and Bree McKenna's vocals are brash and bratty, and there's no doubt that they'd be great fun live, but over 13 songs and half an hour, the jokes get pretty laboured. [Nov 2015, p.72]

Air and Zero 7 are perhaps the nearest reference points. [Dec 2001, p.106]

On cutesy likes of "King And Lionheart," they're closer in spirit to the plague of emoters loosed upon the world by the success of Mumford & Sons. [Sep 2012, p.81]

Mostly these dry, derivative, rather dreary songs of endeavour are a hard slog. [Jun 2015, p.84]

Breakup Song is all right, but ultimately, it's an unnecessary listen. [Nov 2012, p.72]

As ever, the technical chops are indisputable--but it does, with fewer brains on board, feel somehow less substantial. [Nov 2019, p.22]

A New Found Relaxation promises much but never fully delivers. [Aug 2020, p.33]

This painful exercise in manufactured soul-baring Is a genuinely grim proposition. [Apr 2012, p.82]

It's the usual earnestly proficient, blandly yearning fare, every song a Hallmark valentine set to a John Lewis Christmas advertisement. [Nov 2016, p.35]

Too busy with ideas for its own good. [Jun 2014, p.76]

Much of Mediation of Ecstatic Energy is content to sit, lost in a maze of Echoplex, navigating its own navel. [Nov 2013, p.81]

[The] rather slight songs raise the suspicion you would get more out of listening to Clinic's record collection than the band themselves. [Oct 2012, p.68]

American Soul is more rewarding than Phil Collins' recent album of Motown covers, but is ultimately defined by a similar sense of futility. [Dec 2012, p.72]

When they succeed, it's on more traditional Pumpkins territory. ... Otherwise, Cyr sounds like an underwhelming misadventure. [Jan 2021, p.32]

For the most part, Laugh Now, Cry Later plays like an unsuccessful attempt to regain hood status. [Sep 2006, p.86]

A disappointing triumph of retro-goth style over substance. [Jul 2013, p.80]

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

It is difficult, however, to detect any Latin influence upon what is another collection of lilting, lulling Joni Mitchell Pastiches pitched largely between winsome and the twee. [Aug 2017, p.37]

Idlewild throw together plenty of ideas--without much cohesion. [May 2019, p.29]

Only when she reels off her thank-yous at the end- a list as interminable as an Oscars speech - does she sound remotely happy. [July 2002, p.120]

A solid, by-the-numbers Billy Idol album. And that is both its triumph and its tragedy. [Apr 2005, p.99]

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

Are You Alone? hints at a Blue Nile-like melancholy beauty; otherwise the album could be prescribed as a treatment for insomnia. [Dec 2015, p.74]

The songs' relative lack of eccentricity makes CocoRosie seem oddly run-of-the-mill. [Apr 2020, p.25]

It's less derivative than some current house revivalists, and perfect wallpaper for independent coffee shops, but you can't really get down to such studiousness. [Jan 2015, p.74]

Guitarist Hugh Harris can still finesse a scintillating riff, but derivative would-be hipster anthems with hip-hop bolt-on "Around Town" and "It Was London" suggest a band aware that their time has come, and gone. [Oct 2014, p.74]

Their habit of singing in close harmony can be pretty but leaves little room for interesting vocal interplay. [Aug 2013, p.68]

Varies immensely in quality. [Dec 2004, p.137]

For the most part, Green and Shapiro come over like a couple working their troubles in group therapy through gritted teeth. [Feb 2013, p.73]

Too much here feels diaphanous and directionless. [Review of the Year 2025, p.29]

There are worth while curiosities here: his "Bad Blood" is utterly tuneless, but "Blank Space" is appealingly tremulous. [Dec 2015, p.67]

The result is a disjointed, jarring mix of washy atmospherics, bleary electronics and half-baked songs. [Sep 2017, p.23]

“Sex Magik” and “If We Get Caught” offer unashamedly lusty visions punctuated by agreeable glimpses of pop glitter. Otherwise, though, waspish, charismatically delivered lyrics are let down by workaday instrumental backing. [Jun 2022, p.25]

Despite this gaggle of helpers, If I Kill This is a surprisingly muted affair. [May 2015, p.75]

Batmanglij rarely gets out of first gear, fussing through vanilla ballads like "Hardy" and "Forgive Is To Know". [Jun 2026, p.34]

The Musicianship is on point, the recoding crystal clear. But as a listener, it feels difficult to penetrate the album's inky darkness, and you suspect they like it that way. [Feb 2015, p.77]