X – No Absolutes is the sound of Prong feeling comfortable in 2016; still underground and recognisable as the band who snapped our fingers and necks, but also adding essential modern detail.

It's hardly essential, but not without charm. [Summer 2019, p.87]

It can, by nature, feel like drowning in melted marshmallow over 55 minutes, but great moments stick out like ice sculptures in a snowdrift. [Dec 2020, p.80]

If you don't like jazz, this is another Metheny album that might change your mind. [Apr 2026, p.81]

The result: low-key mastery from a songwriting lifer. [Oct 2013, p.86]

The Fall, in the same old, and very different hands, remain freshly formidable. [Dec 2014, p.99]

Back in the saddle as bandleader, his tangible labour of love defiantly captures old-school New York’s cross-pollinating melting pot with rich infusions of Latin (Party Mambo), blues (I Visit The Blues), blaxploitation (Vortex), classic rock’n’roll (Superfly Terra Plane), Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes (Soul Power Twistin’) and still making a social point on Education.

Rather than straying too far from the path, Robinson returns with his usual stew of blues, country, warm psychedelia and rock’n’roll. But within that template, they’ve left a trail of surprises to uncover, and the band have built themselves a playground and given themselves the time and space to thoroughly explore every corner.

TWOD finds fresh spark on the Springsteen-esque Wasted and the title track. [Nov 2021, p.77]

An acquired taste, perhaps, but a neat 20s tweak of 90s grunge/grrrl tropes. [Summer 2023, p.79]

When not recycling hand-me-down Gallagher-by-numbers, has his moments. [Sep 2022, p.77]

12 is another gem worth unearthing. [May 2018, p.92]

It's not the most ambitious record in the world - at this stage in their career Bush don't seem to be trying to capture a new audience or to chase the zeitgeist - but I Beat Loneliness does give the impression of a band reaching out to the listeners they know are already there and offering the comfort of emotional understanding and musical familiarity. [Aug 2025, p.78]

It's a record modernised, ironically, by its more timeless moments. .... The Mysterines deepen. [Jul 2024, p.78]

Excellent, noisy stuff. [Jul 2013, p.87]

Purple simultaneously builds on what its predecessor achieved and reins in its sometimes overwhelming sprawl.

This is the first time she has really let go and experimented, and she's pulled it off with aplomb. [Jul 2014, p.97]

Civil Wars’ John Paul White and Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner leapt at the chance to produce his fourth album in 40 years and results are pleasing.

It all gives the impression that The Sword, lost in their own reverie, won't notice whether you listen or not. But you should. [May 2018, p.92]

A record imagined in youth, realised in maturity and vibrating with the thrill of possibility. [Apr 2026, p.75]

Berlin is Kadavar 2.0; cleaner, more inventive production, broader palette (although still 70s-centred), stratospheric energy.

Creepy and disturbing, but it’ll still make their mothers proud.

You still have a man born with the gift of a sandpaper voice, which seems to shred itself afresh with every word. [Apr 2019, p.84]

The engrossing full-album reprise Forever Now gives an insight into frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s booze and pills-induced 2012 meltdown, but otherwise Revolution Radio is more melodic air-punching about guns, gas and the American nightmare. File under: Ain’t Broke.

Even more than The Next Day, these seven tracks suggest the sounds inside his head are in sync with his long-time soul brother Scott Walker, though thankfully he remains on warmer terms with old-fashioned melody and emotion.

It may not match the mind-melting complexity or bold inventiveness of their finest hour, but War Music solidly demonstrates that Refused's passion remains undimmed. [Nov 2019, p.82]

Pick and mix your own highlights, but as a one-sitting listen expect a bumpy ride. [Nov 2018, p.82]

Goat have built a minor cult around their progressive, globe-straddling psychedelic world music, and this third album will only lengthen the Kool-Aid queue.

This time around it's less epic overload and more barebones, twitching drum machines and sparse, discordant guitars, [Apr 2026, p.76]

The clunky title track aside, swagger and confidence distinctively enhanced by the likes of Garth Hudson, Joan Wasser, Jim Keltner, JA keeps it all alive and diversely tuneful. [Oct 2013, p.89]

These are not so much conventional songs but something much looser and akin to sun-parched jams.

They’re on rollicking form here, mainman Lips playing several face-melting solos (Gun Control being typically OTT) and tackling zombies and runaway trains, alongside the more thoughtful Forgive Don’t Forget and Lemmy tribute It’s Your Move.

