Laudable, but overreaching. [Nov 2006, p.130]

Not as good as the original, but an interesting afterthought. [Feb 2013, p.79]

"The Right Stuff" is carried along by a nifty percussive shuffle and lovely layered brass that make you wish the entire album carried their production imprint. [Apr 2015, p.76]

The rest of the album struggles to maintain that high standard [of the second track, 'I Know'], but 'Take It Home' is a magnificent dirge. [Sep 2009, p.86]

For the most part, though, Long Way Down is relentless in its pursuit of a teen audience easily won over by a sensitive man-boy who knows his way around a piano. [May 2013, p.75]

Pleiades may not live up to the cerebral promise of its title, but boats songs, in the likes of "Play," "Sunset & Echo," and single "Further." [Sep 2012, p.74]

The sound is low-slung, lugubrious Americana. [Jun 2014, p.76]

There's some shrewd commercial nous behind their retro-wackiness. [Aug 2008, p.85]

Too much of it is lost in homogeneous country balladry more often associated with Trish Yearwood and all the other Nashville guff. A pity, because Moorer's voice is an expressive thing. [Mar 2010, p.94]

Ocean Colour Scene return to remind us that no one loves the mid-'60s beat boom more than they do. [May 2005, p.103]

This four-track mini-album is something of a departure from [previous works, this is] a relatively straightforward, stripped down techno work with a few mischievous touches. [June 2008, p.88]

There are fewer surprises here than on previous offerings, but enough ideas to cement their position as this generation's most creative guitar band. [June 2008, p.90]

Rebel heart almost gets the balance right, but at 19 tracks, most in the industrial party-pop style of cheeseball producers Diplo and Avicii, there's simply too much going on. [Apr 2015, p.78]

There are flashes of grouchy greatness from all three--but only flashes. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Unfortunately, Scouting For Girls occasionally meander out of their depth. [May 2010, p.102]

Spending a little too long in the shallows of pastel-shaded easy-listening minimalism. That said, there are sublimely beautiful and lightly experimental touches here too. [Dec 2019, p.30]

A peculiar take on neo-baroque folk with an utterly contemporary twist. [Apr 2005, p.100]

The songwriting largely delivers. [Dec 2006, p.127]

The inconsistent textures, pace and flow of the album all point to a band still trying to work out who they are. [Feb 2025, p.37]

Accept the general aura of legwarmers and it's fun. [Nov 2009, p.90]

Rather precious in places, but often enchanting. [Oct 2011, p.81]

Patience is required to navigate his smirking in-jokes. [Jan 2017, p.28]

It's essentially Clark in all his acoustic finery. [Nov 2011, p.96]

A stripped-down set of acoustic songs sung in a voice that is sometimes overly winsome but at its best is hauntingly ethereal. [Feb 2019, p.24]

His avuncular, keep-it-moving approach prevents things from getting too deep. [Apr 2017, p.39]

Hampered by Gray's dial-a-diva rasp, Big is nowhere near as good as it should be. [May 2007, p.92]

He's lost his way a little bit here. [Jun 2009, p.109]

Enon inhabit a multi-coloured Seventies soaring pop universe but with... emphasis on crunching guitar breaks, electronic textures and skewed lyrics. [Sep 2002, p.118]

It's all likable, seldom revelatory. [Feb 2015, p.80]

The follow-up--featuring a mere 13 songs--is solid and functional, but lacks that inspired edge. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Sunny funk pours from most tracks, veiling the odd lyric about single moms, and the slowies are lit by noble torches. [Jun 2003, p.104]

Laurie reprises his well-intentioned but essentially unconvincing bluesman shtick. [Jun 2013, p.75]

22-year old singer and songwriter Dylan Baldi still sounds like an angst-wracked teen. [Jun 2014, p.73]

Forever Turned Around hovers in a midrange that's objectively nice, but lacks the vigour required of something memorable. [Oct 2019, p.39]

Over the full 82 minutes, though, 93696 can feel a little relentless, undone by the scale of its own ambition. [Apr 2023, p.32]

A three-part instrumental piece, named "Heart: Attach," brings a pleasant filmic quality to an album that elsewhere trades a little too heavily on nostalgia. [Nov 2011, p.94]

Tricky has a frustrating tendency to lurk behind his collaborators, and one has to fight the feeling that ideas rarely gel. [Oct 2010, p.106]

