Surprisingly addictive. [Dec. 2011 p. 124]

He's still more lyrically adept than most peers, with a warm, lilting voice that skips across the tracks; he still get diverted by the occasional flaccid soul tune, as on the dreary No Place To Run; and he can still spark up a tune. [May 2018, p.114]

Dull production and a workmanlike band let her down on the rockier numbers, but if Desveaux ever finds the right arranger the sky is her only limit. [Oct 2008, p.147]

Not Music presents more of their signature future-retro pop exotica. [Dec. 2010, p. 114]

Despite its strengths, No Mythologies To Follow is still a touch green. [Apr 2014, p.115]

Some workmanlike settings, but when the vocals spar and catch the tune just right, it all soars with a gospel-like wonder. [Aug 2017, p.100]

Attempts to keep one foot in the streets and another in the mainstream, and largely succeeds. [May 2012, p.102]

Its 18 tracks somewhere between the ghostly dancefloor sway of Fever Ray and modern classical composition. [Jun 2011, p.120]

The songs here convey life's troubles - failing relationships, feelings of rootlessness - with an unfeasibly languid, almost opiated calm.

Their second album in 10 months is every bit as unvarnished as its predecessor. [Oct 2016, p.109]

An eyebrow-raising mish-mash of cheap keyboard and guitar sounds and DIY grooves..... an awkward, yet occasionally beautiful listening experience.

These tales of iron-age blacksmiths, 17th-century highwaymen and modern-day ecological disaster are brilliantly told, long on smart wordplay, but light on tunes. [Jun 2014, p.103]

Pleasant, but it's never particularly special. [Jul 2005, p.120]

Lekman is an intriguing bedsit poet whose whispered ramblings can sometimes melt the heart. [Mar 2006, p.108]

Highlights aren't hard to find. ... But there's a fair amount of flab too, and at 78 minutes long there's the sense that Rare Birds is too sprawling for its own good. [May 2018, p.114]

Herren's wall-of-noise productions were clearly a big influence, alongside shoegazing indie bands and Joy Division, though nothing that follows quite measures up to spectacular opening lamundernodisguise, somehow reminiscent of both MGMT and gothic folk troupe Espers. [Dec 2008, p.133]

There is too little variety on show and the lack of breathing space is more likely to induce mild claustrophobia than any genuine excitement. [May 2016, p.118]

It still has its winning moments. [Jan 2011, p.142]

There's a definite vim here; all they need to do now is to add in a little more of their own DNA. [Apr 2014, p.119]

It's not hard to see where they're going--or coming from. [Apr 2014, p.121]

The nine songs retain an insular, slept-in charm, with the same Californian Nick Drake brief as Mojave 3.

The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends runs the risk of turning into a cluttered affair, but what unfolds is an atmosphere of uninhibited adventure. [Sep 2012, p.100]

To a soundtrack of country blues and earthly soul, parallels are drawn with past and present injustices. [Apr 2017, p.112]

Harper recreated herself as a sultry electro diva ... it's a role she plays with panache on this full-length debut. [Dec. 2001 p. 125]

Solid, if a bit derivative. [Oct 2010, p.116]

The creative tension between the two is their main strength. It's when one or the other gains the upper hand that things can go awry. [June 2008, p.143]

Knapp can be as shrewdly sweet as Paul Simon or as drippy as a Sarah Records house band, dissecting heartache in teen-diary fashion--but the music is consistently grown up. [Dec 2008, p.108]

The first half of Heart On is a heroically hedonistic party, but it's the subsequent comedown that, inevitable, lingers longer. [Feb 2009, p.113]

This wonderfully sleazy chunk of dirty, dangerous rock'n'roll gets Stuart firmly back in the game. [Mar 2016, p.115]

Even if the songs aren't much more than workmanlike, they're good enough to showcase the man's still mighty roar and shattering guitar playing. [Jan 2011, p.142]

It's a good sound, and he has past form here. [Apr 2014, p.120]

It's not quite the classic they desperately want it to be, but Danger In The Club exudes a ragged rock'n'roll spirit which simply can't be manufactured. [Jun 2015, p.109]

The result is an album that feels mystifyingly oblique, but also unburdened with the pursuit of anything bar a gentle beauty. [Aug 2018, p.111]

