Some bright instrumental flourishes are occasionally added in an attempt to give the songs some pulp but it's nothing to get too excited about since they're neither grabbing nor contagious and act more like threadbare window dressings to the mundane song structures and their gentle acoustics. For better or worse, a collection of guest vocalists, both male and female, are used throughout, including an appearance by former Midlake vocalist Tim Smith. But this only serves to highlight the album's inconsistencies.

Real Life Is No Cool plays more like a tug-of-war as singer and producer struggle to find harmony between two disparate sounds. [Holiday 2009, p.81]

Origins is frankly very boring. [Winter 2010, p.71]

On the whole, the album feels like a parody of music's tropes, limping along with no real soul.

There are some entertaining songs here ('Drive On, Driver,' 'I’ll Dream Alone') but overall, there is scarcely an affective moment on Distortion. [Winter 2008, p.83]

More recycled Roky Erickson-isms and smoky garage-rock riffs pollute the ears along with the most odious proggy lyrics this side of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. [Jul - Sep 2017, p.35]

For the most part, Hauschka's attempt at turning the piano into a percussion instrument falls short. [May 2011, p.84]

There isn't anything specifically awful about any of the songs and you can imagine any one being played at a Californian stoners' beach party and no one minding. But if you put the entire album on, no one is coming to your next one.

The new sounds end up grating against the vocals, which will always sound whiskey-soaked, and playing against the band's strengths. [May 2011, p.88]

It's a tough listen, shrill and disjointed.

This sounds like what writers for a comedy skit trying to make fun of avant-garde music would come up with. [#5, p.114]

Think Ash covering Nirvana and you'll have an idea of just how bad an idea this album is. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.94]

The dirty air guitar and over the top vocals leave me cold. [#5, p.111]

Between the shrill, semi-anonymous voice of Elly Jackson, and Ben Langmaid's clunky paint-by-numbers beats, La Roux's eponymous debut already feels dated. [Fall 2009, p.74]

An astonishingly boring band. [#5, p.103]

A Woman A Man Walked By is a side project in the worst sense of the term; a slight diversion that's really for Harvey completists only. [Spring 2009, p.66]

Bloated with too much self-absorption, Japan's Mono have lost sight of their original intent. [Spring 2009, p.77]

There may be some good ideas here, and political awareness and a lack of fear to share those ideas should always be applauded, but as a record in 2019, Pursuit of Momentary Happiness doesn't even offer the moment for which it searches.

Over the course of the whole record, the lethargic tempos, lack of style, and the uninspired songwriting become a bit tiring. So the album as a whole is a disappointment for someone with so much talent and potential.

It rarely displays much spirit, or even a pulse. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.122]

There's little to make them noticeable today. [Winter 2010, p.69]

This bland, wishy-washy concoction of pop-rock FIDLAR half-assedly barfs up reflects the quartet of 30-something's own addictive tendencies; each watered-down attempt at a "genre-revival"-punk, in this case--falls victim to insipid rip-offs of their "punk" influences.

This just comes off as clumsy and premature. [May - Jun 2016, p.95]

The formula that made "She" a success is replicated until it's been wrung dry of any emotion. [Jun-Jul 2013, p.94]

Render Another Ugly Method is merely the calcified misery of a young woman who can't reach outside herself. [Aug - Oct 2018, p.80]

Great Thunder is nothing but dull, adult contemporary rock-lite that swings with the tempo of a slow cooker. [Aug - Oct 2018, p.85]

While his voice isn't bad, it's not particularly enchanting either. And even though the lyrics are spiritually inspired by channeling the higher consciousness of human emotionality and compassion, they often come across as cheesy over the course of the album's approximately 60 minutes of simple and conventional tracks.

The bolstered instrumentation doesn't hide some of her weakest songwriting.