Padded out with too much of the Europap that has blotted Perfecto's scoresheet over the years. [Jul 2002, p.116]

It's covers that make the bulk of the songs, and some are more successful than others. [Apr 2016, p.90]

Varies immensely in quality. [Dec 2004, p.137]

Beefy but unremarkable debut album. [Sep 2011, p.105]

Ocean Colour Scene return to remind us that no one loves the mid-'60s beat boom more than they do. [May 2005, p.103]

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

Dig beneath the murky punk riffs (“Chinese Dogs”) and difficult time signatures (“Buzzards And Crows”) however, and you uncover a lyricist of rare promise, at his best when he’s on home turf.

Yes, Beck was always unpredictable, but this is one weirdly unfocused album. [May 2010, p.83]

It's a partially successful approach that starts promisingly with the disco trust of "Never Let Me go" and "Night People," but the plodding tempo begins to drag, and by "Single Minded" the listener feels worn out. [May 2011, p.88]

Alas, too much of this heavily glossed and processed album lacks wit or passion. [Oct 2011, p.86]

Pleiades may not live up to the cerebral promise of its title, but boats songs, in the likes of "Play," "Sunset & Echo," and single "Further." [Sep 2012, p.74]

Gone, for the most part, are the aching ballads in favour of identikit stadium rock epics somewhere between Simple Minds and Coldplay, overlain with '90s dance beats. [May 2014, p.73]

Pleasantly surprising, then to hear Moonlust take a rather more delicate approach. [Jun 2015, p.76]

He's a little too old to be playing the lecherous pick-up merchant on tracks like "Tight Tones;" but the lovesick swing of "The Old Man And The Beer" rather suits him. [Jul 2015, p.83]

The cod-mystical lyrics to tracks such as "Infinite Sun" and "Mountain Lifter" suggest that embers of the hippy-dippy sitar rockers survive, but a short, Hare Krishna-style sitar and acoustic guitar chant called "Hari Bol (The Sweetest Sweet)" suggests that dear old Crispian has an awareness of his own ridiculousness. [Mar 2016, p.75]

Blood Red Roses is as stylistically varied as its predecessors. [Nov 2018, p.37]

It's far from original, but nonetheless highly effective, and the sweaty, lad-friendly nature of the title betrays its inherent good humour. [Aug 2011, p.82]

Delivers much of the same. [Feb 2007, p.86]

The songs' relative lack of eccentricity makes CocoRosie seem oddly run-of-the-mill. [Apr 2020, p.25]

Mileage left in the gag yet. [Apr 2005, p.108]

Its wilful eccentricity distracts from the Native Tongues style that's their strongest card. [Mar 2009, p.107]

While he lacks a killer song here, Mraz is cute enough to keep his Lemonheads-lite ballads bubbling along. [Feb 2006, p.74]

The fuzz-rock of "Just A Fool" is transformed into a clawhammer-guitar folk ballad; the punky glam of "You Get To Rome" and the space rock of "Yes To Everything" both become ragtime ditties; the heads-down rocker "All In Your Head" and the stadium-sized "No Secrets" become pretty ballads, with some lovely Joni Mitchell-ish chord changes. [Dec 2018, p.27]

Every track here is interchangeable, not only with each other, but with anything from his back catalogue. [Feb 2009, p.76]

Basically Big Talk is how The Killers might sound if, rather than combining Bruce Springsteen and the Pet Shop Boys, they settle for blending Kings of Leon with ELO. [Sep 2011, p.79]

This year's Slowhand again, for the most part, delves deep into bygone songbooks, flitting between styles with consummate ease. [May 2013, p.69]

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]

Some tracks feel throwaway, but goodtime vibes prevail. [Apr 2009, p.80]