There's something truly peculiar going on here, and worth pursuing. [Sep 2002, p.110]

Memory Streams is the sound of a band locked in a classy holding pattern. [Dec 2019, p.113]

The fifth album actually proves refreshingly unburdened by fashion. [Nov 2012, p.101]

Hansard's elastic vocals hit all the right notes. Missing, however, is an earthiness that could take these polished songs to another level. [Feb 2018, p.111]

The splicing of classical instrumentation with electronica and jazz flourishes may alienate his old band's fans, but there is much to admire here. [Oct 2010, p.120]

Danger Mouse's effect is apparent, the sparse guitar-and-drums template fleshed out with organ and banjo. [May 2008, p.126]

Despite the slight air of "tell me something I don't know" hanging over proceedings, both musically and lyrically, there is an earworming swagger here. [May 2018, p.112]

An album frontloaded with highlights, and probably too self-consciously cool to charm the mainstream, even when the energy fades there's still enough diversity here for most people to find a favourite. [June 2008, p.146]

It's hard not to feel disappointed by the sense that a band who have raised their game so many times have nowhere new to go. [May 2009, p.114]

Sometimes, these stresses and strains seem to swallow her dreamy synth-pop whole, but there's at least a striking EP's worth here. [Aug 2017, p.108]

There's stirring emotion to 'Pale Horses' restrained mournfulness and the soulful vocals on the minimal 'Walk With Me,' though it can sound as if has a button on his laptiop that wafts this stuff out automatically. [Aug 2009, p.108]

Those converted via the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack may find the starkness and religiosity here unpalatable. [Jan 2003, p.123]

Patchy and sometimes plodding... but that gruff, urgent voice remains a potent instrument in the right setting. [Feb 2002, p.106]

At times, this means overloading slight ideas, but when they get it right, as on the glorious 'Finish Line,' the results are irresitible. [Nov 2009, p.104]

Inspired by New York's Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, The BQE is an ambitious orchestration to accompany the film of the same name. [Dec 2009 p. 127]

Best of all is Cruisin' FDR, which oozes carefree joie de vivre... as it transposes the Californian lifestyle to the East Coast, where even the dark sky is grey "in a beautiful way." [May 2012, p.102]

Without enough killer hooks Leo seems unlikely to claw his way much beyond cult attraction. [Mar 2005, p.100]

An understated but always involving affair. [Summer 2018, p.116]

It's hard work at times, but ultimately adventurous and rewarding. [Jun 2011, p.120]

By manically pinballing between ideas, Rock Steady soon flirts with disaster. [Dec 2001, p.119]

The Heavy remain The Black keys for people who'd rather dance than mosh. [Sep 2012, p.102]

It resonates with the kind of high seriousness that never weighed on his father. Still, the younger Jeffes brings a winning feel for modern, post-ambient arrangements. [Dec 2019, p.113]

Should go down well with listeners who like their singers to take break-ups badly. [Nov 2005, p.125]

The tension between light and dark is this album's masterstroke. [Oct 2012, p.104]

The songs struggle to cause any real emotional damage. [Nov 2015, p.108]

Storm & Grace is a likeable record if not a startling one. [Nov 2012, p.92]

With a surfeit of samey country-rock ballads, Not Too Late ultimately proves rather a long haul. [Feb 2007, p.98]

So outstanding is 'Cinderella' that its siblings pale in its shadow. [Sep 2007, p.88]

Uptempo grooves such as Bobcat Gold Wraith may be too workmanlike to build up much momentum, but there are some lovely moments here. [Jul 2010, p.128]

This is a collection of grooves rather than songs, but there's depth. [Sept. 2010, p. 113]

'Treshold Apprehension' features his best screaming since the Pixies' heyday, while 'Test Pilot Blues' and 'Your Mouth Into Mine' capture his imagination at its padded-cell best. [Oct 2007, p.94]

You come to see the The Lovely Eggs are an act of fine calibration of noise and sweetness, of intelligence and brutish mettle. [Jun 2020, p.102]

The distance from here to early triumphs Entertainment! and Solid Gold seems like a long one. [Jun 2019, p.112]

The follow-up To 2008's ProVisions is another fine addition to his cannon. [Dec 2010, p.109]

