Will Ozanne comes across as a milder version of James Blake. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Their 2002 debut was a surprising success, but Haunted Cities struggles to repeat the trick. [Sep 2005, p.100]

White is undoubtedly talented, but neither she nor her record company seem to know what to do with her. [July 2008, p.100]

Foul-mouthed, egocentric rhymes and nondescript beats. [Jun 2003, p.91]

The best you can say is that it's a great marketing ploy. [Dec 2005, p.112]

American Saturday Night has its fair share of hokum but proves that Paisley has a tough baritone voice and is a mean, bluesy guitarist. [Aug 2010, p.92]

While they sound no less vital than their infuriatingly profitable contemporaries, they sound no more, either. [Oct 2007, p.101]

Parts of the album are perfectly serviceable but largely the songs become indistinguishable. [May 2019, p.26]

It's hard to fight the feeling this is average songwriting buffed into something near-palatable by the amount of money spent on it. [Apr 2004, p.101]

No doubt Oyamada has a fine ear for sound design, but he handles his tunes with antiseptic gloves. [May 2007, p.88]

Sighing, panting and smouldering her way throufgh a dozen digitized come-ons, she maintains the fiction of a robo-pop nymphomaniac while all around her, Rome burns. [Jan 2008, p.102]

It's a snappy, catchy hybrid, though one that irritates pretty quickly. [Apr 2003, p.105]

Knowing what she's capable of, it's impossible not to feel disappointed. [Feb 2002, p.120]

All tasteful minimalism and soft lighting, this is more Vangelis than adventurous. [Sep 2004, p.108]

The heart of The Lost Riots is drowned in bombast, and Sam Herlihy's vocals are nowhere near strong enough to compete with the melodramatic, if prosaic, arrangements they're pitted against. [Sep 2004, p.107]

If the reheated Odelay-isms of last year's Guero felt like a tactical move in the wake of the soul-bearing torment of Sea Change, Guerolito has an equally hollow ring. [Feb 2006, p.86]

A highly unoriginal record. [Mar 2007, p.86]

It's probably fair to say that Super Furry Animals would not have had such excellent run were their creative impulses not balanced perfectly between poignant songcraft and archaic weirdness. On The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness, however, we find Gruff Rhys indulging rather heavily in the latter. [Sep 2010, p.101]

It's sleek, goth-leaning alt.pop, but ILYBICD's music ultimately leaves less of an impression than their band name. [May 2006, p.109]

It's a pleasant enough listen, but the feeling of overwhelming pointlessness is hard to shake. [Dec 2010, p.98]

The results of his previous work have sometimes felt opportunistic and Go Hard is no different. [Nov 2009, p.90]

DeLaughter is stingier with his pop songs this time, filling out the album with much ponderous, quasi-symphonic ballast. [Aug 2004, p.94]

As he mostly prefers to copy the sound of the original guitarists rather than stamp his own unique style on these over-familiar songs, you have to ask what's the point? [Dec 2010, p.105]

Even fans of their main groups might feel that its sole purpose is to emphasise the 'trial' in 'terrestrial'. [May 2006, p.124]

Keith's interaction with his producers is minimal, and his creative control so thin that vocal parts often sound like samples. [Sep 2006, p.79]

Adhering to commercially fixated standards of production line R&B, E=MC2 charms soon melt away. [Aug 2008, p.87]

This serves notice that the recent Wu-Tang renaissance may now be at an end. [Sep 2008, p.100]

It's nimble stuff, but the most moving contribution comes from the late Buck Ownes. [Jan 2008, p.104]