Five years in gestation, these revved-up anthems are fuctional enough, but none have the catchy ska-punk bounce of the band's late 1990s commercial peak. [Sep 2008, p.99]

Unavailability has also played its part in pumping up the myth – so much so that you wonder if, heard in 2008, these songs stand to disappoint. In fact, key moments of Pacific Ocean Blue square dramatically up to your loftiest expectations.

Their third LP reveal a sweary rock toughness that suits them (surprisingly) well. [Nov 2008, p.120]

Even when they slow up, the quality doesn't let up. [Sep 2008, p.100]

This is where the kid really comes into his own.

Nicholas clearly isn't finished with us yet, judging by Silent Cry's pint-in-the-air riffing, chiming playlist-pop and brooding social commentary. [Aug 2008, p.93]

'Fire' and 'Drugs' certainly boasts the head-in-the-speakers mania of old, but it's the more meditative 'Vision' that suggests a future beyond Rizla conventions. [July 2008, p.104]

Veering between faux-soul and Hoxton hipness, Adele simply hasn't found her own voice yet.

Apply megawatt tunes and career-best performances and you’ve got an album to top even 2002’s criminally neglected "Life On Other Planets."

It's a concept album about vengeance and contempt, and reminds that they're one of the only UK bands of their era still worth following. [June 2008, p.86]

Wainwright is newly hitched herself (to producer Brad Albetta) and I Know... is for the most part a decidedly mature singer-songwriter album.

If 2005's "Z" flirted with cautiously with funk synths and a more direct pop sound, Evil Urges makes it a full-blown, messy tryst.

Pollard fleshes out his vaguely familiar melodies with inventive, unpredictably expansive arrangements. [July 2008, p.108]

It's the no-frills productions like 'Not As We' which stand out, although these are marred by the lyrics--a mess of self-help-manual platitudes and environmentally minded bollocks. [July 2008, p.104]

Harris is as proud, painful, and plaintive as ever here, dripping with life and dealing in dire certainties. But she never gets heavy about it, and in places sounds lighter than air.

In which the prince of hip hop get a blessing from the king. [Sep 2008, p.110]

Not for everyone, but quite a party. [July 2008, p.94]

Together [Dylan and Rick Rubin] have made an austere acoustic album that could've been titled "American Recordings VI." [June 2008, p.87]

Voice and piano are to the fore, but Wasser's orchestrations pulse and ebb like living things. [July 2008, p.102]

A partnership with Cologne's minimal techno doyens Kompakt hasn't quite posited the outfit back at the cutting edge, but The Dream steps with a new vitality. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The follow-up--featuring a mere 13 songs--is solid and functional, but lacks that inspired edge. [Aug 2008, p.106]

She reinvents the standards songbook in her image, using her deep, husky, Malboro-burnished voice to breathe life intro hackneyed old showtunes. [July 2008, p.115]

It is, like LA itself, heavy on style. [Sep 2008, p.88]

Mostly sounds like a weary retread of 2005's superb Loneliness. [Jul 2006, p.95]

Sadly, though, nothing on The Ting Tings debut album quite lives up to that promise [of 'That's Not My Name']. [June 2008, p.94]

Much of it is overly polite, with Ilhan taming the hurt in PJ Harvey's 'Oh My Lover,' but he also teases mourful hidden nuances from Breeders, Smashing Pumkins and Tortoise tracks. [June 2008, p.83]

There are fewer surprises here than on previous offerings, but enough ideas to cement their position as this generation's most creative guitar band. [June 2008, p.90]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]