Far too many songs here are conducted in a mid-pace. [Jun 2010, p.90]

The murky results are sometimes frustrating. [Apr 2013, p.71]

Apostle Of Hustle have now all but abandoned the Cuban mores of earlier albums in favour of a lean, bass-driven powerpop. [Sep 2009, p.79]

A murky return to the denim'n'leather heartlands of 2000's Thirteen Tales. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Not that there isn't music on Russian Doll that's as lovely as any he's made, but it's brought crashing down to earth by deeply average singer Siobhan de Mare. [Jun 2004, p.86]

A Fool For Everyone proves Bones can write a song or two. [Apr 2009, p.80]

If Geldof had been able to restrain his instinct toward baffling over-production, he might have come up with something that fulfilled the promise of its title. [Mar 2011, p.91]

Most of these frothy confections would sit just as well on any of the band's previous 11 long players. [Aug 2013, p.67]

A set of 14 patrimonial ballads drawn from all corners of Britain's folk heritage. [Jun 2015, p.69]

The predominantly Celtic hues of Stewart's 31st album tend towards the cosy and coffee-table, robustly structured rather than wildly inspired. [Jan 2022, p.31]

It has everything you've come to expect from a Daft Punk album--innovation, cracking tunes, a palpable sense of its own absurdity--but this time the whole shebang's cranked up to 11. [Apr 2005, p.99]

Rules finds The Whitest Boy Alive turning noticeably paler, peddling a shade of Ralph Lauren yacht-rock that would make Hall & Oates blush. [May 2009, p.105]

Amiably lightweight. [Jun 2007, p.115]

Oddly life-affirming. [Nov 2006, p.99]

Huey's gruffy mannered vocals predominate--apparently the aim is to steer listeners to the originals, in which case, job done. [Jan 2011, p.94]

Tries hard to add a few hues absent from Matchbox 20's colourless rock. [Jul 2005, p.90]

Another Country largely continues the same unashamedly nostalgic tone [of 2013's Time] [Dec 2015, p.79]

Wilson's chord changes are as heart-wrenching as ever, and bathed in heavenly harmonies. [May 2015, p.84]

It's a smart collection of songs full of inner turbulance, delivered in an emotional voice that at times recall Guy Garvey. [MAr 2010, p.90]

Jigsaw finds the diminutive London rapper shorter on cheek than on her early singles, and the moments of mischief, when they come, ring a little hollow. [Jun 2009, p.90]

Pristine production renders this as vital as anything by Justin Timberlake. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Lavishly appointed, expensively designed and almost entirely characterless. [Sep 2006, p.84]

For Barlow stalwarts only. [Mar 2003, p.100]

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

Heap has a breathtaking voice, somewhere between the languid tones of Beth Orton and the pop sweetness of Dido. [Oct 2002, p.104]

California Son may not entirely succeed in repositioning Morrissey as a righteous protest singer, boldly crooning truth to power, but in fleeting moments like this [like on "Some Say I Got Devil"], it confirms him as a peerless modern practitioner of deep song, the pop artist who can divine, even in the work of the singer of "Brand New Key," lorca's dark, abysmal spirit of duende. [Jun 2019, p.28]

Hotel Sessions is infinitely more charming than the finished item. [Feb 2012, p.91]

This is snappy, high-energy stuff that might be more fun if the slick production didn't telegraph the fact that Kane wants it a bit too much. [Oct 2018, p.30]