Brace yourselves, naysayers, for a tour de force.

Thanks You For Today marks a further shift towards an ultra-plush, synth-laden soft-rock sound. [Oct 2018, p.27]

Thrillingly heavy and direct it may be, but there are great tunes here. [Jul 2014, p.77]

A competent, well-intentioned exercise in futility. [Oct 2006, p.110]

A deeply enjoyable pop-funk record. [May 2006, p.114]

Tempest explores electro-dub and Four Tet-like glitch. [Oct 2012, p.87]

The ambition's hampered by Julian Casablancas' sad-sack singing. [Feb 2006, p.68]

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 combination of tinkling pianos, gutsy strum and homespun wisdom places this very much in the middle of the road. [Apr 2004, p.92]

Gomez's clattering eclecticism has won endless plaudits, but now seems like a red herring when their exploratory approach remains fixated on Dixieland, Seventies soul and hip hop. [Apr 2002, p.100]

It's a concept album about vengeance and contempt, and reminds that they're one of the only UK bands of their era still worth following. [June 2008, p.86]

Exhilarating or jarring, depending on taste. [Dec 2016, p.26]

The band remains essentially the same. ... Back then it was exhilarating. Now it's also a little exhausting. [Aug 2017, p.26]

In truth, though, there's not too much here to alarm the undergraduate population.

Dense and challenging, with an unmistakable humanist undertow, ...Snow is a riveting trip. [Nov 2009, p.90]

The high concept here is a paean to the ancient Greeks, inspired by the derring-do of gods and heroes: "Diana By My Side" and the breakbeaty "Mars" are suitably Elysian. [Jan 2017, p.28]

Gonjasufi's nervous energy makes MU.ZZ.LE strangely soothing. [Feb 2012, p.86]

The sound of two talented men messing around and letting off steam in a studio. Much livelier than Tunng. [Jul 2016, p.81]

The lustrous "In Your Light" alone should see his name on billboards. [Mar 2012, p.87]

These are songs all at once cavernous and claustrophobic, substantially assembled from gloomy electronica and echoing drums, all of which provides an appropriate backdrop to a rich voice appealingly laced with melancholy. [Oct 2017, p.30]

T Bone's unfussy production is key, allowing Bingham's rusted voice to take stage centre. [Oct 2010, p.89]

At 14 tracks, what begins as a demonstration of impressive ambition ends up dragging. [Apr 2011, p.78]

The Liquid "I'm Turning Inside Out" and lyrically unsettling, Bon Iver-ish "Shine A Light On Him" are standouts in a quietly haunting set. [Aug 2016, p.83]

Trad ballads, Americana and well-chosen contemporary folk covers mix with smart original compositions sung in a plaintive voice, while his virtuoso finger-piking is augmented by splashes of electric in a style clearly modeled on Richard Thompson. [Oct 2017, p.39]

Significantly more wonderful than it is frightening. [Oct 2017, p.24]

It's a sequence of long, ambitious, noirish, trip-hoppy soundscapes narrated by Burnett on what sounds like a phone line from hell. [May 2019, p.24]

It's an elegant yet earthy hybrid of jazz, UK soul and highlife. [Mar 2021, p.35]

This is a coherent set of transformative reveries by an older, less angry man. [Jan 2022, p.31]

This recurring tendency to grandiosity is especially frustrating given that less is generally more throughout the album. [Nov 2022, p.35]

Bob Dylan brings a smoothly elegant croon to Ray Noble's 1930s standard "The Very Thought Of You" one of his strongest ever vocal performances. Paul McCartney, meanwhile, largely plays second fiddle on the self-penned "My Valentine". [Aug 2025, p.37]

Sun Gong is minimal in the extreme, its two sides entirely dedicated to the eerie resonance of an electronically treated gong. [Nov 2017, p.30]

It's bookended by two tracks that pastiche liquid funk and jungle with such faithfulness they might seem pointless to anyone but nostalgic former ravers, but in between there's much to love. [Jan 2012, p.104]

There's little that veers from the template but it's largely done well. [Apr 2013, p.72]

The Los Angeles MC-producer hasn't yet made a definitive record. Cherry Bomb isn't it either, but its chaos is invigorating. [Jul 2015, p.83]

Song structures are over-egged, resulting in blunted hooks and lost momentum. [Dec 2019, p.25]

The sound's core remains Matthew Caws' candyfloss voice, but Doug Gillard's guitar adds mettle. [Feb 2012, p.94]

