Where classic and post rock meet experimentalism, the brooding soundscapes portrayed by the theme of LA's dark underbelly is one of 2023's most inventive surprises. [Jan 2024, p.80]

A rather fine rock record indeed.

After all this time, Pixies can still surprise and intrigue. [Oct 2022, p.72]

With Parker’s voice haloed in reverb, some of it sounds great, especially eight-minute epic Let It Happen and the gorgeous ’Cause I’m A Man. But quite what his regular audience will make of this change in direction is another matter entirely.

It's relaxed, and effective at that. [Sep 2014, p.92]

Disturbed are back, and they’re on top form.

The results, from the likes of Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh, Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, are impressive. But ultimately you don’t learn as much about Johnny himself as you would from listening to the originals of the 17 tracks presented here. [May 2022, p.85]

The Day's War is full to the brim with dramatic, radio-friendly anthems. [Sep 2014, p.93]

It's on those spiritual slowies that this crew rakes the biggest steps to creating the 21st-century southern masterpiece they are obviously capable of. [Mar 2015, p.94]

Disc one's the gold. [Jan 2024, p.87]

Things get rough and rocky in places. .... But the soft centres of Davina McCall and U And Me At Home keep Moisturizer a light and vivifying lotion. [Aug 2025, p.73]

Ultimately, there's little on offer to snare a neutral. For the zealot, however, new heights of melody and assurance await. [Sep 2014, p.93]

While Mental Illness doesn’t stray too far from the beaten path, it does offer something new for seasoned Mann watchers.

Hynde's fire is undimmed as she tackles love's drug-like addiction, tears up a roughshod storm on the rockers and delves into surf-guitar reggae on Lightning Man. [Jun 2020, p.88]

Devotees of blues-rock and the trio’s past glories will relish taking a spin in their new model.

The Million Masks Of God is way less heavy going than a concept album centred on explorations of faith and existence inspired by the death of a parent has any right to be. [Jun 2021, p.79]

This is tender and meditative music that contemplates the complex tapestry of existence.

Time may have dulled some of their digital dexterity but their enthusiasm is undimmed, as is their ear for what makes a good Fairport song.

At its best, the results of this level of craftsmanship are thrilling.

Long-overdue, and quite delightful footnote to San Fran's illustrious rock history. [Dec 2018, p.87]

With its gentle, unwaveringly steady, never-changing tone and rhythm, it demands work on the part of the listener. [Jun 2021, p.79]

The first half of the album is a collection of unfiltered, no-frills hardcore. ... A pitch shift in the middle demonstrates just how much more there is going on here. [Sep 2021, p.77]

Biffy fan or not, there is much to enjoy on this album, such as the thundering North Of No South and the snap of Tiny Indoor Fireworks. But it’s the lingering beautiful sadness of songs like Space and Opaque that really stays with you.

A gentle watercolour portrait of the artist as a young man.

The post-hardcore foundations are here, complete with drama-fuelled, singalong choruses, but what The Used have built upon them opens up a new world of creative opportunities for them.

There are slower, less effectual burners as well, but there’s a raw authority not seen in his last couple of records; something that reinstates him as a gutsy rocker of flesh and bone, not just a virtuoso show pony.

Unlikely to win any new fans, then, but this richly textured mix of soft-focused funk, soul, jazz and R&B will delight those in thrall to an artist not so much laid back as horizontal. [May 2013, p.88]

The good news for casual listeners, though, is that the music works as a standalone experience. [Jun 2022, p.82]

Offering no major reinvention. That said, it kicks harder than a mule in lead boots. [Summer 2025, p.82]

Retro rock with rage and aspiration. Follow that, Astley.

To Turn You On and The Ghost In You sound uncannily like Nick Drake gone glam, but it works. [Sep 2014, p.94]

On a record full of sprawling, guitar solos, textural acoustics and steady drums, J Mascis's plaintive howl of a vocal tops off everything, adding one more layer of poignancy. [Mar 2024, p.81]

Unique and, indeed, endlessly fantastic, this album is the work of a man committed to his own vision, both for his music and for the troubled and broken world around him.

Inspired song choices, delivered with real passion. [Mar 2026, p.78]

Recorded just weeks after Barre’s arrival, the album shows Tull still clinging to a blues root although reaching for something entirely new.

Big Bad Beautiful Noise is their first album in four or so years, and it’s their best and most consistent since 1988’s seminal Birth School Work Death.

