As familiar as a hug from an old friend. Yet the band's knack for colliding pop melodies with thrashing drums, pummelling bass and screeching guitars is as effective as ever. [May 2021, p.25]

Every one of these songs is a big-hearted meditation on love and sex and faith and especially healing, as though what roots us to our own lands is loss and grief and recovery. [Feb 2023, p.34]

There's a sustained congruence about the rhythms and textures that make The Take Off and Landing of Everything seem like an extended and mediation on certain musical and lyrical themes. [Apr 2014, p.72]

The Staten Island quartet blend the fixtures and fittings of noisy US slacker rock--Sonic Youth drones, Pavement squalls--but add a bubblegum pop sensibility. Their vocalist Joseph D'Agostino, however, remains something of an acquired taste. [Oct 2016, p.26]

A soaring, Ian McLagan-dedicated Small Faces cover, "All Or Nothing," is the spiritual centrepiece of the set, but every song arrives with crisp melodies, burning guitars and impassioned vocals. [Apr 2016, p.81]

An instantly engaging album. [Apr 2026, p.24]

The world is certainly overdue proper acquaintance with The Constantines. [Nov 2005, p.98]

It’s an instantly captivating set – 10 resonant but unfussy songs distinguished by a balance of up-close intimacy and understatedly elegant composition, attuned to the power of repetitive flow.

Self-serious and low on humour, Suede sometimes mistake bigness for greatness, but they still generate enough lusty passion to set pulses racing and hearts aflame. [Feb 2016, p.83]

This ingenious successor to Computer World is enough to almost make one look forward to the coming robot wars. [Mar 2021, p.35]

There's a sense these weren't quite good enough for the main event - alternate versions - but even off-cuts "Memory Leak" and "Math Of You" swirl and swoon with a euphoric giddiness that comes with discovering new zones of pleasure. [Aug 2023, p.25]

This is all very impressive stuff. [Feb 2015, p.80]

While Pang!, totalling just under half an hour, doesn't have the conceptual strengths of Babelsberg or American Interior, it's nevertheless a delight to hear Rhys once again embracing the possibilities of technology and harnessing modern, global sounds to enhance his unique vision. [Oct 2019, p.37]

As disaster mounts for these ill-prepared moderns, the soft '70s New Orleans brass of "Through This Night" is among the musical balms. [Dec 2025, p.33]

He concocts a series of dazzling interior epics with just a fingerpicked acoustic guitar and his echo-drenched voice. [Nov 2006, p.101]

The LP's seven originals are solid, but the five country covers hit with sweaty immediacy. [Feb 2014, p.95]

McMahon has the same eye for poetically absurd detail as her compatriot Courtney Barnett. [Sep 2019, p.29]

Unhurriedly crafted songs full of bona fide thrills, unexpected twists, and an elegant but never gratuitous grandeur. [Mar 2023, p.33]

Folk bends under their queries, but doesn't break. [Jan 2025, p.31]

The album which confirms that the older, wiser Dinosaur Jr--Dinosaur Sr, if you will--compete on quality as well as quantity. [Sep 2016, p.73]

Boys Outside is truly lovely, Mason's finest solo record, but it's safe to say an album of sentimental ballads may not satisfy those who still hanker after the maverick, impulsive spirit of The Beta Band. [May 2010, p.95]

To be filed alongside the Root's recent Phrenology. [Mar 2003, p.95]

Musically more diverse, and lyrically as vulnerable as it is vitriolic. [Jun 2003, p.91]

Over-the-top histrionics are nicely downplayed by the lo-fi indie faction. [Dec 2003, p.124]

His folky, cello-soaked songs will appeal to David Gray devotees. [Oct 2003, p.116]

The tone is generally one of mild encouragement, of jollying-along the reluctant participants in this most fraught of celebrations, as indicated by titles like "Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!" and "It's Christmas! Let's Be Glad!".

Monsters Of Folk ends as captiatingly as it starts. [Oct 2009, p.99]

The edges may be sharper, the outlook less austere and self-contained, but Villagers are still defined by songs which deliver hook upon hook. [Feb 2013, p.82]