It's an ensemble work, but the tremulous "An Old Peasant Like Me" is especially affecting. [Sep 2013, p.87]

As an exercise in historical re-enactment it works just fine, but not everyone will want to stick around until Going Way Out...comes around again. [Nov 2007, p.104]

A double LP by name, but distant cousins rather than telepathic twins. [Feb 2020, p.33]

Ultimately the Barrs sound like themselves. [Dec 2014, p.71]

Infinite Arms is a neoclassic landmark that you'll need to get on vinyl. This is a record that begs to be flipped over and played again. [Jun 2010, p.93]

It is not hard to make fun of this band, even if you’re broadly sympathetic to their beliefs. But the atmosphere they create in their music is so heady, so insidious, so rooted in their environment and their Utopian ideals, that the whole package becomes compelling.

A much more orthodox, plaid-shirted affair that draws heavily from the early '70s. [Jan 2016, p.73]

Girl At The End Of The World extends and advances on its predecessor's spirited reboot. [Apr 2016, p.74]

The result is substantially more upbeat and cohesive--a West Coast take on Britpop. [Sep 2018, p.36]

The spine is provided by Smith's gentle, unforced voice and virtuosic fingerpicking but piano, subtle splashes of percussion and guest appearances recorded remotely by the milk Carton Kids, Bill Frisell and Lisa Hannigan add extra texture. [May 2021, p.32]

If the reggae-metal of "I'm Insecure" is a little club-footed, the charisma of her delivery still wins through. [Oct 2022, p.31]

The songwriter is in fine form--but it's sometimes hard to suppress doubts over the need for solo Pollard now GBV are back. [Apr 2012, p.83]

There's shades of both Stevie Nicks and Neko Case in Lissie's voice, a resplendent instrument that's both husky and mellow, attuned equally to the epic and the intimate. But Really the sound and songs here are a testament to her unaffected individuality. [Aug 2010, p.86]

[A] strong second album. [Mar 2015, p.73]

It's their dirty, lowdown rock pastiches that truly score.... A bona fide blast of ageless, pretension-free rock'n'roll. [Mar 2003, p.98]

They mix wistful, hook-laden rock songs in the vein of Counting Crows, Five For Fighting, The Gin Blossoms, The Posies and Pete Yorn with the proto-emo sound of Sunny Day Real Estate. [Aug 2002, p.104]

Deptford Goth's ghost R&B keens admiringly in the direction of Bon Iver and Active Child. [Apr 2013, p.69]

Lovely for a few songs, the narcoleptic, yet semi-cinematic visions risk homogeneity by the album's end. [Mar 2017, p.35]

Lively but also introspective, The House ultimately explores growth through personal reflection, while nestled in a cocoon of immersive electronics. [Feb 2018, p.30]

Five years on, New Orleans' Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones return with nine rather more conventionally structured songs than the nebulous, shapeshifting drones of their debut, Orange Language. [May 2011, p.79]

In many ways Clay Class is another helping of their broken blues and Stuckist infra-poetry, charting a Fallen landscape, stripped even of grotesque enchantment. [Feb 2012, p.97]

Their slick, mirthless approach and Roman Rappak's self-satisfied delivery threaten to turn Breton into Topman art-rock mannequins in the mould of Everything Everything and Alt-J. [Mar 2014, p.72]

Basement Jaxx still manage to exceed expectations with each album. [Oct 2009, p.91]

Given a fuzzed-out, subterranean production glaze, Butter filters everything from surf and lounge touches to Spaghetti Western flourishes, but is best when spinning cool pop hooks up out of the muck. [Oct 2012, p.87]

Too many of these frictionless Eurodisco makeweights only prove that great, urgent, heart-tugging electro-pop is easy to stimulate but difficult to pull off successfully. [Jun 2013, p.75]

Fuzz and reverb are everywhere, but The Soft Pack are also refreshingly unafraid of the sax solo. [Nov 2012, p.81]

They build on the West Coast blueprint for strung-out, psychotropic darkness, tracking back to The Crystals via Mary Chain and leaning heavily on the reverb and delay. However, it's hedonism, not retro homage that floats the Crocodiles' boat. [Jul 2009, p.84]

Overall it's a box-ticking collection unlikely to broaden her mainstream fanbase. [Nov 2018, p.37]

The dozen tunes here are sumptuous slices of bliss-pop with an art-punk edge. [Mar 2009, p.78]

Turner delivers his self-empowerment anthems with the crunch and earnestness of Billy Bragg or The Levellers. All this bombast gets a little wearying after a while, though. [Sep 2015, p.83]

