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

The results rock with dynamic, dramatic vigour on Put It Right and Rubicon, while Soord’s ability to tug melodically at heart strings remains in emotive evidence when the storm clouds part on Now It’s Yours and To Forget. [Apr 2024, p.80]

Walk This Road is an album as full of joy as it is of craft. [Jul 2025, p.76]

Fallon’s preoccupation with emotive storytelling and heartland rock remains, occasionally flying a little too close to a musical rehashing than being the modern reinvention he’s aiming for.

Some tracks here might surprise on first listen, but surprise quickly gives way to joy. This is superb. [Aug 2020, p.84]

Unexpected diversions into country honk (Cold Hearted Woman, Hot On My Tail) and cinematic balladry (Weekend In Rome) may also raise eyebrows among diehards. But when the storm clouds clear, the band's innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever. [Apr 2025, p.76]

Mayhem are restrained by an obsession with their past. [Jan 2020, p.85]

With all profits going to MusiCares, it’s a worthy effort--if not an entirely worthwhile one.

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

This moving yet strangely exhilarating album is a distant relative of The Residents’ 1979 album Eskimo, their sonic studies of Arctic culture.

When You See Yourself is their most clued-in record in a decade. [Apr 2021, p.88]

The best moments aren't the straightforward boogie tunes--some of the album sounds like a backwater George Thorogood--but on the numbers where other influences creep in. [Mar 2015, p.93]

Little has changed in the schlocky-horror junk-shop aesthetic.... However, the polished and emotive power-pop chuggers She's The Bad One and Sorry About Tomorrow show more midlife maturity. [May 2015, p.103]

They’re presented raw, ragged and (if you wanna believe the hype) completely unrehearsed. It’s kind of a mess, but that’s pretty much the point.

The predictable impression of a rich man's plaything cast with superior company remains. [Aug 2013, p.84]

With High Water I, The Magpie Salute have hit on a warm, rich vein of inspiration that might well sustain them for some time. [Aug 2018, p.88]

A breezy, funky prog-ssych knockabout. [Jul 2019, p.83]

They’ve filtered their inheritance through their own jam-band generation, and the sound is heavier, muddier at times, and Duane Allman’s ‘crying bird’ slide guitar has become more of a screaming bat.

Punchy, confident debut. [Nov 2021, p.76]

There’s more than an hour of music on Oochya! – a double LP’s worth, in old money – and as with most albums of such length you can easily argue over the more forgettable tracks that could have been left out. But for the most part the record showcases a band still looking forward to the next challenge. [Apr 2022, p.78]

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]

Ryder is at his best when riffing through the 70s piano-pop playbook. [Feb 2023, p.78]

You've got another classic BJM album. [Apr 2023, p.79]

Ash still put out heart and reliable joy. [Oct 2023, p.86]

It might not be essential, but it's not without merit. [Apr 2026, p.80]

The pace and vibe of the album, which is 1982 for ever and ever. Which is fine with me. [Jun 2026, p,72]

Melvins have made exactly the album they wanted to. The result? This is one for dedicated followers only.

Wonderfully schizophrenic and shamelessly populist, this is prime Babymetal. [Nov 2019, p.81]

A couple of lesser tracks bloat into shapeless abstraction, but overall this is a sonically lavish and formally bold reinvention.

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]

A quaintly dated second set haunted by cliche. [Apr 2019, p.89]

Even as they slip effortlessly into middle-age, their perennial prog tendencies are still evident on the demonic squall of I Told You I Was Crazy and the sprawling, trippy Dogs And Cattle Prods. [Dec 2013, p.99]

At 17 tracks, it becomes a bit of a repetitive slog towards the end, but it's good to see that this old dog has just as much bite as ever when he strays. [Aug 2014, p. 209]

It's a relief to find this eighth album bounding up to the gates waving some fresh ideas. [May 2019, p.87]

An album full of lo-fi pop-tinged melodies sugarcoating a bitter centre. [Summer 2021, p.86]

New album Hard Love is altogether more bullish, Showalter unleashing his inner rock beast on a collection of songs that seem to reach for some kind of epiphany through sheer volume.

