It's a job well done.... But a few tracks sound too much like functional mix fodder. [Nov 2012, p.91]

[The songs are] played with enough ear-catching acuity to satiate your inner psych-pop gourmand. [Jan 2014, p.126]

The warm production, matched to their adoption of modern techno aesthetics, has upped the intensity of the sonic kink. [Apr 2015, p.98]

Pleasing though it is, [it] doesn't run too deep. [Sep 2015, p.112]

Ora shines brightest on the album's calmer moments. [Jan 2019, p.113]

This record is like a pale version of their biggest fan in its shoe-shuffling awkwardness, and though each track sounds far too timid for single release, that is perhaps Upper Air's defining charm. [Aug 2009, p.103]

Gossamer's a pleasant listen, but since when has that been enough? [Aug 2012, p.108]

LaFarge explores nooks and crannies left unfinished 70 years ago instead of merely replicating the bigger themes. [Jul 2015, p.108]

It's when Hutchison's sinister demeanor matches the darkness of the music that Owl John works best. [Oct 2014, p.116]

It sounds twee and, in parts it is, but it's leavened by their unrelenting world-weariness. [May 2007, p.123]

You want to like Broadcast. But they don't make it easy. [Oct 2005, p.115]

An LP of sleek, sophisticated and teasingly soulful tunes. Eerily introverted one moment, warm and open the next, Essence demands attention but makes for an intriguing, rewarding experience.

The mood is too heavy for far too long, but some good songs and more cohesive, melodic structures augur well for this damaged daughter's future. [Sep 2001, p.115]

This is aching ramshackle folk rock. [June 2002, p.124]

This unabashedly jolly outing manages to be both simultaneously charming and irritating. [Feb 2003, p.106]

The mood is largely one of milky wistfulness, but the clever textural detail means these songs are more than stylistic cloning. [Sep 2014, p.108]

Yet for all the sharp hooks and rhythmic twists, the album sags in the middle. [Apr 2008, p.127]

What's lacking are a few copper-bottomed pop melodies to bind it all together; the kind of thing his collaborators normally provide, in other words. He's beter as a team player. [Mar 2010, p.101]

Mixing pleasingly unevolved Ramones-y bangarounds and more reflective punk-pop, the therapeutic lyrics teem with unidentified protagonists having or inflicting a hard time. [Oct 2014, p.115]

Amazingly, this weird, consciously retro amalgam of Van Dyke Parks, Big Star and Queen actually works. [Nov 2016, p.111]

Perhaps not the best introduction to Gane's soundworld, but for fans Hormone Lemonade offers a familiar landscape dotted with enough new structures to make it worth exploring. [May 2018, p.104]

No Way Down mischievously demands to be consumed whole at hazy after-hours sojourns. [May 2009, p.107]

His fifth album is typically protean. [May 2010, p.118]

Stick with it, though, as the last song, the elegant memorial Somehow The Wonder of Life Prevails, turns out to be a piece of quiet and hugely emotional brilliance. [Aug 2013, p.100]

Free of the shackles that hobbled his debut, Styles manages to show more of his personality here, especially on the Vampire Weekend-style Sunflower, Vol. 6. It's just a shame he can't quite keep up with his ambition. [Feb 2020, p.110]

Get past its duffel coat and its 14 layers of cardigan, though, and there's a warm and lovely heart at this record's centre. [Aug 2014, p.105]

The band make a powerful case for letting it all hang out. [Aug 2017, p.103]

Sadly, Open Season's one-pace '80s guitar rock lags a bit behind the narrative. [May 2005, p.110]

Another way classy set they make. [May 2009, p.118]

Contentment makes Everett a less compelling narrator than devastation, but Eels still tailor songs rich in ideas yet stripped of unnecessary fat. [Mar 2013, p.109]

Not a straightforward journey, then, but still a rewarding one. [#361, p.108]

The whole exercise has an infectious exuberance, even if it isn't quite the must-have document its title suggests. [Summer 2018, p.114]

This may not be their greatest album to date, but Universal Truths and Cycles is a charming record that shows the Pollard production line remains in good order. [July 2002, p.114]

There's still enough synapse-jangling vocal invention and moments of great beauty to make it a worthy addition ot Bjork's singular ouevre. [Nov. 2000, p.99]

There isn't anything quite as special as, say, Veronica but the veins at Costello's temples are throbbing again.

