These rattling songs... feel like disturbing European fairy tales. [Jun 2006, p.97]

Everything now seems as worn out and used up as Lytle's subjects, along with the imagery that brings them to life. [Jun 2006, p.108]

[It] is such an unassuming creation that the deceptively vast scale of its ambition only becomes apparent after several listens. [Jun 2006, p.103]

By turns poppy, cerebral and conceptually cute. [Jun 2006, p.106]

The supersized culmination of the Chili Peppers' artistic journey. [Jun 2006, p.102]

A comeback of unexpected maturity and power. [Jun 2006, p.110]

So much of Eyes Open is nearly, but not quite. [Jun 2006, p.114]

Intriguing. [Jul 2007, p.116]

There's a naivety at play here, recalling Daniel Johnston, Vashti Bunyan and Syd Barrett. [Jul 2006, p.86]

It's impressive... but it will be interesting to see whether his undoubted talent will flourish beyond such a conceit. [Sep 2006, p.83]

One of the most intriguing walls of sound since My Bloody Valentine circa Isn't Anything. [Jul 2006, p.97]

Talk of Simpatico as the band's Sandinista! is, in truth, wide of the mark. It's better seen as a footpath linking the claustrophobia of their early work with the Black Country funk of Wonderland, while hinting at a way forward. [May 2006, p.124]

It understandably struggles with a weightiness, an emotional claustrophobia. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Only emphasises their problems. [Jul 2006, p.92]

Fortunately, the sturdy rock instrumentation of Green Day producer Rob Cavallo serves to tamp down her pervasive air of self-importance while minimising the cringe factor in her lyrics. [Jul 2006, p.98]

At best this sees them hold their own. [Jul 2006, p.101]

If their songs occasionally resemble the power ballads that grunge supposedly outmoded, that's the price of being a truly potent classic rock band. [Jun 2006, p.109]

As daunting as its title suggests. [Jul 2006, p.114]

Amazingly, it somehow avoids the drivel of The Darkness by sheer gleeful abandon. [Jun 2006, p.98]

A sprinkle of Flaming Lips fairy-dust may be just what the genre needs to slip its genre straitjacket. [Jul 2006, p.114]

A fine showing. [Jul 2006, p.84]

An erratic mix of mundane, London-centric Skinnerisms and out-of-focus political ire. [Sep 2005, p.100]

If there's any justice, the stadiums of tomorrow await them. [Apr 2006, p.105]

The setting may have changed, the soundtrack is boosted and richer, grimier yet cleaner, but Skinner's predicaments remain the same. [May 2006, p.110]

A powerful example of how songs reverberate through the years to accrue contemporary meaning. [Jun 2006, p.92]

Riley has mellowed with age, so the politicking is shot through with humour. [Jun 2006, p.94]

All The Roadrunning isn't quite the success they would have hoped. The problem, perversely enough, lies in the disparity of voices. [May 2006, p.126]

Vent and Nunez revel in their experiments like science nerds let loose in the lab. [Jul 2006, p.111]