Plants such enduring standards as Wild World and Father And Son firmly in the now. [Oct 2020, p.87]

With Total Depravity, though, they’ve stepped up a level--with co-producer El-P ushering in psych synth squelches and creepy gospel (the epically titled Do Your Bones Glow At Night) and on the magnificent Low Lays The Devil a vintage blues squal equal to the Black Keys.

Bashed out between gigs, this music is vulnerable and diverse enough to be essential. [Dec 2013, p.108]

Another adequate but inessential album.

Unfeigned and irresistible.

It sounds more like a collection of polished home recordings than a truly coherent band album, but when the harmonies fly and the melodies tumble--as they do on the genuinely lovely Titanic or on the soaring Squirrel vs Snake--The Posies can still reach those old highs.

The album is most revealing when Knopfler bares autobiographical teeth. [Jan 2019, p.87]

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

[Mike Crossey's production] effectively strips them of their core classicism. [Dec 2020, p.85]

Dud tracks are unfortunate, as Come Ahead does contain some pretty decent music when everyone involved puts their minds to it. But even the album’s title - an old Glasgow colloquialism that basically translates as ‘Yes, I would like to fight you’ – fails to measure up to its intent as a triumphant comeback. Primal Scream: don’t remember them this way. [Nov 2024, p.74]

Eat The Elephant gradually gains heft while staying intriguingly unpredictable.

Still producing some of their best material. And on this form there's plenty of bite in this cranky old dog yet. [Sep 2023, p.78]

A paradoxical mixture of bashed-together informality and studio finesse, a record that seems to evolve as it goes along. [Aug 2018, p.86]

While there’s plenty of self-indulgent noodling (God Is In The Rhythm; the final section of Infinite Rise) compensation comes with their adventurous spirit.

While this album isn't quite as impressive as the record in its original guise, it's still an interesting shift in gears by the Mars Volta. [Jun 2023, p.77]

My World Is Over proves to be another step up. [Feb 2013, p.95]

A rockier proposition, re-channelling the militant, straight-ahead postpunk spirit of 1980, especially on Psychic Attack.

Baird’s weary, almost impassive croon and deadpan humour across both records can’t hide his serious resistance to our self-deceiving, digitally distanced lives.

Cousins is in remarkable voice, his lyrics better than ever. [Apr 2021, p.87]

The Roadside EP is every bit as cool and continues to the unexpected good form that the Rebel Yell legend displayed on his last studio records. [Nov 2021, p.77]

Following the metaverse music hall of Step Outside, however, normal bombastic synthrock service resumes. [Mar 2022, p.81]

McBride is no Ritchie Blackmore facsimile, although the chunky opening riff to Lazy Sod momentarily suggests otherwise. Instead he brings relatively youthful energy, and when he lets loose on I’ll Catch You and sizzles his way through A Bit On The Side it’s clear he’s both his own man and the right man. Alongside McBride, the other band members are reinvigorated too. Gillan’s voice is richer than it’s sounded in years. [Summer 2024, p.72]

A glorious and raucous set of tunes. [Aug 2025, p.79]

Even dislocated from the TV show, Sonic Highways remains among the most concise and powerful Foo albums yet. [Dec 2014, p.102]

For the most part, Def Leppard is the sound of a band who have rediscovered their sense of purposes after a wobbly 25 years.

An album preoccupied lyrically with past, present and future is matched by music that is sleek, chromium-plated, retro-futurist. [May 2025, p.73]

In a different musical climate, the driving No Love Lost, the U2-aping Dance The Night and the beautiful Birds Of Paradise would all be hit singles, but even if The Cult’s commercial heyday is firmly in their rear-view mirror, album number ten is a reminder that they’re gracefully assuming ‘national treasure’ status.

He might be a slippery customer, but his music couldn’t be more reliable.

