An acquired taste. [Jan 2005, p.124]

The Information often feels hygienised and missing some grit. [Nov 2006, p.100]

Weirdly, it sounds like a modern-day Alice Cooper album.[May 2018, p.35]

Ibifornia features slightly too many faceless party-friendly dance-pop bangers. [Aug 2016, p.73]

Despite its meaty themes Our Inventions feels rather slight. [May 2010, p.94]

The result is a seductively melancholy and unashamedly serious album that claws insistently at the heartstrings. [Nov 2011, p.91]

Alas, she doesn't have the power or swing to ride a big band, and as soon as producer Tommy LiPuma turns up the contrast and volume, her voice hardens. [Oct 2006, p.112]

Barnes' lyrics remain a stumbling block. [Oct 2001, p.98]

The material on what's intended to be her big breakthrough is however unispired. [Mar 2009, p.80]

This is more Wilshire Boulevard than Cyprus Avenue, trading largely in a kind of light Vegas-y swing. [May 2015, p.77]

Guest spots from vocalists Andrea Galaxy and Jessy Lanza make explicit the R&B influence, but the most emotive, intimate moments come when Abdel-Hamid makes her synths sing to themselves. [Jul 2017, p.32]

It's fine, quietly captivating stuff, all the same. [Jun 2009, p.86]

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

Cat's Eyes has nice moment's has nice moments, but it makes you realize how much we'll miss Broadcast, who explored similar terrain with more aplomb. [May 2011, p.86]

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

It is pure nostalgia, and some of these songs are familiar to the point of tedium, but even a Beatles sceptic would find it hard to suppress a shudder of recognition on hearing these tunes sung by the man who wrote them.

Time-served Carll fans may lament a relative lack of his signature snarky wordplay, but it turns out that sincerity suits him just as well. [Sep 2025, p.29]

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

Shrill, theatrical, and unhinged. [Feb 2007, p.71]

Perfect background music for those late-night venues that tend to overdo the ultra-violet lights. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The chilly disco-noir aesthetic of early 1980s synth-pop provides the musical hinterland, all monophonic squelch and analogue modernism. [Aug 2008, p.85]

Gutter Tactics lets a little light in, though, the glimmering, shoegazey 'We Lost Sight' being the surest glimpse yet of redemption within the gloom. [Mar 2009, p.82]

Driven by two drummers they owe much to the styles of Fucked Up, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Torche, but on 'Black Wax' they apply the brakes, revealing a surprising amount of melodic, colle-rock bounce. [May 2009, p.82]

It's the skeletal accompaniment that lends the sound real brawn--primitive and intuitive, yet sophisticated at the same time. [Jun 2009, p.113]

Here, courtesy of producer Jason Falkner, his curious rock 'n' roll songs are given a crisp, clean production, a belssing which sometimes threatens to expose the - how you say? - idiosyncrasies of Johnston's singing. [Jan 2010, p. 115]

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

A brave endeavour. But unlike My Chemical Romance's Black Parade, Infinity On High has critically little sense of its own ridiculousness. [Mar 2007, p.79]

Stuttering breakbeats, looped effects and suffusive psychedelia. [Feb 2007, p.72]

Red Velvet Car finds Heart holding back on the lacquer. [Oct 2010, p.94]

So aesthetically perfect was the formula that Clinic displayed on their earliest singles, an acidic blend of The Velvet Underground, '60s garage and The Monks delivered with frenetic intensity, that subsequent attempts to branch out have felt strangely limited. Bubblegum, however, succeeds quite neatly in making some distance. [Nov 2010, p.83]

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Jack White outclass the flat cap and braces brigade. [Mar 2015, p.84]

The album largely struggles to match the buzz and momentum of its tone-setting opener. [Nov 2022, p.36]

Created under vows of artistic chastity (one room, no overdubs), yet played with the rambling freedom of an afternoon jam, Recordings...feels like a necessary reaction to Portishead, but seems unlikely as yet to usurp his day job. [Dec 2009, p. 85]

Texturally, the mood is one of warm, sensual dreaminess, of hushed vocals and woozy analogue synth. Prins Thomas isn't, though, wanting of strong grooves. [May 2010, p.102]

Sometimes it makes sense. A lot of the time, it doesn't. [Sep 2016, p.74]

