A much warmer, more luxurious record than the brittle debut, the shrillness wiped from Jackson's voice in favour of uncontrived and appealing attitude. [Aug 2014, p.74]

This delightful album rolls back the last 60 years. [Aug 2012, p.78]

The record's feel, like West's College Dropout, offers a rich jukebox of gospel-tinged R&B flavours over which Common scatters his gems. [Aug 2005, p.97]

The primary revelation of Elsie is Fallon's voice. [Oct 2011, p.90]

A series of esoteric, danceable, frequently amusing stories about sleeping in gardens, body waxing and Swansea. [Jan 2019, p.19]

Sparhawk builds on the melodic sensitivity that frontman Dave Simonett revealed on his Razor Pony EP. [Sep 2014, p.79]

Internal Sounds is a sparkling conflation of '69-vintage Byrds, early Burritos and psychedelic country helped along by the odd splash of boiling surf. [Oct 2013, p.74]

The blues remain a touchstone--the album's first line is "Woke up this Morning"--but Grinderman 2 prefers to prowl rock's perimeter with Amon Duul II, Suicide and contemporary drone practitioners like Wooden Shjips. [Oct 2010, p.86]

This time out, the band wants you to have an experience, and that's what you get, on a record that's over the top, wildly inventive and satisfying in the ever-deepening way of landmark longplayers from the last century. [Nov 2010, p.89]

Kempner's raw honesty encompasses the droll as well as the despairing. [May 2016, p.78]

Pedal steel and fiddle waltz around a crystal-clear baritone on a succession of laments to hillbilly heartbreak that ooze class from every pore. [Jun 2018, p.28]

Their sound has nonetheless developed in intensity and sophistication.... Beautiful. [Mar 2015, p.83]

Classic pop songwriting with a twist is the order of the day, with watertight barbershop harmonies spooned onto layers of intricately arranged organ, while lyrics are unabashedly lovestruck. [Jun 2009, p.93]

A fierce, defiant record. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Warmth and easy elegance dominate, yet Korkejian's songs aren't without mood upsets. [Aug 2017, p.25]

A set of songs about romantic love, self-love and self-actualisation whose confident arrangements sacrifice none of the intimacy of Duffy's earlier work. [Sep 2025, p.32]

After tinkering with their lineup for this fourth album, Baltimore's Arbouretum have emerged heavier, moodier and better than ever. [Mar 2011, p.83]

They do it so well. Particularly impressive are the two lengthiest pieces. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Subtle, complex, and not always pacifying. [Mar 2023, p.32]

This albums marries Tweedy's mature emotional outlook to the workaday manners of Uncle Tupelo or the Woody Guthrue project, Mermaid Avenue. [Dec 2020, p.34]

From the electrifying first few minutes of Things Are Great, it's evident that Bridwell is revitalised. [Feb 2022, p.25]

Nothing US wrong reminds you of early Jackson Browne or Jimmy Webb, albeit with a tougher, rootsier swagger. And it's a worthy addition to that fine Californian bloodline. [Sep 2011, p.94]

Effectively embracing the entire history of the band's sound, the album sprawls over an hour, and has so many peaks and valleys it's practically topographical. [Apr 2005, p.98]

It's a thoughtful, profound and intensely beautiful late-blossoming career highlight. [Nov 2016, p.30]

Her supple voice is a thing of understated beauty, bonded to tales of emotional attachment and release in a way that suggests full closure is still a little way off. [Apr 2022, p.28]

The album is reminiscent of Kraftwerk in its combination of chilly electronics and haunting, hooky melodies but has a wonkiness unique to Haines. [Nov 2015, p.76]

O Monolith channels the shapeshifting patterns of Steve Reich and late-period Radiohead to fashion a kind of lush English pastoral that seethes and shimmers at every turn. [Jul 2023, p.34]

["Cheyenne" is] keenly observed and beautifully realised, which goes for most everything on Interstate Gospel. [Jan 2019, p.20]