Deep, mournful, impressive. [Apr 2004, p.99]

Tired and contrived-sounding.... Baptism? Craptism, more like. [Jun 2004, p.102]

A return to basics--14 meticulously sculpted, wordless vignettes tricked out in blurry beats, subtle digital daubs and mellifluous bass counterpoints. [May 2004, p.104]

[A] breezy conflation of Beta Band-esque jollity, default indie guitar chime and High Llamas-style retro melody. [May 2003, p.95]

Sleepy, certainly, but never tired. [Aug 2004, p.89]

Their raucous, raw live show transfers effortlessly to record, justifying all three of those exclamation marks. [Jun 2004, p.116]

She's lost track of almost everything that made her music marvellous. [Jun 2004, p.101]

A superior folk-tinged brand of MOR. [Oct 2005, p.102]

Hayden's delicate little songs are potent, precious things indeed. [Oct 2004, p.110]

An oddly experimental record, prioritising texture over tune and betraying a river-deep confessioinal streak. [Apr 2004, p.103]

Improved fidelity aside, the song remains the same. [Aug 2004, p.88]

A Grand… isn't as immediate and vivacious as its predecessor. But credit to Skinner for pushing things forward; he remians one of the most compelling voices in British pop culture. [May 2004, p.94]

Those who have grown up with him will find much to love here. [May 2004, p.90]

There's still much to link the group to their musical past. [Jun 2004, p.107]

True, [Merritt] still sings in a voice that's subject to fairly strict demarcations of range and malleability, but his deft spadework in the trench of song-craft more than compensates. [May 2004, p.93]

Los Lobos' ingenuity with arrangements and atmosphere makes The Ride something special. [Jun 2004, p.102]

With elements of synth-pop, new wave and blue-eyed soul distilled into a succession of heart-beating hits, Trial Of The Century is a record that gets better with each listen. [Dec 2004, p.99]

Their debut, Mono, gave voice to little beyond their frustration, and the distance between that impressively venomous fit of black-hearted flailing and Penance Soiree's stereopathic, multiphonic attack is similar to that between Nirvana's Bleach and Nevermind. [May 2004, p.94]

An album of lightness and substance, in perfectly observed amounts. [Oct 2005, p.114]

A nearly flawless set of left-field folk. [Jun 2004, p.106]

A remarkable comeback. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Dreamily exploratory, but rooted in pop. [Apr 2004, p.102]

His songwriting has rarely sounded so acute. [Apr 2004, p.109]

To dismiss Heroes to Zeroes as a mere exercise in rock homage underestimates The Beta Band's charm. [Apr 2004, p.102]

In a way, Trampin' is to this decade what Horses was to the '70s: a repudiation of its time, and the promise of a way forward. [Apr 2004, p.98]

It really is incredibly good, even if sometimes it's hard to feel you're hearing the real Jolie and not a character she's adopted. [Jun 2004, p.110]

Starts strong and finishes weak, but it's forgivable considering the gems contained in this 12-song set. [May 2004, p.97]

The longer the album runs the more engaging the songs seem to become. [May 2004, p.104]

Lynn's voice... is as strong as it was during her heyday, while her songwriting ability has only increased with age. [Jun 2004, p.98]

Brilliantly produced and performed, rather than astoundingly well written. [Jun 2004, p.112]

Forget notions of old or new schools: this is an album that blends a kindergarten-level technique with styles that are strictly postgraduate. [Jun 2004, p.116]

All pomp and bluster, like Coldplay at their most bombastic. [Mar 2004, p.108]

When she opens her mouth, you get nothing but depressed. [Jun 2004, p.110]

A scrapbook of tuneful, scattershot fragments. [Mar 2004, p.97]

It drifts rudderlessly in places, but at its best... it's among Tortoise's most persuasive music to date. [Apr 2004, p.108]

The album is engagingly eclectic, always melodic, sometimes hard and storming, but never quite so sublime [as single "Good Boys"]. [Nov 2004, p.132]

This sounds like a decent Gang Star LP--no bad thing, but it lacks the spark of individuality. [May 2004, p.103]

Moments of simple, exultant joy are plentiful. [Jun 2004, p.102]

It is a pleasure to report that nothing has changed. [Jun 2004, p.108]

The best songs... sound as if singer Gary Lightbody spends a lot of time sitting in the dark pretending to be Lou Barlow. [Sep 2003, p.108]

A splendid corollary to Mercury Rev's 1998 pastoral masterpiece, Deserter's Songs. [Jan 2005, p.94]

[Aerosmith's] affection for and facility with the material in hand [is] as plain as the nose on Gerard Depardieu's face. [May 2004, p.106]

Innovative? No. Impeccable? Yes. [Apr 2004, p.114]

Pushes the trio's grandiose delusions onto new levels of interpretative-dancing, mirror-cracking excess. [Oct 2003, p.107]

This is an album of winsome alt country charm, like a pleasant cousin of Ryan Adams. [Feb 2004, p.98]

They've carved a bleak and beautiful album; their best, in fact. [May 2004, p.106]

This is one explosive package no hip hop loving home should be without. [Aug 2004, p.92]

It can't shake off the usual curse of live albums: an underlying sense, in the context of Reed's studio catalogue, of inescapable superfluity. [Apr 2004, p.114]

This is an enthusiastic hymn to the terminally uncool. [May 2004, p.106]

A swaggering, intoxicating tight-but-loose debut. [Jun 2004, p.107]

Beautifully recorded, this is intimate seduction for voice, elegant finger-picked guitar and not much else. [May 2004, p.93]

