Things go downhill as petty vindictiveness and insignificant beefs become the preferred themes. [Jan 2006, p.114]

it's full of lovely moments, but it nees more edge to keep you from snoozing. [Apr 2008, p.91]

The music is classifed as country, but it's really clinical pop, enlivened by Swift's confessional lyrics. [Apr 2009, p.101]

The tunes can be slight, and sometimes their spirit of appropriation leaves them rather red-handed. [Apr 2011, p.91]

"Whiskey, Wine And Ham" is the only track that really pops, enlivened by a rare burst of classic Ryderese. Otherwise it's slim pickings from men a long way past their prime. [Aug 2017, p.25]

The lurch towards conventionality has exposed Isis' limitations: their paucity of melodic ideas, the pompous drumming, the lack of wit or soul. [Jan 2007, p.100]

The lo-fi production makes everything sound like an unfinished demo, the songs are largely forgettable and the AutoTune’d vocals become a little tedious.

His is a paradoxical, somewhat clean version of grime, pushing every commercial button to boost his product. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Aside from sime sly gender-bending and lovable kitsch, there just isn't much interpretive room to roam. [Aug 2009, p.105]

The fifth and final Streets albums suffers as a result of his self-imposed exile from the hubbub he once chronicled with such verve. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Korn are too lumpen to handle 'sophisticated.' [Jan 2006, p.102]

Many of their songs go on for weeks, doing little but reiterating banal refrains, badly confusing hypnotic with merely repetitious. [Nov 2007, p.96]

It's lush, detailed, frequently over-rich, but Fabricius' bright, perky voice and some generically kooky lyrics can't really carry the weight of the whole production. [Aug 2011, p.94]

It's Krall's voice that has always been her biggest problem... consequently, these songs feel like elegant but bloodless conceits. [Jun 2004, p.85]

This conservative collection feels more like musical air freshener than any kind of statement. [Dec 2007, p.104]

You'd be hard pressed to find anything to summon the blood and stiffen the sinew among the 14 songs on offer here. [Mar 2007, p.90]

Her passion may be sincere, but the songs are a mixed bag. [July 2008, p.108]

The rest is country-tinged "roots-rock" fare, dispatched with an irritatingly blokeish. [Aug 2011, p.100]

Pretty, but pretty vacant. [Aug 2004, p.102]

These languid strums would sound suitably fine and mellow stoned on a beach at sunset. [May 2005, p.95]

The album's ersatz old school mode inevitably pales when judged against the revolutionary Flash asides. [Mar 2009, p86]

Where there was once ragged glory there is now only a sort of bludgeoning earnestness which, as in the nine-minute "Goin' Home," blusters a lot to little effect. [May 2002, p.108]

Whether you love or hate The Research will depend upon your tolerance for cheap keyboards. [Mar 2006, p.103]

A couple of sweaty, sybaritic slowjams prove that his libido hasn't waned, but his mojo undoubtedly has. [Oct 2007, p.101]

Occasionally they break from formula, but the tired beats and repetitive rhymes ensure Double Bubble would have even a Full Moon Party shaking their heads. [Sep 2008, p.104]

Music For Confluence lacks imagination and dynamic, with gentle fuzz and weak violin failing to conjure any sort of atmosphere. [Jan 2012, p.81]

Throughout, there's an ungainly combination of the leaden and the jaunty. [Aug 2009, p.102]

This is departure lounge pop--antiseptic, pleasant, with Photoshopped pics of exotic locales scattered around, but none of the hedonism of actually being there. [May 2011, p.82]