Here, Beans returns to his roots. [Nov 2004, p.106]

An absorbing listen. [Mar 2005, p.102]

Murphy muddles through the workmanlike art-rock of openers "Velocity Bird" and "See Saw Sway" before hitting confident stride on "I Spit Roses" And "Never Fall out." [Aug 2011, p.94]

The band seem to have suffered a who-are-we?-style mid-life crisis. [Jan 2007, p.100]

While there are still some occasional bright spots, it never quite regains its earlier momentum. [Aug 2012, p.69]

Reviver is a plugged-in, dreamrock album that owes more to the beardy Brooklyn scene. [Feb 2013, p.70]

The synthetic drama of Maps' "The Other Side" retains the tension of Apollo 8's inaugural moon mission; Vessels anchor "EVA" with a tidy bassline; Field Music remodel "Korolev" into a taut, angular beauty. [Aug 2016, p.80]

There's still a tendency to over-emote with superfluous melisma. But when she's at her starkest and most haunting, accompanied by little more than Beste's piano on "Faded" and "Leave You In Yesterday," she hits the spot unerringly. [Sep 2016, p.76]

The third installment of Jarre's eco-themed trilogy follows the same pattern as its predecessors. [Jan 2017, p.24]

The Gallic tendency to prettify everything into anodyne melodic gloop occasionally jars. [Jun 2020, p.38]

With less hyperbole and gutter-visionary pretension, Borrell's competent if hygienised NYC punk knock-offs might be more palatable. [Aug 2004, p.104]

Fans of Fad Gadget and Add N To (X) take note. [Nov 2005, p.108]

There's a whole gamut of compressed pop guitar stylings; some leap out, others don't. [Feb 2011, p.95]

Sonically adventurous, Phase is unafraid of chunky choruses, bedroom confessionals and twisted synth arrangements. [Mar 2016, p.75]

It seems something of a hollow exercise. [Feb 2006, p.72]

A delicate and sometimes bleak record. [Dec 2006, p.123]

While there is no doubting the power of Marc Ribot’s off-kilter twanging or the noirish density of the music, the songs don’t really work on their own.

The angry bricolage of noises, voices, stabbing guitar and jittery programmed drums sounds like the world splitting apart, the first of a series of scarified dubscapes created by The Pop Group and their perfect collaborators. [Jan 2017, p.28]

Their fourth album continues in the vein of 2011's Last Night On Earth, divining its inspiration from cool, crisp '80s US new wave, "Every Breath You Take" bass lines, Brat Pack soundtracks and wistful songs about girls. [Jun 2013, p.76]

While poppier and more accessible than his albums fronting Fantomas, it's worth the wait. [Jul 2006, p.104]

Largely, this one is a case of nice threads, shame about the songs. [Apr 2007, p.115]

The tunes, for all their airiness, just won't stick. [Nov 2003, p.107]

Captures their Tex-Mex boogie at full tilt. [Aug 2005, p.105]

Spiky, lyrical, quiveringly pretty. [May 2006, p.100]

For all Keely's best intents though, Original Machines falls short of genuine enlightenment; simultaneously too much and not enough. [Mar 2016, p.75]

Confounds all expectations. [May 2006, p.128]

Soundwise, Chinese Democracy is all over the place.

Guthrie folds delicate electronic treatments into his statuesque, joyous melodies. [Jul 2006, p.95]