This EP, the first in a projected triptych, shows the group in their best light. [Nov 2008, p.74]

The beats are functional if not flashy. [Nov 2008.p.79]

In the best way, Barber and Pearson distil their knowledge and experimentation into something which sounds like the raw essence of a musical personality [Aug 2008]

This is artfully bracing listening. [Sep 2008, p.55]

This is a beautiful record, but I wish it had a little more chaos in it. [Oct 2008, p.58]

Melvins' evolution from potential stoner rock dinosaurs to 21st century sound shifters is complete. [Jul 2008, p.52]

Rarely has an album exemplified the 'body and soul' paid so much lip service in House music so willingly. [Apr 2008, p.58]

The Notwist's songs sound almost too arranged and it's only after they've seeped in a little that it becomes easier to admire the trio's deftness, the way they absorb electronica's qualities of dissonance and disruption and use them as essential building blocks of their music. [June 2008, p.59]

Pacific Ocean Blue has aged well, considered over 30 years later. [July 2008, p.46]

He's come up with a debut album that combines vaulting ambition, real musicality and a deceptive deftness of touch. [Jun 2008, p.47]

While there's no doubting that Subtle can create, populate and soundtrack a world of their own, it's not always clear whether it was worth it. [May 2008, p.65]

That this is Spiritualized's most vital and compelling set for a decade suggests that his muse has been galvinised by his near death experience. [May 2008, p.61]

While Steinski's work with DeFranco aka Double Dee, is the most dazzling--precisely because it avoids the pitfalls of run of the mill culture jamming and guerrilla media tactics--Steinski's solo tracks certainly have their own pleasures, even if they are more straightforwardly textural than his collabotation with Double Dee. [June 2008, p.57]

The beats are tighter, the rhymes sharper and the subject matter more relevant. [July 2008, p.66]

Lie Down In The Light is arguably the most various of the records since the own-songs covers album, but it illustrates one of the perversities of Oldham's songwriting. [July 2008, p.45]

The tracks sung by Cafritz are more wired and garage punk, but these brief flashes provide contrast to Gordon's murkier shades. [July 2008, p.49]

Getting the full measure of this quickly hermetic collection depends considerably on how you shuffle and deal formats. [May 2008, p.57]

While the tracks appear softer edged, they share "Strawberry Jam's" tangy, bitterweet flavours. [May 2008, p.49]

This may be a mini-album, but it's so well turned, so successful in completing what it sets out to achieve that, far from marking time in his discography, it could end up being one of his key releases. [May 2008, p.55]

Rising Down's most immediate qualities are the raw aesthetic and the burning importance of its message. [July 2008, p.66]

A comfortable listen, occassionally diverting, but by no means a groundbreaking album. [May 2008, p.51]

Throw in an evocative, anthemically chanted lyrical snapshot, some cryptic tales and a blues rock cover and almost every successful Fall trick familiar from the last two decades is also deployed. All of which amounts to a vital late period masterpice. [June 2008, p.47]

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! sees Cave at his wittiest and most relaxed, though perhaps also most detatched. [Apr 2008, p.53]

Despite the use of repetition and layering, Street Horrsing's sonic make-up is often unpredictable, which is where their strength stems from. [Apr 2008, p.57]

There's something very likable about this album....The problem with Too Old To Die Young is that it's too familiar to sound truly fresh. [May 2008, p.65]

With the Jicks now sharing the spotlight, sees Malkmus's familiar tangled lyricism and meandering tendencies offset by some tremendous group performances. [Mar 2008, p.57]

The closing 'Honey' leaves all the issues behind and drips with the kind of sultry retro-funk that proves New Amerykah to have been well worth any amount of waiting. [May 2008, p.70]

These themes of anguish are not so much bleak as moving, for he always finds a way to inject his wry observations into the mix. [Feb 2008, p.54]