This album solidifies Cabbage as one of the UK's more exciting new prospects. [May 2018, p.88]

Lavish production disguises thin songwriting on a few tracks, but overall this voluptuous sonic feast feels like a fitting epitaph to departed friends. [Jun 2023, p.72]

The set culminates in a version of Echoes, which unfortunately is absolutely blighted by a wailing, dreadful saxophone solo, an awful aberration. Otherwise, this is quintessence of Floyd. [Feb 2026, p.85]

A wall of noise delivered with cinematic intent. [Nov 2018, p.83]

It gets a bit samey, as if noise alone is enough of a statement of intent. Thankfully, things pick up in the second half. [Dec 2014, p.104]

Turner, then, by a knock out. [Aug 2020, p.87]

High Water II isn't The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, but it might just be By Your Side. In the absence of anything else, we'll take it. [Nov 2019, p.85]

It's Tripp's devotion to short, snappy expression that lends this album mist character. [Apr 2026, p.77]

At three hours-plus, it’s a lot of breadline bluster, but it’s life-affirming nonetheless.

While we can probably do without his appropriation of You Are My Sunshine, the covers of Edgar Winter's Dying To Live and Tell 'Em I'm Gone are both moving and powerful. [Dec 2014, p.104]

Old timers and newcomers are invited to reconsider latter-day entries in the Stones hall of infamy. While Doom And Gloom and the sparring couplets of Rough Justice warrant rehabilitation, Streets Of Love’s overblown gaudiness typifies the quality dip that closes disc 2.

The album is a monument to an eccentric, indefatigable, indestructible spirit who refused not to rock on. [Jul 2018, p.88]

Pretty fine on record, this kinetic quartet sound like they would probably be explosively exciting live. [Aug 2020, p.87]

As a craftman's final flick on old canvases, it makes for a fine late Blue period. [Nov 2018, p.85]

These lush ambient soundscapes mostly make great backdrops to the 62-year-old crooner's pithy musing and archly allusive lyrics, especially on more widescreen numbers. [Summer 2023, p.75]

A dream experience, Born Horses canters at a fine pace. [Sep 2024, p.75]

The techno-noir sonic palette here is as eclectic as ever. [Oct 2013, p.90]

A gentle fleshing-out of tracks might’ve boosted it, but this is as close as the ever-youthful 74-year-old has yet come to doing an American Recordings. Autumnal, rather than valedictory.

The title and lyrics may scream apocalyptic gloom - Living is Killing Us, Doomscrolling, Born Again Pessimist - but there is an increasingly bright, infectious, power-glam polish to the band's sound. [Dec 2022, p.74]

Playing Favorites lacks the career-defining standout that will catapult them into a bigger league, and sometimes the whole is less than the sum of its intriguing parts. They're well on their way, tough. [May 2024, p.73]

Willfully off-kilter after all this time, The Used are still marching defiantly to the beat of their own drum. [Jun 2020, p.87]

It bursts with the wide-eyed, childlike wonder that has underpinned so much of his work, interwoven with his uniquely kind, gentle and spiritual voice of wisdom. [Summer 2023, p.79]

Sequel lacks any major melodic cornerstone in the vein of Kilimanjaro or Down In Abion but it's also without the dreary, narcotic ska rambles that made previous Babyshambles efforts only half-listenable. [Oct 2013, p.90]

It sounds like just another FFAF album. [Mar 2015, p.91]

Marlowe’s Revenge proves that his creative well is far from dry.

While a valuable document for nostalgic attendees, is, unsurprisingly, a hit-and-miss affair. [Summer 2023, p.74]

Yes aging is difficult but Elton and Bernie seem to be making a good job of it. [Oct 2013, p.91]

Throughout, Williams walks the line between tough and tender, just as she cleverly negotiates the path dividing heartland American music and the alternative, counter cultural variety. [Dec 2014, p.106]

Perhaps not the new studio recording some were hoping for, but a fascinating and compelling deep dive into Young’s past. [Mar 2024, p.80]

The four-piece have lost none of their bite. [Jul 2018, p.86]

Ann Wilson knows her music history, and it resonates powerfully throughout this fine album. [May 2022, p.82]

There is still enough here to inspire hope for the band in the future, but this album is not quiet there yet. [Dec 2014, p.106]

