Their conceptual hinterland is sometimes more interesting than their clobbering racket, but both are exhilarating in places. [Mar 2021, p.29]

The likes of "The West End" and "Thinking About You" are unobjectionable, but mostly have the effect of reminding that there are Steve Earle albums you could be playing. [Nov 2010, p.94]

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

It's a sound that devotees of 'Crazy Horse' or 'My Morning Jacket' will find conspicuously pleasing, but fans of Band of Horses might just be disappointed. [Dec 2007, p.84]

Several songs that aim for Springsteenian grandeur but land nearer to John Mellencamp before he dropped the Cougar. Thankfully, Goldsmith's level of craft elsewhere means there's still plenty here to savour. [Nov 2020, p.29]

The eclectism is exhilarating. [Nov 2008, p.96]

Her best album for many years illustrates her uniqueness. [Jun 2010, p.97]

Though featuring young musicians, this album is antique rathe r than groundbreaking in feel, pleasing evoking a sweet, after hours blues cellar fug, all slide and sax. [May 2010, p.83]

It's appealing stuff--Lil Wayne is a fan--while the pair's wit suggests they'll continue to stay ahead of the critical curve. [Sep 2008, p.85]

While his lyrics crackle, the music seems like an afterthought. [Dec 2011, p.84]

American Saturday Night has its fair share of hokum but proves that Paisley has a tough baritone voice and is a mean, bluesy guitarist. [Aug 2010, p.92]

If nothing else, [his] accountant will be pleased with Maths & English's broad appeal. [Jul 2007, p.99]

Her debut British release showcases a vivid and fully formed talent clearly versed in quirky, often humourous songcraft. [Nov 2007, p.125]

Sometimes it's grating - "The Ocean" could be a Belinda Carlisle album track - but the supremely catchy likes of first single "Hell" deserves daytime radio ubiquity. [Jan 2010, p. 131]

When it works, it doses oso brillantly--but the preponderance of bog standard indie rock elsewhere is sadly less engaging. [May 2009, p.89]

Seems an innocuous exercise in regurgitation rather than innovation. [Dec 2002, p.131]

Clearly, appealing quirks can easily become irksome affectations. [Apr 2007, p.94]

Very much string-drenched business as usual: sometimes lovely, sometimes perilously close to self-parody. [Jul 2003, p.129]

If you thought they didn't make 'em like this anymore, here's the exception that proves the rule. [Feb 2002, p.112]

More of a safe record than a spectacular one. [May 2018, p.35]

there's a bit too much scene-setting and not enough storyline, but overall this is some rollicking debut. [May 2008, p.113]

Still shambles too freely but features stellar moments. [Jun 2005, p.108]

Waits is still taking more risks than most US 'singer-songwriters' of his generation, and parts of this album rock righteously. It's just that some of Waits' musical modes... have been done before, and much better. By him. [Nov 2004, p.110]

Strange, though, that we yearned for Pollard to treat his songs properly when he tossed them off as lo-fi sketches, but now they arrive as crafted, completed stadium anthems, that faint whiff of underachievement remains. [Sep 2003, p.102]

In many ways [it] seems in thrall to its predecessor. As a study in System Of A Down's multifarious strengths and occasional weaknesses, however, it's indispensable. [Jan 2006, p.110]

All in all, San Patricio is something of an oddity. [Apr 2010, p.94]

Ejimiwe's lyrics are often vague, but the music has echoes of Tricky, Roots Manuva, and the minimal end of dubstep. [Mar 2011, p.91]

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

It's business as usual for The Godfathers. [Mar 2017, p.30]

While there are plenty of new lyrical Bejarisms to enjoy, the packaging feels a little stale. [Nov 2017, p.26]

A stripped-down set of acoustic songs sung in a voice that is sometimes overly winsome but at its best is hauntingly ethereal. [Feb 2019, p.24]

Shake The Foundations is an accurate representation of its field, taking in both its achievements and its many foibles – a smart but patchy collection. [Jun 2021, p.47]

His vocals--as exuberant in his seventies as half a century ago. [Sep 2021, p.35]

The whole work glides in one long, soft landing. [Apr 2022, p.35]

A tough job hitting both funny and funky bone at once, but they mostly pull it off. [Apr 2005, p.102]

