What's remarkable though, is the seamless way in which they carried on from where they left off after their two-decade hiatus: although this sounds modern, it still has enough of their early urgency, once more balancing the anthemic ("SSL83", "One Day We Will Live There") with a thrilling sense of a band about to career off-course at any moment. [Jan 2010, p. 121]

Throughout, her lyrics betray a convincing world-weariness. [Oct 2017, p.24]

Nowadays they're of more select appeal, and Where You Stand suggests they're actually quite comfortable with that. [Sep 2013, p.95]

On Reflection can't make any grand claims to originality, but charms with its clarity and light. [Jan 2019, p.25]

Flats look to be stranded between hipster grunge and true hardcore. [Jul 2012, p.71]

Her split personality makes for an oddly polarised debut. [Feb 2011, p.84]

It's all far more familiar than might be expected. [Nov 2005, p.111]

For an album that strives to articulate the youthful pleasure-rush of love, drugs, and power, this is a worryingly pedestrian effort. [Mar 2007, p.75]

There are moments where gusto, melody and thunderous guitar riffs meet to powerful effect but there are some tired moments to wade through to get there. [Feb 2019, p.27]

This is different (from his last studio album) again, the rhythms of Afrobeat now cleved to an ambitious jazziness. [Dec 2008, p.100]

These are good songs, but they're so boldly signposted, you can see them miles away. [May 2011, p.85]

Orfeo's spare soundscape can sometimes seem a bit frugal, but Hield proves a versatile frontwoman. [Aug 2012, p.73]

Champ sees TPC breathing deeper and taking a wider view. [Aug 2010, p.102]

It's pleasing to come across a record that not only sounds old-fashioned, but whose author seems like a man of principle. [Nov 2007, p.108]

And though it sometimes plays safe, Hard Candy could be her most unpretentious and consistently enjoyable pop record since Like A Virgin.

The band are now reactivated for their seventh, and pick up pretty much where they left off, the strum and twang now augmented by strings, but with the same determinedly old-school indie happysad heart. [Jul 2009, p.81]

There have been worse ideas, it's true. All round, though, it feels like a man with a gun in his back, being forced to be upbeat. [Sep 2009, p.79]

On the likes of "Said And Done" Frahm conjures up a mood of melancholic introspection that makes this accomplished, genuinely pretty set a serious (if rather less extravagant) rival to Gonzales and Andrew WK's recent piano excursions. [Feb 2010, p.84]

Not easy listening, but a reminder that to evolve, we must first emerge from the slime. [Apr 2010, p.91]

If this is indeed, as rumoured, LCD's final bout, it finds them a little heavy and tired, but occasionally deceptively light on their feet. [Jun 2010, p.82]

Admittedly they hit a few soaring peaks, but none that haven't already been conquered. [Nov 2017, p.39]

For the most part it works, the innate simplicity of the originals lending itself to makeovers, although country purists are advised to steer clear. [Oct 2013, p.77]

A set of atmospheric trance-like improvs that touches only tangentially on conventional song structures. [Mar 2017, p.32]

The mourning is palpable, but only on a few tracks is it tuned into art. [Jun 2016, p.71]

Despite the epic pretensions of the 16-miniute finale, "Tao Of The Dead Part Two,", sadly, this sort of tribute to rock's historical hinterlands yields fewer surprises each time. [May 2011, p.77]

There’s a suitably euphoric rush to tracks such as “Sun Come Up” and “Golden Hour” as McAlmont’s vocals soar gloriously over Dickson’s layered synths, the banging dance rhythms and surging choruses evoking Ibiza rather than California, Faithless rather than The Beach Boys. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Jean plays a mean guitar and the trademark rockabilly romps of "fate" and "trouble", or heavier numbers such as "Godmother", are perfectly fine. ... The wild, carnivalesque cover of Enya's "orinico Flow" - a novelty but a thoroughly enjoyable one. [Jun 2023, p.31]

The funk-noir backing means that Dulli is able to purr lyrics about "sexy ladies", debilitating cocaine habits and your standard-issue emotionally violent love affairs without sounding as trite as he perhaps should. [Mar 2006, p.104]