It's familiar territory for the mercurial Jon Langford and company, perhaps punk's most persistent ideologues. [Oct 2011, p.93]

Norrvide still sounds a little glum, but he's got plenty to be happy about here. [Jul 2014, p.76]

It's edgeless, overly polite, and arranged within an inch of its life. There's little room to move. [Apr 2015, p.71]

What's particularly impressive is the way their distinctive approaches combine. [Jul 2019, p.33]

Emerald Sea isn’t your average third album. An otherworldly mix of Gustav Holst’s drama, The Flaming Lips’ psychedelia and Broadcast’s retro-futurist exotica, with hints of the band’s earlier Beach House dream-pop, it breaks a fourth wall of sound with “The Glare”’s saturated reverberations, while “Deeper Surround” offers a chimerical carousel ride of synths. [Aug 2022, p.33]

It's all fairly dry, but listen closely and its charms emerge. [Mar 2025, p.41]

With [Belle & Sebastian] now seemingly lost to soft-pop pastichery, CO have come out of their shadow and flourished. [Jul 2006, p.84]

It feels more like a bedroom project than their recent full-band work, yet Toledo's knack for an irresistible choruses endures. [Jun 2020, p.28]

It finds Suede wrapping up a triptych of records since their 2013 reunion and in doing so they feel positioned with one foot in the familiar camp of old while striding forward with the other into fresh, unknown territory. [Oct 2018, p.34]

You'd struggle to find a more affecting ode to the selfishness of love than this. [Jun 2014, p.80]

An intimate, unfiltered snapshot of rough-hewn excellence. [Jan 2018, p.21]

Their first album without guitarist Bruce Gilbert draws on their strength as writers of nuanced pop, producing, in the mellow rumble of 'One Of Us,' 'Mekon Headman' and Perspex Icon,' a few more for the next Best Of.

It's a great combustible mix, a whirlwind of new sounds caught by the tail, diced and dissected and in permanent hectic propulsion. [Sep 2011, p.91]

Once you get over the initial shock of Kelis' raw-throated take on country-rock on "Friday Fish Fry," the culinary theme becomes another ingredient that never quite blends into a tasty dish. [May 2014, p.76]

The Don of Diamond Dreams finds Butler's effect-treated voice rippling through a prism of mutated funk and R&B that feels simultaneously sumptuous and deeply unconventional. [Jun 2020, p.37]

Hyperspace never feels over calculated or overdressed. Instead, it's the work of an artist who sounds fully re-engaged. [Jan 2020, p.20]

As thrilling as it is unexpected. [Jul 2022, p.30]

Women As Lovers may be his best yet. [Mar 2008, p.107]

Unsurprisingly, after nearly 30 years their hang-loose attitude is now tempered with a little socio-political reflection, although "Black Eyes"--a stomping, sown-dirty homage to hedonism--is a standout. [May 2017, p.25]

It has its charms.... but the naivety of their debut remains elusive. [Nov 2014, p.84]

Ten-minute sonic odyssey "Neptune" provides a typically overblown finale, but it's INXS-style banger "The Runner" that will further cement their place at indie rock's top table. [Nov 2019, p.25]

Album number three enlarges their sonic palette with piano, dobro and touches of strings and woodwind but maintains the same folksy charm. [Apr 2012, p.71]

The chilly disco-noir aesthetic of early 1980s synth-pop provides the musical hinterland, all monophonic squelch and analogue modernism. [Aug 2008, p.85]

Audacious and urgent. [Jun 2013, p.74]

Aldred's voice has also upped a register, his yearning falsetto perfect for pocket space opera "Progress" or the lubricious Al Greenisms of "Fingers Through The Glass." [Sep 2013, p.94]

Motion files nicely alongside Fripp & Eno, or Klaus Schulze, a set of rippling, drowsy circuitry, laminated with silvery guitar drones. [Apr 2014, p.76]

While a talking blues about baseball cards edges into geekville, "To The Veterans Committee," a sunshine pop supreme, might have you singing the praises of Dale Murphy without even knowing who he is. [May 2014, p.69]

Their fourth album is reassuringly familiar. [Jun 2014, p.73]