A curiously uninvolving affair. [Jun 2004, p.95]

On first hearing, it's a record to admire rather than love, but its insidious appeal soon gets under your skin. [Sep 2002, p.112]

Illumination is already being described by the Weller massive as the best solo album of his career. You'll hear few arguments with that from this corner. [Oct 2002, p.118]

A cleaner operation than their previous LP, but no less unorthodox. [Apr 2002, p.95]

The Brewis brothers may be at odds with the modern world, but in this stunningly realised double album, they've created the ultimate sanctuary.

This tasteful mix of analogue keys and distorted drum machines is precisely what we've come to expect from Pritchard. It's when he wanders off-piste with Bibio, Thom Yorke and Linda Perhacs that the record comes alive, and these instrumental tracks then play a vital supporting role. [Jun 2016, p.80]

Dark Days And Canapes feels both bleaker and more robust than [earlier works]. [Sep 2017, p.28]

Not all essential but a generally rich and respectable package. [Jul 2021, p.43]

He's delivered 12 songs of poignant autobiography rather than nostalgic wallowing. [Mar 2024, p.41]

22-year old singer and songwriter Dylan Baldi still sounds like an angst-wracked teen. [Jun 2014, p.73]

His home-recorded approach reaches imaginatively beyond glossy pastiche. [Mar 2006, p.90]

So charged it crackles. [Feb 2005, p.82]

Slugger is low-key but, true to form, leaves a mark. [Dec 2016, p.37]

There's a mellow-late-Beatles vibe at play, especially on "Full Moon," and this may be the band's finest to date. [May 2014, p.83]

Full of hits and misses as it sways back and forth between indie and electro, never quite finding its feet. [Aug 2022, p.30]

The effervescent punk-pop of The Breeders is a touchstone, as is Kimya Dawson's ramshakle honesty, but "Lips And Limbs" affects a subtle country twang, while on the terrific "Blue Pt. II," skeletal acoustic acoustics and frank lyrics document a stagnating love affair. [Aug 2013, p.79]

Much of this album resembles the kind of murky '80s proto-techno recently unearthed by Trevor Jackson for his Metal Dance comps, with Nik Colk Void's monotone vocals ceding centre stage to the restive machine rhythms that constantly threaten to rise up and over throw their human masters. [Oct 2013, p.67]

Epic in scale, World Boogie Is Coming is an extraordinary amalgam of envelope-pushing studio manipulation and DNA-fuelled deep gut grooves. [Dec 2013, p.71]

Not as muddy as one might have hoped, then, but this was definitely a revisit worth making. [July 2008, p.96]

While Fuzz II has some absolute stormers, some of the proto-metal songs are a little too ponderous to really click. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Made with members of Guns N' Roses, the Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction plus the late Taylor Hawkins, who provide a professionally truculent background to tracks like the loose and slinky "All The Way down" or the terrific "Modern Day Rp Off". a self-deprecating Stooges Pastiche. But Iggy's voice is the star. [Feb 2023, p.35]

The Most Lamentable Tragedy feels like a quintessentially modern album, a scintillating examination of mania and neurosis that uses the history of rock'n'roll as mere stage dressing for its bravura performance. [Sep 2015, p.65]

Swirling and malevolent, "I&I" and "Beneath The Concrete" are compelling enough, but wading through so much posturing becomes a slog. [Jun 2016, p.76]

The warm homeliness drifts into untethered territory. [Dec 2021, p.31]

It's a vibrant set with a live feel, alternating between rowdy folk-rockers and some of Thompson's most poignant ballads. [Mar 2013, p.77]

Her fourth album proves that she can apply those [AI techniques from her Circumstance Synthesis EP] to more structured, dynamic songs in a way that's instantly enthralling. [Aug 2020, p.27]

Skulk is impeccably sung and flawlessly executed by the handpicked musician on show. [May 2012, p.79]

While nothing on this best-of collection quite matches the exquisiteness of Grant's solo work, you can still hear him testing the waters and laying the groundwork for what was to come. [Jan 2015, p.87]