Already it feels like they're playing to a rapidly disappearing crowd. [Mar 2012, p.89]

Music without charm or purpose, with all the nutritional value of a Twinkie. [Apr 2012, p.71]

Toris 10th refuses to gel into anything illuminating. [Jun 2009, p.83]

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

If their third album doesn't exactly do anything new in the field, it is undoubtedly well observed. [Apr 2016, p.82]

Some of their poppiest songs to date. [Nov 2006, p.106]

The veteran Frankfort duo's rather sterile approach to arty club bangers such as "divine" and "Regenerate" leaves them creatively stranded, scoring a hair-gel as on the VIVA channel. [Jun 2010, p.83]

Their brand of gut-wrenching emo, aligned to fearsome fantasy rock remains both wildly overcooked and deeply derivative. [Jun 2013, p.79]

The Less you know is a rather ponderous return to form. [Dec 2011, p.81]

Sadly, nothing on Meteora comes close to the piano-laced pathos of previous hit "In The End." [Jun 2003, p.110]

Few of the colourful oddities that filled his debut remain, but there's still much melodic guile to admire--albeit increasingly difficult to love. [Sep 2004, p.96]

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

We're All Somebody delivers high-sheen Billboard country fare, more Keith Urban than back-porch picking. [Sep 2016, p.81]

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

His mystical belief in the power of love pervades the material, sometimes anthemically, sometimes playfully, but always disarmingly. [Oct 2007, p.96]

Smith's lyrical flights of fancy come off somewhat top-heavy, but by and large such bookish pretentions feel like something to appreciate, not castigate. [Mar 2014, p.79]

This two-disc compilation charting the journey suggests it was simply a matter of waiting for Travis to falter, tweaking the Coldplay template and amping up the earnest Celtic bluster. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

Comparisons are inevitable, but take nothing away from Asa's own character. [Apr 2011, p.75]

The result is state-of-the-art pop played by a meat-and-potatoes indie band, and sounds a bit like the Stereo MCs. [Oct 2011, p.89]

It's Brown's voice that holds it all together. [Mar 2019, p.24]

Too often, though, we find shaw sloshing around in cyber-soup, drunk on technology and singing existential love songs in a manner akin to Alexander Armstrong scatting with Squarepusher. [Apr 2009, p.84]

Slickness will sometimes tend to blandness here, it's true, but "Memories We Share" and "Black Rainbows" show that there's room for sugary drinks alongside LCD Soundsystem's hard liquor. [Nov 2017, p.26]

Emotional Traffic contains a few soppy homilies to domesticity, a transparent bid for a Super Bowl halftime booking, and a great many reasons to listen to the equally polished, but vastly wittier, Brad Paisley. [May 2012, p.78]

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

Welcome is necessarily all over the place--and that place is pretty damn funky. [July 2008, p.108]

What continually redeems this acid flashback to a more well-meaning era is its endlessly metamorphosing soundscape, its kaleidoscope washes of virtual psychedelia. [Oct 2002, p.101]

Rumours of emotional maturity are exaggerated...but the reflective moments are best. [Dec 2007, p.98]

The band have come a long way since 2000's reissued Dead Meadow, but some of that early bombast and arresting variety in dynamics would not go amiss, even if, individually, Warble Womb's 15 songs. [Dec 2013, p.67]

The group's formula is undeniably infectious, with giddy, harmony-enriched interplay outshining occasional lapses into spindly scuzz. [Oct 2015, p.73]

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

With Shine On, Jet manage to establish a common ground between Badfinger and AC/DC. [Nov 2006, p.110]

the focus on matters of the heart is limiting, reducing the genre to the level of rusticised boy-band pop. [Oct 2012, p.84]

It may seem churlish to identify one reunion as especially cynical, but recent Pixies activities have felt notably artless--a situation emphasised by Indie Cindy. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Rock rears its head on "speed demon," but by that point, the riffs are drowned out by the sound of a joke having fatally gone too far. [Oct 2011, p.81]

