Reissued by Matador mere months after its boutique debut, Love Comes Close is shaping up to be the indie-noise synth-pop crossover hit of the year. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

It's a well-judged mix; safe enough to satisfy the easy-listening end of Peyroux's following, but bold enough to show that among the jazzy, post-Norah crowd, the wayward Maddy stands apart. [Aug 2011, p.83]

Ferry's systematic methodology reveals the flaws as well as the qualities of the chosen material. [Apr 2007, p.105]

Unusually for him, his 10th album sounds like a collection of Chili Peppers demos. [Feb 2009, p.82]

PATP are on no less poppily compelling form with their sophomore LP, but display a new, darkly rocky drive and increased lyrical cynicism. [Jun 2011, p.93]

One's enjoyment of this record will largely depend on the ability to endure a man doing an uncanny impersonation of a youthful Bob Dylan. [Aug 2012, p.80]

It moves at a cracking pace, its 10 concise songs picked clean of fluff and with their sugar content much reduced. [Jul 2014, p.74]

It's not as striking as its predecessor. [Dec 2015, p.75]

This is a pretty exhausted soundworld. [Jun 2018, p.37]

As challenging as it is comforting. [Jul 2005, p.106]

There's uncommon immediacy to Crazy Horse-style bashers like "Knock Knock" and "How To Live," as well as big-sky ballads like "Long Vows." [Oct 2012, p.73]

[It] curbs some of the excesses that made 2005's Worlds Apart so unfocused. [Dec 2006, p.101]

The definitive post-millennium Fall album remains 2008's Imperial Wax Solvent, but this is a credibly bitter pill to swallow. [Jul 2015, p.75]

The straightforward rap tracks merely show up his generically braggadocio lyricism and deflated hook, using charmless trap cliche and bringing out the leaden, smoke-headed worst in the likes of Action Bronson, Mac Miller and Ab-Soul. [Jun 2014, p.78]

Telephantasm, their latest, breaks a good deal more wind than it does ground. {Dec 2010, p.105]

Between Two Shores might be his most compelling and imaginative amalgam of Big Pink folk-rock and Muscle Shoals R&B. [Feb 2018, p.28]

Much of it seems to bluster without delivering. [Aug 2005, p.87]

Sun-dappled, retro Americana dominates their second album, albeit overlaid with an arsenal of sonic tricks. [Feb 2013, p.70]

Lisa Jen's ethereal voice still swoops beguilingly over Martin Hoyland's expansive arrangements, fusing harps, dulcimers and guitars with dub beats, loops and pounding bass. [Jun 2016, p.67]

Though lacking a defining identity, at its best it's like listening to a long-lost compilation playing all the AM radio hits that never were. [Jun 2016, p.78]

There's no flash and no trash, just reflective, ripe, minor-key ruminations, plenty of melodically burnished guitar playing and Knopfler's voice, which has crusted nicely with age to take on a warm, rich burr. Classy. [Dec 2018, p.27]

Songs packed with macabre humour, melodic contortion and gruesome discord. [Mar 2019, p.27]

It's an epic of self-conscious protest, asking questions about the way the global and the local become corporate, homogenous anti-realities, pegged to songs that play loose with genre. [Apr 2020, p.25]

It hard to work out what's more annoying from the rest, be it Dustin Payseur's forgot-my-gym-kit vocals, the self-important but frankly juvenile ambient interludes, otr the neat riffs, which sound like plugins from some indie-pop iPad composition app. [May 2013, p.67]

Stack with drivetime anthems such as "Big Giirl Little Girl" and "Bring Night". Less overbearing is the feelgood disco of "The Fight" and "Clap Your Hands," which may finally make Sia a household name. [Jul 2010, p.120]

Singular and unsettlingly sophisticated. [Jul 2015, p.76]

Though producer David Holmes’ disco rhythm tracks sometimes mask it, Come Ahead now addresses addiction and injustice in expansive stanzas. [Review of the Year 2024, p.35]

Longwave is languorous and amiable. ... The largely unchanging pace prompts yearnings for more frequent shifts from second gear, however. [May 2018, p.26]