Divorced from the visuals, Music From First Cow is just as mesmerising, its 26 minutes of repeated themes, mostly on acoustic guitar and banjo, mixed with muttered dialogue and sound design from the film. [Jun 2020, p.38]

It's a good snapshot of how Hecker approaches such [soundtrack] commissions. But it also suggests there's an occasional paucity of ideas here. [Apr 2025, p.31]

Cool or not, at least they're going for it. [Sep 2015, p.76]

Overall, Butler's pedestrian appropriation of the clunky beats, tinny handclaps and squelchy vocoder effects of yesteryear sound stale and repetitive. [Jun 2014, p.78]

His fourth album features no immediate bangers in the vein of "As It Was" or "Watermelon Sugar", but Styles does take some interesting risks. [May 2026, p.37]

Intriguing, enigmatic and one of a kind. [May 2010, p.90]

Return To The Moon is fully realised and offers plenty of intrigue, but .... rarely do they sound like a unit, and, surprisingly, Berninger is the one that ends up sounding a little lost. [Nov 2015, p.74]

Moth's incessantly hiccuping polysyllabic pop lacks soul and sticking power. [Feb 2016, p.73]

Feedback-soaked rockers like "Little Drama" are played with maximum oomph, but much like, say, Ty segall, Krol laces his songs with all manner of sly twists and turns. [Feb 2019, p.29]

As satisfying as it is stylish. [Jul 2004, p.95]

There are some cloying twee moments, but the players' telepathic interaction imbues even their slightest songs with crackling immediacy. [Nov 2022, p.36]

This is a tremendously assured album, beautifully paced and full of great rockers. [Apr 2014, p.77]

Not as violent as Hexadic but no less unsettling, this is a strange and fascinating album from an artist who continues to evolve. [Feb 2016, p.80]

They unleash 15 compact, primarily pro forma bangers. [Feb 2024, p.28]

This fourth album is straining toward a more commercial sound, but pop crossover needs hit songs and F&M's best moments are still driven by ace rhythm section Matt Hainsby and Lee Adams. [Feb 2011, p.87]

This is mostly acoustic guitars lovingly plucked, drums delicately brushed, fiddles softly sawn. [Oct 2003, p.113]

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

NIO seem more intent on gazing at shoes than stars. [Apr 2004, p.92]

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

Constancy is provided by the band's sleek economy and the piercing, implacable vocals of Sian Alice Ahern herself. [Sep 2009, p.92]

The Don Was-produced album proceeds at an unhurried pace, featuring Jackson Browne-like confessionals and Young-style, harmonica-accented shuffles. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Midwesterner Pokey LaFarge infuses would-be moribund styles with rare vigour, though lyrical concerns are anything but nostalgia. [Jul 2013, p.77]

There's a punch that saves them [from] drifting into coffee-table politesse. [Feb 2011, p.98]

What the Jets might have lost in terms of their early quirkiness, they make up for in melody and emotional heft. [Feb 2016, p.78]

[Electric Trim] features conventionally structured songs that underline his country-folk and Americana interests, while amping up the psych-pop and orchestral alt.rock. [Oct 2017, p.36]

Smith's squeaky, adenoidal vocal, long a barrier to Danielson's popular acceptance, has softened somewhat, while the band are in fine form. [Apr 2011, p.78]

The rest can't quite match this opening brace ["The Upsetter"], but there are gems throughout. [Apr 2014, p.75]

Al Jourgensen is bringing Ministry to a close, and truthfully, it's the right time. [Nov 2007, p.113]

There are some great passages of live-wire electronica, but more often it's strangely lacking any aura or elemental spark. [Oct 2016, p.39]

Though the 18-minute celestial sludge of "The Opulent Decline" conjures all the right imagery, you suspect Oneohtrix Point Never invariably got there first. [May 2013, p.67]

Here are miasmic, dizzyingly gorgeous songs built on the grandest and most romantic, but steadied by the hand of hook-loving classicists. Bravo! [Mar 2010, p.90]

Well worth the wait. [Jan 2013, p.74]

It's more memorable than Mush's debut, simultaneously weirder and more melodic: and the peak of the record, and of this mix of the the strange and the infectious, comes right at the end. [Mar 2021, p.30]

While ['You Are The Best Thing'] gets the LP off to a rousing start, the song also serves a thematic purpose by celebrating the pleasures and synergy of a smoothly functioning conjugal unit--an ideal that stands in stark contrast to the romantic torment that follows.

