Perfectly pleasant, but a little bloodless. [Jun 2012, p.80]

At times it's hard to see the point of such a meticulous homage to motorik.... Nevertheless, [it's] DIV's most aesthetically satisfying album. [Dec 2004, p.145]

Gira's Angels side... loses its way in bluster and dirge. The Akron tracks, however, are a revelation. [Dec 2005, p.109]

On first hearing it's a little underwhelming, but its subtle charms certainly grows. [Jul 2023, p.30]

It's a modest sampler, with a feel more akin to 1961 than 2008. [May 2008, p.98]

All and all, it's a little too cool for its own good. [Feb 2012, p.97]

The result is a promising record that's much closer in tone and sentiment to an act like Hurts than they'd presumably be comfortable with. [Dec 2010, p.88]

Bathed in a languorous mood of intimate romance, it's served without schmaltz and only occasionally flirts with the soporific. [Jun 2017, p.33]

An uneven listening experience, to put it mildly. [Feb 2010, p.90]

It's a gruff set of semi-apocalypic country-blues songs with twangy guitar and all manners of noises. [Apr 2010, p.96]

Here, they tinker with the formula slightly, shedding the surf drums, and adding washes of synth (usually a mistake, and so it proves). [Jun 2011, p.94]

While it's sometimes a little too precious or studied, there's plenty of beautifully blank melody here, too. [Feb 2023, p.26]

Uncanny Valley mostly just splashes around pleasantly in the easy-listening shallows. [Sep 2013, p.91]

It's immaculately produced and performed, full of gorgeous vocal harmonies, extravagantly wafting flutes and often arresting melodies. But for some listeners it might be wither lacking in rawness or uncomfortably in thrall to the past. [Oct 2011, p.100]

It has more garage-rock energy than the enervated Babyshambles. [Jun 2006, p.98]

He describes the album as a “coming of age” project, and at 59 it’s evident he’s still processing the past. [Oct 2022, p.31]

Despite the glistening production and seamless craft of it all, his wired intensity is often missed. [Jun 2019, p.32]

The earthbound "This Love", shuffling along on metallic, moody guitar, and the twining, spaghetti-western eeriness of "Sucker Punch" are more engaging, but Here Is Everything could use more of the punch that lists the standout "Trouble". [Nov 2022, p.25]

His tunes have taken a tougher, more urban tone, with stand-outs 'The Turtle' and 'Basic Mountain' building to hard edged concrete peaks, drenched in acid Rephlex bleeps. [Jun 2009, p.85]

Generally the result is kind of Stars In Their Eyes Amy Winehouse. [Aug 2018, p.33]

Elsewhere the good time roll with tuneful consistency as singer Cameron Omori arranges his affairs of the heart into three-minute teen-dreams called "Dance Away" and "Fallen In Love." [Jun 2011, p.96]

The singer runs out of steam in the second half, opting for a succession of cloying ballads that, despite her beguiling voice, leaves the listener unmoved. [Aug 2012, p.75]

The lyrical content from MCs B-Real and Sen Dog is fairly rote, but a widened sonic palette keep things interesting. [Nov 2018, p.27]

The production lacks [Timbaland's] invention and intricacy. [Aug 2005, p.87]

In their own way and in their own time, it's progress. [Oct 2011, p.95]

The result is an exquisitely polished music that sometimes strays a little into fromage. [Sep 2021, p.24]

The music starts to grip most powerfully when it's more allusive and introspective.

Laswell provides an accomplished, opulent dub setting. But it's at blandish odds with the lo-tech wildness of Perry's own original Black Ark recordings. [Jul 2011, p.93]

The trouble with studiousness is its tendency to inhibit invention, and such is the case here on their third long-player. [Oct 2016, p.23]

Revisits the kind of understated, politically slanted synth-pop that defined the Minnesota band's last two Trump-haunted albums. Nut Leaneagh also digs deeper on more hopeful, personal ruminations. [Mar 2020, p.35]

Less is more, and the Stones are at their best on the spoof country of Faraway Eyes; and Richards’ attack on You Got The Silver, with Ronnie Wood picking holes in an acoustic slide guitar.

