Possibly a grower, this album is certainly better than anything Macca's done for some while. [Jan 2002, p.131]

Singer Orlando Weeks' new themes of intimacy and dependence, add emotional scope to a band blossoming from their spindly beginnings into a meaty prospect capable of doing goth XTC, jolly Joy Divisiion, and sword-dancing Strokes. [Jun 2009, p.92]

For the Black Crowes, this is an inspired move, maximising their virtues (virtuosity, passion, guilelessness) and minimising their principal flaw (the fact that it all starts to feel a bit silly if you stop to think about it).

Howard Devoto's arch art-rockers deliver a fresh set of oddball studies. [Dec 2011, p.90]

Elsewhere, Garner sounds like he's been spending time with Revolver, while songs like "The Ballad Of Little Jane" and the genial swirling "Lullaby" further the rich tradition of Dutch psychedelic pop. [May 2013, p.71]

Though his jazz instincts can still send him into incantatory live orbit, all he wants here are the boyhood comforts of his early record collection. His voice remains admirably supple, though. [Jun 2018, p.33]

This post-genre approach allows them to take cumbia, mambo, porro, carnival music and ceremonial song, and mash it together in unpredictable and deeply psychedelic ways. [May 2018, p.35]

A certain oppressiveness is part of the design, but there are glimpses of beauty here, too. [Apr 2019, p.39

Rarely bubbles over into the remarkable. [Sep 2020, p.25]

The album largely struggles to match the buzz and momentum of its tone-setting opener. [Nov 2022, p.36]

Here it's his "Story Of An Artist", delivered with a disarming simplicity. With contributions from regular collaborators Jim James and Neko Case, the other eight songs are striking originals. [Aug 2023, p.38]

It's more fireside snooze than woodland romp. [Oct 2013, p.68]

It's all a very respectable, and closer "P.I.G.S" is great, just slightly disappointing if one had hoped for more than acceptable continuity soundtracks. [Jun 2010, p.90]

The follow-up--featuring a mere 13 songs--is solid and functional, but lacks that inspired edge. [Aug 2008, p.106]

This four-track mini-album is something of a departure from [previous works, this is] a relatively straightforward, stripped down techno work with a few mischievous touches. [June 2008, p.88]

A brave endeavour. But unlike My Chemical Romance's Black Parade, Infinity On High has critically little sense of its own ridiculousness. [Mar 2007, p.79]

The resulting hazy acoustic soundscapes are only a soft-shoe shuffle away from Caribou's neo-pyschedelia. [Dec 2008, p.108]

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]

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]

The tracka are overlong and the ubiquitous fuzz pedal makes "Sedatives" and "King Of Kings" sound like a narcoleptic Screwdriver, but it's hard to knock Jesu's dedication to the sad, slow and contemplative. [Aug 2011, p.90]

Behind the hype and the swagger, he's still baring enough of his soul for The Eminem Show to be compelling theatre. [Aug 2002, p.118]

The lo-fi production makes everything sound like an unfinished demo, the songs are largely forgettable and the AutoTune’d vocals become a little tedious.

There's some interesting things going on here.... Sadly, Bernard Butler's production often feels thin and tinny, which isn't just sad, but avoidable, too. [Aug 2008, p.92]

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]

In danger of becoming a Loose Tubes for the ATp generation, this once fleetfooted group have blundered into a vat of fudge. [Feb 2010, p.89]

Allo Darlin' aren't the latest in post-Kate Nash mockney complaint pop, but instead makers of music that's unapologetically twee. [July 2010, p.101]

The addition of Ethiopian singer Cabra Casay evens up things on "Ane Nahatka," otherwise this prove a collaboration too far. [Nov 2012, p.85]

Despite the odd dreamy detour into girl-group psych-pop, this slender 10-tracker is bulked out with a little too much autopilot retro-kitsch filler. [May 2016, p.79]

Marten now has an appealingly gentle voice and an intuitive feel for melody. [Nov 2016, p.32]

These warm engaging gnarly songs are vigorously banged out by a mix of the original and current lineups. [Sep 2018, p.30]

The strident approach... doesn't quite work. [Jul 2005, p.100]

