Despite the starry cameos and production turns, Shine lacks a little lustre. [May 2008, p.94]

Weber masks the scale of the enterprise with typical grace. [Feb 2013, p.77]

It's solid stuff. But he's got a way to go to rise above his influences. [Jun 2011, p.86]

Inarticulate, perhaps, but indubitably exciting. [Oct 2013, p.72]

Something more intimate and traditionally crafted, exploring the highs and lows of human interaction. [Feb 2015, p.77]

This new emphasis on alt.rock songcraft can leave frontwoman Arrow de Wilde sounding little constrained, which may be why she sounds so thrilled to unleash her inner Iggy on "Toy teenager" and "Rich Taste." [Nov 2019, p.33]

Often as challenging as Justin Vernon's recent work. [Sep 2020, p.31]

If you like Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, Low, you'll adore them. If you don't, you won't. [Mar 2008, p.83]

Back to their homespun, unforced, relatably human roots. [Dec 2025, p.37]

Peaches still bangs, in more ways than one. No Lube So rude, her first album in a decade, drips with fluids, fragrances and various viscera. [Mar 2026, p.36]

Molina's at the top of his lonesome game throughout. [Oct 2006, p.117]

Pollard fleshes out his vaguely familiar melodies with inventive, unpredictably expansive arrangements. [July 2008, p.108]

Ultima II Massage is ostentatiously big and frequently clever. [Jul 2014, p.83]

"Remembering" and "In Your Hands" are full of gorgeous, African-influenced harmonies. In fact, Mulvey's arrangements are generally more ambitious. [Oct 2017, p.35]

The tracks range from the wiry and infectious to the outright transcendental, while some of the vocal effects evoke the sound of those early krautrock pioneer. [Oct 2021, p.31]

On record at least, Wu-Tang have made the comeback of the decade.

Through the simplicity of their languid melodies, Beach House access a portal into pop's truly uncanny nature. [Jan 2007, p.93]

A concept piece about man's downfall and a planet in ruins, versed in three chapters and dominated by the kind of skull-splitting metal that marked 2014's I'm In Your Mind Fuzz. [Jul 2017, p.32]

Weird-but-wonderful free-folk explorations. [Jul 2017, p.25]

It's a very fine thing when a writer and craftsman of Gibb's standing embraces his own legacy and finds such persuasive ways of embellishing it. [Feb 2021, p. 24]

A fantastic hybrid of Spacemen 3 and Deep South voodoo. [Oct 2006, p.99]

On her 2019 debut album Keepsake, Harriette Pilbeam, who records as Hatchie, showed an inclination to take her shoegaze-infused pop onto the dancefloor. That’s something continued on Giving The World Away. [Jun 2022, p.28]

There's nothing not to like, but at 13 tracks in just 37 minutes, it's all rather slight. [Nov 2015, p.76]

A kind of Joshua Tree for the heavily pierced and mildly upset. [Dec 2004, p.140]

Mazes proves that San Franciscan guitarist Ripley Johnson has not musically strayed too far from home. [May 2001, p.93]

There's no denying the pair know their way around a perky tune, but their songs are unmemorable because their sound is so heavily recycled. [Jul 2016, p.82]

“Right Hand Over My Heart”, an irresistible number with moody Omnichord and synth motifs, and at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, the sinuous “Water Torture”, in which a disgusted Davis addresses his country’s barbarity practised in the name of world order. “Moonlit Kind” closes the set, an existential hymn with an agreeably lazy, Yeasayer-ish groove. [Jul 2024, p.30]

Mudhoney these days, for all their pioneer status, mostly just sound like a regular, decent rock band. [Apr 2006, p.105]