So while it's hard to quote a single memorable line, Yo Majesty's attitude is infectious. [Oct 2008, p.94]

This rather too eager-to-please set doesn't quite live up to its promise. [Mar 2012, p.82]

Although nothing matches the sexy Prince-funk pastiche 'Test' that Yukimi Nagano and co delivered on their self-titled 2007 debut, there is more depth and variety on their secpnd album. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Too much of the rest is forgettable. [Mar 2012, p.87]

He may come to rue the day he traded his trusty ukulele for a cheapo drum machine that makes his attempts at pop-funk sound more gauche than his nifty songcraft deserves. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Like all perfumes, its impact fades. [Aug 2015, p.71]

The writing is strong and Pisano's wracked vocals have pleasing echoes of Justin Vernon, but neither quality is best served by a creative aesthetic which often subjects perfectly good songs to the aural equivalent of waterboarding. [Oct 2011, p.95]

Too often, frontman Euan Hinshelwood's strivings for tragedy come off as merely morose. [Dec 2015, p.81]

Ghostory is supposedly a concept-album song-portrait, but [the album] feels as evanescent as expensive perfume. [Mar 2012, p.98]

The likes of "Stay Here And Look After The Chickens" and "Never Go Home Again" sound as if they've been shaken out of the band in rickety fashion of early Violent Femmes, Tattersall the penurious narrator whose rambling delivery contains flashes of brilliance. [Jun 2012, p.84]

This agreeable sequel boasts a more coherent country-folk sound, ironing out some of its predecessor's quirky, hand-knitted allure. [May 2011, p.77]

The fall and Dead Kennedys are the key influences here. [Dec 2010, p.109]

A sprinkle of Flaming Lips fairy-dust may be just what the genre needs to slip its genre straitjacket. [Jul 2006, p.114]

Tindersticks have returned refreshed, but some of the old dissolute glamour is gone.

Ambitious, orchestral and accompanied by a 45-minute film, it candidly documents singer Charlie Fink’s recovery from a badly broken heart.

It's the thump and clatter of a 1950s backbeat filtered through the boogie of 1970s glam-rock. [May 2015, p.71]

The Black Keys must take credit for negotiating the minefield of the rap/rock crossover without any serious casualties, but maybe an R&B/rock crossover would have reaped even greater rewards. [Jan 2010, p. 113]

Technically, he shows himself to be a better singer than we might have predicted from those early lo-fi recordings, but it all tastes a little sweet. [Oct 2015, p.71]

[A] sturdy ensemble record. [Jul 2005, p.104]

Good enough that you barely notice Macca, Prince and the other obligatory guests. [Dec 2005, p.100]

Dirty Glow is packed with playful, occasionally disorienting tracks. [Jan 2013, p.80]

It's as convincing and heartfelt as anything else here--and suggests that by incorporating disco into the rest of his music, even better things may lie ahead. [Mar 2008, p.96]

Their debut reveals a talent for taut, punkish, pivot-on-a-penny songs that cemented their live reputation before they'd even recorded a note. [Apr 2013, p.74]

Larry Klein places the vocals disconcertingly high in the mix, but it effectively emphasises Chapman's poetic sensibility. [Dec 2008, p.86]

Magpies, for sure--but rather brilliant ones. [Jun 2018, p.30]

An album that bounces airly between teen pop sublime and the aging rebel ridiculous. [Apr 2011, p.95]

Weezer's likeabe, insubstantial powerpop has often been infused with somewhat tetchy intimations of latent intellectual heft. On Raditude, this manifests in guest appearances by Amrita Sen and Nishat Khan on the dreadful "Love Is The Answer." Elsewhere, though, Weeaee seem to have ceased to care. [Feb 2010, p.107]

The good news is [single "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are"] is not even the best song on his debut album. [Mar 2012, p.89]

Tracks like "Georgia" and "Holing Out" tear by with sandpaper efficiency and no little impact. Yet they have more than one idea. [Mar 2011, p.107]

Five American Portraits, another collaboration with conceptual art group Art & Language, combines the two [awkward rock music and high conceptualism]: these simple, rough portraits of George W Bush, Wile E Coyote, etc, while each song musically quotes relevant tunes. [Mar 2010, p.93]

These are brilliant songs; but they simply reminds us of too many others who got there first. [Mar 2011, p.100]

Something Dirty captures guitarist Jean Herve Peron and drummer Werner"Zappi" Diermaier plus Bad Seeds James Johnston and the artist Geraldine Swayne-- continually to shape-shift around the margins of rock. [Feb 2011, p.84]

The group's formula is undeniably infectious, with giddy, harmony-enriched interplay outshining occasional lapses into spindly scuzz. [Oct 2015, p.73]

A second cousin to New Pornographers' Electric Version. [Jul 2005, p.103]

Work is less dramatically monochrome than HTRK's debut, the Coil-like angst replaced with a more subtle existential uncertainty. [Oct 2011, p.89]

