THe good stuff is terrific. [Mar 2005, p.104]

This is a focused trio who boast a superb drummer and feature lovely, unshowy harmonies, able to balance the melancholy of Nils Edenloff's lyrics with a euphoric, confident delivery that feels like a brilliant form of catharsis. [Jan 2018, p.26]

Marc Collin's French collective remain a one-trick pony, but it's still a great trick. [Jan 2017, p.28]

A more sombre, focused affair [than 2015's covers album of Taylor Swift's 1989]. [Mar 2017, p.23]

Their witty pop vignettes are about as much fun as you can have alone with a stereo. [Oct 2006, p.109]

Decidedly heady stuff. [Jul 2007, p.100]

On "The Thing Itself" the pair are at their most graceful, rising airborne and serene above the disorder. [Apr 2021, p.27]

Painting With is striking because it manages to distill the essence of Animal Collective into 12 slices of bite-sized psych-pop that have the punchy immediacy of a Ramones album. [Mar 2016, p.65]

The lo-fi "If Only I Could Fly" captures the record's rustic spirit, but there's a cowboy feel to "Nobody's Darling." [Jun 2017, p.24]

Given a few spins, their hilarious, loopy, layered approach sinks in deep. [Dec 2008, p.124]

They make a welcome return to the looser, roots sound of earlier albums. [Feb 2024, p.28]

Good fun. [July 2009, p.84]

Stetson and Arcade Fire violinist Sarah Neufeld dart and dovetail elegantly, h er playing the piercing counterpoint to his imposing low end. [Jun 2015, p.81]

Lars Andersson and Phillip Dornauer commit themselves wholeheartedly to epic objectives. [Aug 2019, p.32]

It's part folk-rock fantasy, part avant-pop mind trip, and all gorgeous. [Aug 2019, p.32]

[A] chilled collection both soothing and intoxicating. [Jul 2018, p.30]

The music more than matches The Besnard Lakes' cinematic ambition. [Apr 2010, p.81]

This is a wilful and lovably eccentric second album from a band who've had a sniff of being pop stars and decided they'd much rather be weird and esoteric, thanks all the same.

Dengue Fever come on like an art-trash cross between Talking Heads and X, with a crucial side order of B-52's. Their irreverent pop clinches the deal on "Cement Slippers." [Jun 2011, p.80]

La La Land picks up where that album [Tremblers And Goggles By Rank] - their second of 2022 - left off. [Feb 2023, p.24]

Illuminate is a rich, alluring debut which nods to Orbital or The Chemical Brothers with its hooky melodies, pulsing analogue synths and supple breakbeat rhythms. [Jul 2014, p.69]

This third album is their richest and strongest to date. [Jun 2024, p.33]

Shards of pure folk goodness poke through the ambitious, abstract arrangements on tracks like "Life's Work" and "Surviving You". [Nov 2025, p.33]

The 10 tracks eventually sliced from Wildflowers don’t seem to have been culled for any coherent rhyme or reason: the virtues of the original album are abundant among the omitted tracks. ... Of the three further discs available for big spenders, the home demos and alternate versions are – as is usually the way of these things – mostly likely to be listened to once, out of curiosity. But there are charming moments among the demos.

This album essentially serves as a showcase for rising Brit soul singers Sampha and Jessie Ware, who add just the right quantities of sugar and grit. [Aug 2011, p.98]

Whatever it is that keeps him singing still packs a potent emotional punch. [Oct 2016, p.35]

His pieces for banjo, like the revenant lyricism of the title track, are charming, moist eyed miniatures. [Jun 2013, p.74]

The way Eric evokes the "shabby shires" brings to mind Ray Davies, while "Land Of The Faint At Heart" swings with the bruised energy of Springsteen (if the Boss had been raised on suburban terror and garden gnomes). [Jan 2026, p.36]