The standout tracks here are the most melancholy and experimental. [Nov 2012, p.71]

The listener who experiences this album as physically as it is delivered will be rewarded with calories burned, an endorphin rush to die for, and heavy sweating indeed. [Aug 2010, p.94]

Static's production is bright and punchy, which has the unintended effect of sabotaging softer moments. [Jan 2014, p.73]

They build on the West Coast blueprint for strung-out, psychotropic darkness, tracking back to The Crystals via Mary Chain and leaning heavily on the reverb and delay. However, it's hedonism, not retro homage that floats the Crocodiles' boat. [Jul 2009, p.84]

The outcome is a raucous, rough-and-tumble blues-rock album. [Jun 2015, p.71]

Their debut is a good deal more engaging thgan any number of Bloc Party or Daeth Cab For Cutie comparisons might imply, however apt. [Mar 2010, p.88]

Ejimiwe's lyrics are often vague, but the music has echoes of Tricky, Roots Manuva, and the minimal end of dubstep. [Mar 2011, p.91]

With Ring, Mesirow concocts a fractured pop that accentuates the layers of electronic composition, though her voice is the guiding instrument. [Dec 2010, p.104]

A prophetically titled record that does exactly what it promises. [Jul 2011, p.94]

Album number five is the sound of the law of diminishing returns finally kicking in. [Jul 2012, p.73]

Gena Olivier's pallid vocals sound frozen stiff rather than disaffectedly cool by the halfway stage. [Feb 2005, p.78]

Thanks to her Valley Girl charisma and omnivorous sexual gaze she mostly succeeds. [Dec 2012, p.73]

Wash the Sins Not Only the Face proves they have the songs to match their mood but too often tend to wallow in kohl-eyed cliche. [Feb 2013, p.71]

This is adequate debut, but La Roux will need to move beyond brittle pastiche if they hope to reinvent such overfamiliar ingredients. [Jul 2009, p.91]

A little more zip wouldn't go amiss. [Aug 2019, p.36]

Happily, the music Stewart's art rock collective make on their seventh studio LP tells a more playful and diverse story, incorporating vivid punktronica, delicate ambient moodscapes and icy chamber-pop. [Mar 2010, p.107]

Pants gas ditched electro-funk in favour of the kind of woozy, nu-gazing reveries crafted by Beach House, Girls and teenage Fantasy. Not that it's all whacked-pout bliss-pop. [Jul 2011, p.93]

While Winfield's pompous lyrics and over-earnest tone sometimes grate, the supple disco-funk of "Sparks" shows definite promise. [Aug 2015, p.81]

Rattle That Lock turns out to be a modest achievement for the most part. [Oct 2015, p.82]

A tough job hitting both funny and funky bone at once, but they mostly pull it off. [Apr 2005, p.102]

While there are plenty of new lyrical Bejarisms to enjoy, the packaging feels a little stale. [Nov 2017, p.26]

Pipes is the weaker collection--no remaster can disguise this. [Nov 2015, p.93]

Ballads like "Chill In The Air" and "Burden" have a stately gait, but Lee is more engaging when he turns playful huckster. [Jan 2014, p.75]

Liverpool 8, which stands happily beside Starr's recent hits compilation, holds its own as a companion piece to McCartney's similarly vital "Memory Almost Full," and makes a nice day off from having to like Radiohead.

Touching new folk-rock compositions sit alongside spirited arrangements of trad songs and sturdy instrumentals. [May 2017, p.26]

The atmosphere is organic and engaging, the only problem being that amid the fug of good vibes, no one remembered to write a killer song. [July 2008, p.94]

Morello's guitars tend to dominate, Riley's best lines get lost, and none of the songs here have the tunes to convert floating voters. [Nov 2009, p.106]

City of Refuge finds her back in Appalachian mode though, the songs shaded with fiddle, banjo and dulcimer and borne aloft by Washburn's airy voice. [Mar 2011, p.92]