Not as violent as Hexadic but no less unsettling, this is a strange and fascinating album from an artist who continues to evolve. [Feb 2016, p.80]

This is music that continually slips away from you even as you chase down its essence. [Jan 2013, p.80]

Is so patently wrong in so many ways that it exhibits a peculiar strain of genius. [Jun 2003, p.92]

The best electro-pop debut since La Roux. [Jun 2012, p.80]

He injects these economic songs with a modish sense of sophistication. [Nov 2017, p.35]

Sparklingly produced, clean-cut and sweetly tuneful songs. [Jan 2019, p.23]

At times, mellifluous minimalism shades into mundane monotony, but these electro-mechanical reveries mostly achieve a kind of hypnotic power through accretion and repetition. [Jan 2017, p.24]

As powerfully new wavey as 2009's Backspacer at the start but also a testament to the band's more oddball meandering elsewhere, the commitment of Eddie Vedder's delivery brings a veracity even to some of the more ponderous ballads that can be the band's mature years default position. [Nov 2013, p.76]

The Bees have a nose for sniffing out fine pop melodies. [Apr 2007, p.93]

Overall, it's rather slight and inevitably rough around the edges.... But there's still considerable entertainment to be had from Segall's urgent renditions of "Cat Black: and "Buick Mackane" while his take on "The Slider" and "20 Century Boy" are magnificent reboots. [Feb 2016, p.94]

If Better Oblivion Community Center has a recurring flaw, it's a reluctance to hit these higher gears more often, the best of BOCC, however, both earns its place in Oberst's already formidable canon, and further confirms Bridgers as an artist likely to assemble one. [Apr 2019, p.37]

There's no straining to distance themselves from their former band [Stereolab]. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Sweet at its core, but pleasantly dark around the edges. [Feb 2014, p.76]

The most striking thing about Citizen Zombie is how young and naive and happy it all sounds. [Mar 2015, p.74]

The resulting appearances from the likes of Calexico, Mark Knopfler, Carrie Rodriguez and David Lindley are subtle and empathetic, blending easily into Brown's spare, atmospheric Americana. [Jun 2017, p.24]

It's a familiar mode - "instant vaguely leftfield record collection"- but it's beautifully played, and a reminder that Dwyer can occasionally do restraint. [Sep 2020, p.25]

The charisma, charm, galvanising dynamism and radical positivity of frontman Bobbie, aka Pascal Robinson-Foster, works better on stage than in the studio; even so, his hilarious takedowns of Marx-quoting armchair revolutionaries and Brexitvoting Top Gear fans reveal a sharp, self-aware wit behind the headbanging polemic. [Apr 2024, p.31]

The whirl of ideas is intoxicating. .... But there's space for moments of straightforward beauty too. [Sep 2025, p.29]

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

He's a little too old to be playing the lecherous pick-up merchant on tracks like "Tight Tones;" but the lovesick swing of "The Old Man And The Beer" rather suits him. [Jul 2015, p.83]

Funny, and--beneath the psych flourishes--quietly devastating. [Jun 2012, p.93]

The occasional sense of a well-won formula being diligently followed is counter-balanced by the committed performances and a sufficiency of hooks. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Delights and distresses, packed with musical flourishes and finely drawn lyrics. [Nov 2020, p.33]

[The album] churns and lumbers with ominous, swampy certainty. [Oct 2012, p.83]

This might have worked better as a single LP, but to ensure the collection doesn’t run out of steam, there are two new tracks: the bouncy “Curious” and retro rocker “Billy Goodbye”. [Apr 2022, p.44]

In truth, only an uncharitable curmudgeon could fail to appreciate Tim Rice-Oxley's vastly improved pop songwriting. [Jul 2006, p.102]

[Working with four young producers] isn't necessarily an ideal recipe for coherence, but [Giles] Martin--the producer of the music for Love, Circue du Soleil's Beatles show, and for the Rock Band video game--keeps it under control.... with each song treated as an individual entity and allocated its own musical resources. [Nov 2013, p.64]

Press Play works rather well. [Dec 2006, p.106]