Gravenhurst prove that kicking arse is neither beneath nor beyond them. [Oct 2007, p.93]

Arcade Fire producer Craig Silvey and a slick session band sculpt an impressively spacey sound, but LaVere's self-conscious, bored voice strangles everything at birth. [Aug 2011, p.93]

There's a naivety at play here, recalling Daniel Johnston, Vashti Bunyan and Syd Barrett. [Jul 2006, p.86]

On the fifth album this East Coast trio make it patently clear this is not the same band whose 2005 debut placed them in the rustic shadow of former Young God Records labelmate Devendra Banhart. [Jun 2009, p.83]

It's certainly more assured and less wilfully angsty than Cast Of Thousands. However, it still lacks the special unified mood or thread of Asleep. [Oct 2005, p.110]

Little is overstated, but Low fans will find much to love in "New Lights For A Sky." [Feb 2014, p.80]

There is much here that is wonderful, but less of the tone set by the self-parodically chirpy 'Turqouise House' would have improved matters. [Nov 2007, p.132]

It's a facinating listen, one that feels like it could collapse at any time, but just about hangs together. [Apr 2010, p.90]

"Escape From New York" and "Halloween" can't top the cold desolation of the originals. ... Pretty much every one of the album's 13 tracks confirm Carpenter's skill for an eerie earworm. [Dec 2017, p.25]

To anyone over 16 it's Suicide/Velvets karaoke, a hacky homage to heroes rather than anything with fresh blood on its teeth. [Mar 2005, p.96]

It lacks many truly original hooks, but this is a nice updating of Count Five-style psych menace to file with fellow lo-fi '60s revivalists like King Khan and Dum Dum Girls. [May 2011, p.82]

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

With Ring, Mesirow concocts a fractured pop that accentuates the layers of electronic composition, though her voice is the guiding instrument. [Dec 2010, p.104]

This live set sees them mash the Kraftwek-ed likes of 'Aerodynamic' and 'Robot Rock' into the girlfriend-on-your-shoulders set that's seen them own 2007's festival season, at least for anyone more interested in decks than guitars. [Dec 2007, p.89]

The album can become a little too sweet--this, however, is a moment that never cloys. [Dec 2010, p.94]

These rattling songs... feel like disturbing European fairy tales. [Jun 2006, p.97]

While Live Laugh Love could benefit from more of the tension that builds in "Tethered" lest it all start seem too comfortably slack, Chastity Belt's blend of blissed-out effervescence and sly wit remains very appealing. [May 2024, p.32]

While Heather McEntire's wonderful voice is a natural country conduit, there's not quite enough around it, her bandmates opting to frame her tones in fairly pedestrian roots-rock settings. [Mar 2016, p.76]

Where once were "chat-up lines and stairwells" ("Take Me There"), beige luxury apartments now stand. [Jul 2018, p.24]

Much of Mediation of Ecstatic Energy is content to sit, lost in a maze of Echoplex, navigating its own navel. [Nov 2013, p.81]

Patchily exhilarating, but the blasts lack freshness. [Apr 2017, p.25]

It's hard to imagine anyone but the previously committed fan will be signing up here. [Sep 2010, p.99]

Guitars still sound like they were recorded in an igloo, while the singer's Dylan obsession only really pays off on woozy waltz 'Red Moon,' assisted by Matt Barrick's skeletal drum accompaniment. [Nov 2008, p.128]

The combo of an unadventurous set-list and cutting between several different shows makes Under Great White Northern Lights an oddly detached experience. [Jun 2010, p.111]

Though attempts at Amy Rigby territory ring hollow, a couple of country weepies bear redemptive powers. [May 2003, p.102]

Rough-hewn thrills abound. [Jan 2019, p.21]

[It] isn't so much More Fish as it is Cheap Fish. [Mar 2007, p.81]

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

Wainwright is newly hitched herself (to producer Brad Albetta) and I Know... is for the most part a decidedly mature singer-songwriter album.

