At times, as on "De Javu," it's a dazzling new dimension, but some may await his return to more conventional zones. [Mar 2012, p.90]

That band’s ambition is intact is remarkable--that they’ve made an album that captures the zeitgeist is maybe even more so.

[Moby] draws on a long list of collaborators to bring character and depth to his distinct brand of ambient techno, with frequently haunting results. [Oct 2013, p.71]

It all sounds like a band working out who they are. [Sep 2011, p.88] [Review of UK release The Future Is Medieval]

Arch novelty rather than post-modern profundity, then, but it's a damn sight smarter than the Barron Knights ever were. [Feb 2010, p.84]

The album sags in the middle, descending into slick electro-rock territory worryingly reminiscent to Garbage, but the good songs are terrific. [Feb 2012, p.81]

As the title suggests, No Hope, No Future is rather short on vim. The wiry, Wire-y dynamics are mostly presnt and correct. [Feb 2010, p.86]

Peer behind the pose, owever, and you'll find a sparky outfit whose towering tunes, such as 'Sun comes Up,' match their lofty ideas. [Sep 2008, p.115]

The Chi-Lites' "Stoned Out Of My Mind" is ruined by needless melismatics, and the Broken Bells cover is no match for the White Stripes track on Vol. 1. But Gems include a half-tempo version of the Womacks' "Teardrops" and a stately reading of Eddie Floyd's "Nobody But You." [Sep 2012, p.86]

Only the softer songs... display any of the heartbroken mystique that once made Carrabba compelling. [Sep 2006, p.79]

A lucid and accomplished departure. [Mar 2015, p.76]

Basically, it wants to be the Stones but ends up a bit Tom Petty. [Sep 2002, p.103]

Insular, claustrophobic, projecting a brittle vulnerability, Peace & Love requires some listner patience. [Mar 2010, p.86]

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

A Joyful Noise strikes a healthy balance between tears-on-the-dancefloor hi-NRG and Gossip's bluesy swagger. [Jun 2012, p.73]

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

Amid the cornball sentiments and bizarre arrangements elsewhere, here against the odds, a touching moment presents itself. [Mar 2010, p.96]

Although mercifully less in line with the Kooks/Courteeners hegemony than their first album, The Ride is stodgily dedicated to the Real Rock cause, even while it's shooting for Alex Turner's autobiographical cool. [Jul 2016, p.71]

An amusing curio, although you're unlikely to listen to it more than once. [Jan 2015, p.75]

A poignant folk-jazz take on Billie Holiday's "God Bless The Child" is the standout and it's all impeccably tasteful - but in a threadbare kind of way. [Apr 2020, p.37]

The choral refrain of the title hook, meanwhile, imposes collectivity on the query--just about the only time on the whole of Storytone that the horizon stretches further than Neil's emotional backyard. [Dec 2014, p.79]

Much of this flaccid digi-guitar funk sounds like rough ideas Daft Punk rejected for Discovery. [Jun 2002, p.122]

Deeply average. [Apr 2004, p.91]

An ultra-gentrified karaoke set. [Apr 2014, p.77]

Not wholly satisfying. [Mar 2006, p.102]

His own production work has been inconsistent. [Feb 2009, p.78]

An oddly one-note follow-up. [Sep 2012, p.76]

Too many artists on this well-intentioned and occasionally even enjoyable tribute album seem to forget they're country artists. [May 2023, p.38]

Plenty of mouth, then, but lacking in trousers. [Jun 2014, p.69]

Ultimately it's all a matter of taste, but fans will lap this up. [Jan 2020, p.31]

Ashcroft's ornery, sometimes conspiratorial resentment of authority and spiritually minded uplift feel of the moment. [Nov 2025, 28]

In the ugliest way possible Invaders Must Die shows that the Prodigy have still got it.

It's essentially a pop record--albeit a complex and cleverly arranged one. [Apr 2007, p.115]

It's over-polished and lacks excitement. [Jun 2007, p.119]

Brisk playing compensates for some unremarkable songs. [Sep 2002, p.103]

There's mammoth hooks and meaningful shouting galore here. [Jul 2007, p.116]

St Jude proves that there is much more to The Courteeners than first meets to the eye.

Inherit strips back rock, baring its constituent parts without flourish or fanfare. [Aug 2008, p.93]

Listening to this is like being followed home by a puppy--initially cute and guilelessly affecting, but rapidly irritating. [July 2008, p.104]

A huge disappointment.

Generally Strangeland is all too familiar fare. [Jun 2012, p.77]

The result is a confusing confection that plays out like "Anti-Capitalism: The Musical." [Jan 2009, p.96]

An album which is a little too anodyne, but redeemed by an engagingly human warmth and unforced sincerity. [Jan 2013, p.83]

Cool to the touch, but vanilla sweet as well. [Nov 2014, p.76]

He successfully channels Sam Cooke, especially on "We Don't Sleep" but the album's length and lo-fi production makes Bye Bye 17 appear disconcertingly slight. [Jun 2013, p.74]

It has a peculiar charm. [May 2011, p.77]

The Orwells ape highlights of the last 25 years of indie rock on their second album. [Aug 2014, p.78]

This is a larger-sounding, less homespun set than thte sisters' previous two albums. [May 2007, p.102]

Having grabbed attention for their collaboration with Jenny Lewis on "Rabbit Fur Coat," then their own "Fire Songs," this takes a bold shift in direction. [Mar 2010, p.104]

It strives shamelessly for the widescreen appeal of U2's Big Music. [Aug 2006, p.88]

