The sharpest, most imaginative and downright listenable album of Blur's career to date.... A grown-up alt.rock album of breathtaking potency and invention. [Album of the Month, June 2003, p.90]

Gore's brittle choirboy voice lacks the depth and grandeur of Gahan's, but he still gamely takes on some adventurous choices. [Jun 2003, p.108]

Fever To Tell is, quite simply, magnificent.... This is as revitalising a debut as could be hoped for. [May 2003, p.92]

Send is pure gristle, a vicious statement of musical intent. [Jul 2003, p.129]

It's almost disturbingly accomplished. [Jul 2002, p.103]

Packed with big, epic pop. [Jun 2003, p.102]

There are a handful of stunning instrumentals, but the revelations here are Lanois' singing and songwriting. [May 2003, p.102]

Though attempts at Amy Rigby territory ring hollow, a couple of country weepies bear redemptive powers. [May 2003, p.102]

Skewed hip hop soundscapes with hints of slinky R&B that could even be described as DJ-friendly. [Jul 2003, p.124]

Musically more diverse, and lyrically as vulnerable as it is vitriolic. [Jun 2003, p.91]

While Baby I'm Bored is way too modest to be a masterpiece, it's far more than a join-the-dots account of a life on the rocks, and grows brighter, and more optimistic, with every play. [Apr 2003, p.102]

It wouldn't be wildly inappropriate to identify American Life as an early 21st-century update of Love's Forever Changes, effecting as it does a similarly eerie ambivalence with its fusion of mind-altering sonics and mellow acoustics. [Jun 2003, p.94]

He name-drops so many famous folks he's obviously banking on his connections. [Sep 2003, p.97]

She still refuses to knock up any memorable tunes, but arthouse divas thus obsessed with ghosts and personal (if ill-described) demons are always fascinating. [Jun 2003, p.109]

It's an abrasive sound. [Aug 2003, p.99]

Tusk this isn't, but Tusk it doesn't need to be. In an age of off-the-shelf LInda Perry pop, the Mac keep the mainstream interesting. [May 2003, p.98]

By the time we reach "Surripere" we could be listening to a toughened-up Aphex Twin, poignant harmonies battling against oblique but splintering beats. [May 2003, p.92]

Based around some laughably accurate and truly entertaining pastiches of artists including Bjork, Bowie and the Pixies, the rest of the album is pure filler. [Aug 2003, p.100]

It's all acoustic guitars, rich jangling melodies and heavenly harmonies. [May 2003, p.102]

Adult. deserve respect if only for making an almost overwhelmingly vicious album that succeeds on its own unreasonable terms. [May 2003, p.102]

Draws heavily on such masters of six-string cinematics as The Church, The Jesus & Mary Chain and Spacemen 3. [Apr 2003, p.121]

From the edge of the sea, back to the fringes of sleep, Summer Sun is uncommonly lovely. [May 2003, p.104]

It's the most extraordinary smorgasbord of styles, moods, modes, a far more daring, jolting record than 2001's Essence. [Album of the Month, May 2003, p.88]

Both adventurous and accessible, a record in love with the obliterating power of sound. [Apr 2003, p.120]

Laced with enough blue-eyed longing to make the most diehard Gram Parsons fan weep with wonder and the sort of verbal acuity that would give even Dylanologists pause for thought, Elephant is where the tabloid phenomenon of summer 2001 prove they are no flash in the pan by making a truly phenomenal record. [May 2003, p.94]

The duo's liking for repetitive Royal Trux-style riffage forms the core of their debut but they frequently explore more sparse territories. [Apr 2003, p.110]

Electro-guru Jim Abbiss... can't salvage much from the band's often tedious three-chord bustlings or Molko's lamely repetitious lyrics. [May 2003, p.90]

The album doesn't just bludgeon. There is an attention to detail, an appreciation of dynamics at work. [May 2003, p.108]