Manchester Music, June 2005 said about the new demo (Lights, You'll never change):  "Best demo I’ve heard in some time, this one – another great band from the northern fringes of the city. There must be something in the water up there. The guitars chime and peal beautifully over strong crashing drums, and singer Liam has an amazing, high-pitched but powerful voice which soars skyward through tunes that actually deserve the frequently over-used word “anthemic”. Both tracks here are uplifting, melodic swathes of windswept Northern passion. Chameleons fans’ hearts will be stirred by the echoing guitars on the downbeat, minor chord based “Lights”, but it’s the remarkable six minute live favourite “You’ll Never Change” which just about gets pole position as it swoops and dives into the kind of mountainous climax that makes you want to wave a lighter about, except obviously indie kids don’t so that sort of thing. And it gets better with every listen". MMMM½

Manchester Music, 2004 said about the last demo (Don't wanna feel the pain, Stronger): "The Tides are one of Manchester’s newest acts, offering an acoustically flavoured, atmospheric trip, underpinned by the strong, pure almost angelic male lead vocal. Whilst there’s the obvious strength of voice to match singers like James Walsh, there’s a carefully controlled and slightly restrained tug on the melodies, which makes the whole plot all the more enjoyable. Both tracks are pretty -and refreshingly- basic in terms of accompaniment, but just a dash of vision of say a sweeping burst of guitars, or the svelte swoop of strings, would be the perfect compliment to the exceptionally strong vocals. Just a step away from sounding just like a singer songwriter, to achieving a much more justifying soundscape. An excellent debut and ones to watch in 2004". MMMM

Manchester Music, March 2005 said about a gig in Manchester: The Tides have supported Puressence a couple of times and initially the influence of their sometime mentors is hard to ignore, with singer Liam working firmly in the realms of passionate high notes, but scratch a little deeper and you’ll find a band with a sound all of their own, even if it is rooted in some familiar territory. There are bits of Chameleons-via-Interpol guitar here and there and powerful melodies with a touch of later period James about them. Liam’s voice is that kind of distinctive that people will either love or hate from first hearing, and in the stunning “You’ll Never Change” they already have that first potential breakthrough hit up their scruffy little sleeves – think of Coldplay’s best song (In My Place, in case you were wondering) with several hundred times more emotion and higher peaks than the coffee table boys could contemplate. There’s an unfortunate pause at least long enough to get a pint in (if they actually had any draught at the still unnecessarily pretentious bar) whilst a string snaps and a guitar has to be borrowed from another band but as soon as they start up again it’s like they never stopped – lesser bands wouldn’t get away with this. They end on another mini epic called “Broken Souls”, and the reception is deservedly positive.