A gleaming set of R&B, pop, bedroom soul and even reggae. [Sep 2005, p.112]

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

Vito Deluca indulges himself on his outstanding debut. [Oct 2010, p.104]

Solid, competent stuff, but it's difficult, but it's difficult to imagine anyone wanting to listen to this in isolation. [Dec 2011, p.89]

It only reveals its strengths after a dozen or more plays. [Nov 2004, p.112]

File under Banal Guru Pop. [Jul 2015, p.78]

It's hard going, but one can only applaud the ambition. [Jun 2010, p.83]

On its own merits, rather a hoot. [Jan 2011, p.83]

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]

The trio still favour widescreen grandeur, epic choruses and portentous keyboards, but they've exorcised their Duran Duran and Billy idol tendencies. [Feb 2011, p.105]

Jay-z attempts to balance his great wealth, tough history and news responsibility while retaining his grit. Magna Carta... generally pulls it off. [Sep 2013, p.90]

After a sequence of fierce, squelching avant-R&B, Jerkins makes his excuses and leaves Brandy with some old hacks and their dispiriting, saccharine ballads. [May 2002, p.89]

LL's best album since 1987's Bigger and Deffer. [Jan 2003, p.122]

Her passion may be sincere, but the songs are a mixed bag. [July 2008, p.108]

Visceral thrills for those who like thier punk served piping hot. [Jan 2008, p.104]

Nashville's elite session men construct an intimate acoustic framework for Souther to cast himself as crooning confidant, but it all feels a little polished and polite. [Sep 2011, p.95]

It's a more anthemic, traditional and radio-friendly Feeder that greets is on their eight album. [Apr 2012, p.77]

Although the title track holds a sliver of adventure with its fizzing electronic flourishes, the absence of evolution elsewhere reveals a band hanging too tightly on to the past. [Jun 2016, p.81]

While this second effort has its engaging moments, Leftwich has stuck dispiritingly close to his early template of delicate folk with hushed vocals and lyrics about bruised hearts and rain. [Sep 2016, p.75]

Too one-speed to attain the subtlety of Zep, too constipated to really funk out. [Oct 2006, p.99]

Plaintive desert rock and gilded chamber pop with heart and poise. [Nov 2002, p.122]

They've burrowed a slick, haughty electro-pop slot between Propaganda and [Gary] Numan. [Sep 2004, p.108]

It wouldn't be wildly inappropriate to identify American Life as an early 21st-century update of Love's Forever Changes, effecting as it does a similarly eerie ambivalence with its fusion of mind-altering sonics and mellow acoustics. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Sees them attempt the same move The Charlatans made with their last LP, but less successfully. [Jul 2003, p.111]

All round, an unsettling development. [Jun 2009, p.109]

As ever, the combination of sincerity and sentimentality is overpowering. [Oct 2009, p.89]

This is in many ways his weakest since Kill Uncle. [Dec 2017, p.20]

The lovely packaging far outshines the formless and dated rumblings within. [Nov 2002, p.113]

This album is uneven, undisciplined and overlong, but much the same could be said or Lloyd's sporadically brilliant career. [Apr 2009, p.95]

The intent is admirable even if too many of the songs feel flimsy and pedestrian. [Dec 2014, p.81]

Overall, the album feels insular and stultifying introspective, despite the undeniable earnestness of Lee's intent and the passion fueling his ambition. [Dec 2011, p.89]

What Peace lack in originality, they make up for in charm. [Mar 2015, p.80]

For much of Majenta he seems content to lie back and think of Prince. [Jul 2012, p.71]

The arrangements are meticulously layered rather than stripped down, dynamic drum tattoos, dramatic basslines and an epic amount of reverb ensuring the sounds is as panoramic as the "unplugged" tag can accommodate. [Dec 2016, p.37]

Stina Tweeddale is very good at this punky Caledonian take on US bubblegum pop. [Jul 2019, p.29]

Knowing what she's capable of, it's impossible not to feel disappointed. [Feb 2002, p.120]

The bland, fist-punching positivity of "Hole In My Soul" and "Parachute" are pitched somewhere between Cold Play and The Killers, but occasionally the reinvention works. [Nov 2016, p.31]

It’s all interestingly varied stuff, although the chopping and changing of styles makes it hard to get a handle on who The Voidz really want to be. [Oct 2024, p.33]

An experimental and melancholic set. [Dec 2004, p.157]

Rule's raw, worn vocal recalls 2Pac, a style perfect for the title track's state-of-the-nation address but wasted on fodder like "Smokin' And Ridin.'" [Jan 2002, p.140]

Entertaining, largely forgettable. [Jan 2003, p.120]

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

The results will gladden devotees of fractured, footsore indie-rock. [Jul 2007, p.127]

Grand National lack Hot Chip's playful edge and by 'Joker and Clown,' thoughtful production is hitched to that last refuge of pop scoundrel--the Snow Patrol-style ballad. {Apr 2008, p.90]

Aside from sime sly gender-bending and lovable kitsch, there just isn't much interpretive room to roam. [Aug 2009, p.105]

"Runaway" and "Head Into Tomorrow" sound like the songs that Joy Division might have written if they'd hung out with Ewan MacColl. Good, but slightly disorienting. [Nov 2009, p. 81]

For the most part it works, the innate simplicity of the originals lending itself to makeovers, although country purists are advised to steer clear. [Oct 2013, p.77]

On their fourth album, all pretense at rootsy authenticity is gone--this is machine-tooled stadium pop, with producer Paul Epworth in the Brian Eno role. [Jan 2019, p.22]