Far out just got further away. [Sep 2013, p.102]

Buffalo Tom remain a very fine shoulder to cry on, warm, steady and strong. [Apr 2018, p.106]

Aside from the relatively oomph-laden, piano-driven 'Sharing A Gibson Withh Martin Luther King Jr.' and a lonesome cover of Don Williams's 'I Believe In You,' there's barely a melody to savour. [Nov 2008, p.118]

Lyrically, Terminator-like narratives such as Cyber God do underwhelm. Their music's intensity, however, holds everything aloft. [Mar 2017, p.112]

He never sounds hurried, but Gentle Spirit overflows with ideas, albeit ones mostly from circa 1972. [Oct 2011, p.131]

So many genres collide on Aa it can feel like being trapped in a virtual karaoke machine. [Apr 2016, p.102]

By turns beguiling and unnerving, at times it feels like an exercise in disorientation. [Sep 2018, p.113]

The band's punk credentials are immaculate. But that doesn't make them any more fun to listen to. [Feb 2007, p.99]

More Than and We Both Know's saturnine piano chords offer a novel contrast to crisp synth-pop such as Somebody Who, where their talent for alluring yet artless arrangements really comes into its own. [Nov 2013, p.102]

The music is terribly dull, like a watered-down Weezer. [Dec 2007, p.125]

HIs fourth album is a step up from the patchy "Awfully Deep." [Oct 2008, p.150]

Heaven Is Whenever proves The Hold Steady are capable of messing with the script without diminishing their core appeal. [Jun 2010, p.125]

Arguably his best record in 20 years.

Completely beguiling. [Aug 2012, p.98]

He doesn't break into this persona often enough, slipping back into ILP's default tone. [Dec 2013, p.109]

Their near-ambient sound abides. [May 2017, p.111]

Shows that they can still craft radio-friendly rock with aplomb. [May 2012, p.93]

The world may have moved on but they haven't, so '80s funk backdrops merge with Sweet pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowen's classic soul vocals and some biting surreal lyrics. [May 2008, p.141]

Not a novelty record, then, nor entirely old hat. [Jan 2015, p.128]

This doesn't have the deranged glee of Smash It Up, but follows the streamlined energy of classic 1982 Damned album Strawberries, with a stern rock pulse at a time when their contemporaries would be glad of any kind of pulse. [Jun 2018, p.109]

It's best experienced with the lights out, although as with most film music, it loses some frisson separated from Strickland's lurid images. [Feb 2013, p.102]

At her best, on the eerie 'Every Path,' she's mesmeric enough to lure ships onto rocks, but come the inevitable 'Later...With Jools Holland' appearance, older viewers may be forgiven for thinking Dolores O'Riordan has changed dramatically. [Mar 2009, p.96]

Earle isn't breaking any boundaries here, and he runs out of steam before the closing Goodbye Michelangelo, but he's doing what he does best--and that's better than most. [Aug 2017, p.105]

An artist on the verge of a spectacular breakthrough. [Oct 2013, p.107]

At times, strangely purging - and almost euphoric - most of MMXII still sounds like the end of civilisation as we know it. [Jun 2012, p.106]

If there's a touch too much retrospective pastiche, there's also wit and mellifluousness. [May 2014, p.115]

As ever the brush strokes are broad and the confrontation is intense but it's good to know their fire is afar from undimmed. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Confident in its own weirdness, Love In The 4th Dimension is as enjoyable as the live shows that birthed it. [May 2017, p.100]

Hive Mind sounds at once strange and familiar. [Mar 2012, p.100]

If they're undone by anything, it's their puppy-like, kids-in-a-sweet-shop enthusiasm for their prowess. [May 2016, p.104]