The dizzying "Here Comes All The People," this roller-coaster album's highlight, merges post-punk trash with whispered vocals, orchestral wizardry, funky guitar, tub-thumping drums and Snow Patrol-esque grandeur. [Apr 2010, p.115]

In the second half, the gloom gradually lifts with dreamlike ballads Midnight Ease and Until You Kiss Me, and some of its predecessor's brilliance returns. [Sep 2018, p.110]

The producer's spectral strand of electro-noir is as seductive as it is unsettling on his debut album. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Not a bad record, just one that needs to get out more. [Feb 2019, p.116]

As a kind of '90s bedsit atmosphere plug-in, it works perfectly. [Jan 2012, p.124]

It might be largely business as usual, then, but for all that A Place To Bury Strangers remain strangely comforting presence in an otherwise turbulent world. [Mar 2015, p.103]

Too Many Miracles, I Saw You Walk Away and This Electric come lovingly swaddled in strings and, if only for their duration, make the world a nicer place. [Nov 2010, p.105]

Robust structuring is a blessing and curse: for all the frills and trapdoors, Ex-Hex's workmanlike rhythms eventually get monotonous. [May 2019, p.111]

Very silly, but with enough invention to sustain interest. [Apr 2013, p.104]

A few more songs like the kaleidoscopic Beyond The Deathray would've broken the relentless pace but on the whole this is another shape-shifting evolution in a career full of them. [May 2015, p.103]

There's nothing to diminish his status as a nearly great, albeit mostly unheralded, American songwriter. [Feb 2011, p.120]

Themes of fun, sun and beach-bum ennui pervade, but even if it fails to reach the summery stoner highs of their previous record, there's no denying The Only Place's indomitable West Coast pop-rock melodies and sugary thrills. [Jun 2012, p.97]

The Offspring are nothing if not reliable. If you're after jangly guitars riffs, chart-thumping production values and shouty choruses, then the Orange County punk outfit are still very much your guys.

Born This Way feels like the first proper Lady Gaga album. [Aug. 2011, p. 114]

Sensitive souls had best avoid, but fans of John Carpenter's soundtracks, early Aphex twin and the creepier end of Doctor Who will find themselves in familiar, if not entirely welcoming territory. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Sadly much of this record is stuck in the shallows. [Dec 2019, p.114]

Singer Dan Hyndman's mannered voice can get a bit wearing, but once Mush have bedded in, the evidence is here for a bright future. [Mar 2020, p.118]

The world will still ignore them, but mustering such firepower this late in the game is noble. [Oct 2007, p.105]

An admirable tribute if frequently deafened by the echo of its tragic catalyst. [Jan 2012, p.121]

The sparse sound that he produces means it's more entertaining to watch his trickery than to listen to it. [Apr 2008, p.117]

While 'New King' and 'Time Can Be Overcome' are heartland country-rock classics, the funk-flecked 'Trans Canada' and feedback-frazzled 'Shower Of Stones' take a cue frrom dub-punk icons Fugazi. [Oct 2008, p.141]

It's as if, in the very best sense, they don't care any more. [June 2008, p.138]

In stepping out of their comfort zone and trading in their previous identity, it seems Travis haven't yet decided who or what they now want to be. [Oct 2008, p.144]

While such single-mindedness doesn't leave much room for light and shade, at its best Pearl Mystic is testament to the power of head-nodding repetition and well-stomped FX pedals. [Apr 2013, p.104]

They've kept their distinctive sound. [April 2012, p.106]

Despite Styles' self-conscious references, his debut avoids indulgence. [Aug 2017, p.110]

An impressive album with lovely songs, but greater originality is needed. [Apr 2010, p.112]

Stratton is much richer musically than lyrically but, like a fast-flowing stream, he carries you along with him regardless. [Sep 2017, p.115]

A tricky, pretentious balancing act that's mostly charismatic and only occasionally hard work. [Jul 2004, p.116]

Despite a few too many sanitised, lounge-y moments, overall this is an enjoyable first effort. [Oct 2015, p.102]

Unsurprisingly, their music proves equally mysterious, the lava-like bass and shuddering beats suggesting a familiarity with dubstep's experimental margins. [Aug. 2011, p. 116]