For all their poppy ambition, the highlights are probably "Chemtrails," a wicked fuzz of gospel narco-bliss, and "Sunday Morning," a smacked-up take on "Penny Lane." [Aug 2011, p.89]

Big tunes. Not much heart. [Nov 2017, p.30]

The Prodigy are an influence on tracks like “So What” but the sound of KLF and Underworld underpins “Sicko” and “I Can’t Lose You”, while Madonna’s ’90s collaborations with William Orbit are in the background of several tunes. [Dec 2024, p.33]

This collection, like all of his work, conjures a world unto itself, drawing from seemingly random sources to weave a work of mystic, spiritual power. [May 2008, p.102]

Novelist Michael Chabon's lyrics fail to illuminate the theme, while the music settles for tasteful reverence. [Mar 2015, p.81]

With its fidgety electronica and shredded rave, 11th album Parastrophies might've raised eyebrows in 1996, but today there are few Spotify playlists that would unironically accommodate squiggly chip-tunes. [Mar 2012, p.92]

A follow-up on which original members Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife seek only to reanimate the spiky, sparky spirit of '78. They mostly succeed. [May 2015, p.80]

This year's Slowhand again, for the most part, delves deep into bygone songbooks, flitting between styles with consummate ease. [May 2013, p.69]

When delicate motifs from accordion, harmonica and piano join her softly plucked acoustic guitar it can make for a sweetly seductive sound, but just as often her vocal melodies meander without leaving a mark. [Oct 2025, p.31]

All The Roadrunning isn't quite the success they would have hoped. The problem, perversely enough, lies in the disparity of voices. [May 2006, p.126]

The result is an impressionistic and intriguing set of instrumentals that draw on an eclectic set of influences from the obvious (Satie and Glass) to the surprising (gamelan and Robert Miles). [Jan 2018, p.24]

[It] lives or dies on whether you think... Jack Black is a comic messiah or a juvenile chump. [Dec 2006, p.129]

The intent is admirable even if too many of the songs feel flimsy and pedestrian. [Dec 2014, p.81]

Amiably lightweight. [Jun 2007, p.115]

The Living And The Dead finds her broadening her palette, enlisting Tom Waits guitarist Marc Ribot to bring a miore rock flavour. It's only partially successful. [Nov 2008, p.102]

Kweller keeps his melodies clean and his arrangements simple, frequently teaming pedal steel or dobro with his acoustic guitar. [Mar 2009, p.91]

Classy but underpowered. [Aug 2021, p.24]

In spite (or maybe because) of their flaws, there's a vivid presence to tracks like "Heaven" and "My Little Universe" that fans will flock to and onlookers can't help but smile at. [May 2013, p.69]

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]

There's nothing here to rival "Drop It Like It's Hot", much less "gin N Juice", but the results are mostly harmless, even if that was never quite the point. [Jan 2010, p. 126]

Arch novelty rather than post-modern profundity, then, but it's a damn sight smarter than the Barron Knights ever were. [Feb 2010, p.84]

His sixth solo album has some decent uptempo moments. ... Less compelling are the albums world-weary ballads, but one old downtempo number, "Foreign Sand," benefits from a stripped-back acoustic treatment. [Nov 2021, p.35]

Newman's a decent songwriter whose songs never quite ignite--their seemingly light touch feels rather hard-won. [Dec 2012, p.75]

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]

The post-coital twang of 'Aly, Walk With Me' and 'Lust' are enough to arouse even the most jaded trash-rock fetishist. [Dec 2008, p.101]

The sweetness of her voice often masks tough sentiments. [Apr 2019, p.34]

The songs here reveal their author's love of The Beattles, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Elton John et al, and confirm Newman's growing status as college rock's most tasteful magpie. [Apr 2009, p.91]

It will, rightly, go a long way to repairing Pete Doherty's reputation as a singer and songwriter of note. But half of it is a bit boring.

