As ever... not everything comes off. But the good bits are very good indeed. [Apr 2007, p.116]

Alt-rap veteran's lo-fi gamble pays off handsomely. [Sept. 2011, p. 116]

More an EP than an album, it's possibly not for the unwitting. [Apr 2015, p.102]

Their heritage might be clear, but over 10 songs and 22 minutes, their grip on the present never lets up. [Aug 2014, p.115]

He's never that far from plunging towards obviousness. [Jun 2004, p.108]

A spontaneous, short, sharp stab of a record but one that might have been great had it not sounded so rushed. [April 2012, p.101]

The album is so cacophonous that it borders on the unpleasant. Yet there are redemptive moments. [Summer 2019, p.111]

Immaculately crafted, and with a smattering of good songs, it's also disappointingly samey, with all too little standing out and demanding to be heard. [May 2010, p.125]

A far more considered affair, wistful, even half-regretful, yet redolent of breezing down the freeway from the Deep South to California with the Stones and Flying Burrito Brothers on the radio. [Aug 2016, p.114]

Even if she sometimes strays into down-home schmaltz, the world of alt-folk would be poorer without her. [Apr 2007, p.122]

The uninitiated may find the unrelenting nerve-soothing a little too much like anaesthesia. [May 2012, p.100]

Hit Reset presents Hanna in rude creative health. Only on closer Calverton does any vulnerability peek through. [Aug 2016, p.113]

The production lacks the loose-fit liveliness and lightness of touch which was The Dust Brothers' trademark back in the mid-'90s. [Apr 2005, p.114]

Some of the most awkward, unapproachable music he's made. [Nov 2004, p.128]

Disappointingly straight-laced. [Jul 2003, p.104]

Lamb have finally perfected the trip hop/classical fusion they discovered on their career-high Gorecki, though the beatific sumptuousness of their sound can be overwhelming.

The tracks featuring Prince soundalike vocalist Harrison Crump are as fine as ever - dreamy, melodic, melancholy.... The trouble is, elsewhere, this ladies man seems convinced that a woman talking (especially in a European accent) is all the melody anyone could possibly need.

Those lying closest to their own unsubtle ouevre, ie the Minor Threat and Cypress Hill tracks, are as crunching as die-hards could hope for. But the arch sneer of The Rolling Stones' Street Fighting Man and Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm are predictably reduced to chalkboard lessons in "angry".

A familiar bag of tricks. [Sep 2003, p.101]

Though Strange Sensation guitarist Liam "Skin" Tyson is no Jimmy Page, Plant can still strut with the vigour of a man half his age. [May 2005, p.114]

A pointed dig at modern Nashville's dull production line, Sleepless Nights is a collection of covers from a lost era of Patsy Cline and The Everly Brothers, Loveless's classic voice knocking pretenders into a cocked Stetson. [Jan 2009, p.120]

As ever, the subtlety and naturalness of his approach belies a craftman's attention to detail. [May 2009, p.110]

It works surprising well. [Apr 2010, p.120]

Peepers mostly whizzes by in a heady blur, but when they paise for thought, a whole new layer of depth and intrigue emerges. [Apr 2010, p.116]

An oddly addictive hip hop concoction of self-doubt and dread, set against a minimalist, almost jazzy backdrop that's also a bit Tricky, too. [Mar 2011, p.116]

A bright and breezy sophomore that occasionally hints at darker themes. [Dec. 2001 p. 127]

Foster's voice sounds as beautifully eerie as ever; imagine a ghost from a Deep South 78 brought back from the dead. Little else here, however, sounds avant-garde. [Jun 2012, p.101]

It's sometimes harrowing, sometimes beautiful and quite often both. [Jun 2012, p.105]