More often Big Music reanimates the band's founding spirit of adventure. [Dec 2014, p.80]

It'll be nice on a Netflix drama, but removes much of the tension between ambition and accomplishment in which melancholy indie rock traditionally thrives. [Jul 2020, p.30]

Nothing Special draws back from Okkervil River's giddy pop whirls in favour of beautiful, ruminative, Lambchop-ish ballads which, while lengthy, never outstay their welcome. [Nov 2022, p.36]

There's some interesting things going on here.... Sadly, Bernard Butler's production often feels thin and tinny, which isn't just sad, but avoidable, too. [Aug 2008, p.92]

Their debut reveals a band bristling with ideas who've taken the time to streamline their influences into a syrupy white funk. [Nov 2008, p.98]

Overblown and occasionally excruciating, I Love It...'s fearless perversity nonetheless puts most "alternative" bands to shame. [Apr 2016, p.67]

The opening title track casually drifts into existence, and the rest follow suit, melancholic blend of twinkling steel guitar, rambling acoustic guitars and wearied vocals. [Sep 2016, p.76]

A collection of songs that are superficially alluring but, bar standout "Morning Comes," rarely captivating. [Apr 2019, p.36]

The album, reminiscent of Jon Spencer at times, exudes a deep love of rock 'n' roll on each track. [Nov 2012, p.77]

Conjures worlds of chilly, pulsing synths and waspish guitar. [Mar 2021, p.27]

Much of Broken Boy Soldiers is fired by the same liberated, intuitive spirit that drives the Stripes. [Jun 2006, p.86]

Together [Dylan and Rick Rubin] have made an austere acoustic album that could've been titled "American Recordings VI." [June 2008, p.87]

Beneath their limpid surfaces, Mark "E" Everett's songs are volatile dollops of emotional explosive. [Mar 2006, p.98]

As the album proceeds, these simpatico players alternate between swaddling Showalter's introspective songs in downy ambience and dialling up the grandeur, before the Clash-like stomper "Moon Landing," with Jason Isbell blazing on electric guitar, relives the accrued existential torment. [Apr 2019, p.36]

Brave and bonkers. [Mar 2012, p.94]

The Other sees the slacker goofball King Tuff reborn as a spiritual thinker, albeit one with an excellent groove. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Drummer Bryan Devendorf’s rippling, muscular runs provide a racing human pulse over the programmed drums on “Tropic Morning News” and “New Order T-Shirt”, enliven the laidback “I Need My Girl” and supercharge “Lit Up” and the conjoined “Humiliation”/“Murder Me Rachael” during a torrid late-set run. He’s The National’s secret weapon, and Rome is his showcase. [Review of the Year 2024, p.34]

Melodic beauty at times gives way to oversweet twinkling, but "Modigliani" and "Most Wanted Man" are winners. [May 2025, p.29]

For their second album proper, the band have beefed up their sound at the expense of their spindly charm. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Overall, Go To School is a blast, a joyous, ridiculous journey that treads a perfect line between silly, funny and heart-breaking. [Oct 2018, p.33]

Challenging, sure--but when it comes together, as on Kenny Loggins-sampling "Your Choice," exhilarating also. [Sep 2015, p.80]

Dave Huismans brings an aesthetic informed by the metallic echo of Berlin and machine melodies of Detroit to the music's syncopated UK rave logic. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

It's nuanced "noise" that packs a hefty emotional punch. [Aug 2018, p.24]

A touch of monotony creeps in, although they keep it at bay through sheer volume on the closing, eight-minute "Harpooned." [Jun 2015, p.84]

Their voices blend beautifully, especially on Dylan's title track and Jason Isbell's "The Color Of A Cloudy Day," but they caterwaul awkwardly on an unintentionally silly version of Nirvana's "Lithium." [Sep 2017, p.32]

A bit of editing might not have gone astray, but it's hard to begrudge McCombs space to roam when his horizon is so impressively broad. [Nov 2013, p.75]

Go past the tone of his voice, inhale the poetry, and you'll taste a sweeter, less mordant Leonard Cohen. [May 2012, p.68]

It includes great music, but it still has that hairy, unpredictable, somewhat demented aspect that gives the Blues Explosion its unique spark. [Oct 2012, p.72]