It all makes for an entrancing half hour. [Summer 20219, p.86]

Screen Time is a minor but consistently engaging Moore release, crackling with kinetic tension, forever perched on a knife edge between easy listening and uneasy noise. [Apr 2022, p.77]

Fourth album The Night Creeper is their most convincing statement yet, a buzzing set of doomy psych-rock songs with great hooks and punishing riffs.

Occult Architecture is pleasing enough, if a little deodorised at times.

C91 is an overstuffed hit-and-miss banquet of bittersweet popstalgia, great in parts but far from definitive. [Feb 2022, p.86]

A clutch of fine torch songs (Iceman, Dead For Love, the title track) save the day, suaveness replacing the sordid sweat of old. Their youth was doomed, but their adulthood shows promise.

Another triumph. [May 2026, p.78]

The synth-heavy The Signal & The Noise shows they can still quest when the mood takes them, but overall the album plays to Simple Minds’ many strengths.

Tunes and sound both stay below the Gold Standard. [Dec 2014, p.104]

The wistfulness, the super-saturated sound, the layered harmonies and instrumentation, the timeless echo of pasts and retro-futures colliding. The humanity, the performed frailty at the heart of manufactured perfection. Lynne still has it. He still knows how to create the magic.

A great version of The Fugs' Carpe Diem aside, Everybody Loves Sausages feels like an in-joke that was never funny to begin with. [May 2013, p.87]

Mayall’s own songs are self-reflective, particularly Ain’t No Guarantees and the title track. And while his voice increasingly betrays his age his Hammond and piano playing has lost none of its vigour.

He keeps his freak flag flying with this collection of bar jams and blues covers that is as flinty and steely edged as Gibbons himself. [Oct 2018, p.82]

The good-natured, twangsome results prefigure Costello's more angsty work with Clover on Nick Lowe-produced My Aim Is True. [Aug 2022, p.71]

This is a good record mostly because the two men at the heart of it all sound like they’re actually enjoying being The Cult again.

A tangibly effervescent romp. [Sep 2022, p.77]

That Repentless is coherent and persuasively powerful is a tribute to the identity of the band.

All flutes and bubbles, A Jammed Exit could be a Jethro Tull B-side, and only dedicated lovers of the eight-minute free-form scree solo need apply to Nervous Tech (Nah John), which is essentially Frank Zappa having a fit. Run for the exits.

There’s little variation in sound over the 11 tracks, but bucketloads of yearning, wistful emotion that is elegant and uplifting, with just a touch of schmaltz.

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

There's no lioght, no shade, no nuance, no reflection--just a sheer onrushing, hurricane force. [Aug 2013, p.85]

Knopfler's slide into the cosy vale of rootsy retro is clearly irreversible, but he certainly makes trad a luxurious place to get pampered for an hour. [Apr 2015, p.97]

His seventh album is another celebration of the simple things in life. [Jun 2015, p.93]

The songs are tight and feisty, with guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt trading off each other with flexibility and style, Howe giving full vent to his range and depth.

It works, thanks in this case to an engagingly loopy clutch of lysergic psych-pop oddities created with Primus frontman Les Claypool.

Throw in the odd ambient curveball and you’ve got an album fizzing with life from experts in their field.

Mayall’s never going to dislodge Beano, but it’s ridiculous for an 83-year old to sound this relevant.

Great work. [Summer 2019, p.84]

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

[Patti Smith is] in her element. [Oct 2020, p.83]

A couple of other unremarkable tracks leave this album just short of being a stunner, but for the most part Blackberry Smoke have done Georgia proud once again. [Jul 2021, p.80]

He enlists a pan-generational wish list and lets them shine. [Apr 2024, p.81]

A compulsive half-hour montage of dynamic Metric buzz-pop, Garage tech-rock, drivetime soundtrack sounds and pummelling grit metal. [Nov 2024, p.79]

Thematically it’s a steady path, although musically Dream Into It is fairly erratic and offers quite a disjointed listening experience as it jumps from style to style. [Jun 2025, p.70]

Smart enough to avoid slavish imitation, Temples already sound strong enough to breathe new life into old forms. [Mar 2014, p.101]

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

A set of songs whose freshness reflects the spontaneous manner in which they were recorded.

