The execution is consistently weak. [Aug 2013, p.79]

Klaxons bristle with energy and ideas. [Feb 2007, p.77]

Santigold never flags in her campaign to capture the dwindling attention spans of modern pop fans. [Feb 2016, p.79]

There are flashes of brilliance here, but you do long for a wink or a flicker of wit. [Feb 2010, p.88]

There's nothing particularly jaw-dropping about it, and at times it's too cute and wimpy, but it's a decent change in direction from diskJokke's cosmic house sides. [Aug 2011, p.82]

It's an immersive and emphatically pulsing ride along Detroit techno lines. [Oct 2015, p.77]

Content's fiery funk will have you bouncing around and beaming at the return of this inspiring, influential unit. [Feb 2011, p.87]

Kweller is a disarming presence and an unpretentious sonic architect. [Mar 2012, p.90]

The swinging, jazz-country arangements are perfect, too, hitching the polished, romantic sophistication of the songs to a down-home, rootsy bonhomie that draws comparison with Dylan's reinterpretations of the Sinatra songbook on 2015's Shadows In the Night. [Apr 2016, p.78]

Like coiled springs, this Manchester four-piece fire out jabs of tight pop-punk energy that seem created with the intention of filling an indie dancefloor. [Jul 2016, p.79]

Much of what is great about Stockholm's Holograms can be located in their debut single "ABC City," a testament of the "desolation" of the grim suburbs of their home city delivered in a rowdy street-punk sneer. [Oct 2012, p.81]

There's a couple tunes that rise above the general lo-fi languor. But you get the feeling they could carry on like this, lost in unchanging adolescent reverie, forever. [Jun 2009, p.83]

You Know Who You Are is a smart, dynamic effort that breaks some new ground. [Apr 2016, p.76]

Inventively employing computer "tweakery," Lytle concocts synthesized symphonies and celestial chorales, with emotional charged results. [Nov 2012, p.77]

They're pop-culture-versed update on the Gravesiggaz, murky collective efforts like "NY (Ned Flanders)" popping with grisly imagination. [Jun 2012, p.80]

Emily Haines is still secretly one of the most articulate, compelling performers in modern rock. [Feb 2006, p.70]

Seven tracks, 31 minutes, and not a duff second in sight. [Oct 2002, p.104]

The music is strikingly minimal throughout, the emphasis is firmly on The Word and the Beastie Boys have plenty left to say. [Jul 2004, p.108]

At once punchy and overwrought, and blessed with some extremely good, if slightly monotonous, tunes. [Nov 2003, p.120]

All tasteful minimalism and soft lighting, this is more Vangelis than adventurous. [Sep 2004, p.108]

The four tracks involving [Lopes] are superb.... Elsewhere, they audibly struggle. [Jan 2003, p.119]

The saturation bombing technique is only partly successful. [Nov 2006, p.123]

Five American Portraits, another collaboration with conceptual art group Art & Language, combines the two [awkward rock music and high conceptualism]: these simple, rough portraits of George W Bush, Wile E Coyote, etc, while each song musically quotes relevant tunes. [Mar 2010, p.93]

Even when the prevailing mood of introspective understatement threatens to sink into the maudlin or overwrought, there's an urgency about This Path Tonight that keeps things buoyant. [May 2016, p.77]

Not exactly groundbreaking, but not reverentially retro either, and full of fizz and vigour. [Sep 2016, p.74]

While there's a shining beauty that recalls Stereolab and The Sugarcubes, the mood is overwhelmingly melancholic and extremely infectuious. [Dec 2016, p.35]

Overall there's little evolution from previous albums here. [Jul 2019, p.30]

There are strong moments, from the sweet, mixtape-ready “Backup Plan” to “Sweet Tooth”, which brings pep and rockier guitar. But Moss badly needs a bit more Upside Down energy. [Oct 2022, p.29]