A debut of undeniable quality. [Oct 2004, p.106]

The Vines are mostly surface and scratch, a vessel of strangely useless beauty. [Apr 2004, p.114]

The wily creativity on display here is astonishing. [Jun 2004, p.114]

Fennesz excels when he squeezes something truly sublime and undeniably human through his gritty, labyrinthine microprocessors. [Jun 2004, p.112]

The flow is smoother, and the whole thing has a more compressed, accessible feel, without compromising the essential psychedelic madness at its heart. [Apr 2004, p.113]

Lean arrangements, never predictable melodic ticks and some of Byrne's most deliciously quirky lyrics ensure an event-packed listen. [Apr 2004, p.99]

So sweet is the harmonic construction that awareness of the ecclesiastical niceties of such as The Transfiguration... is incidental to falling under the divine spell. [May 2004, p.105]

It's perhaps a tad effortful here and there, but it's gloriously impolite. [Apr 2004, p.113]

Slaloms round sing-song pop, day-glo punk and Zappa-style tune transformations. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Edgy, ear-splitting, bonkers, bizarre and, in parts, astounding. [Mar 2004, p.104]

Dusky, angsty synth-pop. [Apr 2004, p.103]

They have an inherent gift for the split-second pause, the cool coda, the scene-stealing lyric. [Feb 2004, p.98]

A Martian mix of space-age sax, sky-high doo wop, seance-strange electronics and the rich, soulful vocals of [Adebimpe]. [Jun 2004, p.116]

The songs are a mite pretentious. [Sep 2004, p.99]

The songs feel like they're boiling over, there's so much heat under them. [Mar 2004, p.95]

While this delicately wistful set is hardly a great leap forward for Zero 7, one thing is certain: you'll be hearing it everywhere this year. [Mar 2004, p.104]

This concise yet rewarding selection... allies Beans' oft-celebrated intellectual rigour to commendably rock-solid beats. [Mar 2004, p.104]

A masterpiece. [May 2004, p.103]

The Coopers are adept with lyrics, big on attitude, but often lack that X-factor. [Nov 2003, p.131]

Not quite magic but an impressive attempt at experimental spell-weaving. [Mar 2004, p.101]

Lamb offer the perfect antidote to all manner of vapid pop-cultural vomitus without sounding pretentious or preachy. [Dec 2003, p.118]

A fabulous, strangely soothing listen. [Feb 2004, p.100]

There's much to digest here but absolutely no filler--each song is a priceless gem. [Jan 2004, p.110]

A work of uncommon beauty and torment. [Mar 2004, p.95]

Chopper blades and police sirens pepper the album; indeed, shorn of this angsty hum, the by turns pastoral and metallic instrumental tracks pale. [Apr 2004, p.106]

While their material lacks the instant hooks of attention-snaring contemporaries like The Handsome Family, [it] rings with a robust authenticity. [Jul 2003, p.112]

For all its country rockin' appeal, Monsoon lacks the emotional charge of its predecessor. [Feb 2004, p.98]

A disorienting work somewhere between Scott Walker, Joy Division and Matmos. [May 2004, p.105]

Old skool studio wizardry abounds. [Mar 2004, p.107]

Better records lie in their future, doubtless, but this is a very promising, very charming glimmer. [May 2004, p.104]

[These albums] are as much of a pendulum swing from Is A Woman as Is A Woman was from Nixon. [combined review of both discs; Feb 2004, p.90]

Many of the songs... are short, some feeling cut off in their prime, others a little undeveloped. [combined review of both discs; Feb 2004, p.90]

Should please any Stone Roses fan. [Mar 2004, p.108]

Evern more so than on Silence Is Sexy... a few telling elements are deployed to dramatic effect here. [Feb 2004, p.98]

It's similar to the debut.... But there's a more vivid light-and-shade to the textures and a craft and depth to the compositions that represent a welcome distillation of Jones' art. [Mar 2004, p.92]

This has wit in spades, an irrepressible love of language and genuine originality. [Oct 2004, p.110]

This isn't a great departure from The Coral but mainman James Skelly's increasingly witty words and ear for a killer jig put this in a loveable place of its own. [Aug 2003, p.95]

Most of which 'works', all of which comes thick with a sense of joy and love for the denim and leather. [Mar 2004, p.106]

If anywhere, this stuff belongs in interviews, not in songs. [Mar 2004, p.94]

This is manna for hip hop fans starved of basic but ballistic beats-and-breaks fare in an increasingly litigious age. [May 2004, p.102]

Explores Incubus' inner jam band. [Feb 2004, p.94]

The record's near-constant gloom and woolly arrangements are difficult to digest. [Feb 2004, p.99]

Their masterpiece--the re-interpretation of Western rock history as some consenual power-prog dream narrative where Led Zeppelin and Soft Machine are more important than The Beatles. [May 2004, p.105]

An arresting cocktail of post-punk angularity and instinctive pop savy. [Feb 2004, p.102]

Darnielle is a lyrical genius, for sure, but... you're left wishing for a song, just one song, that doesn't sound like a man strumming or plucking that damned folky guitar. [Mar 2004, p.96]

Bows & Arrows might seem like the ideal rock'n'roll yuletide soundtrack--and it is, but only for those who spend their Christmases in dive bars with nothing but a gold-hearted hooker, bottomless highball glass and volume of Bukowski poetry for company. [May 2004, p.100]

Modern without being self-conscious, metal without being stupid. [Mar 2004, p.106]