Those who felt that LCD's This IS Happening was too downbeat will find From Cradle To The Rave a perfect remedy, fashioning an obviously derivative but irresistible transatlantic electro-pop. [Oct 2010, p.105]

Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner’s songs are fragmentary and unpredictable, their springy guitars and elliptical vocals sometimes coalescing into sparkling hooks, at other times deliberately abstruse; think the quirky post-punk of The Raincoats, or a country-folk Deerhoof. [Sep 2022, p.26]

Despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight. [Jan 2024, p.25]

This is the polite, less freaky end of modern American indie folk: earnest, well-intentioned, Obama-fundraising, National Public Radio-supporting... and cumulatively a little dull.

Ferree's insistence of shoving everything right up front in the mix, all the time, becomes wearing, but you can't fault his enthusiasm. [Jan 2010, p. 110]

Amid all this weirdness, the sleek disco banger "The last Dance" stands out like a beacon in a cave, lighting the way towards a more sustainable reinvention. [Feb 2022, p.34]

The album is at its most interesting when it breaks from this mould [dreamy psych rock], embracing more atmospheric sensibilities. [May 2023, p.36]

Though not quite the full Finn, nonetheless Pajama Club is fresh and fun. [Oct 2011, p.95]

The fuzz-rock of "Just A Fool" is transformed into a clawhammer-guitar folk ballad; the punky glam of "You Get To Rome" and the space rock of "Yes To Everything" both become ragtime ditties; the heads-down rocker "All In Your Head" and the stadium-sized "No Secrets" become pretty ballads, with some lovely Joni Mitchell-ish chord changes. [Dec 2018, p.27]

The addition of Ethiopian singer Cabra Casay evens up things on "Ane Nahatka," otherwise this prove a collaboration too far. [Nov 2012, p.85]

The Less you know is a rather ponderous return to form. [Dec 2011, p.81]

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

Erratic but still occasionally sublime. [Jun 2020, p.37]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]

He successfully channels Sam Cooke, especially on "We Don't Sleep" but the album's length and lo-fi production makes Bye Bye 17 appear disconcertingly slight. [Jun 2013, p.74]

There's little on Heaven And Earth to truly trouble his best work, but throughout there's plentiful evidence of the many qualities which made Martyn so indefinable and influential. [Jun 2011, p.84]

There's a little bit of everything on this largely instrumental solo album by Wobble. [Oct 2018, p.37]

Meshell's search for love and meaning rarely asserts itself over the sense of muso friends at play. [Aug 2014, p.76]

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]

[The first half is] all dismayingly unconvincing and lacklustre in execution... Then something changes.

Only the most devoted Apple Scruff could truly love Extra Texture, or its two immediate predecessors, now. Wonderwall Music, however, documents an innocent optimism that will always be worth a listen.

If you like Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, Low, you'll adore them. If you don't, you won't. [Mar 2008, p.83]

Twenty-one-year-old Charlie Fnk's cracked baritone is brown sugar-sweet, '5 Years Time' is a hit, and the album's Jonathan Richman-esque gawkiness makes it double endearing. [Oct 2008, p.94]

Their choice of guest vocalists this time around indicates good tatse, although in practice there's not much call for subtlety in these chewy, club-oriented productions. [Sep 2009, p.95]

They clearly asked Dave Fridmann to produce for his MGMT work rather than his exploratory Mercury Rev backstory. It's well, OK. [Mar 2010, p.90]

The Orwells ape highlights of the last 25 years of indie rock on their second album. [Aug 2014, p.78]

Rare Bird Alert, recorded with the Steep Canyon Rangers, is a more rounded than 2009's mostly instrumental The Crow. [Jul 2011, p.92]

Plenty of liturgic rumbling, but it really works when she aims for something greater. [Dec 2020, p.39]