Generally these doomy, comatose soundscapes all sound drearily similar. [May 2015, p.78]

Too often the slick production feels overwrought like a bad Cure facsimile and the songs struggle to breathe, though the murkiness at least conveys the sense of doomed romance. [Apr 2026, p.26]

While there's pleasure to be had from the band's exuberant MC5-meets-AC/DC racket, their dubious tales of salt-of-the-earth hookers, as found in "Call Girl Blues," and drunken lechery, outlined the willfully crass "Hungover And Horny" takes the retro vibe too far. [Jun 2013, p.71]

Maas isn't confident enough to strike out in any single direction, and the LP feels too consciously aimed at crossing over to the pop charts. [May 2002, p.98]

More often than not, it seems like the Technicolor electronic sheen is masking tepid songwriting. [Apr 2021, p.30]

He dips toes in the blues, country, R&B and rockabilly without ever really grabbing your attention. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Overall, Butler's pedestrian appropriation of the clunky beats, tinny handclaps and squelchy vocoder effects of yesteryear sound stale and repetitive. [Jun 2014, p.78]

Ruthless schmaltz is, predictably, the order of the day. [Jul 2012, p.69]

McCartney straps on the bass for two tracks, adding very little to generic rockers typical of the album as a whole. [Oct 2017, p.40]

It's hard to find anything out of the ordinary here beyond the usual blend of angst rock and stadium bombast. [Aug 2013, p.69]

Too many artists on this well-intentioned and occasionally even enjoyable tribute album seem to forget they're country artists. [May 2023, p.38]

Her follow-up, produced by Mark Howard, adds country-gospel choirs and fussy arrangements to her palette, steamrolling any nuance she might bring to these characters. [Apr 2018, p.23]

Though the arrangements here are thinner and the longer pieces feel overstretches. [Dec 2017, p.30]

On her second LP, Gothenburg's Sumie Nagano recites her depressive, wintry haikus in a soft, pure voice over some rather samey accompaniment. [Dec 2017, p.33]

Most of the original tunes on this self-titled debut are formulaic, slogan-heavy jams that rest too heavily on past glories. [Oct 2017, p.36]

His idiosyncratic rhyming style can grate without the leavening presence of other rappers. [Apr 2003, p.116]

Basically, it wants to be the Stones but ends up a bit Tom Petty. [Sep 2002, p.103]

Even the core audience may find this somewhere between a gee whizz and gee swizz. [Jun 2002, p.110]

Sick Scenes is certainly a messy affair, stylistically, and overrun with densely packed lyrics, though it's not entirely without charm. [Mar 2017, p.32]

Sadly, he doesn't have the material to match his delivery. [Jul 2019, p.27]

This is in many ways his weakest since Kill Uncle. [Dec 2017, p.20]

It can at times be truly excellent 21st-century pop, but too often the songwriting just doesn't match up and many tracks are just multitracked signifiers with no connecting tissue. [Feb 2013, p.81]

The eight songs of Midnight Rose range from serviceable to cringeworthy. [Oct 2023, p.33]

A jumbled record that veers from Screamadelica nostalgia to wobbly Bontempi soul to hushed acid-folk without ever quite finding a sound of its own. [Apr 2016, p.79]

It all sounds like The Beta Band swapping confrontation for contentment. [Apr 2002, p.93]

Intrepid, but rarely satisfying. [Sep 2012, p.81]

Mostly sounds like a weary retread of 2005's superb Loneliness. [Jul 2006, p.95]

There are some pretty melodies here, like “Bells”, “Hymn” and “An Intimate Distance”, but there are some tracks where Eno’s melodies are so minimal that they become quite mind-numbingly banal. [May 2022, p.26]