Its glowering landscape is reminiscent of Actress' Ghettoville, but without a similar supporting mythology Pearson Sound can feel rather cold. [Apr 2015, p.81]

These smooth edges still cut deep. [Aug 2017, p.38]

A sleek and satisfying sixth album--their best since 1994's Snivilisation. [Jul 2004, p.110]

The musicianship is exemplary throughout, with a stronger focus on roots traditionalism on "The Traveller" and "Ships At Sea." [Aug 2014, p.71]

Mellow but heartfelt. [Aug 2014, p.70]

Bright, socially and emotionally engaged, justifiably righteous in places, and not quite the right sort of fun for the New York scenesters. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Nine Black Alps possess a secret weapon befitting a band whose emergence sparked a transatlantic A&R scramble: tunes. [Jun 2005, p.104]

“You Possess Me” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” are out-and-out power ballads, while the ramshackle roar of another cover, The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks”, is arguably closest in spirit to what went before. [Nov 2024, p.40]

Swedish pop producer Patrik Berger brings a new clarity to Boman's work without disturbing the delicacy of her performance. [Feb 2020, p.25]

Their gem-like guitar pop songs start meandering a little. Altogether, though, In Mind feels like a collective exhale. [Apr 2017, p.37]

Even if Mr. Dynamite sometimes feels like a light-hearted sideshow to more established musical careers, these moments of transcendence make the detour well worth while. [Apr 2018, p.32]

The few weak moments on their third album stray into rambling hippy-busker terrain. But standout tracks, like the fuzzy0warm collective singalong "Friendship (is a Small Boat in a Storm)" and Right Off The Back," sound like relics of some lost jam session between Curtis Mayfield and Carlos Santana. [Apr 2017, p.25]

The Messenger isn't an album that will blow any non-believer away. It is old fashioned, in many ways. [Mar 2013, p.65]

Simple, unforced piano ballads sit besides florid pop singles. [Nov 2016, p.37]

The playing is empathetic throughout. [Oct 2016, p.39]

It's an elegant yet earthy hybrid of jazz, UK soul and highlife. [Mar 2021, p.35]

Though garlanded in elegant strings, it's as furiously seething a record as she's made in 20 years. [Mar 2007, p.82]

It's a giddily emotive affair, primarily slow and sensual. [Jan 2015, p.86]

[van Wissem's] solemn, minor-key lute lines become ensnared in Jarmusch's riptide of guitar feedback and fading chords. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Singer Ciaran McAuley's words get lost in the dry ice a little, but a sense of quasi-religious wonder prevails. [Feb 2014, p.80]

Whether it's the ramalama of "Dorner Party," sleazy synth jam "Funny" or the brooding "Do The Vibrate," revved up and slightly ramshackle is how BL troll across this superior barroom set. [Apr 2014, p.69]

The "before" is fractious, two-chord Velvet Underground cool - the sultry "August," the minute-and-a-half burst of "Time Walk" - the "after" like eavesdropping on something private. [Sep 2021, p.25]

Occasionally things get somewhat overcooked into Del Ray-ish melodrama. The More understated moments--"Fool" and "All Of Me"--are beautiful, slow-burning torch songs. [May 2013, p.68]

Aldred's third album as Cherry Ghost is so unashamed in its embrace of the warm croon, the twinkling keyboard, the swelling orchestra and the poignant chorus that its 10 songs might stretch the patience of anyone who wants some jagged edge in their melancholy MOR classicism. [Jun 2014, p.73]

There's a sense that the artificiality in the sound is being used to anaesthetise the raw emotion, but the sonic fractures can't disguise the loveliness of "A Sport And A Pastime" and "My Fair Lady." [Sep 2016, p.78]

While You Were Sleeping is a curious amalgam of '70s soul, '90s R&B and the epic manoeuvrings of stadium rock. [Aug 2014, p.74]

Acoustic English folk is central here, dipped in a thin electronic glaze and layered with gentle washes of psychedelia and shoegazey pop. [Jan 2022, p.31]

The second album is a little more groove-oriented than the trio's 2014 debut LA Spark. [Nov 2016, p.40]