There's real poeticised emoting here. [May 2003, p.108]

Fatherfucker pillages Missy Elliott, Suicide and "Justify My Love"-era Madonna, and even outfoxes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Oct 2003, p.126]

Finally finding a palatable singing voice, too, the musical acuity shown here still places him very much in front of guitar-hero peers like John Squire and Bernard Butler. [Dec 2002, p.129]

May be the most consistent of the four albums to date. [Jan 2003, p.122]

The chamber-pop arrangements make pretentiously snarled lyrics slip down smoothly. [Oct 2005, p.108]

An efficient if fairly joyless hybrid of the Stones, AC/DC and Oasis. [Nov 2003, p.109]

Isn't always successful. [Jun 2005, p.113]

She comes over like Tammy Wynette crossed with Parker Posey--an indie queen with a Kentucky twang. [Aug 2006, p.101]

Most crucially, Costello manages--apart from the previously cited cringe-worthy lapses--to play along with Burnett’s in-soft/out-LOUD approach, making this his most engaging album in a very long time.

Those who enjoyed "Noise Won't Stop" smoochier moments will relish Liquid Love. [Mar 2010, p.95]

The sonic darings of his own recordings has clearly fueled the imaginations of The Cure's Robert Smith and Beck, although the likes of Snow Patrol and Beth Orton stay closer to the originals. [Oct 2011, p.102]

All totally fine, of course, but next time a little passion and personality won't go amiss. [Jan 2012, p.103]

City Awakenings mostly retains the meatier arrangements of MacIntyre's solo work. [Feb 2012, p. 92]

She builds on that promise [from her last album, Lights Out Zoltar!] with a skittish yet evocative album that draws on surf-rock. [May 2012, p.72]

[The album] churns and lumbers with ominous, swampy certainty. [Oct 2012, p.83]

The fizzing alt.rock of the follow-up sounds like a determined effort to be his own man. [Apr 2013, p.77]

While there's nothing wildly original on In Technicolor, the energy and attitude that relative youngsters Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat stir into their psychedelic synthpop and off-kilter electro suggests that they know the rules well enough to be able to gently subvert techno cliches. [May 2013, p.69]

In common with a lot of records called Fantasy, this is ultimately a pretty pedestrian affair. [Aug 2013, p.72]

Sleeper Agent rise to the occasion on their major-label debut. [May 2014, p.80]

Global fusion at its most democratic and exhilarating. [May 2014, p.73]

The dream-logic mixing is a strength, where folk songs from Adele Diane and Songs Of Green Pheasant tumble to the forefront, but most tracks are limp, effete and boring. [Mar 2015, p.84]

Loving, not by the spoonful but by the bucketful. [Oct 2015, p.80]

The band haven't sounded quite so spirited for some time. [Jun 2016, p.74]

It's the instrumental miniatures that impress the most. [Oct 2016, p.31]

Slight and derivative, but stylish when it works. [Dec 2017, p.29]

No one seems to know quite how he does it, but Donovan keeps going, quietly, from strength to strength. [Jun 2018, p.27]

[A] chilled collection both soothing and intoxicating. [Jul 2018, p.30]

For every blissful "Mannie's Smile" there's some Bontempi bossanova or a fretless bass ballad like "Breathing Easy" that swims in kitsch. [Sep 2018, p.30]

It's less punky and psychedelic than anything they've done before, sounding more like a piece of self-conscious, well-crafted Americana by, say Richard Hawley or Alex Turner. [Feb 2019, p.30]

It suffers somewhat from inevitably diminishing returns, in that it simply isn't anywhere near as good as their canonical records; that said, not much is. [Oct 2019, p.33]

Well-crafted compositions. [Jan 2019, p.31]

While Ward's phrasing is very much his own at times, the gambit yields the most compelling results when he best approximates Holiday's silvery delivery and weary air. [Jan 2021, p.33]

You need a surfeit of great songs to justify a double album in these attention deficit times, but Malin seems to have them by the bucketful. [Jan 2022, p.27]

It's not always on the right side of cliché but, when it works, it's glorious. [Nov 2021, p.29]

Thanks to a glut of albums by introspective piano students, there are elements in these largely reflective pieces that may seem familiar, but James Heather is still capable of subtly defying expectations. [May 2022, p.29]

