A sun-dappled, idiosyncratic delight, flooded with warmth and vitality, yet weighted by an undefinable sadness. [Aug 2003, p.108]

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

The Josh Ritter who appears here is primarily a writer of quality pop songs.

Proceeds with the unhurried observational vividness of extended takes in a Richard Linklater film. [Dec 2019, p.35]

Largely recorded over six fays in Paris, it adds test-card breeziness to the bleakness of "The Amputees," and delivers a gorgeous rumination on shattered love in "Carousel." [Dec 2019, p.32]

At its best, like the gorgeous, nine-minute “Round The World”, his bittersweet sound feels like the work of an art-music auteur. [May 2024, p.30]

Wincing isn't so much a departure as it is an all-out augmentation, taking the best things about The Shins and amplifying them. [Feb 2007, p.72]

While the unrelenting energy can be somewhat exhausting, it's hard not to get swept up. [Jul 2014, p.73]

An album of great depth and richness, Sukierae finds Tweedy at his most dignified, addressing life-changing events across all aspects of the full emotional spectrum. [Oct 2014, p.64]

A few moments recall the Venusian blues of Loren Connors, but that comparison only gets you part of the way - these cryptic explorations are Dorji's alone. [Feb 2026, p.33]

Her decision to forgo electric guitars on @#%&*! Smilers results in the aural equivalent of watercolour washes, lovely and tasteful but lacking presence. [July 2008, p.102]

Twelve are here, and while Rosanne doesn't reinvent songs in the manner of, say, Cat Power, she does restate them briskly, with husband John Levanthal's production pushing her beautiful bell-like voice to the fore. [Dec 2009, p. 87]

The departure of vocalist Tyondai Braxton appears to have knocked them off stride a little, but they are certainly an ensemble group, and a raft of guests keep things frisky. [Jul 2011, p.77]

As ever, it all coalesces around that voice, and its still potent conjuring of beauty and darkness. Timeless music, for heavy times. [Dec 2016, p.34]

Ejimiwe has made a record filled with quiet bubbling tension yet also leaves room for lightness, offering a glimmer of hope amid the brooding dread. [Jun 2020, p.29]

Much of that atmosphere [from previous albums] remains on Captain Of None, thanks to whispered vocals and a focus on the courtly pluck of a viola da gamba. [Jun 2015, p.73]

Records as bright and occasionally beautiful as Years Of Refusal make us forgive Morrissey (the artist) even his most juvenile foibles.

The songs benefit from a sharper focus than the quartet ever achieved before. [Oct 2016, p.37]

The idiosyncratic chamber-pop o these 14 songs evokes The Kinks, XTC and the more melancholy side of Hot Chip; like much of their past work, it's musically intricate, too. [Mar 2016, p.73]

If Saint Etienne are finally growing up, this wistful adulthood becomes them. [Jul 2005, p.96]

It works best when her vocal is minimally adorned. [Oct 2011, p.105]

It's very fine, glowing with an oblique, poppy sensibility that's theirs alone. [Jan 2003, p.127]

It's not their reworkings of songs by Charley Patton, Fred McDowell and RL Burnside that impress most here, but rather their own compositions. [Apr 2006, p.114]

This, assembled by Menahan Street Band guitarist Tom Brenneck, painstakingly recreates the tropes of classic '60s Southern soul--impassioned vocals, shimmering guitars and fruity horns. [Mar 2010, p.85]

What's most intriguing is the way each artist gets in character. [Nov 2011, p.104]

Bruised suburban romance sparkles through the twin jangles of Edwards and James Wignall. [Jun 2012, p.84]

Sonnymoon offer a fresh and forward-thinking new voice in experimental electro-soul on this beautifully assured self-titled debut. [Nov 2012, p.83]

The unlikely pairing works precisely because of the contrast between their approaches, as they locate a vibrant middle ground on rawboned yet tuneful rockers like "The Prisoner" and dynamic ballads like "No Sir." [May 2014, p.69]