Brash and enjoyable. [Apr 2002, p.106]

The gentle spectres of Sparklehorse and Elliott Smith are always near, but [Davey] Von Bohlen's mix of bleary wonder and self-deprecation is charming, and his grasp of melody sure. [Jun 2002, p.122]

Nope, this is not easy listening, yet he's never made a more beautiful album. [Jan 2006, p.108]

Gorillaz' second round-up of offcuts, noodles and sketches still has an excellent strike rate. [Dec 2007, p.84]

While clearly a cathartic outing, most of it slips into pretty formulaic and repetitive territory. [Sep 2025, p.29]

Further evidence of his dazzling wordplay. [May 2005, p.103]

It probably made for a more interesting theatrical experience than it does standalone album, but if the form--expressive, exaggerated musical drama--is a bit unfamiliar, then Albarn's insidious tunes are not. [Oct 2008, p.101]

"You And Your Heart" tries to kick out the jams, but in the most polite fashion imaginable. He's at his best on more familiar ground of the mid-tempo chug "Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology." [Aug 2010, p.84]

An occasionally excellent but disjointed album. [Jun 2012, p.71]

"Comic" interludes like "Tie My Pecker To A Tree" lose them a point, but electronic-strafed epic "I Told You I Was Crazy" shows these proto-grundge "three dumbasses" have interests beyond neolithic riffing. [Dec 2013, p.70]

Highlights dim somewhat, though, with the earnest and/or bombastic originals on the album's second half. [Jan 2015, p.78]

Oh! Mighty Engine is typically whimsical, low key and surprisingly touching (when you can make out what he is singing). [Oct 2008, p.90]

What Harper's over-educated style can't replicate is his heroes' blazing souls. [Apr 2006, p.114]

It might be playful, and it might be versatile, but however light-hearted it may sound initially, it ends up sounding serious.

Idlewild throw together plenty of ideas--without much cohesion. [May 2019, p.29]

No range of light here, just a wan glow that denies the need for shade. [Apr 2014, p.71]

American Doll Posse sounds like a return to more conventional songwriting form. [Jun 2007, p.87]

The effect [sung wordlessly, a cappella, with a multi-tracked choir humming the arrangements] is initially comic but soon becomes utterly mesmeric. [Mar 2013, p.72]

The fuzz-heavy pop-punk he was making back then still echoes loudly here but by connecting with producer Dave Sitek, the material also sounds crisper. [Sep 2021, p.35]

'Black Suit' has a glimpse of where we might be had the Pixies never splintered. Elsewhere, though, the lyrics lack the ingenuity of Black's best, and Clarke's synth work feels like an awkward fit. [Mar 2009, p.86]

While sticking well within their comfort zone, electro-pop veterans Vince Clarke and Andy Bell sound a little more restrained and reflective than usual on their 17th studio album. [Jun 2017, p.28]

Happily her rugged individuality matches up to the grandstanding platform. [Oct 2013, p.71]

Bachmann's gruff uniformity is, in the end, difficult to love. [Dec 2006, p.101]

Welcome To... is impressive rather than truly loveable. [Aug 2009, p.102]

It's one of the most straight-up enjoyable records they've put out in a long time. [May 2011, p.88]

Humility and sobriety suits a band who have never sounded more fresh and alive. [May 2013, p.73]

The result is a provocative and sensual album. [Sep 2013, p.90]

An odd mix, maybe, but a believable one. [Mar 2017, p.31]

The second half of this compilation, thoughtfully assembled by Gotye's Wally De Backer, features Perrey demonstrating the range of the Ondioline's sonority with 10-second clips of him mimicking a banjo, castanets, oboe and so on, restored from the original acetate. The first half collects 11 of Perrey's more conventional Ondioline compositions from the '50s and '60s. [Aug 2017, p.48]

Strikingly, Stevens' craggy baritone is virtually identical 50 years later; but whereas in 1970 he sounded prematurely aged, hearing him now we can't help but envision that innocent, introspective 22-year-old. [Oct 2020, p.39]

A nifty wordsmith whose drawled delivery complements the menace of his woozy productions. [Aug 2012, p.80]

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

The pair have come up with a finely crafted album that blurs the line between shoegaze, indie pop and goth-rock, and is as assured as it is atmospheric. [Dec 2014, p.69]

Americanized rock'n'roll that sounds as modern as it does vintage 1970s and effortlessly blends AC/DC riffage, Fleetwood Mac AOR and White Stripes punk-blues pyrotechnics. [Mar 2012, p.79]