The album gets better with every play. [Jun 2013, p.89]

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

Great riffs, great rides, great album. [Apr 2015, p.101]

A mad, florid knockout. Strength through absurdity.

Bootsy shines brightest when the Big Daddy Kanes pipe down and he gets to consider mortality on the poignant Heaven Yes, pay tribute to fallen P-Funk comrade Bernie Worrell on A Salute To Bernie, or stretch out on the uncut funk he does best, bolstered by guitarist Eric Gales and veteran Funkadelic drummer Dennis Chambers on Come Back Bootsy.

Devoid of cynicism or sarcasm, The Silver Cord - Extended Mix revels in the sheer euphoria of unashamed hedonism. [Nov 2023, p.81]

d Three Men’s engaging mix of heaviness of duty and lightness of touch resonates timelessly.

The Residents are just as tricky and bewildering and (occasionally) irritating as they ever were.

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]

As ever, and in the best sense, Farrell aims high and wide. [Jul 2019, p.80]

Wolf Parade sound alert, ready for a bruising. [Feb 2020, p.88]

There’s no pretense of indie cool here. Drive Me Wild features a blaring sax for an 80s viewed through a prism of nostalgia for a decade they never knew, and a towering, phones-in-the-air chorus, while ballad Cry ups the overblown ante even further.

After initial queasiness at a moment of amorousness in Eraser (‘I’m just a toy waiting for you to play me’), it quickly becomes business as usual in terms of their shamelessly enormous pop-rock music.

If this is the last resurrected Hendrix studio material the world will see, then it’s a creditable send-off, yet we doubt it’s the last gasp it occasionally resembles.

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

While it might lack the golden glow of Shiflett's regular band, it's happy to bask in a bourbon haze a few seats along the bar from Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers. [Summer 2019, p.86]

Somehow, his voice remains--a ghostly, spellbinding croon that swims through wastelands of strings and synths, making Noctunes unfold like an alternative soundtrack to Twin Peaks.

Overall it's a psychedelic delight. [Jul 2020, p.89]

It's not just the most svelte, direct and immediate Pumpkins album ever, it's the most misleadingly titled. [Feb 2015, p.94]

Not everything here grabs the attention first time around: the Anthrax of today often favour a slow burn to a startling slap. But as a cohesive and dynamic whole, For All Kings delivers the goods with swagger and style.

Eleven years into their career, Tesseract are still thriving. [Jun 2018, p.91]

The album suffers from the Lips' recent tendency for ambient, Blade Runner interludes, while jazzy plods and one-note vocoder drug confessionals drag things to a muted, half-baked crawl. [Apr 2020, p.87]

Lyrically this has all been done better before, but it does show that Beck is fully engaged with the world. Moreover, Loud Hailer’s often stunning tapestry of vampy rock, funk, Southern blues and wah-wah wizardry proves that all of his considerable faculties are as sharp as they ever were.

The stumbling block is that too many songs here never develop pasta dino-stomp riff, and that the vocals can be a little shrill. [Summer 2013, p.89]

In playing predominantly with familiar sounds, From Zero feels less like a step forward for Linkin Park than a rallying point to bring the band back from the brink. But in that, the album is nothing short of a triumph; measuring their angst and leaning on the communal heart that's always existed in their songs, Linkin Park have saved themselves to fight another day. [Jan 2025, p.78]

This album is as good as we could expect from the Mary Chain in 2017.

It has power, darkness and bucketloads of testosterone. [Sep 2013, p.92]

Dark, desperate and full of great tunes, this is rock'n'roll at its black-hearted best. [Nov 2013, p.90]

Dave Brock has long used his artistry with Hawkwind to entertain yet also to get us to think. This is among his most effective blows.

With the heft of rock and fat bottom of funk, Heavy neatly summarises the sound achieved by guitarist Dan Taylor, bassist Spencer Page and drummer Chris Ellul, while singer Kelvin Swaby adds the requisite guts and grit.

Bohemian Rhapsody's soundtrack is as dramatically paced, unrelentingly emotive and intrinsically cinematic as it's reasonably possible for any flat piece of circular plastic to be.