Kath's basic approach to synth-pop means most tracks adhere to a glitchy arpeggiated formula that resembles a Faithless record, but with added indie weirdness. [Jul 2010, p.104]

Moments of startling beauty emerge from the fuzz-drenched experiments. [Sep 2005, p.112]

This is one record on which his ultimate masterplan to weld R&B sass to thumping club beats comes good. [Aug 2010, p.84]

Help is overloaded with tastefully spare sketches, but there are enough sublime soundscapes and rich ideas here. [Sep 2020, p.36]

“Build A Fire”, too, is an air-punching anthem, though Torquil Campbell prefers lighter-waving on “To Feel What They Feel”, which, like “If I Never See London Again”, turns to polished ’80s production techniques. They can’t shake their melancholy, however. [Sep 2022, p.32]

While this album is furnished by post-rock's brittle, metallic sound, Prewitt's songs are full of chamber pop's gilded warmth.... A fine, if overlong, album. [Jul 2002, p.118]

Signals a further burst of creativity, suggesting there are still great things to come from the Australian Lennon & McCartney. [Jul 2002, p.123]

The acid-daze reveries are rich in detail, thought the baleful undertow and samey melodies lose momentum over the 22 tracks. [Apr 2002, p.113]

Hey Venus! is an attractive album with a broad appeal – Rough Trade wanted a pop record and got one--but it also feels like a missed opportunity, a consolidation of affairs rather than a step forward.

Great, if a little pointless. [Apr 2012, p.77]

A slickly accomplished affair, rarely inspirational. [Jul 2006, p.101]

Ultimately Bailiff sounds too much in thrall to her shoegazing peers. [Dec 2012, p.69]

Abstract, but curiously engaging. [Mar 2011, p.83]

A continuation of a grand tradition rather than a feeble descendant, Jones' custom tunings strike sourly sweet notes, occasionally--as on the title track--touching on raga modes. [Oct 2011, p.89]

When he's not making party music, he stretches out and delivers deep fluid grooves. It's the naggingly simplistic melodies and dumb call-and-response choruses of tracks like 'U Want Some?' that spoil the fun. [Aug 2009, p.92]

Luckily, the music, a tapestry of harmonica, bass clarinets and bamboo flutes, is a florid, textured joy. [Jan 2011, p.86]

This simply sounds like junior Jay-Z. [Mar 2008, p.96]

Either annoyingly sweet or refereshingly well-adjusted, depending on your mood. [Oct 2002, p.107]

Here childrren's voices, crazed yelping, psych-surrealism and Jesus freakouts combine to create a phantasmagoria that is fun, disturbing, inspired and childlike all at the same time. [Jan 2008, p.90]

A cycle of slushy but well-written R&B ballads which pay tribute to his soul heroes. [Feb 2011, p.84]

Their The Fool traces out similar shapes as east coast cousins Effi Briest: dreamy, faintly pagan psychedelia, their tumbling vocal harmonies, undercut by inexorable, tidal bass. Their softly-softly approach does breed some earworms, though. [Dec 2010, p.104]

Her simple, repeitious music is predominantly listless and washed out. [Jun 2003, p.102]

Besides the odd burst of surf guitar and filigree finger-picking, the basic musical parameters remain unchanged. [May 2011, p.85]

Derek Miller's flashy axemanship and Alexis Krauss' swoon are compromised by sanitized production. [Mar 2012, p.98]

Sometimes this nomadic approach produces some sublime pop, but more often the results are erratic--odd even--but never dull. [May 2018, p.33]

A collection that feels more art project than album. [Nov 2012, p.71]

The execution falls vexingly short of ambition, principally because a little of Darnielle's limited voice goes a long way. But the best of the songs are great. [May 2011, p.93]

"The Reason Why" and "Motoring" swath Tom Dougall's sighed vocal in sheets of Ride-like guitar. [Oct 2012, p.87]

Basar is marred by a couple of misguided forays into coffee-table trip-hop, but when Africaine 808 aim for the dancefloor, they usually hit the spot. [Feb 2016, p.71]

More by accident than design, it works sometimes. [Aug 2010, p.79]

Its high-beam intensity and near relentless drive triumphing over the niggling familiarity of some songs. [May 2017, p.30]

Black gothic grandeur, but with a beige, biscuit-coloured centre. [Oct 2013, p.72]

The buoyant beats of his debut seem well-judged to invite a wiggle whether your "booty" is on the dancefloor or wearing a groove into you favorite armchair. [May 2008, p.94]

Welch delivers clunky self-help lines wrapped in elemental metaphors. [Jul 2015, p.76]