More variety is needed and it's all been done before, but rarely with such a sense of fun. [Apr 2008, p.108]

Eventually, though, the guitar-and-piano-only, stripped-down dynamics mean that a dull torpor settles over the album.

She sounded better as a bit of a bad girl. [Jun 2014, p.106]

Embryonic has a cloudy feel, full of hulking, malformed basslines, distorted drums, and melodies that circle without ever ascending. [Nov 2009, p.102]

You Can't Go Back... holds no surprises. [Apr 2016, p.114]

The tales of love, loss, life and death on his 14th album are embellished with brass flourishes for the first time, which only adds to the sense of drama. [Nov 2012, p.102]

An intriguingly woozy melange of out-of-focus vocals, feedback squalls and metronomic beats, everything coming together just so on the compelling 'Nothing Ever Happened.' [Nov 2008, p.121]

While on the secular likes of Randy Newman's Losing You she's never less than majestic, it's when celebrating her Lord that things really click. [Oct 2010, p.116]

There are enough thrilling moments on Black Dialogue to justify the collaboration. [Apr 2005, p.123]

Feels like reconnecting with a well-loved school friend on Facebook and finding that he's barely changed his clothes, let alone his ideas: a pleasure but not quite a thrill. [May 2012, p.100]

His synapse-fusing take on acid-house, however, first showcased on 2005's OK Cowboy, reamins an underground phenomenon--this sequel won't alter that. [Nov 2009, p.114]

In all, a most diverting, Frankenstein-esque collision of caveman demon worship and unhinged science. [Dec 2013, p.115]

Having been criticized for lacking emotional resonance with his lyrics, Bird addresses the problem [here]. Worth the wait. [April 2012, p.90]

It's not ground breaking, but its commitment to creating an authentically deranged vibe could see your fringe grow an inch with every song. [Jun 2012, p.109]

Tremendous fun while it lasts, but hard to recall once the tracer lines have faded away. [Feb 2020, p.110]

Cthulu has the melodrama, but not the bite, of Nine Inch Nails and So Blonde is pointless grunge landfill.... 100 Years achieves so much with just a delicate vocal, minimalist piano and lowing strings that the harder-edged songs seem like empty noise. [May 2014, p.109]

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

Oozes convention. [Jun 2003, p.98]

Enjoyable, but a gold star or two short of his 1997 masterpiece, Other Songs.

In the time since OK Computer, Radiohead seem to have built up reservoirs of fresh bile and listened to a lot of Aphex Twin records.... Musically, the album's best features are its keening, lapwing guitars and a thin, atonal orchestral drizzle.... Kid A will still baffle and upset those who are disappointed that they don't do Creep anymore. [Nov. 2000, p.96]

Things calm down in the second half; You Of All People and Join are an angelic two-step, providing a welcome respite to end the album on a hopeful note. [Jun 2018, p.116]

It's best when it's at its most trippy. Less effectove are the parping brass and chukka-chukka guitars on "Baby Can't Stop." Happily there's enough of the former to outweigh the latter. [Mar 2010, p.105]

At times Return To The Sea can be too clever for its own good. But there's also an ambition here that's hard to knock. [May 2006, p.126]

[Cohn reprises] his thick, often indecipherable Midwestern accent, but with spot-on timing and flashes of surreal wordplay. [Aug 2013, p.104]

He likes to temper the euphoria with a much darker undertow. [Mar 2012, p.112]

High On Fire sound like Lemmy fronting Black Sabbath on a Slayer tribute night. [Apr 2010, p.106]

The results are a no-less-entertaining 33 minutes of madness, like a Ramones album spun at 78 rpm. [Jan 2014, p.123]

Using everything from string quartets to jet turbines, metal sheets and electric guitar, it moves from being severely irritating to moments of great beauty. Worth persevering with, if you're willing to go the emotional distance.