Their former high-speed heedlessness has been supplanted with a new awareness of song structure, grown-up texture and non-red-zone pacing. [Mar 2013, p.94]

If it sounds oh-so-ironic, it isn't; the Handsomes may exisit on country's oddball fringe, but they're no comedy act. [May 2009, p.112]

This effervescent debut seems determined to shake off the tragedy. [Oct 2008, p.150]

Just think how much more she could do with that glorious voice. [#180, p.112]

You might not easily hum its tunes, but you can often salute its good taste. [Oct 2004, p.121]

They make often wistful, often wry, but always intelligent pop.

A fine album which often suggests Elliott Smith wreaking merry havoc in a library of sound effects. [May 2001, p.116]

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

They're unpleasantly listenable. [Jul 2012, p.103]

It doesn't work, such superior pop items as 'Just A little Lovin'' and 'The Look Of Love' being reduced to an uninspired yawn. [Mar 2008, p.107]

Clearly, motherhood has only improved her sense of fun. [Oct 2007, p.106]

The shoutiness that made their previous two albums a tiring listen hasn't been entirely banished, but they have taken it down several notches, while also dialing down several notches. [Jun 2010, p.133]

Too often, when Janet needs Jam & Lewis to "gimme a beat," they don't. [Dec 2015, p.108]

Pithy stompers such as 'Short Fuse' and 'Drugs' tell their own story, but the spooked death rattle of 'The Drop I Hold' is at least proof that the experimental mind-set of 2007's " Good Bad Not Evil" wasn't a one-off. [May 2009, p.107]

This is a fine follow-up to 2005's "No Wow." [Apr 2008, p.108]

It's as unsanitised as ever, then, and , as such, makes Mudhoney's continued existence a cause for celebration. [Nov 2018, p.111]

The mid-paced mellowness is too omnipresent and stifling. [Oct 2012, p.97]

Their music lacks any trace of sophistication or nuance. [Apr 2006, p.112]

But, too often, tracks such as We Go and Defender merely taxi along the dancefloor runway rather than take off and soar. [Jul 2018, p.116]

You are, unfortunately, left wondering how the 26-year-old Dylan would have sung them. [Dec 2014, p.113]

Its gorgeousness isn't always matched by a real statement of intent. [Summer 2019, p.112]

Outside Love presents a collection of dramatic, heart-on-sleeve love songs. [Jun 2009, p.130]

Drone metal linchpin, with guest Kurt Cobain. [Jan. 2011, p. 150]

If his production has lost a little funkiness it's gained buckets of emotive power. [Aug 2013, p.100]

Sex & Food is more grounded, focusing on such concerns as the state of the world. Yet it's all wrapped in warped, layered music as complex as the mess we're in. [May 2018, p.114]

[Control] finds Bazan wearily retreading themese of religion and relationships. [May 2002, p.119]

The glacial tones and chimes that the Velvet Underground modelled on Sunday Morning are invoked once too often. But, beyond this, Sandoval's sedated, spellbound voice remains a remarkable presence. [Nov 2001]

Despite the embarrassment of riches, though, there's also a lot of plain old embarrassment. [May 2016, p.110]

Succeeds in sounding exotic. [Jun 2006, p.115]

Hynes can't resist tinkering with the formula and a pair of incongruous rap cameos disrupt a sketchy second half during which the feeling develops that Hynes is still holding back some of his best ideas for stars of a greater magnitude than himself. [Jan 2014, p.118]

The loose-limbed beats, fuzzy keyboards and faraway trumpet on Which One Of You Jerks Drank My Arnold Palmer? are loungecore at its best, while The Daily Routine's distortion is full of atmosphere. [Feb 2010, p. 103]

There's enough flickers of former greatness within to be glad he's stil there. [Dec 2007, p.120]

There was always more going on inside that pretty head than met the eye. On his first release since disbanding My Chemical Romance, you may struggle to hear what that is. [Nov 2014, p.120]