There's little on OFOW that he hasn't done already. [Nov 2002, p.128]

These days her winning innocence has turned to mature craft, but she's lost none of her integrity or emotional honesty. [Dec 2002, p.129]

Exquisite. [Feb 2003, p.80]

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

A hugely inventive collection. [Jan 2003, p.119]

The appealing immediacy evident on the debut is smothered by the overbearing production. [Nov 2002, p.118]

This is the pop album of 2003 which everyone else will have to beat. [Jul 2003, p.124]

The finest tracks here update the duo's attitude as well as their sound, dissecting anew cultural and emotional climate with a bittersweet detachment reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys. [Oct 2002, p.124]

Basic, sludge-grey power pop that makes Weezer sound as kaleidoscopic as The Flaming Lips. [Nov 2002, p.128]

This is Calexico on downers, Lee Hazlewood on jolly pills. [Dec 2002, p.131]

A sentimental indulgence destined for a theme-pub half-life. [Nov 2002, p.114]

Think early Air meets hip-hop, the West Coast harmonies and Ultramarine-style tech-fok eccentricities merging with euphoric yet becalmed moodscapes. [Nov 2002, p.113]

It's a snappy, catchy hybrid, though one that irritates pretty quickly. [Apr 2003, p.105]

It's hard to see how much satisfaction this laconic talent must gain from fiddling with a formula he perfected in 1987. [Nov 2002, p.114]

On paper it may sound like brittle Grand Royal retro-cool, but on record it simply belts along with a primal melodic simplicity and sexy nu-wave freshness. [January 2002, p.146]

His melancholic optimism is uplifting and his melodies surprisingly plush. [Dec 2002, p.140]

They haven't yet shown enough thrills in righteousness to challenge gangsta's dark, easy attraction. [Nov 2002, p.129]

Pale fire, but fire nonetheless. [Dec 2002, p.130]

Guests like Emiliana Torrini and Shinehead help make this that rarity: an electronic album with personality. [Dec 2002, p.133]

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

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

Producer Mike Mogis [gives] these delicate songs a sheen that was lacking on their 2001 debut. [Jul 2003, p.114]

A decent album of roots-tinged songs that showcases his terse guitar style and detached vocals to solid if unspectacular effect. [Nov 2002, p.122]

Whereas so much downtempo leans heavily on two-note, oceanic synth washes, Blue States are masters of detail. [Sep 2002, p.111]

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

For the most part, Anderson's cockernee affectations have gone, as have his references to drugs, gasoline and tube-bound alienation. Instead, we have the sci-fi romance of "Astro Girls" and the rabble-rousing rock of "Street Life." [Nov 2002, p.126]

Definitely a return to psyche splendour. [Oct 2002, p.122]

This is pretty gloomy going, not rendered much easier by the lugubrious baritone in which Beck delivers his emotional autopsies, or the vague, amorphous melodies. [Nov 2002, p.116]

After a couple of plays, you're struck by Up's sonic cleverness. Three or four listens and the lyrical complexity begins to bite. Finally, and insidiously, after perhaps six or seven plays, the melodies bury themselves in your head. [Oct 2002, p.112]

On her underwhelming second album, we realise how nu-sould would sound stripped of all sonic invention, mischief and sensuality. [Dec 2002, p.151]

This is a very fine album... even if it's surprisingly business as usual in many respects. [Oct 2002, p.108]

The effect is a kind of ghostly reconfiguration of classic rock, from a band blessed with unique presence and an unusually melodious minimalism. Outstanding. [Oct 2002, p.108]

He hasn't sounded this corrosive since Copperhead Road. [Nov 2002, p.115]

An irreverent and enjoyably silly listen. [Mar 2003, p.100]

Demolition is further proof that his creative instinct is still intact. [Album of the Month, Oct 2002, p.100]

She's a brilliant reinterpreter and sounds far happier in Raitt territory than she ever did as a Morissette clone. [Feb 2003, p.84]

A considerable advance on predecessor 604.... This is sublime, subtle, subversive stuff. [Dec 2002, p.150]

An album of flashing wit and giddy ambition. [Oct 2002, p.110]

Amply demonstrates the man's craft, the inherent strength of apparently fragile blooms added extra ballast by painterly shades of guitar, piano and strings. [Apr 2003, p.105]

Squire's voice is awful, while his music and lyrics are those of a busker. [Nov 2002, p.113]

An adventurous solo outing. [Oct 2002, p.112]

If Doe intended to create an interlocked set of pieces that sustained a mood of pensive reverie, he succeeded, though there's a marked shortage of ear-grabbing, individual songs. [Mar 2003, p.95]

This kind of hackneyed loungecore grammar sometimes sounds timeless and inspired, of course, but Adamson has a tendency to crowd routine melodies with superfluous guitars and clumsy beats. [Oct 2002, p.102]

The perfect soundtrack to summer in the city. [Oct 2002, p.111]

A magnificently rich and confident debut.... This is how Fischerspooner should have sounded. [Dec 2002, p.142]

Her simple, repeitious music is predominantly listless and washed out. [Jun 2003, p.102]

Seven tracks, 31 minutes, and not a duff second in sight. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Very pretty but as predictable as Haven's guaranteed elevation to the Indie Premiership before the summer's through. [Feb 2002, p.118]

