There's nevertheless an easygoing air to the duo's otherwise experimental-minded pieces, which began as spare guitar instrumentals by Portner that were then warped, distorted and reshaped into beguiling psych-folk forms. [Jun 2026, p.29]

Pearl Jam remain at their formidable best as a pure-hearted rock'n'roll band. [May 2020, p.32]

The added muscle suits them and you wish there were more of it. [Mar 2016, p.76]

The resulting 10 tracks, each maintaining a single key throughout, conjure interstellar space in all its sublime beauty and ominous unknowability. [Dec 2023, p.28]

Slasher House is not so different to the last Animal Collective album, 2012's bristly Centipede Hz. [May 2014, p.69]

The Superchunk frontman journeys to the early '80s, where punk was dissolving, songs were becoming introspective and straightforward rumble of rock was being corrupted by synthesisers. He does it with precision. [Jun 2015, p.78]

Take Me Home in particular sounds like a bonus disc to a full album reissue. But they reveal new angles to the Big Star story. [Aug 2017, p.52]

Their fourth album sees them on more soulful, though no less seductive ground, having worked up old song ideas into 12 new, mid-tempo tracks which are compositionally and emotionally diverse. [May 2024, p.35]

Some songs are mere fragments and there's an early version of standalone single "U.S. Mail" in place of Sundowner's stunner "Jamie," but this is otherwise a beautiful and raw selection still bearing the scars and charms of creative birth. [Oct 2021, p.29]

Weird, wonderful and life-affirmingly wise. [Aug 2004, p.96]

[An] intimate, woody collection of fractured folk. [Nov 2004, p.120]

Enjoyable solo debut. [Nov 2017, p.30]

[It] is such an unassuming creation that the deceptively vast scale of its ambition only becomes apparent after several listens. [Jun 2006, p.103]

Lucinda Williams' version of Gentry's iconic "Ode To Billie Joe" leaves much to be desired but. ... Overall, this one's worth it. [Mar 2019, p.30]

Cinematic in scope, ruthlessly ambitious in execution, this is not easy listening. [Mar 2016, p.82]

It's a rich, well-crafted piece of 1970s AOR, featuring elegantly written verses, choruses and - heaven forfend - middle eights. [May 2020, p.32]

There's nothing revelatory here, but it's good to see Hayes being so productive. [Feb 2015, p.77]

La Costa Perdida brings them full circle, back to their Californian roots. [Feb 2013, p.80]

Trees might be the best '70s antecedent; the Japanese Ghost a more modern analogue for these seething reveries, tantalisingly poised on the edge of freak-out. [Apr 2016, p.74]

On People Who Aren't There Anymore, then, no curveballs are thrown. However, the band's debt to OMD and New order is increasingly less obvious, while the earlier bombastic synths are being edged out by a more spacious, less forceful style of electronic poo that recalls fellow Baltimorean Dan Deacon, with echoes of Peter Gabriel. [Jan 2024, p.26]

It's the change of pace and mood on the reflective "How Far" that marks Run Around The Sun as a real advance. [Jul 2019, p.34]

Think the Chemical Brothers meet Flaco Jiminez and you'll get the idea. [Jan 2003, p.119]

A modest triumph. [Aug 2019, p.28]

While the sugary highs could give Van Dyke Parks an ice cream headache, it's hard to resist a work so clearly besotted with the power of music. [Oct 2015, p.78]

Initially seems more listener-friendly than Volume 1... [but] Congotronics remains radical listening. [Jan 2006, p.125]

The songs' sense of drive and drama demonstrates RVG's growing confidence. [Jul 2023, p.33]

There's a rich atmosphere of Americana on the faith-questioning "Falsetto" and the hop-skipping hoedown "On My Conscience," while the lover's lament "Priscilla" and emotional navel-gazing of "Half Of Me" find him dallying on the outskirts of John Grant pop grandeur. [Sep 2013, p.86]

Not pretty, necessarily, but pretty good. [Jan 2016, p.75]