There's a punch that saves them [from] drifting into coffee-table politesse. [Feb 2011, p.98]

What the Jets might have lost in terms of their early quirkiness, they make up for in melody and emotional heft. [Feb 2016, p.78]

[Electric Trim] features conventionally structured songs that underline his country-folk and Americana interests, while amping up the psych-pop and orchestral alt.rock. [Oct 2017, p.36]

Smith's squeaky, adenoidal vocal, long a barrier to Danielson's popular acceptance, has softened somewhat, while the band are in fine form. [Apr 2011, p.78]

The rest can't quite match this opening brace ["The Upsetter"], but there are gems throughout. [Apr 2014, p.75]

Al Jourgensen is bringing Ministry to a close, and truthfully, it's the right time. [Nov 2007, p.113]

There are some great passages of live-wire electronica, but more often it's strangely lacking any aura or elemental spark. [Oct 2016, p.39]

Though the 18-minute celestial sludge of "The Opulent Decline" conjures all the right imagery, you suspect Oneohtrix Point Never invariably got there first. [May 2013, p.67]

Here are miasmic, dizzyingly gorgeous songs built on the grandest and most romantic, but steadied by the hand of hook-loving classicists. Bravo! [Mar 2010, p.90]

Well worth the wait. [Jan 2013, p.74]

It's more memorable than Mush's debut, simultaneously weirder and more melodic: and the peak of the record, and of this mix of the the strange and the infectious, comes right at the end. [Mar 2021, p.30]

While ['You Are The Best Thing'] gets the LP off to a rousing start, the song also serves a thematic purpose by celebrating the pleasures and synergy of a smoothly functioning conjugal unit--an ideal that stands in stark contrast to the romantic torment that follows.

As sublime as much of Instrumental Tourist is, it rarely fulfills that promise of improvisation, of a real sonic engagement or play, and struggles to exceed the sum of its parts.

Despite the epic pretensions of the 16-miniute finale, "Tao Of The Dead Part Two,", sadly, this sort of tribute to rock's historical hinterlands yields fewer surprises each time. [May 2011, p.77]

Yet for all its attributes, this fine debut stirs as much for its sense of what The Lumineers may yet become as for what they currently are. [Dec 2012, p.70]

Even if the attitude feels snarly and confrontational, the craftsmanship speaks of deep love and high-level musicality. [May 2015, p.81]

Their benefactor this time is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who evidently hears something in their moody atmosphere-building. By and large, Pussy's Dead reveals them as a muso sort of band. [May 2016, p.69]

This is the sound of a band surprising itself. [July 2008, p.92]

It's occasionally very beautiful, but this is so far removed from values of immediacy and accessibility that Stevens' core audience are likely to be left non-plussed. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

The lyrics are occasionally hackneyed, but overall 4 is a very strong record indeed. [Sep 2011, p.79]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]

This tasteful collection is best represented by McBride;s cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now," matching her satin to the original's velvet. [May 2014, p.77]

Wexler delivers an alluring lugubrious set that views Fairport Convention, the Canterbury scene and Simon & Garfunkel through a glass darkly. [May 2012, p.84]

Body Music has the feel of an album rushed out for the summer. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Striped of the visual element, what remains here is sparkling Nordic synth-pop, uplifting and accessible, but increasingly conventional. [Dec 2014, p.77]

The London quartet signpost the album with handsome literary and academic allusions in anticipation of an edifying dance direction, but end up trotting out the kind of meek synthfunk once propagated by the likes of Hot Chip and Metronomy. [Feb 2014, p.73]

It's the choices of material and approach that give Jesse Dayton's Mixtape Vol 1 its considerable kick. [Sep 2019, p.24]

Sonically it's a sinister palette: classical folk laced with dynamite blasts of electronics. Yet, the inner contents are tender. [Apr 2020, p.37]