By the time we reach "Surripere" we could be listening to a toughened-up Aphex Twin, poignant harmonies battling against oblique but splintering beats. [May 2003, p.92]

The second solo album still sounds like a wilful jukebox stocked on the disparate taste of someone attempting vinyl hari-kari. [Apr 2003, p.116]

A near-masterpiece.... It's hip and urgent, formal and exhilarated, everything guitar pop aspires to today. [Dec 2001, p.118]

The results are as charming as they are accessible. [Feb 2003, p.86]

Under Cold Blue Stars is a towering achievement. [Apr 2002, p.108]

If--as you should be--you're in love with Luna... you'll come over all swoonalicious to this subtly sparkling spin-off. [Dec 2003, p.130]

Signals a striking reawakening for a too often overlooked talent. [May 2003, p.96]

Skewed hip hop soundscapes with hints of slinky R&B that could even be described as DJ-friendly. [Jul 2003, p.124]

Send is pure gristle, a vicious statement of musical intent. [Jul 2003, p.129]

Think early Air meets hip-hop, the West Coast harmonies and Ultramarine-style tech-fok eccentricities merging with euphoric yet becalmed moodscapes. [Nov 2002, p.113]

13 avant-pop gems evocative of Pere Ubu and Talking Heads. [Jun 2003, p.96]

A worthy West Coast counterpart to El-P's superb Fantastic Damage. [Apr 2003, p.108]

It's all acoustic guitars, rich jangling melodies and heavenly harmonies. [May 2003, p.102]

It's almost disturbingly accomplished. [Jul 2002, p.103]

Beth Ditto's remarkable gospel holler and fervent anti-sexist agenda deserves--no, demands--to be heard by a much bigger audience. [Aug 2003, p.106]

After a couple of plays, you're struck by Up's sonic cleverness. Three or four listens and the lyrical complexity begins to bite. Finally, and insidiously, after perhaps six or seven plays, the melodies bury themselves in your head. [Oct 2002, p.112]

His most purposeful work in some time. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Recalls the more amusing moments of Momus and Stereolab. [Nov 2002, p.116]

It's their dirty, lowdown rock pastiches that truly score.... A bona fide blast of ageless, pretension-free rock'n'roll. [Mar 2003, p.98]

The best album McCulloch's had a hand in since 1984's Ocean Rain. [May 2003, p.96]

A hypnotic dream-map of astral drift and spac-age chamber music, textured jazztronica and technoid pulse. [Dec 2001, p.106]

Seven tracks, 31 minutes, and not a duff second in sight. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Reaffirms their status as masters of white heat smoulder, turning down the amps but heightening the ravaged intensity.... A career high. [Oct 2002, p.119]

An album of flashing wit and giddy ambition. [Oct 2002, p.110]

With its innocently poignant synth melodies and fragile guitar arpeggios, You Win Again Gravity is redolent of the flashes of true beauty that the style's original practitioners sought back in the glory days. [Dec 2002, p.151]

Retains the tweak and squidge of his experimental, post-techno wanderings, but it's meant for feet rather than head. [Sep 2004, p.98]

A frighteningly powerful record. [Jan 2003, p.124]

Hones the Southern harmonies and guitar-pickin' crosstalk of the brothers Good. [Nov 2004, p.116]

Like Bread produced by The Neptunes. [Jul 2004, p.110]

A guilty, gleeful indulgence. [May 2004, p.93]

Superior adult-contemporary rock. [Dec 2004, p.152]

The music is strikingly minimal throughout, the emphasis is firmly on The Word and the Beastie Boys have plenty left to say. [Jul 2004, p.108]

The Youth sound rejuvenated. [Jul 2004, p.108]

Takes a few listens to become accustomed to. [Mar 2003, p.104]

An album that is as poignant as it is over the top. [Oct 2003, p.118]

There's a slight tiredness about the new album. It's too laid back to grab the attention, which must scan closer for clues. [Jul 2003, p.116]

A remarkable return. [Oct 2003, p.130]

One of the finest Americana albums of 2004. [Jan 2005, p.128]

Tusk this isn't, but Tusk it doesn't need to be. In an age of off-the-shelf LInda Perry pop, the Mac keep the mainstream interesting. [May 2003, p.98]

Fall[s] somewhere between Talk Talk and the Bunnymen. [Sep 2004, p.98]

Channels sledgehammer power into 11 tunes with a filthy, deeply groovy core. [Mar 2005, p.104]

Often recalls 1992's Automatic For The People in its sobriety of purpose. [Nov 2004, p.100]

Imagine a jam session between King Crimson, Fugazi and '70s Miles. Now imagine it working. That's the Mars Volta. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Exquisite. [Feb 2003, p.80]

A candidate for country album of the year. [Nov 2002, p.130]

Her best record yet. [Jun 2002, p.107]

This is the album Lynne should've made after I Am.... [Nov 2003, p.120]

Another treasure. [Mar 2003, p.95]

All told, a class act still in their prime. [Sep 2003, p.97]

Brings to the surface all of the volatility and emotional charge that was inherent in their work. [Apr 2003, p.104]

The music is purposeful and powerful. [Jul 2003, p.114]