At low volume, the album could serve as dinner music, but crank it up and its hushed intensity will gut you. [Jun 2022, p.25]

There's a dusty charm to Little Songs, which lacks the gravity of his 2017 self-titled debut but has higher stakes than his albums since then. [Oct 2023, p.37]

He may not offer many surprises – those Beatle-esque inclinations remain ubiquitous – but he does pull in some impressive guests. [Aug 2024, p.35]

White digs deeper into the seemingly symbiotic, drums/keyboard relationship, playing both with intuitive flair to hypnotic effect. [Review of the Year 2025, p.29]

The resulting set is intense, clamorous and deranged (often thrillingly so). [Jan 2026, p.31]

While there are moments when you pine for Pete Shelley’s distinctive whine, subtle wordplay and clever vocal melodies – for variety’s sake but also straightforward nostalgia – Steve Diggle is clearly committed to maintaining the Buzzcocks’ story and pushing forward into the band’s 50th year. [Feb 2026, p.32]

Pretty.Odd. often tries way too hard to be obtuse, it's true, but you have to admire the band's willingness to grow. [May 2008, p.106

Superior, though, is Heavy Rocks, the group's second release to go by that name. [Jul 2011, p.79]

It can at times be truly excellent 21st-century pop, but too often the songwriting just doesn't match up and many tracks are just multitracked signifiers with no connecting tissue. [Feb 2013, p.81]

The new LP gradually casts a powerful spell. [Aug 2008, p.106]

The best thing about Coming Out Of The Fog, then, is that it's charged with possibility--paradoxically, by stripping Heumann's songs back to their core, simplifying and reducing, he's opened up a space in which the group could really ride into the sun. [Feb 2013, p.72]

Williams' voice is weakly anonymous, Verlaine minus the venom. But his obsessive recreation of his heroes' studio tricks compensates. [Aug 2008, p.113]

Only on "Faces" and the concluding "Poolside" does the stifling fug of rock'n'pop traditionalism lift a little bit. [Jul 2010, p.108]

The mood here is uplifting and thankful – for family, friends, opportunity – as she mostly forgoes her usual country-folk stylings for something closer to R&B and impressionistic pop. [Jun 2021, p.28]

It may be a little too restrained in places, but this is a quietly confident debut. [Apr 2014, p.74]

There's nothing revelatory here, but it's good to see Hayes being so productive. [Feb 2015, p.77]

The visual-album version is the trippiest means of experiencing Ernest Greene's third full-length under his Washed Out moniker. Yet the music is sufficiently enthralling on its own. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Her husky drawl of a voice remains as precious and fragile as a chandelier, and it well suits these insidiously melodic, intimate songs. [Oct 2009, p.110]

It's neither pastiche nor parody, corralling '60s psychedelia, prog, Indian ragas, country rock, '50s lounge music and Javanese campursari into his vision. [Feb 2015, p.79]

Even if Lahs isn't quite the album Allah-Las believed they were making, it's still a minor marvel. [Nov 2019, p.21]

The lo-fi production means it can all sound a bit shrill. [Dec 2011, p.88]

All over the shop stylistically--but a keen handle on dynamics and narrative holds it all together. [Feb 2012, p.97]

It's Pollard in excelsis. [May 2017, p.32]

Over the course of a whole album, a little more ribaldry is required. [Aug 2014, p.81]

Although A Hundred Miles Off doesn't always score a bullseye, its vibrancy and colour win through. [Oct 2006, p.133]

Jemina Pearl's voice is compelling, ensuring Be Your Own Pet sound like a candy-coloured, pocket-sized Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [may 2008, p.87]

Often audacious, occasionally unpalatable. [Jun 2020, p.25]

From start to finish it's an anti-diva joy. [Apr 2006, p.110]

As ever, BBR's absinthe-flavoured acid drops give you a great deal more to suck on than the rest of pop's confectionery selection. [Mar 2003, p.112]

A sustained soft explosion of hushed, aching indietronica. [June 2003, p.91]

The album's polished sheen and lack of emotional focus may disappoint electro-trash devotees accustomed to low-rent sleaze and punky rawness. [Jun 2002, p.118]

It's a long time since we heard three-part harmonies as good as this from anyone. [Jun 2003, p.104]