While lyrics like "this is the hottest summer I can ever remember 'cause the world is on fire" leave little to the imagination, the final product is hard to dislike. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Although brass and strings add muscle, a certain monotony creeps in towards the end. And there aren't enough strong tunes from the least melodically facile Beatle. [Dec 2002, p.134]

As ever, the combination of sincerity and sentimentality is overpowering. [Oct 2009, p.89]

The crashing waves of "O-OnOne" immediately align the new-look Seefeel with the aggressive ambiance of Oneohtrix Point Never and Emeralds, while "Airless," Peacock's serene vocals are assailed by coarse filter sweeps and the squeals of busted circuitry. [Mar 2011, p.99]

On the whole, it's a little in hock to its influences, although the closing eight-minute title track is a fine exception. [Jun 2013, p.73]

It does still summon some of the spirit and occasionally the joyfulness that should attend a first record. [Mar 2011, p.90]

The record plods along nicely but often drifts into forgetful or nostalgic territory, with the fuzzed-up growl of the guitars recalling the bygone mid-90s indie-rock boom. [Nov 2018, p.37]

Alas, too much of this heavily glossed and processed album lacks wit or passion. [Oct 2011, p.86]

In many ways Clay Class is another helping of their broken blues and Stuckist infra-poetry, charting a Fallen landscape, stripped even of grotesque enchantment. [Feb 2012, p.97]

Though Caravan Chateau may match the tone of society's mourning, it does so through a navel-gazing lens. [Oct 2020, p.32]

Your cider-drinking soundtrack for this summer is here. [Jul 2011, p.100]

No No No is limited overall, and finds Condon's filigreed production out of step with the minimalist balladeering peers who have flourished in his four-year absence. [Oct 2015, p.71]

The absence of imagination here is a tad dispiriting. [Dec 2016, p.30]

Despite the defiant attitude and serious subject matter, their excitably chaotic squalls, leaves a trail of sonic pile-ups too often both predictable and over-familiar. [Nov 2013, p.72]

St Jude proves that there is much more to The Courteeners than first meets to the eye.

The second album from Cheltenham's The Duke Spirit sounds every bit the heads-down attampt at chart-bothering major rock album. Except, well, it's on an indie, and the tunes don't always match the band's stadium-echo ambitions. [Mar 2008, p.86]

Clearly full of ideas and enthusiasm, FrYars suffer from a cheapness of sound, the instrumentation often too basic and one-dimensional to give songs od potential the lick of sonic paint they deserve. [Nov 2009, p.94]

It's a more anthemic, traditional and radio-friendly Feeder that greets is on their eight album. [Apr 2012, p.77]

It would be silly to expect surprises from the Fairports at this late point, and their first album in four years proves as well tended and predictable as a Cotswold village. [May 2011, p.85]

There's a swaggering big-band reading of "Just One Of Those Things" and a clever soul-jazz recasting of Rhianna's "Don't Stop The Music", but otherwise Cullum has morphed into a kind of Britpop Randy Newman, which suits him well on the excellent "I'm All Over It". [Dec 2009, p. 87]

Under the bluster, though, frontman Ritzy Bryan adds a consistent emotional intensity best heard on "Cradle," reminiscent ofg Lush at their most bruised and bruising. [Mar 2011, p.93]

Such a stylistic spread can leave it slightly centreless, but a strong emphasis on groove runs throughout. [Mar 2017, p.25]

Much of Intriguer leaves one yearning for the unbound pop of "Now We're Getting Somewhere" or the straightforwardly confident balladry of "Better Be Home Soon." [Jul 2010, p.104]

What has sadly gone missing here, however, is Farrell's voice. [Jul 2007, p.112]

The uninitiated will find it a good place to start. [Jan 2013, p.81]

[Almanac is] pleasantly dreamy for a while, but over the course of 40 minutes feels just a little insubstantial. [Apr 2013, p.79]

Benson's fifth solo album rarely deviates from his established modus operandi. [May 2012, p.67]

They've been an oddly schizophrenic beast, vacillating between sparse dronescapes and percussive rock jams conducted with primitive intensity. Peer Amid sits in the latter camp, although it constitutes both a sharpening offocus and a step up in ambition. [Feb 2011, p.99]

It's hard to shake the feeling that this return to decay-drenched digital rock is the sound of Reznor playing to the gallery. [Jun 2005, p.97]

The duo's artfully woven sonic tapestry is somewhat spoiled by the po-faced new age banalities of their lyrics. [Oct 2012, p.74]

Not quite essential, but a neat genre exercise. [Dec 2016, p.30]

the focus on matters of the heart is limiting, reducing the genre to the level of rusticised boy-band pop. [Oct 2012, p.84]