Veering between faux-soul and Hoxton hipness, Adele simply hasn't found her own voice yet.

[A] fruitless bid to affect euphoria. [Apr 2005, p.97]

For their second album proper, the band have beefed up their sound at the expense of their spindly charm. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Crow sounds as if she's trying too hard to show us that all she still wants to do is have some fun. [May 2002, p.91]

Removed from the comfort of his own musical constructions, they often sound like a collection of rasps, croaks and burrs optimistically corralled in to what just might be words; Latin has never sounded more like a dead language than when Dylan sings in it on "O Come All Ye-Faithful". [Dec 2009, p. 87]

Electro-guru Jim Abbiss... can't salvage much from the band's often tedious three-chord bustlings or Molko's lamely repetitious lyrics. [May 2003, p.90]

Solid rather than eventful. [Nov 2005, p.111]

Owens has never been afraid to comet to terms with his troubled past, but here those stories are slathered in such cliched schmaltz that it's hard to empathise. [Oct 2014, p.76]

The harmonies remain pretty, but the smoothness of those Nashville sidemen exposes the thinness of the songs. [Nov 2011, p.86]

"We return to find a pile of broken kitten bits" they trill on 'GOOJFC,' which may be as succinct an image of their fractured whimsydelia as you'll get. [Sep 2008, p.85]

This simply sounds like junior Jay-Z. [Mar 2008, p.96]

This two-disc compilation charting the journey suggests it was simply a matter of waiting for Travis to falter, tweaking the Coldplay template and amping up the earnest Celtic bluster. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

By now the patience of even their most ardent fans must be wearing thin

Album two finds them pressing the Gilbert O'SuperTramp button with gusto. [Mar 2008, p.87]

Love 2 is a cinematic affair--but not in a good way. [Oct 2009, p.89]

Joyless but effective. [May 2006, p.124]

The whole oddball exercise is almost rescued by "Pinky's Dream." [Dec 2011, p.89]

It's an energetic and clattering punk listen, topped by Ada's louche vocals, but suffers from over-exhuberance in its production. [Jul 2009, p.101]

Tahita Bulmer, once the coy mistress of nu rave, now singing lines like "we wake up in the morning and tyhe glass is empty" in a portentous tone, oddly reminiscent of early-'80s Hazel O'Connor, but no more engaging than her erstwhile deadpan party mode. [Apr 2010, p.95]

A competent, well-intentioned exercise in futility. [Oct 2006, p.110]

High on aggro but low on ideas, it mimics The Pistols' sneer and The Jam's melodies, while throwing in some inexcusably clichéd lyrics.

The mournful tone is seductive, but at times the femme melodrama teeters into All About Eve territory. [Feb 2005, p.83]

Listening to this is like being followed home by a puppy--initially cute and guilelessly affecting, but rapidly irritating. [July 2008, p.104]

Amounts to a consolidation rather than a progression. [Jun 2005, p.97]

Overall, the album feels insular and stultifying introspective, despite the undeniable earnestness of Lee's intent and the passion fueling his ambition. [Dec 2011, p.89]

They're diminished by trying to touch too many bases, often lapsing into sub-Oasis stodge. [Oct 2003, p.114]

ADD is death mental headache. [Nov 2011, p.84]

Their slick, synth-heavy commuter pop is rendered faintly exotic only because you never imagine anyone wanting to make pop music as frigidly bombastic as this again. [Sep 2010, p.90]