The band's greatest strength has always been that combination of voices, and when Avett brothers Scott and Seth swirl around each other, any shortcomings are quickly forgotten. [Aug 2024, p.70]

It may not have the immediacy of Crowded House at their peak, but there are nonetheless defiant pop sensibilities seeping through the cracks of more experimental left-field soundscapes that form the spine of the likes Of Ghosts and We Know What It Means. [Sep 2018, p.86]

A Violent Femmes album is always a treat; witty, lucid, self-deprecating, beat-up but ever-reliable. ... Hotel Last Resort is all of that. [Aug 2019, p.95]

It’s all a bit glazed over, grungeless, too well finished, lacking the sense of suppurating wounds.

This is classic, turn-of-the-century-style emo for those old enough to remember the scene before the eyeliner an hairspray brigade came along and spoiled it all for everyone. [Mar 2013, p.98]

A hilarious throwback to the days when bands didn't take themselves too seriously. [Dec 2018, p.89]

A bona fide, big, stadium-pleasing epic. [Mar 2013, p.95]

The overall result is both sparse yet overflowing, in a fashion in keeping with the band’s reputation.

The ballad Love Grow Cold has a hazy, 80s sheen and the rest of the album has its feet planted firmly in the 70s, but this is nevertheless a slick and timeless collection of songs.

A little sluggish and generic in places, these churning incantations never quite combust like they should. [Oct 2014, p.90]

Her heart is laid bare in a manner that just manages to avoid becoming cloying.

From the manically undistinguished soloing of The Tempter Push to the leaden progressions of Walk Alone, it is uniquely generic, extraordinarily ordinary.

There's a DIY feel and bouts of slacker tomfoolery to Varshons 2. [Mar 2019, p.88]

Sprightly mid-life Americana. [Jun 2019, p.89]

While nobody would mistake it for the work of a man who's trying too hard, it's not without its charms. [Sep 2020, p.87]

It's a little naive in its presentation and denotations of homely American Stereotypes, perhaps, but all the more powerful for that. ... Crazy Horse are in fine fettle. [Jan 2021, p.84]

The energy levels let up only on the disappointingly crowd-pleasing ballad leave On. Vocalist Jacoby Shaddix's sweat-soaked urgency feels right for these times. [May 2022, p.86]

Channel[s] the nagging ingenuity of classic post-punk(pop) to sparkling effect. [Jul 2022, p.83]

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

Stronger melodies, more powerful performances, now an emphatic lead [Maiah Wynne], it's as if she's finally decided to step out of her famed compatriots' shadow and taken centre stage. The band have expanded musically, too. [May 2025, p.74]

This is certainly a dead weird album; it may improve with time.

Vocals are minimal, though less processed and more prominent than usual.

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.

There’s much that rocks here, and rocks deep on this four-string feast with multiple dishes.

Jawbone is not only accomplished, it’s also occasionally stunning.

The more abiding feeling we're left with, though, is that high-octane hard pop like this needs just a few more piercing hooks to really raise The Dirty Nil above all the other generic good-time rockers that will give you a fun half-hour in a festival tent but rarely capture your imagination. [Feb 2021, p.84]

While something more adventurous might have been the way forward, the singer and his inspirations remain unscathed. [Feb 2021, p.84]

Cool Planet is a messy indie sprawl for the patient faithful. [Aug 2014, p. 204]

Mountains finds the 71-year-old Lofgren railing at a world in which the progressive values of the 60s have been superseded by Trumpian self-interest, all in typically melodic fashion. [Aug 2023, p.75]

[An] agreeable, mildly self-indulgent album. [Nov 2013, p.93]

For all the loving homages to past recording techniques, they sound laboured and bored. [May 2013, p.84]

Diggin’ A Hole is scratchy blues; Almost Always could have graced Harvest Moon; Stand Tall and Children Of Destiny are earworms; but if you want beauty, you’ve got it on Carnival, once the cackling stops. Neil Young is reborn, yet again.

Invigorating results. ... It's refreshing, comforting even, to have Green Day back in their exuberant element, unburdened by message or morality. [Mar 2020, p.86]