Some tracks suffer, not from a lack of inherent quality but from the fact that you've already heard any number of perfectly decent, faithful reading of them. [Feb 2012, p.88]

Modish but strangely clinical. [Aug 2004, p.94]

Wooden Shjips continue their work in simple but effective grooves, around which the band discursively noodle. [Jun 2009, p.113]

Where Flying Lotus scatterbrain brings emotive grooves out of madness, GLK can only manage ugly, mostly boring sketches. [Nov 2012, p.75]

Tusk this isn't, but Tusk it doesn't need to be. In an age of off-the-shelf LInda Perry pop, the Mac keep the mainstream interesting. [May 2003, p.98]

A lush but unthrilling album. [Nov 2003, p.122]

It is readymade for a kegger; the problem is, on this, their third LP, they have yet to shape their influences into a sound they can call their own. [Oct 2012, p.77]

After "Waiting," a disarmingly soulful duet with Noah Cyrus, the LP gets darker and more resonant. [Oct 2017, p.24]

Two Vines mostly sticks with the tried-and-true. [Dec 2016, p.26]

Lifeblood seems closest in tone to Everything Must Go, although the sound is lighter, less bombastic, more soothing. [Dec 2004, p.148]

Too often his cluttered samples and constant fidgeting shatter [the] fragile spells. [Apr 2005, p.98]

More often than not, Ben appears to be channeling his hero JJ Cale, although the spirited title track doffs a beret in the direction of Richard Thompson. [Mar 2011, p.97]

Scattergood's voice may be an acquired taste, but she works it skillfully. [Jul 2013, p.80]

Drawing on a palette of classic Beatles/Queen influences via plenty of heavy metal sturm und drang. [Jan 2020, p.25]

A more stripped=down approach. [May 2021, p.28]

The music glistens and gleams. ... An intoxicating ride. [Sep 2017, p.34]

A dreary debut. [Feb 2006, p.74]

Stripped of the usual bells and whistles, and backed by unplugged instruments, it's left to his voice to do the work and, given the length of the thing, it soon starts to grate. [Dec 2012, p.79]

Ready To Die was never going to match Raw Power. When you’re 65, rekindling youth’s righteous fury can sound like grouchiness or--worse--play-acting. But there are worthwhile moments, mostly when Williamson leaves space for Pop to express his vulnerability.

While his unique but resolutely unchanging styles of slap bass shards and cut-up vocal syllables works well in a balanced DJ set, it wears quickly over 22 tracks. [Jul 2011, p.94]

Good enough that you barely notice Macca, Prince and the other obligatory guests. [Dec 2005, p.100]

Their thing is Troubadour-era rootsy rocking rather than harmonic rapture, but American Goldwing's free-wheeling charms are still hard to resist. [Oct 2011, p.81]

Not even tight productions from Eminem and Dre can stop things from flagging midway. [May 2005, p.95]

Everything Goes Wrong is almost sickeningly good: songs are tight, short and fun, none outstay their welcome, all leave something behind in your brain as they rush to completion on a wave of multi-layered vocals, euphoric guitars and wall-of-chrome production. [Oct 2009, p.119]

Occup[ies] the same sonic territory as The Dandy Warhols' underrated Come Down. [Aug 2003, p.108]

Here, they tinker with the formula slightly, shedding the surf drums, and adding washes of synth (usually a mistake, and so it proves). [Jun 2011, p.94]

Surely--surely!--this is an elaborate hoax. [Oct 2006, p.110]

Four albums in, and Cold War Kids still feel like a band trying to decide what they are. [May 2013, p.69]