The result is earworms aplenty, but any angst feels airbrushed, the effect is rather like rlaxing to a mobile phone commercial. [Apr 2010, p.95]

As guitarist Russell Marsden steps aside to let bassist Emma Richardson sing, it's less White Stripes, more Brody Dale, but momentum is maintained. [Oct 2009, p.91]

This second is a well-crafted collection that finds McClure pondering his place in a rotten world. [Aug 2009, p.102]

It takes a while to move beyond prettily pleasant, but the band's pining melancholy kicks in on 'What There Is' and 'Real Meaning.' [Sep 2009, p.79]

They rather more resemble the wilfully over-wrought pastiches of Flight Of The Conchords, but without the jokes. [Sep 2009, p.82]

Aside from sime sly gender-bending and lovable kitsch, there just isn't much interpretive room to roam. [Aug 2009, p.105]

Molina here opts for a more expansive spproach with reedy harmonies, horns, soulful guitars and gospel piano. [Aug 2009, p.100]

These nine abstract sound paintings strip away the guitars, drums and vocals of Sigur Ros to liberate the avant-classical spirit within. [Aug 2009, p.87]

If you want epic, check out the eight-minute sprawl of 'Mary Is Mary.' For a bit more raw noise terror, try the speed-rush of 'Tattoo.' [Nov 2009, p.117]

Man Overboard doesn’t quite scale the heights of its predecessor, even containing a stumble or two ('Girl From The Office,' with Hunter playing the cad, falls flat), but it still offers plenty.

It ain't always pretty. [Oct 2009, p.104]

The conceit, owing as much to Thomas Pynchon as it does to the Grateful Dead, and songs like 'Jehovah Will Never Come' remain delightful. [Nov 2009, p.104]

The Dead Weather is another slightly unsatisfying fling alongside The Raconteurs. [Jul 2009, p.84]

An LP that once raved shamelessly now shuffles, twitchily. [Oct 2009, p.95]

They deliver a debut of confidence and conviction. [Oct 2009, p.112]

Welcome To... is impressive rather than truly loveable. [Aug 2009, p.102]

Embrace plies its trade with a neat mix of musical proficiency and stylistic flexibility. [Jun 2009, p.93]

The song themselves are thoughtful, ambling between folk, country and mid-paced roots-rock. [Aug 2009, p.100]

It shares Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago's" exquisite sense of existing in its own hermetically sealed world. [Aug 2009, p.87]

The RAA's narratives are as expansive as the prarie where singer-songwriter and guitarist Nils Edenloff grew up, but they're also full of resonnant, intimate detail. [Aug 2010, p.94]

The passion evident throughout help disguise the feeling we've been here before. [Jul 2009, p.109]

Rated O delivers more often than falters. [Aug 2009, p.98]

Regularly a memorable lyric leaps out--but too often the pared-down aesthetic is an excuse to coast. [Aug 2009, p.96]

While they are unlikely to blow any heads off, track like 'Graffiti Eyes' show that they haven't lost the knack of writing diverting pop songs. [Sep 2009, p.96]

The songs are often gently ironic '70s orchestral pop with overtones of striped caps and Edwardian moustaches. [Aug 2009, p.90]

Their supple, smouldering songs take you back to an innocent, pre-Britpop indie era while retaining the thrust of contempories like Bloc Party. [Aug 2009, p.87]

This debut release on their own label is an uncompromising instrumental beast, rammed with weapons-grade jazz-metal riffing and ultra-heavy No Wave sax skronking. [Aug 2009, p.85]