The official line on In Utero is that it's a raw uncomfortable document of a band in turmoil and a songwriter on the edge. That's partly true, but it's also cathartic, invigorating, full of terrific, scabrous pop songs, and a good laugh to boot. [Nov 2013, p.86]

The new varnish appears to add little to an already sumptuous-sounding set.

Another radical musical/ psychological metamorphosis. [Jun 2024, p.39]

A Major new British talent is born in William Doyle's solo debut, which sounds like the great lost album that Brian Wilson, Eno and Bjork should have made together. [Feb 2014, p.75]

Peace Or Love is their most cohesive album yet. While it’s not a world away from their previous work, the mood is noticeably more stripped-down and melancholic. ... Kings Of Convenience seem to have discovered the purest essence of the music they create. [Aug 2021, p.26]

It's the interplay between the core duo, and between the American and African influences, that gives Wood/Metal its hypnotic pull. [Nov 2016, p.23]

Tightly structured, lavishly orchestrated, brilliantly realised. [May 2019, p.18]

Like Disney on methadone scored by Jack Nitzsche with a gun against his own head, trying to remember this soundtrack he once wanted to make, which teamed Judy Garland and Neil Young. [Album Of The Month] [Sept 2001, p.86]

This is berserk, this is brilliant, this is now. [Nov 2003, p.107]

This sounds like the record Vic Chesnutt's been waiting his entire life to make. [Apr 2005, p.112]

Clarke is both perpetuating and recontextualising the music of the mid-20th century. [Sep 2023, p.24]

Gone are the stark acoustics of his noughties output, replaced instead by a layered warmth and gorgeous, semi-orchestral settings that make him sound like a spiritual descendant of early '70s Laurel Canyon. [Feb 2014, p.77]

An endlessly fascinating maze of sound.... This decade's Endtroducing..., possibly. [Jun 2003, p.98]

A bold debut that continues their frenetic explorations of post-punk kraut-jazz but also moves into more electronic and soundscape-like worlds. [Jun 2021, p.33]

McMurtry's latest lifts storytelling-in-song to meticulous new levels. [Sep 2021, p.29]

A creative triumph out of Mali's darkest hour. [Mar 2013, p.73]

You don't get bands like Blur very often. They deserve great boxsets, and this feels like one. [Aug 2012, p.85]

Demonstrates that PSB are without peer as exponents of the pop single. [Aug 2023, p.50]

These 11 tracks, recorded at various locations, also confirm he's more than a neo-classical specialist. [Dec 2013, p.68]

Though the motherlode of unreleased music found on Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’s reissues is absent, many of the extra tracks here are worth checking out. ... The rest of this set shows that it’s still a station very much worth stopping at, now more so than ever. [May 2022, p.42]

Cross has created something of a mesmerising mini-masterpiece. [Sep 2019, p.24]

His most towering achievement to date. [Aug 2003, p.114]

If the songwriting at times falls into cliche, the performances--passionate, eloquent, spilling over with regal harmonies--are anything but. [Jul 2015, p.72]

Evocative of Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman at their most extroverted, McKenzie’s songs provide great warmth, too. [Sep 2022, p.28]

It may be OR's best album yet. [Oct 2016, p.36]

Hood's gift for the character study abundantly justifies the extra room to roam, and the ambitious arrangements spanning folk to jazz to electronica are fleshed out by a stellar cast of collaborators. [Feb 2025, p.35]

Here are nine songs that confidently mix Station To Station piano, Beach Boys harmonies, Kosmische guitar and even free jazz. [Jun 2021, p.31]

A broader exploration of form. ... Like most everything here, ["Geraldine" is] a beautifully weighted moment. [Jun 2017, p.26]