It's a credit to the line-up's combustible chemistry and Setzer's twinkle-in-eye storytelling that these songs feel fresh and often thrilling. [Jul 2019, p.84]

A solid return from a beloved band with plenty of wry lyrical tricks still up their sleeve. [Dec 2019, p.82]

What's missing from these pastiches is a sense of Walrus's own identity. [Jan 2020, p.88]

While on first listen Perida will surprise some STP fans and disappoint others. It’s an album that with repeated listens could well come to be seen by many as being among the band’s best.

Sad And Beautiful Worlds finds him showing off those songwriting skills, delivering country-tinged ballads, bubblegum pop and twinkling Americana in typically effortless fashion. It's when he lets his guard down, however, that Malin is at his most impressive. [Oct 2021, p.72]

Couldn’t Love You More begins like Blackbird and has McCartneyish vocals, with Ringo on drums. Rock guitar royalty includes Brian May on Floating In Heaven, Hank Marvin on When You Find Love, and Albert Lee pops up on an Everlys-inspired number. [Summer 2024, p.73]

Diggle has done his old friend proud with the Buzzcocks' new normal. [Mar 2026, p.81]

Their music, while distinctive, is a rather rudimentary and static thing, with a limited melodic spectrum. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Uber-producer Youth adds a sleaze-funk swagger to a valedictory Nine Lives, while standouts Losing Sleep and Money Burns could almost be outtakes from the Mondays’ commercial peak Pills ’n’ Thrills And Bellyaches. Lyrically, Ryder remains in a league of his own.

The record oozes confidence and spunky attitude--a far cry from her more recent country records thanks to the partnership with past collaborators Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake.

From the ‘na-na-na’s of Telegraph Avenue to the fist-in-the-air anthem Make It Out Alive and the arena-sized chorus of Farewell Lola Blue, this album is a solid reminder of what Rancid are capable of.

Cutting their teeth in New York’s surviving venues, the quintet (first signings to Daptone’s new Wick offshoot) arrive like a most welcome anachronism.

It has given a cerebral clarity and garage pop edge to tracks that would otherwise be buried in slaughterhouse riffs under inaudibly angry lyrics. [Summer 2014, p.93]

The energy levels are astounding too, with producer Julian Raymond extracting a sonic attack that makes Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson and Daxx Nielsen sound like they’ve been locked in an industrial hangar with a bunch of AK-47s.

Overwhelmingly, Weller's songs are durable enough to bear their new setting. [Jan 2022, p.81]

For those who remain strangely tickled by their frivolous, heart-felt one-offmanship, every track here will prick your ears. Easter might be cancelled, but for rock fans Christmas has come early. [Oct 2019, p.86]

They find the sweet spot between Dinosaur Jr's nagging noise and The Posies' woozy power-pop charm. [Apr 2015, p.101]

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]

There's enough brittle punch to Blood & Lemonade to freshen even the stuffiest cliche. [Oct 2014, p.93]

It finds them on classic BJM form--a warm, densely analogue journey through inner space punctuated by churchy keyboards and tambourines that rattle like bones. [Summer 2018, p.86]

This album feels like something of a transitional one for Starcrawler, as they find themselves torn between their residual instinct to rock and a desire to roll into new creative areas. [Sep 2022, p.76]

While the results haven’t got the near-reckless zeal of the young Yorn’s records, the sense of longing reflects the broken-down feel--strumming acoustic guitars, the light thrum of a snare--of some of the material he was writing back in the early 2000s.

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]

A fine album by any standards, not least the Chili Peppers' own. [Oct 2022, p.70]

Volume X is not a dud album, just a little short on X Factor. [Aug 2014, p. 206]

It's a joy to discover that not only is he refusing to mellow with age, but also the output from this trio is so heavy. [Apr 2015, p.95]

At the heart of the album is Brooker’s dextrous keyboard work, his pristine piano-playing embellished in all the right places by Josh Phillips’s Hammond organ. What’s equally impressive is the might of Brooker’s voice, which has lost none of its vigour in the 50 years since he first skipped the light fandango.

A handful of solo piano interludes also summon inescapable echoes of Spinal Tap’s Lick My Love Pump. Overall, though, Synthesis feels like a successful experiment.

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