A curiously anemic listen. [Feb 2006, p.78]

It's more accessible than that lute album, but -barring the sole Sting composition, the lovely "The Hounds Of Winter" - it will baffle all but the hardiest Police fan. [Jan 2010, p. 126]

The band seem to have suffered a who-are-we?-style mid-life crisis. [Jan 2007, p.100]

Fairly generalised misogyny pervades the album, though it would be churlish not to not that tracks like "White Trash Party" or "On Fire" both display flashes of Eminem's wit. [Sep 2010, p.92]

[It's] a kind of remedial emo-psych-rock, where dunderheaded riffs meet go-nowhere spurts of electronics, while ponderous guitar shadows equally ponderous keys. [Mar 2013, p.68]

Like most big pop groups, they're great at singles--Rodney Jerkins' 'When I Grow Up' fashionably disses fame-- but fail when it comes to albums. [Dec 2008, p.115]

Something of a let-down. [May 2003, p.98]

For some of the mercifully brief 33 minutes and 43 seconds of this album there is some merit in the messiness of this L.A. four-piece's palette of punk powerchords and sustained hoarseness. [Jan 2008, p.88]

Predictably, Slash is most at home snuck behind Kid Rock and Iggy Pop, and accompanying Lemmy's below on "Doctor's Alibi." [Jun 2010, p.98]

Their formula--downtuned guitar, chunky rhythms, serial killer vocals--is proven, but ugly enough that it'll only resonate with fans. [Sep 2010, p.96]

Release Me feels like the soundtrack to a Josie And The Pussycats sequel unlikely to be made. [Sep 2010, p.96]

The Mooney Suzuki are NYC's retro-homage to America's spandex pop-metal scene. [Sep 2004, p.98]

Much of it signifies nothing. [May 2005, p.96]

Fairly mundane. [Aug 2006, p.86]

It's audacious stuff, but emotionally unengaging, with the lyrics being the weakest link and those songs remaining ultimately elusive. [Sep 2010, p.99]

Their rather timid approximation of prog lacks the charisma or gravitas required to persuade listeners that theirs is a cosmic expedition worth joining. [Sep 2008, p.100]

Rather desperately impersonates The Killers. [Mar 2006, p.94]

RoadKillOvercoat fattens his usual oblique rhymes into even more demanding, bombastic forms. [Apr 2007, p.93]

Her lyrics lack both Wino's wit and realism, and her orchestral-pop backdrops are pallid. [Feb 2008, p.89]

It's the no-frills productions like 'Not As We' which stand out, although these are marred by the lyrics--a mess of self-help-manual platitudes and environmentally minded bollocks. [July 2008, p.104]

The View's handicap is the sheer lumpen ordinariness of their songwriting. [Apr 2011, p.100]

It's a grim assemblage of cliche from the title downwards. [Feb 2011, p.90]

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

The four tracks involving [Lopes] are superb.... Elsewhere, they audibly struggle. [Jan 2003, p.119]

American show "Saturday Night Live" has a tradition of creating comedy heroes we don't quite get in the UK. Alongside Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell we can add The Lonely Island--essentially Flight Of The Conchords with more sperm jokes. [May 2009, p.91]

This is the sound of dashboard-tapping, local radio MOR. [Apr 2004, p.108]

An album characterised by comically overwrought anthems and production-line lyrics. [May 2017, p.26]

In the ugliest way possible Invaders Must Die shows that the Prodigy have still got it.