Intelligent and addictive. [Nov 2003, p.110]

It's a compelling psychological study set to lovely tunes. [Jul 2003, p.114]

A fine collection and a lesson in dignified maturity from which all former rock gods could learn. [Aug 2002, p.115]

Shields' four contributions are everything you'd hope for. [Oct 2003, p.126]

There are clever couplets and wry winks, but the melancholy is authentic. [Jan 2004, p.112]

She's still a class act. [Jul 2003, p.118]

It's saved from twee tedium by Campbell's sumptuous orchestrartions and sly wit. [Dec 2003, p.115]

The results sound as if Corgan plundered a few moves from Dave Grohl, since the songs keep one boot in heavy metal but mostly get straight to the point while piling on the hooks and harmonies. [Mar 2003, p.95]

Theirs is a maniacal mish-mash of seemingly incompatible musical styles--Krautrock, psychedelia, no-wave, prog, synth-pop, '70s stoner rock and punk--wrought from a deeply felt, genre-leaping love of challenge. [Feb 2004, p.80]

It's not amazing... but it's great. [Jan 2004, p.106]

A refinement of the country/folk/reggae/rock amalgam The Mekons have pursued for years. [Oct 2002, p.108]

They remain funny, fly and fit for the future. [May 2004, p.104]

Saint Etienne's most far-reaching album since Fox Base Alpha. [Nov 2002, p.124]

A triumph indeed. [Sep 2003, p.102]

This is one glorious murk. [May 2003, p.91]

Fatherfucker pillages Missy Elliott, Suicide and "Justify My Love"-era Madonna, and even outfoxes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Oct 2003, p.126]

A free and forward-thinking kind of record, but also one that taps into forgotten, mythic resonances of American music without ever sounding ersatz, hokey or remotely contrived. [Mar 2004, p.92]

Draws intelligently on its sources, revealing itself as more than mere pastiche. [Nov 2004, p.108]

Nothing too shocking, then, but their old magic surges through: you won't be disappointed. [Sep 2003, p.112]

While Baby I'm Bored is way too modest to be a masterpiece, it's far more than a join-the-dots account of a life on the rocks, and grows brighter, and more optimistic, with every play. [Apr 2003, p.102]

From the edge of the sea, back to the fringes of sleep, Summer Sun is uncommonly lovely. [May 2003, p.104]

They mix wistful, hook-laden rock songs in the vein of Counting Crows, Five For Fighting, The Gin Blossoms, The Posies and Pete Yorn with the proto-emo sound of Sunny Day Real Estate. [Aug 2002, p.104]

Iconoclastic and visceral, Squarepusher is punk rock 2002. [Nov 2002, p.132]

It's arrogantly risky. That's their best feature. [Jun 2003, p.100]

The band achieve an impressive impact with a wide dynamic range. [Jun 2003, p.109]

[A] moody, edgy album. [Mar 2002, p.104]

As good a record, in fact, as anything this gifted polymath has ever released. [Feb 2004, p.82]

Sincere and beautiful. [Nov 2003, p.116]

On paper it may sound like brittle Grand Royal retro-cool, but on record it simply belts along with a primal melodic simplicity and sexy nu-wave freshness. [January 2002, p.146]

Gorgeously warm, forlorn and wounded. [Mar 2004, p.95]

The duo's liking for repetitive Royal Trux-style riffage forms the core of their debut but they frequently explore more sparse territories. [Apr 2003, p.110]

Rustic, rowdy, bags of fun, Life On Other Planets is another Supergrass masterpiece. [Nov 2002, p.118]

A magnificently rich and confident debut.... This is how Fischerspooner should have sounded. [Dec 2002, p.142]

Innovations are few.... Still, when these nocturnes, crescendos and intimations of apocalypse remain so musically rich and emotionally powerful, it seems churlish to demand more. [Dec 2002, p.130]

The minimalist grooves grow ever tighter. [Feb 2004, p.71]

This is a very fine album... even if it's surprisingly business as usual in many respects. [Oct 2002, p.108]

Everything they do is infused with an undeniable, albeit sometimes unfathomable, psychedelic spirit. [Mar 2004, p.92]

A sublime suite of semi-ambient glitch-pop. [Dec 2001, p.106]

Despite its DIY origins and almost hallucinatory feel, this is a peach of a pop record. [Apr 2004, p.108]

Their most convincing, most composerly music to date. [Feb 2004, p.69]

[A] promising, flawed debut. [Apr 2004, p.110]

Luddites still unconvinced that digital technology is capable of emotional expression should make this their first stop on the road to enlightenment. [May 2004, p.103]

He's very much the equal of Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood in terms of versatility and sheer invention. [Sep 2001, p.90]

Finally finding a palatable singing voice, too, the musical acuity shown here still places him very much in front of guitar-hero peers like John Squire and Bernard Butler. [Dec 2002, p.129]

Another wildly implausible Shaun Ryder comback. Just when we needed one. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Musically, it predictably alternates between relentless, driving guitars and agonisingly slow dirges, but Bazan's gift lies in lyrics. [Oct 2002, p.112]

Murray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988. [Jul 2002, p.122]