As sublime as much of Instrumental Tourist is, it rarely fulfills that promise of improvisation, of a real sonic engagement or play, and struggles to exceed the sum of its parts.

Despite the epic pretensions of the 16-miniute finale, "Tao Of The Dead Part Two,", sadly, this sort of tribute to rock's historical hinterlands yields fewer surprises each time. [May 2011, p.77]

Yet for all its attributes, this fine debut stirs as much for its sense of what The Lumineers may yet become as for what they currently are. [Dec 2012, p.70]

Even if the attitude feels snarly and confrontational, the craftsmanship speaks of deep love and high-level musicality. [May 2015, p.81]

Their benefactor this time is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who evidently hears something in their moody atmosphere-building. By and large, Pussy's Dead reveals them as a muso sort of band. [May 2016, p.69]

This is the sound of a band surprising itself. [July 2008, p.92]

It's occasionally very beautiful, but this is so far removed from values of immediacy and accessibility that Stevens' core audience are likely to be left non-plussed. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

The lyrics are occasionally hackneyed, but overall 4 is a very strong record indeed. [Sep 2011, p.79]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]

This tasteful collection is best represented by McBride;s cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now," matching her satin to the original's velvet. [May 2014, p.77]

Wexler delivers an alluring lugubrious set that views Fairport Convention, the Canterbury scene and Simon & Garfunkel through a glass darkly. [May 2012, p.84]

Body Music has the feel of an album rushed out for the summer. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Striped of the visual element, what remains here is sparkling Nordic synth-pop, uplifting and accessible, but increasingly conventional. [Dec 2014, p.77]

The London quartet signpost the album with handsome literary and academic allusions in anticipation of an edifying dance direction, but end up trotting out the kind of meek synthfunk once propagated by the likes of Hot Chip and Metronomy. [Feb 2014, p.73]

It's the choices of material and approach that give Jesse Dayton's Mixtape Vol 1 its considerable kick. [Sep 2019, p.24]

Sonically it's a sinister palette: classical folk laced with dynamite blasts of electronics. Yet, the inner contents are tender. [Apr 2020, p.37]

Sadly, Nas brings self-importance to "Strong Will Continue," that's encumbered his latter career, but it's the exception on a broadly fruitful collaboration. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Tighter and woodier-sounding than 2003's Mouthfuls. [Oct 2005, p.102]

Though the stadium-EDM elements of "Miracle" are an unwelcome addition and there's a slight clash between two brands of brooding, when Matt Berninger guests on "My Enemy," Chvrches excel at an electro-pop simulacrum that's actually more craftily structured than most of their favourite records of 1982. [Jul 2018, p.26]

Night Fiction emerges as an engaging sampler of his range as well as his virtuosity. [Feb 2016, p.78]

Though slight in parts, and hardly groundbreaking, for those craving a little sunshine in these dark days, Vessel Of Love brings the rays. [Feb 2018, p.25]

He still sounds like a blue-collar phoney trying to be a poor man's Springsteen. [May 2002, p.104]

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

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 couple of songs could do with more melody and less of Mike McCready's spidery guitar breaks. [Dec 2002, p.132]

This is his conscious attempt to inject a sense of urgency probably not heard on a Bad Seeds album since 1994's Let Love In. [Mar 2003, p.96]

Fabulous stuff all round. [Apr 2012, p.79]

The Joy Formidable continue to keep British rock sexily sturdy. [Feb 2013, p.74]

There's still an organic, soaring bluster to the music, too, though a shortage of obvious anthems this time. [May 2008, p.100]

Every song on New Material has a one-word title that captures a mood--"Disarray," "Decompose," "Doubt" are typical--while tunes like "Manipulation" and "Solace" have a propulsive relentless but also melodic ease that are something like a funkier War On Drugs. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Not easy listening, but a reminder that to evolve, we must first emerge from the slime. [Apr 2010, p.91]