A sensual, sumptuous overload. [Jan 2004, p.116]

Problematically for a singer-songwriter, Oberst drops personal feelings, wry asides and hip references equally lightly--ultimately, you're disinclined to believe anything he says at all. [Mar 2011, p.85]

Kings of Leon zeroed in on their gifts for visceral rock grooves and soaring hooks--lifting standout tracks on their sixth album to a Springsteen-like level of gritty grandeur. [Oct 2013, p.70]

The pair sometimes get slow and mellow, but the dominant tone is better expressed by the brattish beat explosion of 'Daylight,' the madly bleeping 'Don't Slow Down' or the clatteringly chaotic 'Cutdown.' [Sep 2009, p.86]

[Black's] bright, clear voice supported by lush soundscape of horns, strings and piano. [Sep 2015, p.81]

Songs unfold as complex relationships, with attendant euphoria, doubt and internal demons. [May 2005, p.112]

Fun, if inessential. [Aug 2011, p.93]

The Little Willies keep things gorgeously spartan, with barely an unnecessary note placed anywhere. [Feb 2012, p.93]

"Whiskey, Wine And Ham" is the only track that really pops, enlivened by a rare burst of classic Ryderese. Otherwise it's slim pickings from men a long way past their prime. [Aug 2017, p.25]

Sounds Of The Universe is Depeche's most tune-packed and sonically adventurous album for over a decade. [May 2009, p.82]

A full LP exposes their limitations and suggests that the songs may work best as soundtracks to their elegant stop-motion videos. [nov 2007, p.108]

Is what might be expected of a song entitled "My Kinda Saturday Night", all growling guitars, pounding pianos and soaring choruses extolling the merits of beer, pickup trucks and jukeboxes. But it is no less irresistibly rousing for that, and the same can be said of the broadly similar "Back In The Saddle" nd "Alcohol Of Fame". [Apr 2026, p.29]

On her opening 21st-century work she's still raging. [Jul 2009, p.97]

Cropper stays fairly faithful to the originals. [Oct 2011, p.83]

Simply gorgeous. [Jul 2015, p.80]

More often than not, it seems like the Technicolor electronic sheen is masking tepid songwriting. [Apr 2021, p.30]

The best moments ion this latest from Francois Marry come with added West African sparkle. [Feb 2012, p.86]

Clear Heart Full Eyes is a low-key triumph, containing some of the most emotionally satisfying work Finn has yet produced. [Feb 2012, p.82]

It turns out that this consistently astonishing writer chronicles happiness as astutely as he evokes its opposite. [Sep 2010, p.92]

It's an album of disco torch songs with the usual glib lyrics about good times and sexy dancers replaced by light-hearted queer/feminist sloganeering. [Mar 2014, p.82]

Ghostory is supposedly a concept-album song-portrait, but [the album] feels as evanescent as expensive perfume. [Mar 2012, p.98]

It would have been much more satisfying had she and Cannon stuck with the style of the songs that bookend the album. [Apr 2017, p.32]

So far, so agreeable, but a minor niggle is that Morrison evidently continues to favour comfortable rather than challenging accompanists. Then the album hots up.

Even though the Neptunes have long gone off the boil, their contributions are so much better than those of the other assembled "star" producers. [Jan 2012, p.96]

Even when the songs feel light, when the stylistic havoc and production is almost absurd, you have to admire the glorious gall. [Dec 2008]

The malevolence and needling insistency of Gang Of four and Fugazi are this record's core. [Apr 2012, p.77]

You get less of a sense of young maidens skipping round the maypole than two battle-scarred musicians adapting to life on the road. [Jul 2012, p.83]

Her technical brilliance remains stunning; it's now matched by her maturity and modernity. [Jan 2013, p.74]

The duo's third add little to territory explored by Broadcast and Sterolab, but there is still an alluring soft-porn sexiness to avant-Kraut Moog-pop excursions. [Jun 2015, p.75]

It's steeped in the snotty multi-coloured psych of the Elevators, the Seeds, Os Mutantes and, via the parping Farfusa of "Follow Me Home," early Doors. [Aug 2016, p.80]

Kikagaku Moyo sound more assured than ever on this fourth album. [Nov 2018, p.32]