Overall, a triumph of assurance and tenderness. [Feb 2017, p.28]

Tinkling lo-fi arrangements evoke the scarred spookiness of mid-period Sparklehorse, rendering the whole charmingly (and sometimes chillingly) child-like. [Sep 2009, p.88]

Not quite a match for the smoky blueprints, yet entertaining enough to inspire a trip to their source. [May 2006, p.128]

The remixers' default mood is kind of middle-of-the-road electronica, neither daring nor danceable. [Jan 2013, p.79]

Audioslave is weighed down by Cornell's po-faced bellow, and it goes on 20 minutes too long. [Feb 203, p.79]

Its fizz fades fast. [Dec 2004, p.142]

Hot Hot Heat have recently toned down a lot of their jerkier tendencies and are a lot less annoying for it. [Nov 2007, p.107]

The odd gauche moment remains, but her plaudits are not undeserved. [Mar 2012, p.98]

Ibifornia features slightly too many faceless party-friendly dance-pop bangers. [Aug 2016, p.73]

His most purposeful work in some time. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Unexpectedly impressive. [Dec 2004, p.138]

A partnership with Cologne's minimal techno doyens Kompakt hasn't quite posited the outfit back at the cutting edge, but The Dream steps with a new vitality. [Mar 2008, p.96]

There are too many blandly chipper moments that feel better suited to mobile phone ads than an album. [Aug 2016, p.77]

The weed doesn't seem to have dented Stone's vocal prowess, however, and the pop-reggae vibe isn't necessarily unpleasant. [Aug 2015, p.80]

In this mood, 57 minutes with Barnes is exhausting. [Mar 2012, p.94]

Press Play works rather well. [Dec 2006, p.106]

There are moments where the weirdly wonderful pagan pixie princess pokes through. [Jul 2011, p.90]

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

A horny fusion of glam-rock boogie, Urge Overkill's egotism and libidinous top-shelf naughtiness, all delivered with the molten fury of The Black Keys. [Nov 2005, p.111]

There's some good stuff here. [Mar 2009, p.92]

At his best he sounds spontaneous, fresh and unexpected. Yet at other times his quirky ideas can sound half-baked and his songs undeveloped. [May 2003, p.102]

It's an abrasive sound. [Aug 2003, p.99]

A pale retread of Get Rich... fashioned by lesser talents. [Feb 2004, p.69]

It's lush, detailed, frequently over-rich, but Fabricius' bright, perky voice and some generically kooky lyrics can't really carry the weight of the whole production. [Aug 2011, p.94]

Their ragged eclecticism is a winning one, taking detours into Ry Cooder slide-country, beat-up folk and starry desert ballads. [Sep 2008, p.98]

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

He may come to rue the day he traded his trusty ukulele for a cheapo drum machine that makes his attempts at pop-funk sound more gauche than his nifty songcraft deserves. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Moments of sweetness. ... But there are other, less successful experiments. [May 2020, p.31]

Black Noise was the most seductive techno album of last year, and it probably deserves better than this somewhat perfunctory remix comp. [May 2011, p.93]

The cherished first couple of French electro burn brighter than at any point in their recent careers. [Jun 2009, p.109]

A collection of nursery rhymes aimed at toddlers, it should prove nauseating to anyone over the age of three. [Nov 2008, p.92]

Iconoclastic and visceral, Squarepusher is punk rock 2002. [Nov 2002, p.132]

The music remains a potent mix of stuttering party anthems and post-Biggie street sermons. [Feb 2002, p.114]

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

More than just rote electro workouts, Carey successfully transforms 'Can't Stop Feeling' and 'Turn It On' into rich, dubby bleepfests. More of this invention on the album proper wouldn't have gone amiss. [Jul 2009, p.88]