Musically, it's not exactly mould-shattering, a blend of surf and chirpy indie rock. They're at their most effective when they deliberately fray the edges. [May 2019, p.29]

Radian, the Vienna based trio of martin Brandlmayr (drums), Stefan Nemeth (guitars, synthesizers)and John Norman (bass), are a cerebral, digital post-rock outfit whose wibbliness too often leads them into a state of rhythmic paralysis. [Jan 2010, p. 123]

It helps that these 10 primitive songs are excellent, and that The Datsuns attack them with such vehemently anti-ironic gusto. [Nov 2002, p.118]

Yorke aside, the attractions are few in Monkeytown. [Nov 2011, p.93]

The result is Roots Manuva's most purely pleasurable long-player. [Oct 2010, p.105]

They can do dreamy folk, they can also violently attack their guitars, but best of all is the opening track, 'So Messed Up,' a Neil Young-inspired ballad where the guitars rumble and flicker oiver Ryan Sawyer's Keith Moon-style perpetual drum solo. [May 2008, p.111]

The resulting hazy acoustic soundscapes are only a soft-shoe shuffle away from Caribou's neo-pyschedelia. [Dec 2008, p.108]

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]

Though attempts at Amy Rigby territory ring hollow, a couple of country weepies bear redemptive powers. [May 2003, p.102]

At first it all sounds slightly undercooked, but soon its crunched funk and sinuous synthwork, nicely judged on "Another State Of Consciousness," suggest a master grasping a new technique. [Sep 2019, p.37]

Producer Joe Chiccarelli curbs their proggy tendencies in favor of chromed-out, geometrically precise arrangements embedded with bull's eye melodic and instrumental hooks. [Jul 2010, p.115]

That it works at all is thanks to a dense, cartoonish production that sees dusty breaks. found sounds and snippets of conversation tossed together like the contents of an upturned toy box. [Jul 2005, p.96]

It's hard to really connect with most of In A Dream; not only does it play through as tirelessly, tiringly arch, many of the songs just don't quite cut it. [Nov 2014, p.76]

The mini-album finds this talented duo running in place. [Feb 2020, p.30]

A decidedly sassier affair. [Jun 2006, p.110]

The musical themes are narrow and somewhat repetitive but Kubrick duly delivers on atmosphere. [Jan 2016, p.80]

Further requires an injection of personality that low-key collaborators Stephanie Dosen and Francis Ten just can't provide. [Jul 2010, p103]

Where her other albums are more varied, this all-guns-blazing pop portfolio is a touch wearying. [Mar 2016, p.80]

It's covers that make the bulk of the songs, and some are more successful than others. [Apr 2016, p.90]

Like The Fall, PSB are always different, always the same. [Mar 2012, p.97]

[The album recalls] the warm, breezy charms of labelmates Beach house. [Mar 2012, p.92]

Henry lacks Wait's distinctive voice and lyrical personae, but his way with deftly arranged melodies is often superb. [Sep 2009, p.84]

Vocalist Tim Kinsella strikes an intriguing balance between raw emotion and lyrical enigma. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Although Kramer sometimes lacks the craft and discipline to make his purposely flimsy sonic treatments stand up as full-blooded songs. [Aug 2016, p.83]

Justin Moore’s “Here Comes My Girl” and Brothers Osborne’s “I Won’t Back Down” both sound like expensive karaoke. The best tracks take more than a few liberties with the source material. [Jul 2024, p.41]

Funnily enough, it's the lyrics that let Ringleader down the most. [Apr 2006, p.94]

Get Lost marks him out as descendant of Manuel Gottsching and Vini Reilly, stringing pretty guitar motifs and quiet, whispered vocals into ringing loops. [Nov 2011, p.93]

The result is a record not in step with any particular fashion, but, on songs like 'Talking To The Dog,' you get choppy and catchy with rare raw-knuckle skill. [May 2009, p.92]

There are missteps--the tinny horns of "fanfare," or the mantra of "Vitriol," which is silly in the same way Kula Shaker were silly. Straighter Moments hit, though, largely thanks to drummer Greg Fox's athletic disposition and some mighty crescendos. [May 2015, p.76]

