Evam Caminiti and Jon Porras' third album lumbers slow as Earth's stoner rock, but throws its arms open, in a slow-burning ritual, to the infinite, star-flecked space above the Californian wilderness. [Dec 2001, p.85]

The material is designed to showcase the principals' piano playing, and skilled engineer Mike Piersante has set up the mic'ing and mix by putting Russell's piano on one side of the stereo spectrum, Elton's on the other, making the record a particular kick under headphones. [Nov 2010, p.98]

A gooey, iffaintly sickly, treat. [Nov 2010, p.101]

Drowsily beautiful. [Oct 2010, p.94]

Suffice to say that Blurry Blue Mountain is a lovely, oddly charming record. And in the unlikely event that it doesn't move you, there's a whole heap of past glories just waiting to be discovered.

This new project--fronting a five-piece band made up of mystery members who apparently contacted him on spec--has reined in his more wayward tendencies with positive results. [Dec 2010, p.105]

The album can become a little too sweet--this, however, is a moment that never cloys. [Dec 2010, p.94]

Though recorded during the same extended sessions, this archival LP is the polar opposite of its fraternal twin: big, bold, vibrantly coloured and laced with sweeping chorus hooks and towering middle eights. In a word, spectacular.

Cool and clever without being contrived, this is sharp, commercially astute pop music that ebbs and flows to the rhythm of a very human pulse. [Jan 2011, p.84]

Sinister lyrics flit by almost unnoticed across the music's glistening sheen as Elbrecht hides in plain sight--an impressive conjuring trick that may nevertheless leave you a little cold. [Dec 2010, p.110]

Sensibly, Sumner steers clear of Caucasian reggae on her surprisingly strong debut, opting instead for polished, sullen synth-pop with husky, La Roux-style vocals. [Nov 2010, p.93]

With Lisa Milberg sounding like a cross between Nico, Bjork and Yoko Ono, WYWH is one deep, dark, sexy reinvention. [Dec 2010, p.87]

Their The Fool traces out similar shapes as east coast cousins Effi Briest: dreamy, faintly pagan psychedelia, their tumbling vocal harmonies, undercut by inexorable, tidal bass. Their softly-softly approach does breed some earworms, though. [Dec 2010, p.104]

The result is a promising record that's much closer in tone and sentiment to an act like Hurts than they'd presumably be comfortable with. [Dec 2010, p.88]

All this makes the album sound like an arid conservatoire experiment, but it's more than that. Many of its tracks, like Morricone-feeling "Written, Forgotten," are designed to drift into the background--upmarket mood music, if you will--but others demand your attention. [Dec 2010, p.89]

A resounding power chord marks the confident introduction to this fine debut album. [Nov 2010, p.113]

With flurries of old-time whimsy, The Beatles gone gothic and vaudevillian storytelling, it's dense and sometimes obscure. [Nov 2010, p.84]

Down There reveals a lyrical quality to Dave Avey Tare Portner's songwriting that's not always apparent amid the radiant clatter of the full band. [Nov 2010, p.81]

Most of the tracks were written on the piano and jettison guitars for chamber orchestrations. There are Brechtian oom-pah songs, elegant tangos, and two bruise-coloured ballads that might be the best Barat has written. [Nov 2010, p.81]

Olympia could do with a little more of that future-facing yearning, the contemporary spirit that crackled through the remixes, to remind us of times when Ferry seemed as much a figure from our future as from our recent past. [Nov 2010, p.85]

The resultant music is quite compelling. [Oct 2010, p.101]

It's still excruciatingly fey in places, but then you know what to expect by now. [Nov 2010, p.81]

It's never indulgent, always exciting. [Oct 2010, p.114]

It bubbles with conviction, the mock-fearsome, statuesque diva loading her lyrics with Prince-like panche. [Nov 2008, p.105]

The London-based trio of Matt Parker, Chris Amlion and Ayu Okakita reinvent the [trip-hop] genre on their terrific debut, a futuristsic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons-grade dubstep percussion. [Mar 2010, p.90]

You're willing him to succeed, but ultimately it's hard to listen to a lot of this album without cringing. [Aug 2010, p.78]

Losing Sleep is a great record, period. [Oct 2010, p.102]

The 21-year-old with the bell-clear vocals scarcely puts a foot wrong, sliding easily between solemn country balladry and snappy country rock. [Sep 2010, p.90]