The prolific producer is releasing what could be his most accessible body of work. [Aug 2016, p.73]

Crucially, though, sardonically strong melodies underpin the, er, shit. [Jun 2011, p.94]

These three sprawling tracks were recorded in the pair's Bushwick apartment, but boast both breadth and startling virtuosity, sparkling guitar-drums jams blown wide with reverb. [May 2017, p.40]

Born In The Echoes feels a bit Chemical Brothers by numbers. [Aug 2015, p.72]

If it's a little in thrall to its influences, it's not an altogether bad way. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson has upped his skill factors on this. [Jul 3012, p.84]

Though straining at times under its rhapsodic pretensions, at its best it's an ambitious symphonic spree. [Oct 2005, p.100]

A muted set of spare acoustic songs. [Jun 2016, p.70]

The album is perhaps a little lacking in knockout tracks but instead highlights Bear's clear talent as a producer with a craft for melody and rhythm. [Feb 2019, p.37]

With a '70s/'80s-inspired disco-pop feel, creating a Eurovision-like mood that you probably wouldn't expect to find on a Sub pop release. The lack of top-line sheen, though, ensures this album retains a rough edge without sacrificing any intrinsic appeal. [Aug 2022, p.33]

A troubling journey, but happily an ongoing one. [Dec 2016, p.35]

An air of cheerful scepticism prevails over the 10 tracks, all bathed in the kind of dry, warm production favoured by early-'70s radio rock. [Apr 2006, p.100]

While the dubbed-out "see You When I Want to" nods to ESG, Gentle Grip too often feels more like a limp handshake. [Aug 2020, p.36]

The idea was to expand Gogol Bordell's palate to accommodate the Ukrainian-American's recently adopted homeland of Brazil. The Good news is that it doesn't matter--if Gogol Bordello still sound like an Eastern European answer to The Pogues, it still means they're doing something nobody else is. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Evident is a sizeable debt to '80s electropop. [Aug 2006, p.84]

For the most part, it's an effective addition.... The only real snag here is Rose's voice, which sometimes sounds so detached as to be barely present. [Nov 2013, p.78]

Predictably, it's all over the map, but The Golden Hour fizzes with invention. [July 2008, p.106]

Their latest brings welcome variations in tone and tempo. [Nov 2020, p.29]

The Black Keys must take credit for negotiating the minefield of the rap/rock crossover without any serious casualties, but maybe an R&B/rock crossover would have reaped even greater rewards. [Jan 2010, p. 113]

Biblical parable and bumptious force-of-nature feminism, ensure Better Day fulfills its upbeat mission. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Quibbles aside, though, this appears to be a partnership with plenty of mileage left. [Jul 2016, p.70]

Love Is Love really takes off when the brass comes out. [Jun 2017, p.38]

Simple but true. [Jun 2016, p.78]

Overall though--a quality 'One More American Song' shares with the whole collection--this is a song with an understated, but crucial, element of hope. [Aug 2009, p.100]

The result is, as much as you'd expect, elegant and tranquil. [Apr 2020, p.27]

Left to his own devices, Byrne comes home to a screwball hymnal mode that, for all the lyrical left turns, can feel a little too predictable. [Apr 2018, p.29]

Haunting lamentations that owe as much to the Jewish Klezmer and US folk traditions as to Slint. [May 2005, p.110]

Thier latest dusts off their usual blend of late-'70s Clash-styled punk, ska and dub reggae, but applies topspin via 'Civilian Ways,' a bluesy folk exercise inspired by the return of Armstrong's brother from Iraq. [Sep 2009, p.92]

While there's not any unity of occasion to speak of, the cover of "Arms Aloft" by Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros is an impressively galvanising opener, new material sitting comfortably alongside older, more diffuse cuts. [Feb 2011, p.95]

Confirms Doves as the country's most innovative rock group. [Mar 2005, p.94]

A joyfully inspired album from a band who give pomp a good name. [Apr 2011, p.78]

He's rarely sounded so utterly engaged. [Oct 2010, p.99]

Minus the lovely, stoned air, Another Fine Day doesn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor, but there's plenty to admire. [Aug 2006, p.106]