There are some nice details though daft lyrics such as "I kiss your knees and I try to be bold" threaten to undermine the flashes of brilliance elsewhere. [May 2014, p.73]

Some of the arrangements are busier than they need to be. [Mar 2012, p.89]

Lyrically, it's the darkness that maintains its grip, sometimes alarmingly so. [Jul 2016, p.74]

It'll be nice on a Netflix drama, but removes much of the tension between ambition and accomplishment in which melancholy indie rock traditionally thrives. [Jul 2020, p.30]

A collection of songs that are superficially alluring but, bar standout "Morning Comes," rarely captivating. [Apr 2019, p.36]

Brave and bonkers. [Mar 2012, p.94]

For their second album proper, the band have beefed up their sound at the expense of their spindly charm. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Challenging, sure--but when it comes together, as on Kenny Loggins-sampling "Your Choice," exhilarating also. [Sep 2015, p.80]

Dave Huismans brings an aesthetic informed by the metallic echo of Berlin and machine melodies of Detroit to the music's syncopated UK rave logic. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

Funnily enough, it's the lyrics that let Ringleader down the most. [Apr 2006, p.94]

This is a soundscape bordered by The Flaming Lips and the Pixies, and mapped with verve. [Mar 2010, p.81]

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

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

There's little on OFOW that he hasn't done already. [Nov 2002, p.128]

The bulk... is given over to rolling, near-baroque piano balladry. [Nov 2004, p.102]

The fifth season might be more art piece than album, but is no less intriguing because of it. [Oct 2020, p.32]

There's excitement her in 'ATX' and the title track, but when the bluster's died down, disappointingly little is left. [Oct 2009, p.89]

He can't muster much more than a compose-by-numbers Boards Of Canada kit that's destined for little more than wildlife documentary syndication. [Mar 2005, p.102]

Baez's worn voice retains its majesty, and also the sanctimony that has set so many teeth on edge over the years. [Oct 2008, p.81]

The album's languid pace and lack of real bite often renders it a little pedestrian. [Dec 2015, p.69]

The effects are over-stylised, however, rendering her impressive vocals precocious, ad the uniformly mid-paced tempos can become wearying. [Aug 2015, p.80]

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.

Intriguingly odd in small does, Wannerstrom's cheerless, unschooled voice and rudimentary guitar chordings can get mighty oppressive over the course of 50 minutes. [Feb 2009, p.82]

An erratic mix of mundane, London-centric Skinnerisms and out-of-focus political ire. [Sep 2005, p.100]

Brun's vocals can be spine-tinglingly gorgeous and annoyingly mannered, often in the same song. [Jan 2012, p.81]

Gonzalez's cooing voice tends to sing the same pentatonic scale over the same minor chords on every song, which does make things a little repetitive. [Oct 2010, p.98]

Like most albums by reformed bands, it reminds you what you liked without opening up an essential new chapter. [Apr 2015, p.84]

The band excel at giving fans perfectly plotted two-minute bursts of disgust and attrition, epitomised by the splendidly immature, "F*** You." [Feb 2013, p.69]

Rather fine. [Mar 2002, p.95]

On the likes of "Said And Done" Frahm conjures up a mood of melancholic introspection that makes this accomplished, genuinely pretty set a serious (if rather less extravagant) rival to Gonzales and Andrew WK's recent piano excursions. [Feb 2010, p.84]

His first album in 14 years sounds more like a Ronnie Barker pastiche, constantly playing for laughs and often reworking the calypso rhythms of "Annie I'm Not Your Daddy." [Nov 2011, p.89]

Guitarist Dan Moss writes the songs, but it's Katherine Whitaker's voice that give them life, and the more space she has, the better the result. [Jun 2012, p.71]

Tasteful stuff, for sure, but The Gamble could take a few more risks. [Mar 2016, p.77]

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]

Best are tunes that showcase Cash's plainspoken lyricism and mould his musing into fully formed songs. [May 2018, p. 37]

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]

Opening cut "I Got You" promises faith and solidarity "even if they start to build that wall," and both the strident funk of "Above The Law" and the testifying "Pressure" lament the rise of inner-city crime. [May 2019, p.30]

