Vide Noir unspools with cinematic seamlessness, as quicksilver psychedelic buffers bridge its 12 tracks, which shift between folk, country and heartland rock. [Jun 2018, p.30]

This appears to be a case of limited resources and/or dubious decisions undermining a potentially captivating album. [May 2015, p.76]

The songs are often gently ironic '70s orchestral pop with overtones of striped caps and Edwardian moustaches. [Aug 2009, p.90]

There are some creative dead-ends, but there is enough here to warrant a reappraisal. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Not quite the rebirth it might have been, but a welcome retread. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Her career path - Staten Island barista to MySpace to Old Navy commercial-is less conventional than her songs, which build from folkie beginnings to big, optimistic pop choruses. [Dec 2009, p. 103]

Some of her best singing in years. [Sep 2002, p.114]

There is beauty aplenty in these 10 songs, but anyone yearning for the delicious ache of old will find it only fleetingly. [Feb 2011, p.92]

Glossy and glamorous, maybe, but it feels like a beautiful-designed dead end. [Oct 2018, p.37]

Buck 65 returns to abstract hip hop, but injects it with cool, psych jazz and '70s cinematic funk. [Dec 2007, p.86]

Same Old Man won't upend the form-book, but it's an agreeably unpretentious addition to the Indiana-born veteran's canon. [June 2008, p.93]

Inherit strips back rock, baring its constituent parts without flourish or fanfare. [Aug 2008, p.93]

The World Is Yours contains repetition aplenty: but no hesitation or deviation. [Feb 2011, p.93]

A rum selection of Zoom collaborations with everyone from Dua Lipa to Lil Nas X, that old keenness is still there, though only on "It's a Sin," his Brits team-up with Olly Alexander. [Dec 2021, p.29]

It’s all interestingly varied stuff, although the chopping and changing of styles makes it hard to get a handle on who The Voidz really want to be. [Oct 2024, p.33]

Stomping Eurodisco almost-anthems rub shoulders with crying-on-the-dancefloor confessionals, although the 31-year-old diva's plastic-punkette teen-rebel pose grates at times. [Aug 2010, p.93]

Eventually, the unrelenting aggressiveness of Typhoons becomes exhausting; better to ignite a playlist by tossing in one of these potent cherry bombs. [Jun 2021, p.31]

A sometimes mystifying but often inspired work. [May 2018, p.22]

Their sound is an accident born of naivety, but their unabashed love for '80s indie is unmistakeable. [Feb 2009, p.89]

Despite Chris Martin's underdeveloped lyrics – "Be an anthem for your times" at least explains his motivation – there's something reassuring in their ham-fisted urge to bring people together. ... Glam-stomper "People Of The Pride" or well-meaning power ballad "Let Somebody Go," and instrumentals harking back to earlier Eno adventures offer pleasant reprieves. [Dec 2021, p.25]

The bulk... is given over to rolling, near-baroque piano balladry. [Nov 2004, p.102]

Ashcroft's ornery, sometimes conspiratorial resentment of authority and spiritually minded uplift feel of the moment. [Nov 2025, 28]

The finest moments... prove to be the same stripped-down verbally deft hip-hop that made their name. [Oct 2005, p.100]

On their fourth album, all pretense at rootsy authenticity is gone--this is machine-tooled stadium pop, with producer Paul Epworth in the Brian Eno role. [Jan 2019, p.22]

There's a touch of mum-at-the-disco about the dancier numbers, but the sweet acoustica of "Some Kind Of love" and the wispy electronica of the title track still underpin earwormy hooks that won't be denied. [Apr 2019, p.28]

Sadier's intonation can be awkward, but her compassionate yet detached voice remains as affecting as ever. [Nov 2010, p.97]

'Fire' and 'Drugs' certainly boasts the head-in-the-speakers mania of old, but it's the more meditative 'Vision' that suggests a future beyond Rizla conventions. [July 2008, p.104]

It's only on the lengthy, ambient, vaporous "La Sirena" and the pretty, dramatic ballad "ICU" that everything gels together. [Dec 2023, p.31]