Absentee's Dan Michaelson proves he could give Lee Hazlewood and Mark Lanegan a run for their money, but its not just his voice that plumbs depths. [Oct 2008, p.81]

Brakes, and this is not a criticism, are at their best when they do the opposite, pretending to be a nerdy indie-rock group while actually recording songs that are dumb as rocks. [May 2009, p.79]

His blurry lullabies, full of crimson moons and devils' wings, carry a Biblical sense of foreboding and disquiet, somewhere between J Tillman and a more whiskery Neal Casal. [Dec 2009, p. 106]

As a stand-alone album it's ultimately more laudable than loveable. [Oct 2009, p.92]

They strain for transcendent, neo-religious euphoria; sometimes they get there. [Feb 2011, p.99]

We're All Somebody delivers high-sheen Billboard country fare, more Keith Urban than back-porch picking. [Sep 2016, p.81]

Reuniting her ex-bandmates adds a rock impetus to Doiron's more fragile solo work. [Feb 2007, p.74]

Here Scott Weiland lets off steam in grand style. [Feb 2009, p.101]

Inevitably, youthful anger has been replaced by pettier bourgeois concerns (traffic wardens, the congestion charge), but there’s a sensitivity and playfulness that’s still hugely endearing.

The sheer abundance of ideas starts to wear the listener down a little ma few more slow-burners like "Bad News, Strange Luck" wouldn't go a miss. [Jun 2011, p.94]

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]