Although Father Divine ultimately feels more like a sketchbook than a coherent work, Ladd's doodles contain more fertile ideas than most artists' finished albums. [Mar 2006, p.91]

Captured live in the studio at LA's Sunset Sound, they've never sounded better in their 20-year career, their Southern roots more proudly on parade than ever. [Oct 22010, p.87]

Alice delivers his best album in decades. [Oct 2008, p.83]

The patchwork of Orb-like sonic tapestries and guest vocals by some uncharacteristically gnarly rock veterans is not hugely original, but still manages to engage. [Feb 2012, p.84]

The rest of the album never reaches such heights [of The Big E], but there are enough noisy high-points, such as "Never Get Tired" and "Sit Tight," to make Laughing Party a significant step up. [Jul 2012, p.74]

Wobble and Levene reunited for this brightly lit, muscly rock collaboration. [Dec 2012, p.79]

The result is a little pick 'n' mix, but the delivery is great and songwriting assured. [Mar 2015, p.77]

It's not revolutionary, but there's not a duff track to be found. [Aug 2018, p.24]

Lyrically, the rose-tinted specs are off but sonically it has a romantic, decidedly retro bent, with reverb and (fine) vocal harmonies wrapped around songs that recall Shangri-Las, a stripped-back Lush and a less morose Cowboy Junkies. [Mar 2020, p.33]

It's uneven in places, but "OMW" - a twinkly 10-minute closer written with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig - is a low-key delight. [Mar 2021, p.25]

Their strongest, punchiest batch of songs to date. [Dec 2022, p.36]

The cumulative effect of all this mid-tempo moodiness is that High Flying Birds feels awfully plodding. [Nov 2011, p.88]

There are still touches of the Streolab/Broadcast school of archaic electronics, but Alpers' melodies are now fuller and richer, and texturally Bachelorette brims with contrast. [Jul 2011, p.77]

With its mix of electric piano and harp, gospel choir, distorted bass and rap, Halcyon seems uncertain where it belongs--low-lit lounge or heaving club. [Nov 2012, p.75]

The trouble with studiousness is its tendency to inhibit invention, and such is the case here on their third long-player. [Oct 2016, p.23]

It's the slowies that suffer--lacking the warm glaze of the previous album, they can sound a little hollow. [Dec 2015, p.76]

Arrangingtime functions as both a means of closure and a creative reboot. [Apr 2016, p.82]

Forced Witness is a lovely album of '80s-ish pop, using synth and sax to find the space between Springsteen and the Bunnymen. [Sep 2017, p.24]

The band's plush indietronica is still in place, but there's greater warmth and imagination, and real consistency. [Mar 2010, p.79]

Primal yet precise, these obliques beats and blocky grooves loom out of the lush ambient foliage like the crown of a Mayan temple in the Yucatan jungle. [Dec 2011, p.87]

It's all very polite and reserved. [Jan 2015, p.79]

Johnny Whitney's helium-pumped, Brian Molko-meets-Freddie Mercury squeal is very much an acquired taste--perhaps for some it will prove insufficuently offset by his bandmates' post-punk adventurism. [Sep 2008, p.92]

There are plenty of good ideas here, but plenty of bad ones, too. [Sep 2015, p.77]

It lives and dies on its guest vocalists: female MC Tink shines on "Wanna Party," as does grime veteran Riko Dan on "Speng." Elsewhere, a reliance on drab Auto-Tune crooning can drag. [Mar 2015, p.76]

Producer Ludwig Goransson imbues the beats with a comparable degree of pomp, although we could have done without diversions into cheesy Swede-pop. [Jan 2012 p.88]

Smilewound finds the woolly jumpered collective coasting through another set of impressionistic glitch-pop and clockwork exotica. [Sep 2013, p.92]

A Letter Home illustrates that vagaries of sound quality can sometimes enhance the drama of a record, and rarely undermine the potency of a good song. [Jul 2014, p.68]

The bucolic reverie can't mask the suspicion that something vital is missing. [Mar 2013, p.69]

After a fair-to-middling second album they took a self-imposed break before returning with this excellent effort. [Oct 2011, p.83]

Writing separately, frontman Rim Wilson and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Carbury have come up with material that falls between the Broadway musical and the motivational speech. [Jun 2015, p.77]

The lyrics cover some heavy subjects--feminism, Catholicism, corrupt Irish institutions-- so it's a pity that the hopelessly muddy production means that they might as well be singing in Icelandic. [May 2016, p.79]