The songs here reveal their author's love of The Beattles, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Elton John et al, and confirm Newman's growing status as college rock's most tasteful magpie. [Apr 2009, p.91]

Too often, Belong manages the almost interesting feat of sounding both overcooked and half-baked. [May 2017, p.39]

The players' tight grip on the material reveals a first-rate band in peak form. [June 2008, p.98]

There's a brooding undercurrent to their upbeat sound that echoes what darkwave scenesters like The xx are currently doing. [Nov 2010, p.90]

DiFranco remains an utterly singular performer. [Mar 2005, p.91]

It's largely composed of pretty humdrum strum and twang, defining The Feelies less as the missing link between The Modern Lovers and Vampire Weekend, more as the founders of '80s college rock ordinaire. [Jun 2011, p.82]

These are gently rugged country-folk songs made all the more authentic by a chewy voice that, with age, now seems to have deepened its resolve.

Sometimes excessive technological trickery gets the better of them, but there are some icy anthems. [Sep 2010, p.101]

There are fewer surprises here than on previous offerings, but enough ideas to cement their position as this generation's most creative guitar band. [June 2008, p.90]

Fidelity's default setting of mid-tempo, mid-'80s rock isn't remotely revolutionary, but there's no mistaking the power and passion driving it. [Nov 2010, p.93]

Producer Thomas Bartlett enlists the likes of Rob Moose and Brett Devendorf to add sharp edges to the Australian's singer's dreaminess. [Jul 2012, p.83]

Blues reveals itself to be a barnstorming triumph that channels Led Zep, Free, early Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck and even Dire Straits into something fresh and invigorating. [Apr 2016, p.70]

The resulting confluence of country, soul, gospel and R&B is a delight, Langford's originals imbued with a keen sense of time and place. [Dec 2017, p.23]

The overall effect is immersive, wallowing, sad but often beautiful. [Feb 2019, p.27]

Spending a little too long in the shallows of pastel-shaded easy-listening minimalism. That said, there are sublimely beautiful and lightly experimental touches here too. [Dec 2019, p.30]

While The Streets' five LPs each had a distinct narrative, this is different - skittish investigations into the expanded and exciting taste of a now fortysomething workaholic. [Aug 2020, p.36]

Almost succeeds through sheer force of personality. [Aug 2006, p.108]

The template remains classic American pop-rock served with a glaze of summer-fried weirdness, redolent of The Shins, Flaming Lips and Neil Young, but now there's real heart beneath the often twee facade. [Oct 2014, p.67]

It's actually more satisfying as a piece, a folksy ambience lapping up against muted psychedelia and reverb'd pop. [Nov 2009, p.102]

His latest is no less a mixed bag. [Oct 2013, p.75]

Deep, warm, fully rounded and with no slack, Prairie Wind is Neil at his best. [Oct 2005, p.101]

The Tarnished Gold, mature, with a revelatory appreciation for the simple life, might prove to be the true spiritual heir to their auspicious 2000 debut. [Jul 2012, p.81]

The Black Dirt Sessions is roughly the equivalent of The Replacements going straight from the rowdy delinquency of 1981's "Sorry Ma, Forget To take Out The Trash" to the ashen resignation of 1990's "All Shook Down," with nothing in between. [Aug 2010, p.74]

It's a svelte, consummately accomplished change, although Burnett's reliably polished, sometimes even laidback, settings allow plenty of room for grit and sweat. [Apr 2017, p.32]

These nine abstract sound paintings strip away the guitars, drums and vocals of Sigur Ros to liberate the avant-classical spirit within. [Aug 2009, p.87]

A 21st-century alienated soul album that slips the Eels back into your heart. [Jul 2003, p.120]

His idiosyncratic rhyming style can grate without the leavening presence of other rappers. [Apr 2003, p.116]

[An] unapologetic throwback to straight-assed songs about guns, girls and drugs. [May 2003, p.109]