An entirely charming collection of bilingual Europhile duets. [Summer 2023, p.79]

Sun Racket is a worthy addition to a formidable canon. [Sep 2020, p.86]

A treat for the kind of sensitive souls who remember how good emo was before it mutated into the eyeliner-and-skinny-jeans brigade. [Mar 2019, p.89]

At just 39 minutes, they've packed so much into this entirely mad record, you'll be left happily exhausted by the end of it. [May 2015, p.103]

Old ground, yes, but viewed through bright, fresh eyes. You want the real vintage rock’n’soul deal? Look this way, and then make sure you catch them live.

Shiny Happy People still feels like an irritant, while the Turtles-y Near Wild Heaven is pleasant at best. By contrast, the muted baroque of Low and the anguished beauty that seeps from the heart of Country Feedback--so intense in the live arena that Michael Stipe often sang it on his knees, with his back to the audience--are classic examples of the band at their moody, mysterious best.

As first albums go, Honora is a risky play, but it's one that just about manages to pay off. [May 2026, p.75]

You want depth, originality, surprises? Look elsewhere. But as the rock equivalent of comfort food, they don’t disappoint.

Taylor hasn’t reinvented the wheel here, but he has reinvented himself.

This album is a pleasant listening experience, if not quite earth-shattering. [May 2026, p.77]

This time around, the woozy, comforting psychedelia of old remains, the songs trickling into one another, sleepy synths sighing, purring and pulsating. But Eternally Even comes with the biggest serving of soul he’s cooked up yet, sexy basslines sizzling even as he looks death in the face for We Ain’t Getting Any Younger Parts 1 and 2.

hile its takes on classic swing, psych country and postpunk pop are understandably fragile and lacking wallop--an inevitable consequence of age and getting your kids in your backing band--How The West Was Won is shot through with a wonderfully wry reinvigoration.

This seven-track album has a similar stripped-down, raw feel to its acoustics and shivery, spooked vocals. [Summer 2020, p.89]

A mostly exhilarating, agreeably disagreeable racket. [Aug 2022, p.71]

Once the album stops yelling and stamping for attention, the strong suits of this outfit come through, and dark, sinister atmospheres trademarked by Depeche Mode and The Banshees are allowed to thrive. [Jul 2021, p.81]

Play fast and loose with notions of Americana. [Aug 2025, p.77]

Nico-styled, Stereolab-crafted, stylishly kosmische-ed, pastoral near prog. [May 2026, p.79]

Same edgy, post-punk, anything-could-happen-next discomfort about them [as 90s band Compulsion]. Which is nice. [May 2025, p.79]

He elects to drag his material through the dirt, and the ramped layers of fuzz and distortion actually improves on the originals. [May 2024, p.75]

Get Gone is a tumble dryer full of retro ideas given a contemporary currency by their restless drive, which evades categorisation.

Some of his catchiest tracks of recent years offset the records indulgences. [May 2026, p.79]

Gilded vocal harmonies and gently chiming guitars are uppermost as the band move through subtle variants of form and texture. [Aug 2023, p.77]

Whereas the DVD offers a longer set, including jewels in her crown like Broken English, the CD selects just 45 minutes, highlighting more recent material and covers, before sauntering into a forlorn As Tears Go By, a resilient Sister Morphine and a finale of The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan.

Some pretty satisfying final testaments, then, but you also get the impression that Kramer in particular spent his final years having more fun than most septuagenarians can reasonably expect. [Nov 2024, p.72]

Predictably lyrically recherche, self-consciously Fall-esque and potentially driven by weapons-grade PTSD-ah. [Jul 2023, p.86]

The tone lightens marginally for the relationship rampages of the second half, with Baby Needs A Cookie bordering on pop melodies and Leather Dreams revelling in a sultry churn with a hint of S&M, but Blue Hearts is ideal fodder for smashing in the news channel to.

Jack Wyllie's sax and Laurence Pike's drumming keep the feel raw and live throughout. [Oct 2018, p.89]

As ever, they paint from the broadest of palettes to create a portrait of a city rich in cultural and musical diversity. [Aug 2021, p.80]

This white-hot furnace of a black-rock milestone shows Living Colour more scathingly relevant (and desperately needed) than ever.