The most radical treatments are the highlights. [Oct 2016, p.40]

Alas, genuinely surprising moments are scarcer on much of Wallop, with rudimentary workouts outnumbering the fresher like of "$50 Million" and its super-charged Chic groove. [Oct 2019, p.23]

Reissued by Matador mere months after its boutique debut, Love Comes Close is shaping up to be the indie-noise synth-pop crossover hit of the year. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

It's a well-judged mix; safe enough to satisfy the easy-listening end of Peyroux's following, but bold enough to show that among the jazzy, post-Norah crowd, the wayward Maddy stands apart. [Aug 2011, p.83]

Ferry's systematic methodology reveals the flaws as well as the qualities of the chosen material. [Apr 2007, p.105]

Unusually for him, his 10th album sounds like a collection of Chili Peppers demos. [Feb 2009, p.82]

PATP are on no less poppily compelling form with their sophomore LP, but display a new, darkly rocky drive and increased lyrical cynicism. [Jun 2011, p.93]

One's enjoyment of this record will largely depend on the ability to endure a man doing an uncanny impersonation of a youthful Bob Dylan. [Aug 2012, p.80]

It moves at a cracking pace, its 10 concise songs picked clean of fluff and with their sugar content much reduced. [Jul 2014, p.74]

It's not as striking as its predecessor. [Dec 2015, p.75]

This is a pretty exhausted soundworld. [Jun 2018, p.37]

As challenging as it is comforting. [Jul 2005, p.106]

There's uncommon immediacy to Crazy Horse-style bashers like "Knock Knock" and "How To Live," as well as big-sky ballads like "Long Vows." [Oct 2012, p.73]

[It] curbs some of the excesses that made 2005's Worlds Apart so unfocused. [Dec 2006, p.101]

The definitive post-millennium Fall album remains 2008's Imperial Wax Solvent, but this is a credibly bitter pill to swallow. [Jul 2015, p.75]

The straightforward rap tracks merely show up his generically braggadocio lyricism and deflated hook, using charmless trap cliche and bringing out the leaden, smoke-headed worst in the likes of Action Bronson, Mac Miller and Ab-Soul. [Jun 2014, p.78]

Telephantasm, their latest, breaks a good deal more wind than it does ground. {Dec 2010, p.105]

Between Two Shores might be his most compelling and imaginative amalgam of Big Pink folk-rock and Muscle Shoals R&B. [Feb 2018, p.28]

Much of it seems to bluster without delivering. [Aug 2005, p.87]

Sun-dappled, retro Americana dominates their second album, albeit overlaid with an arsenal of sonic tricks. [Feb 2013, p.70]

Lisa Jen's ethereal voice still swoops beguilingly over Martin Hoyland's expansive arrangements, fusing harps, dulcimers and guitars with dub beats, loops and pounding bass. [Jun 2016, p.67]

Though lacking a defining identity, at its best it's like listening to a long-lost compilation playing all the AM radio hits that never were. [Jun 2016, p.78]

There's no flash and no trash, just reflective, ripe, minor-key ruminations, plenty of melodically burnished guitar playing and Knopfler's voice, which has crusted nicely with age to take on a warm, rich burr. Classy. [Dec 2018, p.27]

Songs packed with macabre humour, melodic contortion and gruesome discord. [Mar 2019, p.27]

It's an epic of self-conscious protest, asking questions about the way the global and the local become corporate, homogenous anti-realities, pegged to songs that play loose with genre. [Apr 2020, p.25]

It hard to work out what's more annoying from the rest, be it Dustin Payseur's forgot-my-gym-kit vocals, the self-important but frankly juvenile ambient interludes, otr the neat riffs, which sound like plugins from some indie-pop iPad composition app. [May 2013, p.67]

Stack with drivetime anthems such as "Big Giirl Little Girl" and "Bring Night". Less overbearing is the feelgood disco of "The Fight" and "Clap Your Hands," which may finally make Sia a household name. [Jul 2010, p.120]

Singular and unsettlingly sophisticated. [Jul 2015, p.76]

Though producer David Holmes’ disco rhythm tracks sometimes mask it, Come Ahead now addresses addiction and injustice in expansive stanzas. [Review of the Year 2024, p.35]

Longwave is languorous and amiable. ... The largely unchanging pace prompts yearnings for more frequent shifts from second gear, however. [May 2018, p.26]

