Metz, whose fusion of sludgy guitar tone, boiled-down hardcore attitude and smartly sardonic lyricism, if not quite outright throwback, certainly has the quality of a studious tribute. [Oct 2017, p.32]

Theirs is a shambolic but tuneful take on glam and punk, one in which everyone sings and spunky attitude is more important than production polish. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Even if Lahs isn't quite the album Allah-Las believed they were making, it's still a minor marvel. [Nov 2019, p.21]

Further evidence of his dazzling wordplay. [May 2005, p.103]

One of the missed opportunities of Cass Country is that it isn't especially revelatory about Henley, as a man in late-middle-age taking stock of his life. As a country album, it is perhaps a little too neat, a little too polished. [Nov 2015, p.68]

Fans of Fad Gadget and Add N To (X) take note. [Nov 2005, p.108]

Margo's curled-lip rock sneer and urgent folk purity stay sides of the same coolly distanced conviction. [Apr 2022, p.26]

They've yet to match the live genius of the [Arcade] Fire, but their album's got much more life than their static stage shows. [Aug 2006, p.95]

Idiosyncratic to the last. [May 2026, p.29]

We find their extreme metal interspersed with more reflective moments. [Dec 2014, p.80]

Suitably laid back and gently psychedelic, unhurried guitars wringing through the breeze, harmonies washed in from The Notorious Bryd Brothers. [Sep 2023, p.32]

Burch's sings sound familiar, but her lyrics cut straight through the warmth and sweetness with frank reflection on relationships and, on "Asking 4 A Friend," scoring drugs. [May 2018, p.26]

By the end of the album, you crave some drama, what you're left with is actually pretty serene. [Apr 2015, p.69]

Konoyo draws inspiration from Tokyo Gaksu, players of gagaku, a Japaneses classical music. You can discern this in the gentle drones and fluting of the opening "This Life," but it's soon all transformed by the producer--as it is on the fizzing "Keyed Out" or the lovely "Mother Earth Phase"--to the subordinate role in Hecker's rather more epic sonic drama. [Nov 2018, p.30]

Prove[s] Haas has more to offer than ear-crunching cacophony. [Sep 2005, p.105]

Lyrical references to stargazing, sprawling jasmine and the passage of time paint a picture of the infinite, and our small place in it, that is heightened by the band's soaring melodies. [Mar 2021, p.39]

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

A welcome return. [Apr 2021, p.27]

What lingers is that vivid voice. [Jun 2021, p.25]

You could say this kind of record - produced by Dan Auerbach, who's also on guitar duty, for his own label - that plays to a revered, even fetishised aesthetic. ... With a band of experienced session hands. ... [Finley's] mastery is proven. [Jun 2021, p.25]

At times the pace crawls, but James' supple, intimate vocals are engaging, and the sonic palette shimmers inventively. [Mar 2013, p.73]

It's a wild ride, by turns embracing and disorienting, its tracks ranging from brief instrumental stings to stately arias, though the highlights are the moments when Longstreth's pop sensibility is most audible. [Apr 2025, p.35]

Not for the first time, their presentation is inspired but the material can fall a little flat. [Jun 2017, p.37]

Things Happen That Way isn’t an exemplar of his style, nor (clearly) is it a late-career blooming, but it is a richly resonant farewell from a maverick veteran. [Oct 2022, p.32]

The fruits of his change of mind are bittersweet and eloquent alt.pop songs that recall Bon Iver. [May 2016, p.82]

Another fiercely fashionable and languidly ambitious collective. [Apr 2002, p.108]

The results are inevitably polished - but, crucially, never overly so. [Sep 2025, p.28]

Sober and joyful. [Sep 2018, p.29]