This is one record on which his ultimate masterplan to weld R&B sass to thumping club beats comes good. [Aug 2010, p.84]

Fellow Pretender James Walbourne provides deft guitar and keyboard accompaniment, but it’s the personality and allure of a distinctive voice that keeps you in the parlour. [Jul 2021, p.27]

Huey's gruffy mannered vocals predominate--apparently the aim is to steer listeners to the originals, in which case, job done. [Jan 2011, p.94]

The likes of "Minimum Wage" and "Too Much Not Enough" sound like a youth-club band who've simultaneously overdosed on Haribo and the Gang Of Four, which is both preposterous and admirable behavior from people in their thirties. [Jun 2014, p.71]

Production touches aren't enough to elevate a set of songs that when stripped to their skeleton are sufficient if unspectacular. [Mar 2019, p.32]

Syrupy piano ballads remain a blind spot for Morris, who seems to be soundtracking ab imaginary Richard Curtis comedy n the sappy, soppy title track. But "rose Garden" is great, it's whopping Kate Bush-isms spliced with staccato mechanised beats. [Mar 2017, p.31]

This recurring tendency to grandiosity is especially frustrating given that less is generally more throughout the album. [Nov 2022, p.35]

For those of us in love with Something/Anything and A Wizard, A True Star, recent Rundgren LPs have us squinting our ears, trying to locate the genius hidden behind obfuscating layers of electronic bluster. [May 2013, p.76]

Chroma strikes a largely upbeat mood, producer Dan Carey foregrounding a McGuinness vocal that's more often irksome than endearing amid the skittering rockabilly beats and lively but derivative soundscapes. [Sep 2014, p.75]

This one needed longer in the incubator. [Jun 2015, p.81]

Pushing too hard, then or maybe not hard enough. [Jun 2012, p.79]

Either annoyingly sweet or refereshingly well-adjusted, depending on your mood. [Oct 2002, p.107]

As the strident piano ballads and flatly aggressive production pound on, though, it's more AGT than Kanye. [Jan 2020, p.25]

While clearly a cathartic outing, most of it slips into pretty formulaic and repetitive territory. [Sep 2025, p.29]

A lachrymose collection of Elvis Costello-rootsy, mid-Atlantic songs expertly constructed but running rather low on stardust. [Jul 2020, p.36]

Even a recreation of the harmonica sound from "When The Levee Breaks" on "The Falling Sky" and the same song's famous cavernous beat on "Sacred The Thread" can't help either song stick in the memory. [Sep 2023, p.27]

With so many other similar vehicles available, there's not much reason to choose this one. [Jan 2016, p.78]

Other than the limp "Money," they ["Lose Control" and "Push Yourself"] pull these off pretty well--they're certainly more memorable than bog-standard guitar anthem "welcome To The Rave." [Mar 2013, p.69]

Angel Guts: Red Classroom is by turns darkly unsettling and unintentionally funny. [Mar 2014, p.85]

It still possesses a certain screwball charm, particularly the curdled croon of "I Don't Mind The Wait," but too often sounds like smug pastiche. [Nov 2021, p.30]

These pallid songs comprise a barely disguised homage. [Mar 2014, p.80]

It's hard to tell whether These People is an intentional, semi-Springsteenian work of self-reference, or whether Ashcroft just hasn't had any other ideas. [Jun 2016, p.69]

They could afford to take more liberties with the musical cliches thereof: listening to Gaslighter is a bit like eating 12 courses of dessert. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Few of these chugging bar-room stompers register as earworms, even after repeated listens. [Oct 2015, p.76]

Hard, and not necessarily rewarding, work. [Nov 2015, p.75]

What's here feels a bit decaffeinated, downbeat Moby-ish electronica over which Lynch speaks or sings in a shaky blues croon. [Sep 2013, p.91]

Echoes of Conor Oberst abound but the tunes lack the same charm, with even covers of Spacemen 3 (“Sound Of Confusion”) and Townes Van Zandt (“No Place To Fall”) unable to keep ears pricked up. [Dec 2024, p.37]

Its collision of tea-time melodrama and Gary Barlow make her sound more Pop Idol than pop idol. [Jun 2013, p.67]