While Live Laugh Love could benefit from more of the tension that builds in "Tethered" lest it all start seem too comfortably slack, Chastity Belt's blend of blissed-out effervescence and sly wit remains very appealing. [May 2024, p.32]

Fragmented and diffuse, Wyatt's second official album is occasionally guilty of being merely decorative. [Dec 2014, p.81]

While Heather McEntire's wonderful voice is a natural country conduit, there's not quite enough around it, her bandmates opting to frame her tones in fairly pedestrian roots-rock settings. [Mar 2016, p.76]

It helps that Wilkinson sings sweetly, too, distancing and layering his vocals for that dewy, lost-in-the-woods effect. [Aug 2009, p.87]

A song cycle that straddles inescapable anxiety and persistent optimism. [Feb 2018, p.24]

Infinite loops and surging crescendos constitute a psychedelic session more about melancholic beauty than foreboding. [Mar 2014, p.83]

After two decades, a band that could easily feel like part of the wallpaper remain hungry to show that you never know what lies beneath. [Oct 2015, p.68]

A Blessing... is perhaps a more personal and introspective record than usual. But truly there's still a lot to marvel at. [Apr 2006, p.112]

It's not a ballet or a string quartet, but Costello sounding more "Attractions"-like than he has in over 20 years. [Oct 2008, p.83]

It seems weird--if delightful-that the folk polka of "To A hammer" and the Eels-like electronic of "(Put The Fun Back In The Funeral)" could come from one career, never mind one album: a creative blessing, if a commercial curse. [Dec 2009, p.103]

On Dissolve, his best LP to date, he's gone full colour. [Jun 2011, p.79]

The Low Highway settles into a sustained crosshatching of strummed and plucked strings, paralleling the feel of a road trip, the initial elation giving way to an endless pattern of forest and farmland as America whizzes past as a steady 90mph. [May 2013, p.72]

Peace On Venus is a fine example of what they produce. [Dec 2013, p.65]

The band maintain their impeccable standards for muscular riffage and structural sophistication while still making the occasional flourish that further confirms their shame-free allegiance to prog. [May 2017, p.35]

Happyness gets more interesting when they dig deeper into rock history. [May 2017, p.32]

The expansively layered arrangements here are a testament to a bolder ambition than the acoustic troubadour shtick that once defined him. [May 2017, p.37]

Where once were "chat-up lines and stairwells" ("Take Me There"), beige luxury apartments now stand. [Jul 2018, p.24]

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

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie play a whirlwind hits set complete with numerous diversions and wonderfully bathetic between-song anecdotes. [Apr 2019, p.29]

Though Depayse's lyrics are often weighty, the music is energetic and raw, a contrast that speaks to the immigrant experience writ large. [Jul 2019, p.34]

By facing up to their demons, they've recaptured what made them special. [Mar 2020, p.37]

It's a lovely listen, unassuming as ever. [Apr 2022, p.32]

The group confidently flits between low-key funk, lush symphonic Philly soul and the more punchy post-Motown dance grooves of Chairman Of The Board, the constant being Rowland's powerfully assured vocal delivery of his mea culpa confessionals. [Aug 2023, p.28]

Band Of Horses specialise in melodic melancholy with a sheen of hope. [May 2006, p.107]

The fact that Time On Earth takes several listens to sink in practically ensures that it will be undervalued, if not ignored, which is a shame, because this taut album possesses the immersive qualities and cumulative impact of a good novel.

While English Oceans carries its quota of Truckers staples, there's also much that sets this fantastic 10th studio album apart from its predecessors. [Apr 2014, p.82]

Ritual Union makes it three alums without a remotely duff--or dull--moment. [Aug 2011, p.93]

Much of Mediation of Ecstatic Energy is content to sit, lost in a maze of Echoplex, navigating its own navel. [Nov 2013, p.81]