After a moment of comparative restraint he returns with a double album so spectacularly grandiose you have to wear 3D specs to hear it properly. [Nov 2011, p.91]

Too lo-fi for its own good. [Jul 2006, p.102]

Pocket Symphony drifts inconsequentially along. [Apr 2007, p.92]

The record features contributions from a host of their pals, such as The Orb's Alex Paterson on the blissed-out "Burnt Umber," writer Vivien Goldman on Bizarro Bond-theme "Rhino" and Alabama 3's Aurora Dawn on reggae spiritual "Keep On Moving." [Apr 2020, p.37]

The cod-mystical lyrics to tracks such as "Infinite Sun" and "Mountain Lifter" suggest that embers of the hippy-dippy sitar rockers survive, but a short, Hare Krishna-style sitar and acoustic guitar chant called "Hari Bol (The Sweetest Sweet)" suggests that dear old Crispian has an awareness of his own ridiculousness. [Mar 2016, p.75]

Although the tongue-in-cheek title nods to the familiarity of these new songs, there's no shortage of ideas. [May 2020, p.27]

You could call it happy hardcore, even if there's nothing particularly upbeat about its content. [Feb 2012, p.83]

Still mourning the loss of The Bravery? Look no further. [Feb 2009, p.85]

Semi Detached is stuffed with perverse gear such as acid shanty "Deep In The Mine." [May 2015, p.71]

At 36 minutes, Preliminaires is slight and covers-heavy, but points to a promising new career phase for Iggy as Detroit’s answer to Serge.

Some tracks sail a little too far into MOR but Meiburg takes care to balance these out with more robust moments. [Mar 2010, p.95]

A spirited album that runs the gamut from pop to pop-punk to punk. Not everything works. [Jan 2021, p.23]

It's stylistically impressive, but Worden only connects emotionally when she goes for simplicity. [Nov 2011, p.93]

If it's a little predictable, it's still easy on the ears. [Jul 2007, p.127]

The approach is scattershot, but the pace of his productivity means that you're never far from a great song. [Nov 2008, p.124]

It's almost as if the quieter tracks allow her to relax, while the full band numbers--fleshed out rather over-eagerly by a group containing several Mumfords and a Whale--subdue and constrain her. [Apr 2010, p.101]

These are sighs as much as songs, with Cale's vice rarely wavering into anything more obviously declarative than a half-snarl, half-mumble. [Sep 2015, p.71]

This new album is a bit of a mess at times, though its scope is almost as impressively broad as its top-loaded guestlist. [Dec 2017, p.25]

Exceedingly pleasant, if hardly groundbreaking. [Aug 2005, p.104]

Having phased out the shoegaze from their sound, Blondes at times struggle to address the dancefloor head-on. [Oct 2013, p.63]

Some of their poppiest songs to date. [Nov 2006, p.106]

Kweli, whose wordy rhymes can often read better than they flow, sounds nimble and at ease most of the time. [Oct 2007, p.96]

While the arrangements are loaded with clever touches, the LP comes off like an exercise in technique, preventing Price from reaching the transcendent moments she's clearly capable of. [Mar 2016, p.76]

Too eclectic for his own good, perhaps? [Sep 2005, p.100]

Gahan's lyrical moochings are inevitably less assured without his umbilical cord to [Martin] Gore, at times bordering on moon-in-June banality. [Jun 2003, p.108]

The understated gospel-style fervor and steely determination of "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" with Neko Case stands out. [Jun 2010, p.84]

It's for fans only, but that's where Crush Songs' power lies. [Oct 2014, p.76]

She's at her best on the lachrymose likes of "Close To The Edge" and "Just A Dream," less successful when angling for Grand Ole Opery classicism or-- as on "Un-Break"--flirting with funk-metal pop. [Nov 2012, p.81]