[A] breathtaking, virtually flawless album. [Sep 2002, p.104]

May well come to be regarded as the best British rock album since OK Computer. [Sep 2002, p.118]

Textured and complex. [Oct 2002, p.108]

The most original debut by a Manchester band since Squirrel & G-Man Twenty Four Hour Paty People..., maybe even Unknown Pleasures. [Sep 2002, p.116]

Recalls the more amusing moments of Momus and Stereolab. [Nov 2002, p.116]

Their mischievousness is still palpable, but it's shot through with purpose, gumption and spectacular riff-raunch action. [Sep 2002, p.114]

A candidate for country album of the year. [Nov 2002, p.130]

A refinement of the country/folk/reggae/rock amalgam The Mekons have pursued for years. [Oct 2002, p.108]

One of the most adrenalising albums you'll hear this year. [Sep 2002, p.110]

The album's eight supple, textured tunes suggest Cornelius stripped of his art-jazz awkwardness, or even the molten sugar rush of My Bloody Valentine slowed to a beatific calm. [Nov 2002, p.128]

Spoon's secret is that this tension is never quite released, the martial beat never breaks down, full rock music never quite kicks in. [Oct 2002, p.120]

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

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

There's exhilaration amid the despondency, as powerful songs and a light, shoegazey sheen means they frequently soar. [Sep 2002, p.111]

The collection not only shows the unexpected range of Gano's songwriting ability, but leaves you humming and wanting more. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Bright, socially and emotionally engaged, justifiably righteous in places, and not quite the right sort of fun for the New York scenesters. [Oct 2002, p.104]

The melodic facility and phrasing are as elegant as we have come to expect. [Sep 2002, p.118]

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]

This chiming indie-folk LP is uncluttered and cohesive. [July 2002, p.118]

As a cross-generational experiment, Kissin' Time works. [Apr 2002, p.110]

Heap has a breathtaking voice, somewhere between the languid tones of Beth Orton and the pop sweetness of Dido. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Spewing more words per inch than an IRS vault, the effect is like primal scream therapy set to incidental music. [Oct 2002, p.101]

Reaffirms their status as masters of white heat smoulder, turning down the amps but heightening the ravaged intensity.... A career high. [Oct 2002, p.119]

Miss Fortune is her least mainstream album to date and finds her moving delightfully nearer the terrain occupied by sister Shelby Lynne. [Sep 2002, p.114]

Will prove a delight to punters pursuing a Best Madchester Compilation Ever! as long as they forget The Stone Roses ever existed, and assume Morrissey came from another planet. [May 2002, p.116]

At their best, Orton's songs do achieve what Daybreaker sets out to achieve--a sense of watching the dawn rise, all hyper and half awake from having been up all night arguing, making love or simply conversing intensely. [Sep 2002, p.108]

A brave and beautiful album of humanity, hurt and hope from the songwriter best qualified to speak to and for his country.... A towering achievement. [Album of the Month, Sep 2002, p.102]

A return that is as warmly welcome as it is wholly unexpected. [Oct 2002, p.122]

The entire album sounds as if it was made to be heard on a Fifties jukebox rather than a state-of-the-art super-audio digital system. [Sep 2002, p.112]

Revolverlution is part-skewed retrospective and part-flawed experiment. [Jan 2003, p.126]

A fine collection and a lesson in dignified maturity from which all former rock gods could learn. [Aug 2002, p.115]

The Vines' place in the rock gene pool is shaped by elements of controlled guitar thrash, often complex harmony, bubblegum psychedelia and polished piano-driven ballads with an early Seventies whiff. [Aug 2002, p.116]

Even by their standards, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is astonishing.... Plainly, this is music abnormally alive with possibilities. [Album of the Month, Aug 2002, p.96]

The entire album is a beauty.... The most adventurous album of their career. [Aug 2002, p.110]

Some of her best singing in years. [Sep 2002, p.114]

Like recent Tindersticks albums, these ballads need time and attention before sounding tailor-made for misery. [July 2002, p.103]

Every one of these 15 songs is a perfectly-crafted masterclass in great American songwriting. [Aug 2002, p.99]

By The Way presents a band who have mellowed and matured with unusual benefits to their music. [Sep 2002, p.118]

The new material, with some exceptions, lacks spark and flair, having a sense of anti-climax about it. [Aug 2002, p.106]

This album will appeal equally to hard house and handbag crowds alike. [May 2002, p.113]

In Wedding Present terms, Torino is Cinerama's Seamonsters. [Aug 2002, p.99]

These sparse, string-based scores straddle the line between wannabe ethereal and grainily earthy. [Jul 2002, p.106]

An unusually exciting attempt to revitalise past glories. [Oct 2002, p.111]

Murray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988. [Jul 2002, p.122]

Really rather magnificent, in its way. [Jul 2002, p.107]

Padded out with too much of the Europap that has blotted Perfecto's scoresheet over the years. [Jul 2002, p.116]

The man is as affecting as ever on this most traditional of collections. [Feb 2003, p.77]

The sing-along antics of the home crowd can be a little irritating. [Aug 2002, p.107]

None of the 12 tracks on Heathen displays anything memorable in the way of melody or chorus, their phrasing short-breathed and tired, their sequences energyless. [Jul 2002, p.108]

Long on rhetoric, short on melodic structure, it's hard going. [Dec 2002, p.150]