A record that achieves a great deal with only a few raw materials. [Jun 2015, p.73]

[He] appears to relish the chance to have some fun and revist classic Dr Feelgood licks. [Jul 2018, p.30]

Strongly evokes a member of Foo Fighters attempting a modern Americana album, and as such is largely a punky take on the stomping arena country of Brad Paisley. [Aug 2019, p.36]

Yes, it is formative, but it is never amaturish, and where Grizzly Bear's fully symphonic songs can, at their worst, feel somewhat glutinous, the tracks of Archive 2003-2006 combine a lean feel and try-anything ambition that's well worthy of investigation. [Aug 2010, p.90]

Technically, he shows himself to be a better singer than we might have predicted from those early lo-fi recordings, but it all tastes a little sweet. [Oct 2015, p.71]

The tunes remain no more exotic than a British cottage pie, and all the meat and potatoes that entails. [Feb 2011, p.79]

They have produced a cohesive work that marries gauzy dreampop with more robust indie-rock. [Dec 2012, p.77]

In a genus so often characterised by grandiloquent gesturing, this is drama of the pensive and underplayed kind. [Jun 2013, p.74]

Antarctica is leaner then Flat Worms, and if the tunes don't hit quite as hard, then at least the smart lyrics are easier to catch. [Jun 2020, p.29]

It's a wild ride and brilliantly sequenced. [Jul 2020, p.30]

As always, you know what you're getting -- and you get that they're knowing. [Feb 2024, p.27]

Too often the slick production feels overwrought like a bad Cure facsimile and the songs struggle to breathe, though the murkiness at least conveys the sense of doomed romance. [Apr 2026, p.26]

Monuments To An Elegy constitutes an unexpected return to form. [Jan 2015, p.66]

B'Day sounds oddly de-energised. [Nov 2006, p.100]

The best tracks put a unique stamp on these improbable hybrids. [Sep 2012, p.75]

The sound is monumental, the lyrics discursive. [Feb 2015, p.87]

Snaxx is more informal collection of sample-based miniatures that sound like the architectural blueprints for larger hip-hop epics. [Aug 2019, p.32]

Narcissistic (“Black Hole Baby”, a montage of radio praise and day-in-the-life mission statement), earnest (“crushed.zip”, an anxiety-fuelled showcase for singer Orono’s sugary-sad voice) and deeply weird. [Aug 2022, p.33]

The Atmosphere is intimidating and nervy--a far cry from cosy campfire kumbayas. [Feb 2011, p.94]

While these 12 songs shake no foundations, they hold their own. [Sep 2019, p.34]

Tricky is back with his best album in at least a decade.

Evangelicals sing of skeletons, snowflakes and things that go bump in the night with witty samples and imaginative arrangements. [Mar 2008, p.87]

A series of disconnected ideas rather than one concentrated work. [Oct 2018, p.24]

Within And Without charts a familiar shimmery beachscape between Julee Cruise and Lynchpop, early OMD and Slowdive. A couple tracks emerge from the haze. [Aug 2011, p.89]

His first solo outing has enabled Ben Gibbard to try on new stylistic contexts as if they were outfits. [Dec 2012, p.71]

This delightfully unlikely collaboration is as much fun to listen to as you suspect it was to make. [Apr 2020, p.26]

A mildly Enya-fied take on the kind of astringent orchestral punk pumped out by Montreal's Constellation label, it has its moments. [Mar 2016, p.77]

The lyrics can be trite, but the guitar is accomplished, and the title fits. [Aug 2016, p.71]