Overall, the palette is dusky, the tone understated. [Oct 2016, p.25]

Injects [Viva Voce's] cosmic American visiion with a creeping paranoia and, in places, a much heavier rockist edge. [Sep 2006, p.106]

It's the clever orchestration that elevates this above postmodern gag, all fluttering pipes and chiming guitar. [Nov 2007, p.98]

Here's To Taking it Easy is a bold record steeped in the golden, rich sounds of classic rock and country. [Jun 2910, p.101]

Phantom Radio feels like a real upping of the game. [Nov 2014, p.70]

The brilliant "Oya" places the sisters' voices front and centre, swinging from Bjork-like vocal gymnastics into a Yoruban spiritual. Elsewhere, Russell winds the pair's cajon and Bata beats into wonky boom-clap rhythms that smartly complement the romantic "ghosts" or "Think Of You." [Apr 2015, p.77]

Synths and drum machines dominate, courtesy of Epworth and producer Thom Monahan, lending Elytral a seemly patina of '80s dark-pop. [Oct 2017, p.26]

If there are few surprises, the tracks are charming, well crafted and kept to a fighting-trim 11. [Sep 2018, p.36]

This is a rich listen, strengthened by Galanin's burning focus on critical issues. [Jun 2021, p.33]

[It] revisits the chamber pop of their 1998 debut... equalling it in beauty and surpassing it in punch. [Nov 2006, p.123]

It holds together remarkably well, and has an atmosphere at least as distinctive and beguiling as that of, say, Punch The Clock or The Juliet Letters. It isn't typical Elvis Costello album, but then they never are. [Dec 2020, p.24]

Sculptor is the strongest and most assured record of their career. The songs dig deep emotionally--but critically their aesthetics are well-balanced, the voice and instruments perfectly calibrated. [Aug 2018, p.18]

These nine brief songs weave together to create a bewitching, moonlit spell. [Feb 2013, p.78]

[Blixa Bargeld is] in a whimsical mood, Mae West-flirtatious on "Come Up And See Me" and the booming "I'm smiling/From the bottom of my fair-trade soul" on the title track. Meanwhile, a delicate cover of The Tiger Lillies' "Alone With the Moon" is dispatched with a rich sonority. [Aug 2013, p.77]

This is old-time spiritual soul shot through with urgent, electric energy. [Jul 2016, p.79]

An immersive, fluid and emotionally fragile listening experience. [Apr 2018, p.30]

Evokes Watt's early mentor Robert Wyatt at his most enthralling and adventurous. [Mar 2020, p.37]

His joyous fourth album proper leaves behind the folksy stylings of his earlier solo work and instead builds on 2018's glitter-strewn Karma For Cheap. [Mar 2021, p.39]

While these dozen faithfully and fabulously Soft Cell-ish songs do not stint on paranoid foreboding, they are buoyed by an undimmed pop instinct and Almond’s waspish wit. [Apr 2022, p.35]

Overly indebted to its inspirations - among them Ghetts, Stormzy and The Streets - it may be, but the stroppy "I Bhfiacha Linne" and "Rhino Ket", a moody techno/dancehall hybrid, are hard to deny. [Jun 2024, p.36]

At their best, on "Someone Far Away" and "Give Up," the group blends pop sparkle and melancholy indie charm in the manner of The Chills. [Jan 2017, p.21]

A highly satisfying bridge between the log-cabin museum pieces of Revival and Hell Among The Yearlings and a more rockin', Basement Tapes-ish Americana. [Album of the Month, Aug 2003, p.96]

As instantly addictive as it is disposable. [Nov 2003, p.108]

Think swoonsome pop at its most non-cynical but with a left-field twist. [Aug 2004, p.98]

The pram is in the hall, perhaps, but the art remains in the right place. [Nov 2012, p.85]

A further shift away from the full-throttle krautrock of their early years into something more sumptuous. [Feb 2019, p.37]

The Vienna-based Londoner who lurks behind the Sohn alias coins a wintry brand of high-tech electro-soul on this striking debut. [May 2014, p.80]

Two decades on, the luxuriantly layered soft-rock production still sounds roomy and glossy, albeit a little ponderous in places. ... Expanded and enhanced. [Feb 2019, p.46]