This is just an especially focused, varied set of entertaining Bonamassa tunes. [Sep 2018, p.90]

If the music's a bit uniform, it'd sound great scoring a scene in Sons of Anarchy. [Nov 2014, p.91]

There’s a charming vulnerability to it all, and although they still amp up the rock when necessary – a riff at the heart of Brambles is fittingly prickly – Dark Rainbows is a brooding, subtle, ballad-stuffed affair from a band that refuses to be hemmed in by their own history. [Apr 2024, p.76]

What The Journey lacks in subtlety--nothing here quite matches the beauty of Porrohman or the sheer exuberance of In A Big Country--it makes up for in heart. [Jun 2013, p.92]

A homage to the alchemical combination of Stills, the late Mike Bloomfield and Blood, Sweat And Tears keyboardist Al Kooper, it has all the hallmarks of a venture guided by pure nostalgia. However, on Can't Get enough, Stills, largely pulls it off. [Aug 2013, p.84]

Admittedly, it still shines and chimes, the charming Yesterday Was Just A Dream is a highlight, as is the swaying Brand New Day, but the opening skiffle of You Belong To Me and the indifferent Go Down Rockin’ (as inspired as its title might imply), are Bryan Adams by numbers.

Lambrini Girls are political but transgressive, smart but not pretentious (no way!), humourous, but dark - very dark indeed. Subversive, in all the hidden senses of the word. [Feb 2025, p.73]

Kudos to Pure Love for taking a ludicrous concept of comedy commercialism and successfully straightening its face. [Feb 2013, p.95]

There are no new tricks, but there’s plenty of life in these old dogs yet. [Nov 2024, p.72]

Opener Finally Free is the instant crowd pleaser, but slow-burners Diamond Girl and Pink Snow find them in ambitious new album rock territory. [Jun 2015, p.89]

They’re a light-footed prospect, made still more intriguing by Erika Wennerstrom’s curiously detached vocal.

At their best, the Wizard can still makes you spurt blood from every orifice. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Electric is a return to one of his best attributes, the snarling electric guitar. [Mar 2013, p. 95]

Home In Another Life may have sadness running through it, but it's also very cool indeed. [Sep 2024, p.69]

as shiny theatrical melody rock designed to look deceptively dangerous on teenage bedroom walls goes, Impera takes Ghost several more ferula shuffles in the direction of their very own American Idiot. [Apr 2022, p.77]

The result is a fun, no-frills album, and what it lacks in surprises makes up for with visceral thrills. [Oct 2020, p.86]

While Showdown and the Lennon cover feel almost jaunty in their lightness of touch, his cover of Guns N’ Roses’ Patience is a broody, brooding acoustic ballad, lonely and haunting.

Danzig mostly avoids the obvious greatest hits, favouring instead reverb-heavy lo-fi treatments that faithfully reference the originals without shooting for all-out mimicry. [Summer 2020, p.85]

Mostly, it's an invigorating set that sounds, like a cubist marriage of King Of Limbs and Eno & Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. [Mar 2013, p.95]

We get charismatic wagon wheels of delta stomp’n’roll, conjuring images of high-class horror scenes in rugged Westerns.

Their sugar-coated badass swagger might be toothless and adolescent, but sometimes teenage dreams are hard to beat. [Mar 2021, p.87]

This album may be a little unfocused, but it reveals mire and more with each listen. [Feb 2014, p.94]

The Big Decider sees The Zutons back to Their happy clapping playful best. [Jun 2024, p.79]

It's this latter sense of indefatigable positivity that shines through, a sense of togetherness engendered by a celebration of classic, no-nonsense rock'n'roll. [Nov 2020, p.83]

Atmospheric, evocative, the psychedelic soul concept work you never knew you needed. [Summer 2022, p.79]

The result is the band’s most concise effort since Strung Out In Heaven.

A slickness that comes with age and experience sees them settle into their own groove. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Together, they’ve produced an album of cracking Mac-esque pop, most notably the clipped, catchy Feel About You and the tightly constructed first single In My World.

This knuckle-biting howler ["The Season's Upon Us"] aside, SASIB raises the roof with good vibes and memorable songs. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Good to hear the quiet one speaking up again. [Nov 2018, p.80]

An overall very classy and engaging collection from a singer perhaps largely unsung as a songwriter. [Jul 2022, p.81]

Dense and demanding, Soused will not be topping the album charts. But it is the kind of obliteratingly intense, glamorously weird avant-metal epic that Lou Reed and Metallica never made. [Nov 2014, p.94]

If the joyous Ready For The Magic isn’t already an indie club floor filler, it damn well should be.