Its songs are as poetically heartfelt as they are acerbic. [Jan 2026, p.34]

Even when the mood turns slow and swampy on "Chain Of Keys" and "River Anacostia," the intensity never wavers. [May 2016, p.74]

Prekop's lyrical ruminations on distance and direction never lag. [Dec 2012, p.76]

She addresses transformation, loss, connection and apartness in literate, finely turned pop songs centred on her sweet, pellucid voice and filled out with dreamy loops and strings. [May 2016, p.73]

"Timber" is almost all Tyler, "Spider Ballad" a lowkey club throbber, all of it only made possible by this unexpected partnership. [Nov 2025, p.33]

The album's leitmotif is a lush, dreamy string sections, which bring a gorgeous poignancy not only to the metaphysical songs, but also his radical reworkings of a pair of '50s rockers. [Mar 2009, p.81]

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

Fiendishly clever, but not easy to love. [Oct 2009, p.104]

As noise records go, it's a thing of relative restraint, and enjoyable in its own way. [Jan 2016, p.81]

Whatever the situation, Ayers's amenability shines through regardless, a wave of warmth that can lighten the heaviest soul.

Earl has often been overshadowed by bands on the Woodsist label he runs, but here Woods are allowed to stand out from the trees. [Dec 2012, p.79]

The dissonant guitars and whirring synths land on the more accessible side of avant-garde rock, veering into sia-esque pop on tracks like "Greener Stretch," though revelling in never quite resolving its melodies. [Nov 2017, p.36]

Moments like "Apparent Lushness" are where An Act OF Love becomes a headphones record par excellence. [Mar 2017, p.26]

She's now made another quantum leap with A Beautiful Life. [Jan 2022, p.25]

May has a knack for hooks and titles. [Oct 2017, p.32]

Desperation is as refreshing as it is welcome. [Aug 2013, p.73]

There's much to admire in the fretwork of [Darren] Rademaker and Ben Knight, too, joining the dots between Johnny Marr, Roger McGuinn and Felt's Maurice Deebank to underpin the hooks with sun-blonde crispness. [Jul 2003, p.116]

Their sixth album is their most direct and uplifting yet. [Apr 2015, p.83]

Though other songs don't escape the inevitable air of redundancy, Gibbard's facsimiles retain all the originals' love and warmth. [Oct 2017, p.28]

Miserable but magnificent. [Oct 2017, p.39]

It's understated excellence at best, perhaps a little inoffensive at worse, and entirely a continuation of the aesthetic the Brooklyn-based guitarist has honed for the last two years. [Feb 2019, p.27]

A genuine quartet record. [Jan 2023, p.18]

Glitter And Doom Live is an admirable document of yet another stage in his continually engrossing career.

Coexist is a masterpiece. [Oct 2012, p.80]

An album that splendidly makes the most of a unique creative kinship, as well as a shared desire to cast light in dark places. [Nov 2017, p.18]

Mogwai are still exploring the push-pull dynamics of soft and harsh and slow and fast with almost bewilderingly pleasing results. [Oct 2017, p.35]

Often have a touch of the Broadway musical to them, but some are great. .... But it's only on "When This Old World Is Done With ME", a hymnal elegy where a weary-sounding Elton accompanies himself on piano, that we get a glimpse of genuine emotion. [Apr 2025, p.32]

What's most frightening is that, mighty as Desperate Youth... is, their real stone killer is probably yet to come. [Jul 2004, p.100]