The Pet Shop Boys and Ladytron have elbowed their urbane ways into his affections, but Maps makes the move sound more like a case of personal growth than populist payoff. [Oct 2009, p.104]

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

Their choice of covers is pretty eclectic, from Sade to Spiritualized via obscure '70s rocker Unicorn. They're best when more animated. [Aug 2015, p.76]

Owens has never been afraid to comet to terms with his troubled past, but here those stories are slathered in such cliched schmaltz that it's hard to empathise. [Oct 2014, p.76]

Their latest was recorded in Berlin and Iceland, with whichever musicians were around at the time, lending Newcombe's whacked-out psychedelia cum space/drone rock a stoned-jam feel that doesn't always work to the songs' advanatge. [Apr 2010, p.83]

Stodgy miserablism predominates. [Nov 2006, p.117]

If that person favours the smoking, ragged garage rock that comprises the bulk of Fork In The Road, then you’d have to conclude, job done.

It initially seems as if the moments of inspiration between self-indulgences are becoming scarcer. A bracing middle section resuces Amputechture. [Sep 2006, p.89]

As reassuring as Nine Lives will be to longtime Winwood fans, it’s bound to leave them wanting more--like a full album of Winwood-Clapton interplay.

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

The title song contains some lovely imagery enwrapped in one of Browne’s signature ribbons of melody, while the following 'Off Of Wonderland' is a wistful look back on the early days, but both are presented in arrangements so bland it’s shocking they passed muster.

It sees them adapt while retaining their street credibility. [Nov 2008, p.117]

For all the perversity, tracks like 'Stumble Out Of Bed' would ignite any dancefloor. [Apr 2009, p.80]

Flowers is occasionally emotional, but really, Kinsella is all about an off-the-cuff approach. [Jul 2009, p.90]

It takes a while to move beyond prettily pleasant, but the band's pining melancholy kicks in on 'What There Is' and 'Real Meaning.' [Sep 2009, p.79]

Tahita Bulmer, once the coy mistress of nu rave, now singing lines like "we wake up in the morning and tyhe glass is empty" in a portentous tone, oddly reminiscent of early-'80s Hazel O'Connor, but no more engaging than her erstwhile deadpan party mode. [Apr 2010, p.95]

Too late for success, maybe, but identity crisis (narrowly) avoided. [Apr 2011, p.84]

It continues where his 2006 solo debut, "My Secret Is My Silence" began, mining the seams of British folk with out descending into chunky-jumpered sentimentality. [May 2011, p.103]

There's little on Heaven And Earth to truly trouble his best work, but throughout there's plentiful evidence of the many qualities which made Martyn so indefinable and influential. [Jun 2011, p.84]

Enjoyable stuff. [Feb 2012, p.81]

She sounds more lusty and confident on this sequel. [Jun 2012, p.83]

No boundaries are broached, but everything works just fine. [Dec 2012, p.69]

It sees them caught between nostalgia and futurism, uncertain which way to move. [Dec 2912, p.71]

The uninitiated will find it a good place to start. [Jan 2013, p.81]

Immaculately crafted as ever, even if his enviable ability to pastiche everyone from Elvis to The Beach Boys ultimately obscures his own musical identity. [Mar 2014, p.75]

Although the The Courteeners are newly mature, they're oddly not yet their own men. [Oct 2014, p.69]

There's a new muscularity to Pete O'Hanlon's basslines, while guitarist Josh McClorey employs a broader range of techniques to stretch the band's sound. [Aug 2015, p.81]

This highly agreeable live set assembles some of the choicest bits, harnessing prog, slinky space-funk and vivacious free-form jamming. [Jan 2016, p.73]

Retro-kosmische pastiche is now firmly established as a lazy good-taste signifier, but it does not excuse mundane plodders such as "Turncoat" or "Motorbath." Thankfully, Soft Error move beyond retro-hipster orthodoxy on their best tracks. [Feb 2017, p.38]