By the time the 11-minute whalesong finale "Cease To Know" creeps to its overdue conclusion, the prevailing mood of impeccably tasteful introspection is choking. [May 2010, p.88]

A return to the coffee shops beckons. [Nov 2011, p.83]

A sluggish, garage rock set. [Jun 2007, p.99]

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

The Delgados have made a fine follow-up to 2000's The Great Eastern. Problem is, it's the same album, more or less. [Nov 2002, p.115]

The cumulative effect of all this mid-tempo moodiness is that High Flying Birds feels awfully plodding. [Nov 2011, p.88]

It's a long, convoluted, tiresome listen. [Jul 2021, p.25]

Only the softer songs... display any of the heartbroken mystique that once made Carrabba compelling. [Sep 2006, p.79]

The overall effect is too solipsistic and immature to take you close to the title's imaginative world. [Aug 2006, p.96]

Mark Ronson will be looking elsewhere for his next single. [July 2008, p.115]

A decent album of roots-tinged songs that showcases his terse guitar style and detached vocals to solid if unspectacular effect. [Nov 2002, p.122]

A turbid affiar. [Nov 2006, p.114]

For the most part, tired melodies and banal lyrics make for a disappointing collection. [Feb 2012, p.83]

Toris 10th refuses to gel into anything illuminating. [Jun 2009, p.83]

At times this album seems interminable. [Aug 2003, p.116]

Bachmann's gruff uniformity is, in the end, difficult to love. [Dec 2006, p.101]

Atmospheric post-grunge is the order of the day, but while the likes of "Census" is dynamically tight, the impression is of talented technicians, not great songwriters. [Sep 200, p.83]

The Stills remain a little too anonymous. [Dec 2008, p.116]

[A] disappointing move into bland, dinner-party-backdrop territory. [Nov 2004, p.106]

This merely draws attention to the fact that the old songs are better than the new ones. [Jan 2002, p.146]

A slickly accomplished affair, rarely inspirational. [Jul 2006, p.101]

Cutting edge, it's not, as if that was ever the point, but the title of the collection seems less like a wry confession, more like wishful thinking. [Jun 2010, p.88]

Tankian combines prog pomp and a variety of vocal techniques, all irritating, to uniformly unlistenable effect. [Nov 2007, p.125]

This finds Richard Melville Hall seemingly going through the motions. [Mar 2008, p.96]

What a treat to discover another album that samples Toto's "Africa." [Feb 2003, p.75]

Their third album is sprinkled with sensitive instrumental textures and plaintive tinkling noises, but their music remains utterly devoid of personality, not least because of Joel Potts' vapid vocals, while not even the best efforts of Gil Grissom and his eager CSIs could unearth a sniff of a decent tune. [Oct 2007, p.83]

The music on this debut is nutritionally meager powerpop. [Nov 2008, p.120]

A functional selection of unspectacular power pop with the odd pastoral bit. [Mar 2004, p.102]