Two plays in, as with this utterly endearing tenth, you will overlook its flaws and follies and fall for their gentle angst massages and relentless power pop melodies. [Nov 2019, p.84]

Primus are an acquired taste, but a taste worth acquiring. [Dec 2014, p.107]

Kane's appeal remains in relishing the retro. [Mar 2022, p.80]

It's occasionally elegiac, delicate and whimsical on a song like Real Again, with an occasional side of the epic. [Summer 2023, p.75]

Utterly charming album, with Prophet’s ear for a keening melody still intact – the lovely Red Sky Night, the gentle rhythm of First Came The Thunder -and suffused with a lilting Latin charm. [Nov 2024, p.77]

Here the irresistible tag masks some solid riff-heavy whoopee. [Dec 2014, p.107]

The London post-punkers keep the pigeonholing hack on their toes throughout this third album. [Apr 2019, p.85]

While IOU and Danger are incessantly catchy, glittering amid high-end production, they fell as soulless as the vast stages they're destined for. [Oct 2018, p.84]

Archive Material is teeming with wonky, everyman charm. [Mar 2022, p.80]

Highlife electronica meets understated Celtic folkiness on charmingly whimsical, multifaceted, Welsh language. [Oct 2019, p.91]

Pinkus Abortion Technician still rocks harder than anything this side of ... Melvins themselves. [Jun 2018, p.86]

It may not be the most important return of the year, but 133 serves as a reminder that Muir is a leader in the field of party starting. [Jul 2013, p.87]

The record is rivenwith angst, strife and remonstration. Which makes it sound like a knotty proposition. But actually it’s quite the opposite.

At times the consistency dips, but Deer Tick can still roll like a classic bar band, and closing track The Real Thing sounds determined and sure. [Summer 2023, p.79]

Sweete, and then, deliciously soured. [Apr 2019, p.86]

The biggest draw is the plethora of out-takes and demos. ... A 15-song love set show The Replacements at their ramshackle, off-kilter power pop best. [Oct 2019, p.96]

What remains is a solid, engaging late-period Korn album that doesn’t add an awful lot to their legacy, but certainly doesn’t disgrace it.

Now 30 and nicely expanded Come On feel captures its time to a tee. [Jul 2023, p.93]

COVID fog has infected even our sharpest minds. Thank heaven so much of Ultra Vivid Lament sounds like a mirror ball at the end of the tunnel. [Sep 2021, p.78]

Although these notes from an underground that was basically dug 50 years ago, they crackle wit contemporary need. [Jun 2018, p.88]

John Primer channels his inner Mud convincingly, but you’ll be peering past him at the A-list band.

Another mind-melting album from a band that refuses to be pinned down. [Mar 2022, p.80]

On TFF, NIN and Cab-Volt industrialism nag at Rileyesque rave while referencing The Beatles’ Because. Clever.

The pair celebrate the (literal) tracks that made America, but also lament the railroad’s decline with tenderness on Jean Ritchie’s The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore.

The skeletal arrangements allow the controlled frailty of Doherty’s voice to pack a stronger emotional punch.

Dark, twisted, twisting. [Apr 2019, p.89]

While nothing on this album will replace anything from Doolittle or Surfer Rosa in your affections, bangers such as Classic Masher and Um Chagga Lagga detonate with a palpable sense of fun that leaves you in no doubt who the authors are and that it’s a better album than Trompe La Monde.

While the hazy creep if bleeding skull candles still waft through DVG's music this is essentially a white magick album, pulsating with light and sunshine and bursts of raga-punk exuberance. [Dec 2020, p.81]

The Ballad Of Spook And Mercy sounds like Kill Bill spliced with From Dusk Til Dawn, while piano lament More Than Death closes the story drenched in blood, regret and a little romantic redemption. [Nov 2023, p.79]

Delivers assurance, class and a timely, powerful study in historically ingrained racist ideology. [Sep 2020, p.89]

It might never escape the long shadow of the past, but it deserves a fair hearing. [Jun 2013, p.86]

The album fades a little towards the end, but it's exactly the daft-as-a-brush cheer-up we all need right now. [Dec 2021, p.72]

Brilliant music to dream to as the ship goes slowly down. [Dec 2020, p.81]

Recorded with Thomas’s snarl up front and the band on screeching overload, they pile through new titles such as Welcome To The New Dark Ages and revisit Sonic Reducer and Final Solution, plus the Sonics’ garage classic Strychnine.