2 deals in lugubrious late-night lyricism and equals Kurt Vile and Cass McCombs for warmly melodic meanderings that beguile rather than baffle. [Dec 2012, p.69]

While the duo's tempo remains measured and its atmosphere is typically grand, thanks to a 40-piece orchestra, Iris puts more emphasis on modular synths. [Feb 2017, p.38]

If is deeply lovely music, born of a tenderly weighted sensibility. [Dec 2011, p.88]

The Brothers prove they can still poleaxe a dancefloor with a well-aimed barrage of strobe-ing electro-house.

Once Upon A Time In The West may lack the cultural resonance Archer so desperately craves, but it’s widescreen appeal makes most guitar bands sound like they’re on Super 8.

The Place We Ran From is bloody and dense and dark, and not in the least like a pastiche. [Aug 2010, p.85]

The swinging, jazz-country arangements are perfect, too, hitching the polished, romantic sophistication of the songs to a down-home, rootsy bonhomie that draws comparison with Dylan's reinterpretations of the Sinatra songbook on 2015's Shadows In the Night. [Apr 2016, p.78]

"South Coast" and "Albatross", especially, are the sound of a band growing no less peculiar and wonderous for their familiarity. [Mar 2025, p.41]

Some of it is as good as anything Diamond has done.

The gauzy, indistinct vocals of Neil Halsted and Rachel Goswell continue to weave their shoey magic. [Jun 2017, p.27]

They stand out because they combine some very familiar elements with more style and grace than their peers. [Feb 2011, p.94]

The heavier contemporary numbers hint at a fire still burning. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Despite stuffing their saddle bags full of choice musical cuts old and new, The Middle East somehow contrive to sound like nobody but their own sweet selves. [Jul 2011, p.86]

Pratt has one of those voices, like Josephine Foster, that remain stubbornly, elusively ageless. [Feb 2013, p.78]

It's a blazing set for a 70-year-old, but Winter gains traction from his fretboard duets/duels with Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Perry, Brian Setzer et al. [Oct 2014, p.80]

What elevates Rogue Wave above the pale massed ranks of the wispy and fey, though, are melodies with real muscle, and a muscial ambition that flirts with the experimental, but remains joyously within reach of the FM dial. [Dec 2005, p.112]

The 2 Bears' faith in the unifying qualities of a good rave-up has a tendency to spill over into hokey sentiment at times, but such criticism feels like pure humbug in the face of the album's unexpectedly trippy and heartwarming final third. [Oct 2014, p.65]

Taking its musical cues from Dennis Wilson and Echo And The Bunnymen, the band remain human underneath the strum and bang and always make sure that, in among the fire and thunder, there are songs, and emotion and, as ever, extraordinary lyrics. [Oct 2010, p.93]

Interplanetary Class Classics smears Saoudi's nihilistic euphoria across throbbing new-wave and singalong Glitter Band boogie. [Apr 2017, p.35]

Tragedy and Geometry is exquisite and detailed to an almost obsessive-compulsive degree. [Jan 2012, p.89]

In the end, it comes down to little moments of bliss, and those seven or eight words. "I don't know how I made it" Scott sings, as Taylor Goldsmith essays an angelic harmony. "but I made it". As a funeral march, it's a humdinger. [Apr 2025, p.22]

Robust, sparkly. [Jul 2019, p.24]

It works beautifully. [Jun 2013, p.75]

The 51-year-old family man's struggles with depression and anxiety bring unrelenting urgency to the album. [Jan 2023, p.15]

Gangster Star is a light, trippy confection, reinventing R&B with rippling electronics and slippery, Prince-like funk. [Aug 2017, p.31]

It's a fearless rejection of current pop trends, fashioning a benchmark of intensity and originality that the rest of this year's albums will struggle to match. [Fed 2010, p.94]

There is surprising range here. [Aug 2017, p.52]

Dig deeper into This Is The Computers, recorded at the San Diego home of former Rocket From The Crypt man John Reis, and it's clear they have a pop heart. [Jul 2011, p.86]