Another Spiritualized album. Another great Spiritualized album. [Oct 2003, p.120]

None of the 12 tracks on Heathen displays anything memorable in the way of melody or chorus, their phrasing short-breathed and tired, their sequences energyless. [Jul 2002, p.108]

A prophetically titled record that does exactly what it promises. [Jul 2011, p.94]

The album is dominated by her fine, Jolie Holland-style whimsical vocals, backed by gorgeous arrangements from the mulch-instrumental band. [Mar 2013, p.70]

Two Gallants can swagger and rage like The Black Keys, but they can also find moments of ambient bliss to complement songs of helplessness and regret. [Mar 2015, p.82]

More than once, it is difficult not to drift into wistful contemplation of the splendid, unreconstructed rock'n'roll racket of which they might be capable if they tried underthinking things for a change. [Aug 2016, p.74]

This is one of the heavier and more accessible entries in their labyrinthine discography. [Jan 2009, p.102]

Blue Songs journeys as great LPS should do. [Feb 2011, p.89]

Sally Shapiro continues to revel in this cheesy yet faintly psychedelic sound. [Mar 2013, p.76]

Voyager is awash with cascading Jean-Michel Jarre-ish Eurosynths and pulsing Moroder-esque Rhythms. But Arbez-Nicolas eventually diluted his plan by adding contemporary beats, noises and guest vocalists. [Feb 2017, p.38]

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]

The better tracks are ones where Lydon stops grumbling about the modern world and creates his own mythic universe, both lyrically and musically. [Sep 2023, p.22]

Her split personality makes for an oddly polarised debut. [Feb 2011, p.84]

The album's heavily layered ambi-rock confections indulge the duo's mutual love of spangled guitar effects, tinselly twinkles and pearly dewdrop shimmers. [Mar 2012, p.97]

A delightful, horn-infused love letter to Morrissey's best solo work. [Apr 2016, p.76]

The album title translates as "chameleon butterfly" which sums up the surreal ambience nicely. [Sep 2016, p.74]

Orbit sees their shared musical predilections slide furthrr into focus. [Sep 2017, p.32]

A friskier beast than usual. [Jan 2018, p.29]

Much like The Head And The Heart, it's all mid-paced, with subject matter also inevitably static. [Oct 2020, p.32]

There are poppy moments--the churning "What Have You Done For Me," and deceptively tranquil "Dead At The Wheel"--but otherwise the Jarman brothers have restrained their more melodic instincts to create sludgy monsters like "Year Of Hate" and storming closer "Broken Arrow." [Oct 2017, p.26]

Nine Black Alps possess a secret weapon befitting a band whose emergence sparked a transatlantic A&R scramble: tunes. [Jun 2005, p.104]

This follow-up feels less homemade, but just as delicately adventurous. [Oct 2009, p.108]

Arthur stacks his vocals throughout, while his arching guitars, concussive programmed drums and resounding handclaps interlock with Buck's springy rhythm beds. [Jul 2018, p.24]

These 18 collaborations are a fascinating voyage through the classier end of pop, country and R&B over the past decade, and also add much needed focus to Jones (sometime insipid) mix of country and smooth jazz. [Jan 2011, p.93]

A frequently startling record of no little beauty--which threatens to launch a new, esoteric generation of Williamsburg wonders.

Part inspired, part impenetrable. [Mar 2006, p.104]

The quality varies but certainly hits the mark here and there. [Dec 2014, p.81]

Quarters four 10-minute jams allow them instead to indulge their more experimental side. [Jul 2015, p.77]

Like all the best of heavy metal, effortless dumb good fun. [Nov 2011, p.89]

Ultimately though, Tennis are too polished and MOR to rival the peaks of the trio's edgier peers. [Mar 2012, p.101]

Whereas The Thrills' second album fizzled commercially because of an increasingly arch knowingness which many found alienating, Hal--perfectionists, eschewing irony--keep the envelope taut, the air fresh. [May 2005, p.106]

An album which has nothing to do with 2005 and everything to do with 1988. [Mar 2005, p.109]

[The songs are] stoked by a slow-burning intensity that peaks in controlled explosions, Marcus Gordon's voice their focus. [Jun 2016, p.79]

He's been inspired by the Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout, but in truth the synthetic textures and drum machines bring to mind a more downbeat Bruce Hornsby. [May 2018, p.33]