Alt-J enter Kid A territory. The baroque synth pop of "In Cold Blood" and the kinky rockabilly of "Hit Me Like That Snare" are their only concessions to the arena. [Jul 2017, p.25]

Mazes proves that San Franciscan guitarist Ripley Johnson has not musically strayed too far from home. [May 2001, p.93]

Their equally unexpected return sees them back on full-tilt, pivot-on0a-penny form, with their own label and--judging from that title--hardened professional resolve. [Aug 2011, p.81]

It's a polite, rather repressed formulation and the most appealing moments come when they go off-piste. [Dec 2019, p.32]

Stripped of the usual bells and whistles, and backed by unplugged instruments, it's left to his voice to do the work and, given the length of the thing, it soon starts to grate. [Dec 2012, p.79]

A stepping stone to more original work to come? Could well be. [Apr 2026, p.29]

His blend of house and Eurodisco soon settles into a bland formula of bittersweet Balearic fare. [Mar 2011, p.98]

While Roth's delivery is smart, the subject matter can feel like the work of someone playing dumb. [Jul 2009, p.91]

We Got A Love rarely deviates from DFA's tried-and-tested disco-punk template. [Apr 2014, p.81]

Here are 10 tracks of undeniably well-engineered rock, but the sounds remain the same. [Oct 2015, p.83]

The chugging arrangements are often overwrought, and the lyrics slightly too pleased with themselves, but Hawk's lusty baritone croons lend passion and swagger to salacious funk-pop confessional "Big Cat Tattoos" and the sardonic, self-lacerating "Questionable Hit". [Sep 2024, p.33]

It has its charms.... but the naivety of their debut remains elusive. [Nov 2014, p.84]

The Hunter feels purposely immediate. [Nov 2011, p.93]

The seething mood is familiar but the cursory electro beats offer little of the grimy richness of primetime Tricky. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Acid Tongue is imperfect, but nevertheless slightly more than halfway to astounding.

It's good stuff, but also strangely nostalgic. [Nov 2008, p.117]

A Thousand Mazes almost transcends its influences. Almost. [May 2011, p.91]

Welch delivers clunky self-help lines wrapped in elemental metaphors. [Jul 2015, p.76]

There's nothing particularly jaw-dropping about it, and at times it's too cute and wimpy, but it's a decent change in direction from diskJokke's cosmic house sides. [Aug 2011, p.82]

Despite the references to Oxford Circus and the Northern Line, Smith's baritone voice often strays into mid-Atlantic territory, but the highlights see him lean into English pastoralism. [Jan 2026, p.35]

Starts powerfully... [but] fizzles out with corny ballads. [Nov 2005, p.111]

The contrived newer stuff suggests she should stop trying to impress US hip hop royalty. [Mar 2007, p.91]

Some tracks lean too far towards tastefully decaffeinated worldbeat. But there are soulful depths and deliciously supple rhythms too. [Aug 2020, p.33]

His return is an oddly subdued affair. [Aug 2019, p.35]

The soft-rock paradigm with its classic Fleetwood Mac/Carole King references is self-limiting, but the songs are lucid and heartfelt in their graceful ruminations on the passage of time. [Sep 2019, p.34]

The LP's sonic cocoon bursts apart with the horn blasts and slashing guitar of the Lennon-like rocker "Easy To Love," rescuing the record from suffocating in whimsy. [Jan 2022, p.22]

In many ways [it] seems in thrall to its predecessor. As a study in System Of A Down's multifarious strengths and occasional weaknesses, however, it's indispensable. [Jan 2006, p.110]

Ultraista never quite shake off the sense of a session-muso studio supergroup dressing down in indie clothes. [Dec 2012, p.78]

Much of [Buckshot's] edge is lost but fans of hip hop's yellowing indie template will find much to enjoy nonetheless. [Sep 2008, p.90]

Less effectively soothing than 2022's A Journey..., it's unconventionally beguiling, more ambient predecessor. [Dec 2023, p.34]

It's an album of two halves, with "Rock And Roll Again" summarising a scene-setting opening hand that focuses on good-time, AC/DC-worshiping rockers. A shade more subtlety comes late on. [Mar 2015, p.72]

For his last couple of albums, cowpunk songster Snider has pitched himself in the sort of satiracally confrontational and liberal-minded territory occuupied by Randy Newman or Steve Earle. Peace Queer follows that pattern. [Jan 2008, p.113]