Astatke is still a virtuoso but it's mostly BJE who take the lead. [Aug 2020, p.25]

A crawling, paranoiac jazz-funk odyssey. It might be the best of these Dwyer & Co records to date. [Feb 2022, p.28]

Occasionally it can feel like you’re listening to in-jokes playing on repeat, but good tunes like “Eight Minute Machines” (Sleaford Mods, 1978) and “Twitchin’ In The Kitchen” (“It’s Tricky” repurposed for drug users) emerge from the funky environs with characterful fuzz intact. [May 2022, p.36]

A brace of Nick Lowe-penned Brinsley Schwarz tracks (“Surrender To The Rhythm”, “Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love”) are forensically faithful to the originals, but the older men bring an oaky maturity to Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” that likely eluded their younger selves. [Sep 2022, p.30]

It's a smart, exuberant set. [Dec 2022, p.32]

'The Tipping Point' is typical of the album as a whole, a rush of hoe-down guitars and echo-laden drums topped off with a half-yelp of a vocal that recalls a slightly more unhinged Jack White. [July 2008, p109]

He puts a uniquely Rufus twist on the likes of "Shenandoah" and "Wild Mountain Thyme" of course, singing them in his best operatic tenor with a touch of John Jacob Niles. [Jul 2023, p.36]

The follow-up to 2010's Innundir Skinni is an even more intimate affair. [Feb 2013, p.67]

Dent May favours freewheeling, psych-funk pop that nods at The Beach Boys and The Carpenters, but adds notes of samba, mariachi and '50s lounge music. [Nov 2013, p.69]

They are less successful when they step beyond these templates--the trippy "Surface" doesn't quite come off-- but this is a strong set. [Oct 2011, p.95]

Despite the odd longueurs, Boys Don't Cry is a heartfelt, beguiling match of singer and song. [Jul 2012, p.80]

Their imperial phase may have passed, but Slayer will not go easy. [Oct 2015, p.83]

A (rap-free) triumph. [May 2015, p.77]

Muse redeem high-camp absurdity with a genius for sumptuous arrangements, mighty pop hooks and irresistible melodrama. [Nov 2012, p.79]

Lewis' piano still sounds as urgent and uncontained as it did whrn rock'n'roll was invented on it, and his insouciant snarl remains thrillingly feral. [Nov 2010, p.93]

A confident melodic sensibility ensures such self-conscious quirkiness stays just the right side of irritating. [July 2008, p.90]

Carson Cox's over-emotive delivery and a bombastic arrangement tip the album's power-ballad finale, "I Will Not Sleep Here," into Night Ranger Territory. Thankfully, the trio is more careful about its point of reference elsewhere. [Oct 2016, p.35]

The thing with the L-event EP is that across four tracks, there isn't the room afforded on their best LPs for something resembling accessibility. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.100]

With echoes of everyone from Big Star to Elliott Smith, Bored Nothing have sufficient promise to be really something. [Jul 2013, p.71]

Baxter's brilliance is varied. [Dec 2014, p.75]

An unapologetic confection of lush overstatement. [Jul 2016, p.67]

A terrific, laidback, sleep-headed dose of minor key psychedelia, which has something of the flavour of Spiritualized at their finest. [Jul 2016, p.79]

This hypnotic blend of R&B-pop, luminous chillwave and whacked-out funk has its own piquancy. [Jul 2018, p.37]

A thunderous epiphany of overlapping guitars and in-your-face lyrics. [Jan 2019, p.27]

On This Is Really Going To Hurt, singer Will Taylor's characteristic black humour still cloaks the West Coast harmonies of "Everyone's A Winner," but the emotions cuts deep. [May 2021, p.27]

These essentially dour, '90s synth sounds aren't an obvious nirvana, though, but a wounded vocal sensitivity sometimes suggesting Midlake and Harp's Tim Smith, and deceptively crafted lyrics, add complexity to the prayers for peace. [Jul 2024, p.39]

For an international pop act on a major label, this is a daring album. [May 2005, p.109]

It's all craftily entertaining, but loopy lead single 'Paris Is Burning' is the one track that escapes pastiche. [Oct 2008, p.94]