Their seventh studio album removes some of the widescreen electronica and replaces it with a more, stripped back, acoustic vibe that rather suits them. [Aug 2013, p.67]

The rest of the album struggles to maintain that high standard [of the second track, 'I Know'], but 'Take It Home' is a magnificent dirge. [Sep 2009, p.86]

While there's plenty of laidback sheen, the collection is void of original hooks. [Sep 2019, p.24]

They rather more resemble the wilfully over-wrought pastiches of Flight Of The Conchords, but without the jokes. [Sep 2009, p.82]

Come Down With Me seems slightly out of step in 2010, harking back to a time at the turn of the millennium where Tortoise and Tarwater were still the names to drop, but you can nonetheless appreciate its glistening geometry. [Mar 2010, p.84]

It's hard, though, to be sure of such depth aid the often imprecise lyrics, gently sweet vocals resembling a semi-skimmed Jonathan Donahue, and muffled, ambient brass and sax swells. [Oct 2018, p.30]

This still-teenage quartet writes heady songs that luxuriate in bubbling electronics, lagoon-diving reverb and layered harmonies. [Jun 2011, p.79]

The songs may work better in short, sudden bursts; over 11 tracks, you can feel bludgeoned by the band's blunt force. [Apr 2005, p.112]

The band push their mathematical lines into some great perverse shapes that occasionally remind of Fugazi, and even Yes. [May 2009, p.85]

If you like your pop super-sweet and synthy, fill your boots. [Mar 2020, p.25]

Alopecia is another woozily layered, beguilingly fractured affair, driven by beats and samples. [May 2008, p.113]

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]

His voice isn't built for such poignancy. This is a 74-year-old's dance record, not an elegy. [Jul 2018, p.27]

[The album] is not so much a radical departure as a dalliance with a marginally more brooding, textural musical aesthetic. [Sep 2014, p.75]

The key moments are covers. [May 2007, p.104]

As ever, the technical chops are indisputable--but it does, with fewer brains on board, feel somehow less substantial. [Nov 2019, p.22]

This is adequate debut, but La Roux will need to move beyond brittle pastiche if they hope to reinvent such overfamiliar ingredients. [Jul 2009, p.91]

They haven't yet shown enough thrills in righteousness to challenge gangsta's dark, easy attraction. [Nov 2002, p.129]

The key to the understated triumph of Sarah Nixey's second solo album is her recognition that there's nothing wrong with sounding like Black Box Recorder. [Jul 2011]

The standout tracks here are the most melancholy and experimental. [Nov 2012, p.71]

Her second LP as Du Blonde plays it two ways: first with unremarkable, lunging dynamics and fuzz-caked riffs, then in a leaner and more soulful style, wit nods to prog and '70s folk-pop songcraft. Tha latter is more convincing and a better fit for her great voice and brutally honest lyrics. [Mar 2019, p.27]

While rarely adventurous or surprising, is reassuringly familiar. [Feb 2020, p.27]

The record features contributions from a host of their pals, such as The Orb's Alex Paterson on the blissed-out "Burnt Umber," writer Vivien Goldman on Bizarro Bond-theme "Rhino" and Alabama 3's Aurora Dawn on reggae spiritual "Keep On Moving." [Apr 2020, p.37]

Their shimmering, somnolent ambience is irrefutably palliative. [Oct 2021, p.25]

A three-part instrumental piece, named "Heart: Attach," brings a pleasant filmic quality to an album that elsewhere trades a little too heavily on nostalgia. [Nov 2011, p.94]

Pallett's pallid voice fails to dramatise the narrative or really engage the listener. As a calling card for future soundtrack commissions, however, it should succeed splendidly. [Feb 2010, p.84]

Their sound is an accident born of naivety, but their unabashed love for '80s indie is unmistakeable. [Feb 2009, p.89]

The group's ninth album feels low-down and dirty. [Feb 2020, p.25]