Too many tracks are still founded on tiresome conceits. [Apr 2012, p.81]

Fuses the hormonal aggression that put Green Day on the map with punched-up modern-day production courtesy of Butch Walker and a razor-sharp mix by Tchad Blake. [Mar 2020, p.29]

Bainsbridge's achievement is to take a style of music defined by its emotional directness and render it mysterious, aloof and enthralling. [Dec 2014, p.77]

No longer quite so greasy, but rewardingly slick. [Oct 2014, p.80]

Free Your Mind, looks to the two summers of love--psychedelia in 1967 and rave in '89--for inspiration and is mixed by Tame Impala's guru Dave Fridmann, yet its tasteful blend of chugging acid and euphoric choruses means it resembles an elaborate Screamadelica pastiche. [Dec 2013, p.66]

There's a sense that the artificiality in the sound is being used to anaesthetise the raw emotion, but the sonic fractures can't disguise the loveliness of "A Sport And A Pastime" and "My Fair Lady." [Sep 2016, p.78]

That Gedge remains, at 51, stranded lyrically at a romantically disappointing post A-Level party is less cause for celebration. [Apr 2012, p.88]

There are enough moments of mercurial brilliance on May Your Marry Rich to suggest that the core duo of former student buddies Ryan Hendrix and Nick Turner are finally on to something. [Apr 2014, p.71]

Even if Howes favours an almost cosy retro futurism, the results are unpretentious and often lovely. [Feb 2016, p.77]

The sonic ambition is admirable. [Aug 2018, p.28]

It's generally a thoughtful collection: stripped back so as to not stamp on the originals. [Mar 2019, p.27]

This is their best set of songs since the band’s sex-crazed 2004 debut, continuing some of the debt-to-the-’80s feel of 2014’s Get Back on homage-paying tracks like “Nikki Go Sudden” and “Swollen Maps”. [Jun 2022, p.31]

Idiosyncratic to the last. [May 2026, p.29]

"Greetings From Mars" touches on Lana Del Rey's desolately pretty Americana, with Nagler's voice reserved yet reaching ecstatically high. [Apr 2026, p.36]

It's a modest sampler, with a feel more akin to 1961 than 2008. [May 2008, p.98]

Too much of the rest is forgettable. [Mar 2012, p.87]

Yorke aside, the attractions are few in Monkeytown. [Nov 2011, p.93]

One man's hurt is often another man's monotony. [Nov 2006, p.120]

Fronted by Jonas Stein formerly of adolescent punks Be Your Own Pet--the missing link between the Monkees and Dead Kennedys--are every bit as spirited as his old band. [Dec 2009, p.117]

To say Ladyhawk offer a pretty straightforward rock trip make them sound unadventurous, which they probably are, but also doesn't really do justice to the sheer head-nodding, play-loud-and-prosper enjoymenet this offers. [May 2008, p.102]

Freed from Torquil Campbell's mannered indie melodrama, she gives full rein to her inner country girl. [Jan 2010, p. 121]

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]

Producer Max Dingel fashions a crystal clear sound, full but never overblown, bringing an attractive universality to some very personal emotions. [Jun 2014, p.79]

Everything here remains personal, but it is also a cooler proposition. There's a degree of studio craft and narrative control here that Davies has never bettered. [Aug 2018, p.22]

As reassuringly familiar as it all sounds, the high point comes courtesy of an interloper, John Cooper Clarke shoehorning suitably rant-like poetry into the six-minute garage groove of "Let You Down." [Oct 2014, p.73]

Venture further into Our Version of Events and it's clear Sande has in fact modeled herself on Leona Lewis with a series of sappy ballads bulging with lyrical truisms. [Mar 2012, p.89]

High Life has none of its predecessor's busy, over-caffeinated temperament. [Aug 2014, p.73]

Whilst a gift for converting arrogance into entertainment has always been one of Jay-Z’s strongest suits, Kingdom Come skirts perilously close to the showboating that marred 2002’s bloated double album, The Blueprint 2.