The shouty threesome's hit-rate is good. [Jun 2020, p.27]

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? is no return to the glory days, it is a credible reprise of their old-school rolling and one-two punch, spiked with heavy psychedelic guitar. [Dec 2020, p.36]

Jean plays a mean guitar and the trademark rockabilly romps of "fate" and "trouble", or heavier numbers such as "Godmother", are perfectly fine. ... The wild, carnivalesque cover of Enya's "orinico Flow" - a novelty but a thoroughly enjoyable one. [Jun 2023, p.31]

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

[A] slim, but enjoyable album. [Jan 2011, p.88]

Some of the more routine synth-pop cuts lack weight, but the distant echoes of A-Ha's "The Living Daylights" buried within "Musketeer" are wholly endearing. [Jul 2011, p.103]

It's reliably hypnotic stuff, although the final two seemingly interminable tracks d o expose Stallones' rather rudimentary chops. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Rattle That Lock turns out to be a modest achievement for the most part. [Oct 2015, p.82]

The Dead Weather is another slightly unsatisfying fling alongside The Raconteurs. [Jul 2009, p.84]

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

Madlib stretches out impressively without vocalists to contain him, but you sense the real bangers have been saved for another occasion. [Jun 2006, p.106]

Other tracks hide catchier tunes amid the quagmire of guitar. [Mar 2012, p.79]

They sound reinvigorated, if somewhat aimless. [Nov 2016, p.40]

The period pieces--string-laden ballads by Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forrest and Jo Stafford-provide some light relief, as does the Art Ensemble Of Chicago-style junkyard jazz of Greenwood's "Able-Bodied Seaman." [Dec 2012, p.72]

There are plenty of deft touches but it's perhaps too knowing to truly connect, to sketchy to reward deep listening. [Jul 2014, p.80]

Texturally, the mood is one of warm, sensual dreaminess, of hushed vocals and woozy analogue synth. Prins Thomas isn't, though, wanting of strong grooves. [May 2010, p.102]

Danilova's vocals have a cadence that hovers between uplifting and exhaustingly overwrought, but fans at least will love these vivid, live-feeling renditions. [Sep 2013, p.97]

It only really comes alive with an alternate version of "Take Ecstasy With Me," which reminds us that original Magnetic Fields singer Susan Anway is still his definitive interpreter, the Ella to his Cole. [Sep 2011, p.91]

The heavy-lidded atmosphere grows stifling on Warpaint, a codeine fog muddled by synthy tricks from the arsenal of producers Flood & Alan Moulder. [Feb 2014, p.83]

Their take on electric jazz can seem airless: the sax leads are worthy but venture nowhere near the outer limits chartered by Ayler and Coltrane. [Mar 2011, p.93]

These 13 examples can get annoying when they stray into willful atonality, but really hit the spot when he lingers on simple themes. [Mar 2012, p.81]

Universal High usually depends more on mood than focus. A little more of the latter and it would be almost perfect. [Aug 2017, p.26]

An adventurous solo outing. [Oct 2002, p.112]

If Doe intended to create an interlocked set of pieces that sustained a mood of pensive reverie, he succeeded, though there's a marked shortage of ear-grabbing, individual songs. [Mar 2003, p.95]

A work in progress maybe, but the churchy disquiet of "The River" show them to be songwriters of true craft. [Jan 2010, p. 122]

Some of it is a little too cosy and overly earnest, White tending to excel on the more spirited likes of the swampy "What's So" and "I've Been Over This Before." [Sep 2016, p.81]

There's sparse evidence of their supposedly influential stay in Mali with desert bluesmen Tinariwen here, and ultimately their sonic porridge ends up a tad unsalted. [Mar 2010, p.98]

The result, inevitably, feels much more like a live band at work. [May 2009, p.95]

The band are now reactivated for their seventh, and pick up pretty much where they left off, the strum and twang now augmented by strings, but with the same determinedly old-school indie happysad heart. [Jul 2009, p.81]

If only Thomas' smart-ass, sing-song drawl was as appealing as his songs. [Feb 2017, p.38]