Confirms Doves as the country's most innovative rock group. [Mar 2005, p.94]

Frances The Mute smells like another concept album, is far too long and so pretentious as to be farcial. Amazingly, it's also mighty entertaining. [Mar 2005, p.91]

By no means a rebirth, but feistier and more fun than last year's Destiny's Child record, for sure. [May 2005, p.95]

These languid strums would sound suitably fine and mellow stoned on a beach at sunset. [May 2005, p.95]

[An] eloquent set of songs about absence and change. [Apr 2005, p.108]

Crammed with pulse-racing panto-metal par excellence. [Apr 2005, p.97]

Sole's fast and fluid rhymes deal with a wide range of socio-political concerns, but are saved from sounding like diatribes by his sly wit. [Apr 2005, p.114]

There's a lurking suspicion of contrivance here, as opposed to the spontaneity that characterised Don't Give Up On Me. [Apr 2005, p.102]

An album which has nothing to do with 2005 and everything to do with 1988. [Mar 2005, p.109]

He falls well short thanks to a dated, home-cooked sound and and the earth-bound mundanity of his collaborators. [Nov 2004, p.119]

Nothing more than the uncomfortable sound of a band escaping their svengali. [Dec 2004, p.142]

They exhale the kind of swirling 'perfect pop' that was the default setting of late '80s Creation releases, leaning into the crosswinds of Fairport-era folk-rock. [May 2005, p.100]

The strident approach... doesn't quite work. [Jul 2005, p.100]

Amos has never been in rangier voice. [Mar 2005, p.102]

This is uncluttered, radiant music with the lightest touch and muggiest of voices. [Mar 2005, p.102]

His quirks often overwhelm him, and his shock tactics are more infantile than transgressive. [Feb 2005, p.76]

Still shambles too freely but features stellar moments. [Jun 2005, p.108]

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

Doesn't pack enough hooks to make it memorable. [Apr 2005, p.105]

More than another coaster on the coffee-table circuit. [Mar 2005, p.108]

Luminously beautiful music. [Apr 2005, p.106]

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

There's nothing here to surprise anyone familiar with Mogwai's chiefly instrumental, epic soundscaping. [Mar 2005, p.120]

The fact that Feathers never really goes anywhere is beside the point. [May 2005, p.106]

If you liked 1972 in 1972, or liked '1972' in 2003, you'll find yourself swimming with this. [Album of the Month, Mar 2005, p.90]

Further evidence of his dazzling wordplay. [May 2005, p.103]

It's like the best music of the '70s compressed under '80s new wave dynamics. [Feb 2005, p.74]

Gedge hasn't sounded this belligerently broken-hearted since 1987's "My Favourite Dress." [Mar 2005, p.100]