Their treacly heaviness still courses through pop cuts. [Jul 2017, p.23]

Although the title track holds a sliver of adventure with its fizzing electronic flourishes, the absence of evolution elsewhere reveals a band hanging too tightly on to the past. [Jun 2016, p.81]

Fiendishly clever, but not easy to love. [Oct 2009, p.104]

The long-running project of Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel, also of venerable indie-rockers Three Mile Pilot, BHP peddle a slo-mo country gloom, songs of heartbreak and religious dread conducted at a desultory limp. [Dec 2009, p. 85]

From a band as previously as stylishly provocative and adventurous as Goldfrapp, these knowing cliches and lush pastiches suggest a band playing it distinctly safe. [Apr 2010, p.88]

While James Murphy's homages are leavened with irony and discrete heartache, Dear is more po-faced than pomo. [Sep 2012, p.75]

A set of faintly sad songs so minimal that they're often barely there at all. [May 2005, p.96]

There's little evidence [of reinvention] on a collection of soul-pop ballad s that sound like Jay Kay singing the James Blunt songbook. [Oct 2011, p.93]

While its faintly folkish, alt.pop songs fail to reveal any feral side to the bassist of Bombay Bicycle Club, they prove his compositional chops while radiating a pleasantly frosted glow. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Their third LP reveal a sweary rock toughness that suits them (surprisingly) well. [Nov 2008, p.120]

In this mood, 57 minutes with Barnes is exhausting. [Mar 2012, p.94]

It's undeniably awe-inspiring and effective stuff, nut for fans, there's a sense of well-worn tropes entering half-life. [May 2016, p.76]

Rosen and Nicolaus stride forth as songsmiths of a much more assured vintage, harp, piano, brass and chocolatey harmonies coming together in vividly orchestrated numbers. [Nov 2008, p.94]

There's a less scrappy approach on this album, a glossier production with more realised and experimental offerings. [Jun 2017, p.28]

This is a fairly functional set of no-nonsense instrumental cyber-boogie that lives up to its title by bucking and slithering across the dancefloor in an elegant if anonymous fashion. [Jun 2016, p.75]

Six albums in, they remain fond of that very Swans pursuit of ecstasy through repetition. [Jul 2013, p.69]

This, their sole album, is a curious beast, reminiscent of The Lounge Lizards or Devo, but defiantly its own thing. [Nov 2011, p.98]

The music does not so much take off as forever taxi toward the boundary fence. [Dec 2013, p.70]

It's an uninspiring ending to a record that it's best faces up to some pretty downbeat truths and thus seems to fit right into the current national mood.

There's nothing here as good as 'Nosebleed,' the standout from 2007's "Our Earthly Pleasures"--but there are still some good points here. [Jun 2009, p.92]

It's manically busy, demanding you strain to find the tune beneath layers of mellotrons, flutes and timpani. [Jul 2010, p.115]

It's hard going, but one can only applaud the ambition. [Jun 2010, p.83]

Both fierce and mellow, this is smooth-jazz with an alluringly punky heart. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Overall there's a sense of a moment having passed. [Oct 2006, p.123]

Oczy Mlody continues the Lips' longstanding mission to explore the joy and sadness of simple human consciousness, so that even when the album loses its footing--which it does, often--it never loses its way. [Feb 2017, p.34]

It's both Gothic and arch, meaningless and amusing. [Nov 2006, p.110]

The results have a clinical, cerebral appeal, but--perhaps predictably--sometimes fail to deliver instinctive musical kicks. [Mar 2007, p.100]

Aside from the Ryan Adams-esque "Bonfires." on their second album the more scruffy, down home elements of Alberta Cross' 2009 debut have been buffed to a stadium sheen. [Sep 2012, p.71]+