It’s a brave, bonkers, often beautiful, sometimes haunting and occasionally ridiculous album.

If rock is indeed dead, then albums like thus are its extended intelligent coda, its sustained afterburn. [Jan 2012, p.82]

Stewart's preoccupation--narcissism, sexuality, body horror--translate into a sort of febrile synth-pop, dotted with orchestral excursions and abrupt electronics. [Mar 2012, p. 107]

There's a spiritual quality to these streams-of-conscious compositions, which sound open-ended as though she's posing questions to the woods around her. [Feb 2019, p.34]

Auto-Tuned electro-soul, reggae-lite rhythms and deceptively political lyrics are key motifs here, although Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs lends some grungey thrust to "Fall First." [Nov 2022, p.36]

While Lanegan could sing the Richard Stilgoe songbook and still enthral, there remains a hint of contrivance about Soulsavers' self-consciously cinematic, grungey trip hop. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Ghost's raps are more Staten Island than Sicily. [Jul 2013, p.76]

This audio companion to Springsteen's upcoming autobiography serves as a decent best-of. [Nov 2016, p.52]

Demolished thoughts is his strongest solo collection to date. [Jun 2011, p.91]

Their conceptual hinterland is sometimes more interesting than their clobbering racket, but both are exhilarating in places. [Mar 2021, p.29]

The sinister slow-burn of "Application Apparatus" and Tom Tom Club-worthy quirk of "Trullo" are further indications of their rude state of health. [Dec 2021, p.31]

The likes of "The West End" and "Thinking About You" are unobjectionable, but mostly have the effect of reminding that there are Steve Earle albums you could be playing. [Nov 2010, p.94]

A supremely sassy swansong. [Jan 2012, p.90]

While James Murphy's homages are leavened with irony and discrete heartache, Dear is more po-faced than pomo. [Sep 2012, p.75]

It's never a challenging listen, evoking distant, blinking skyscrapers, buzzing streetlights and echoes of the previous night's warehouse rave. [Mar 2015, p.78]

Simultaneously rooted and rootless, we might call the results Otherworld Music. [Feb 2018, p.35]

As Gerrard's voice recedes into the silence, we're left with the sense that the hungers for mystery and transcendence this music explores could be as fundamental to us as it was to those who partied so hard so long ago. [Dec 2018, p.32]

Delights and distresses, packed with musical flourishes and finely drawn lyrics. [Nov 2020, p.33]

Marnia tones down the more extreme histrionics that made earlier albums and acquired taste. [May 2013, p.78]

This is Raum's greatest gift—it's not just a trip to the past but a truly worthy addition to one of the most important but overwhelming catalogues in electronic music. [Apr 2022, p.35]

[Broder's] bodged tracks are the equivalent of Napoleon Dynamite's hybrid animal, the "liger", with beats that kick like a flogged mule. [Jun 2005, p.114]

More, and even better, of the same--one of the dead-cert Albums Of The Year. [Album of the Month, Apr 2005, p.96]

Their seventh album is the soundtrack to a full-length film made by singer Tim Rutili but comfortably works on its own, sounding genuinely unlike anyone else - every song contains a surprise, however minor. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

Calexico are back, but this time they’re travelling all over the map. Carried to Dust is a quietly persuasive record.

It's a sound that devotees of 'Crazy Horse' or 'My Morning Jacket' will find conspicuously pleasing, but fans of Band of Horses might just be disappointed. [Dec 2007, p.84]

There are moments of terrific turbulence, solemn quietness and some sadness, but the collection eventually lights on safe harbor. [Apr 2012, p.70]

It's clear The Essex Green have joined The New Pornographers and The Shins among indie-pop's most insinuating and accomplished bands. [Jun 2006, p.100]

[A] remarkable album. [Jun 2007, p.91]