The addition of vocals is hugely welcome, even if they are only Panda Bear-style chants. [Apr 2012, p.77]

"Once I Was Pretty" and "The Disappearance Of My Youth" only confirm they know their territory and stick to it. [Feb 2010, p.93]

As ever: endlessly clever, utterly inessential. [Feb 2006, p.81]

The results are pleasant enough but ultimately feel rather disjointed, as though this band has yet to settle into its own skin. [Nov 2011, p.91]

Finds itself caught between emulating the original's enviable qualities and overhauling its almost four-decade habits. [Aug 2023, p.36]

Over 11 tracks the formula admittedly feels a little one-note and limited in scope, but the pair's gift for melody shines nonetheless. [Mar 2018, p.25]

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

The players' tight grip on the material reveals a first-rate band in peak form. [June 2008, p.98]

Her solo works have generally furnished her extraordinary voice with more obviously congruent vehicles, and Age Of Apathy is no exception. [Feb 2022, p.34]

Kelly Zutrau's pure voice is full of tiny, yodelling curlicues that sound oddly Appalachian, and the songs have the sturdy melodies and heart-wrenching lyrics we associate with Nashville. [Feb 2016, p.84]

'Object' is a highlight, as is the lovely 'Sweetheart In The Summer.' [Dec 2007, p.119]

While Heather McEntire's wonderful voice is a natural country conduit, there's not quite enough around it, her bandmates opting to frame her tones in fairly pedestrian roots-rock settings. [Mar 2016, p.76]

You long for a bit more of the ardour of "Fine Squad." [Mar 2015, p.73]

Gwen Stefani should be nervous. [Oct 2008, p.105]

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ricky Medlocke co-writes one song, and most others sound like someone from Skynyrd did. But the best tracks, counterintuitively, are those furthest from Blackberry Smoke’s trademark boogie. [Aug 2021, p.24]

Joseph Mount and co have tried to narrow their focus, with 'My Heart Rate Rapid' and 'A Thing For Me' the most obvious benificaries of a new streamlined approach. elsewhere, however, an off-putting manic surrealism remains, which somehow feels like an act of self-sabotage. [Oct 2008, p.p.101]

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]

This is a fierce live performance by a band who didn’t always manage to hold things together onstage. It catches Nirvana at maximum intensity, aware of, but not disabled by, the contradictions that tormented Cobain and would eventually tear him asunder.

The band's second album features a few middling faux-Europop numbers, but the best are real growers. [Jul 2015, p.71]

The weed doesn't seem to have dented Stone's vocal prowess, however, and the pop-reggae vibe isn't necessarily unpleasant. [Aug 2015, p.80]

The biggest surprise is how rarely this scratch supergroup really swings to its full potential. [Feb 2007, p.68]

Fucked Up Friends isn't that great of a departure from this year's "Eating Us." [Aug 2009, p.105]

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

Perhaps creative stasis might have proved more rewarding. [Aug 2003, p.99]

For their third album, Githead - that's Wire's Colin Newman, Robin 'Scanner' Rimbaud, and Malka Spigel and Max Franken of Israeli post-punkers Minimal Compact - have partly abandoned the sly hooks of 2007's well-named Art Pop In favour of a leaner and more ambient approach. [Jan 2010, p. 112]

The wildcard element comes in the shape of thier guitarist, who makes much of this album sound as if Brian May had been airlifted into a Devendra Banhart recording session. Disconcerting, but really rather good. [Feb 2010, p.81]

While Live Laugh Love could benefit from more of the tension that builds in "Tethered" lest it all start seem too comfortably slack, Chastity Belt's blend of blissed-out effervescence and sly wit remains very appealing. [May 2024, p.32]

Some of it is a little too cosy and overly earnest, White tending to excel on the more spirited likes of the swampy "What's So" and "I've Been Over This Before." [Sep 2016, p.81]

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

These warm engaging gnarly songs are vigorously banged out by a mix of the original and current lineups. [Sep 2018, p.30]

The tracka are overlong and the ubiquitous fuzz pedal makes "Sedatives" and "King Of Kings" sound like a narcoleptic Screwdriver, but it's hard to knock Jesu's dedication to the sad, slow and contemplative. [Aug 2011, p.90]

She threads Lou Reed's vocal rhythm over the band's brisk skank on "Hangin' Round", while "Song To The Siren" and "The Man Who Sold The World" slip with similar ease into reggae mode. [Jul 2023, p.24]

In taming their eccentricity, Dios (Malos) have also lost some of their dreamy romanticism along the way. [Mar 2006, p.98]

It's frequently chaotic, but instruments occasionally coalesce into unusual, oddly beautiful forms. [Jun 2006, p.112]

While the LP is patchy, some of the miniature studies for circuitry, essayed by Flanagan and collaborator Dean Honer, are beguilingly eldritch, and the second half's run of pop songs are joyous and odd in equal measure. [Nov 2012, p.72]