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

His cluttered beatscapes suggest random sounds in search of a meaning. [Mar 2006, p.103]

It's tasteful, but not much more. [Feb 2007, p.78]

The Pigeon Detectives' second in a year smacks of too much haste and too little thought. [June 2008, p.98]

This follow-up is a lackluster affair. [Sep 2009, p.95]

The first half's schmaltzy flight-themed concept and the cliche-stewn acoustic second half mean that take-off, to labour an already laboured concept, proves indefinitely delayed. [Sep 2011, p.105]

The truth is, this is actually rather safe music. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Youth Novels attampts to repeat the trick [the single 'Little Bit'] 13 more times, with varying degrees of sucess. [July 2008, p.103]

Altogether lacking... is the crisp production that powered early hits like "Boo!", replaced by a rather unremarkable R&B job. [Nov 2005, p.94]

The likes of "The West End" and "Thinking About You" are unobjectionable, but mostly have the effect of reminding that there are Steve Earle albums you could be playing. [Nov 2010, p.94]

Portentous electronic rock made for audiences that stretch out as far as the eye can see, and choruses pilfered from a mid-'80s installment of Now That's What I Call Music! [Sep 2013, p.97]

Adele is repeatedly cast as the heartbroken survivor. That role serves to foreground her mighty impressive vocals, but also encourage the showboating overkill that is a staple of the X Factor generation. [Feb 2011, p.79]

Only on "Faces" and the concluding "Poolside" does the stifling fug of rock'n'pop traditionalism lift a little bit. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Buffed to a hyper-compressed, anodyne sheen by John McLaughlin, The Fountain is so craven in its bid for airplay it even includes an insipid number called "Drivetime". [Nov 2009, p.84]

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

Shapeshifter features mostly stockpiled instrumental pieces characteristically driven by Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. [Jul 2012, p.82]

The execution is consistently weak. [Aug 2013, p.79]

For the most part, Ben Kweller simply suggests Jackson Browne reared on Weezer. [Oct 2006, p.114]

[Has] an uninspiring production line-up. [Jul 2006, p.101]

Maybe they should have bigger ambitions. [Spe 2009, p.79]

Feels for the most part like a vanity side project from Beyonce's solo career. [Jan 2005, p.115]

Famous First Words passes by amiably enough, like a TV clip-show but is eerily without a sense of place, time or even quirk to make you believe in it. [Sep 2011, p.98]

The tunes are so fragmentary, it resembles a '60s hi-fi demonstration disc. [Jul 2005, p.89]

Deft guitar lines from Charlie Burgess never quite paper over the cracks in numbers that would have been consigned to b-sides in the band's heyday. [Jun 2009, p.101]

In danger of becoming a Loose Tubes for the ATp generation, this once fleetfooted group have blundered into a vat of fudge. [Feb 2010, p.89]

The band utilise new instruments--saxophone, brass and more--in a too-blantant attempt to convince us that they are more than goths. [Aug 2009, p.101]

Beneath the opulent layers and studio tweaks, however, lie some very orthodox, very average Eighties indie songs. [Mar 2002, p.96]

The result is four meandering tracks. [Feb 2012, p.89]