A record of sophisticated electronic alt. rock, where the organic and artificial merge wonderfully. [May 2026, p.73]

Gloriously raucous, with memorable tunes that bury themselves deep in the psyche, Bass Drum Of Death encapsulate the spirit of garage rock'n'roll. [Mar 2023, p.79]

Despite the omission of radio sessions and later work, this is a blistering collection of songs by a band at their peak, and a fan-set by and large without compare (the live set alone being a fantastic time machine into a world where cool bands played Mekons covers and swore a lot).

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 fine album that’s more imaginative than reimagining.

Ohms is instantly familiar without replicating anything they’ve done before.

Some of the album's best moments come when Wheeler turns the lens on himself. .... With Ad stra Ash are reborn again: older, wiser, but sounding not a wrinkle of it. [Nov 2025, p.74]

While it may not be the most musically involved album of his 50-year career, it’s persuasive evidence that Young still has a lot to offer.

It's a bewildering but rather fabulous array of soundscapes, noise, arthouse street theatre, windswept melodies and jagged juxtapositions, which evokes Steve Miller's Macho City or Laurie Anderson's Home Of The Brave, But with a very 21st-century twist. [May 2026, p.75]

C’mon You Know itself is a bit of a cracker, finding a ‘repentant’ Liam (‘I admit that I was angry for too long’ – choir-enhanced opener More Power) gleefully infuriating his usual detractors (with Diamonds In The Dark’s ‘Now I know how many holes it takes to…’ hook), delivering catnip ballads (Too Good For Giving Up), hitting all the right Liam Gallagher buttons (Don’t Go Halfway) and occasionally kicking hand-me-down Stonesy arse (Everything’s Electric).

If you want to know what Hendrix might have done beyond 27, listen to this. [Feb 2019, p.91]

An unlikely triumph. [Sep 2020, p.89]

Cantrell's voice remains as strong as ever, unwavering and carrying a portentous authority. similarly, Let It lie, with its pounding, doom-laden, Black Sabbath-influenced riff, is the punch in the nose none of us knew we needed. [Nov 2024, p.78]

This heart-melting exercise in widescreen evocative soul-baring brazenly sets the controls for greatness. [Mar 2019, p.89]

A charming history emerges from Young's immerse archive. [Apr 2025, p.70]

Alice In Chains fans should prepare to love this, but expect more echoes of Jar Of Flies than of Dirt.

Offering gems, misfires and revelations, Elton: Jewel Box is an absorbing opening of the vaults.

yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell will melt you right into your couch, will jelly your brain. [May 2026, p.78]

If this is a weird nightmare its one that no one will be in a rush to wake up from. [Jun 2026, p.71]

It might be ultimately pointless, but it works because Fogerty's voice is so extraordinarily intact and because the songs are still invincible. [Sep 2025, p.77]

Meliora is easily the sextet’s finest outing to date, a meticulously executed, artful collection of black-souled retro doom-pop, as heavy as Metallica, as melodically sophisticated as ABBA.

The album pushes an inspired blues-hued blend of their irreverent moonshine gospel romps--‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition’ sings Love on Exodus (Movement Of War People)--comedown confessionals (Nothing To Lose But Your Chains) and gutbucket reflection (Rattlesnake Woman), all crucially spiked with the blackest humour.

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

The 2LP set sacrifices the live cuts, which, while so competent they're not exactly bristling with edge, possess a different air to the out-takes. [May 2023, p.87]

Ultimately, Airbourne play honest, no-nonsense, straight-down-the-line classic rock in a manner true to all the basic tenets of the genre.

The result is varied, strange and engaging. [May 2025, p.75]

Outtakes or no outtakes, this reissue manages to pull off the considerable trick of feeling like a complete whole – the first iteration of the classic line-up after Motörhead’s formation in 1975. [Summer 2025, p.85]

It’s smart: acerbic and politically charged in its bleakness.

California collects 14 hook-drenched punk-pop barnstormers that both reflect nostalgically on their youthful vigours (Bored To Death, Kings Of The Weekend, San Diego) and revisit them impressively (Teenage Satellites, No Future).

Their heaviest, most memorable and most wildly animalistic material to date. [Oct 2018, p.83]

Redux is well thought out, and it works. [Nov 2023, p.76]

Six albums in, The Horrors sound fresher than ever. [May 2025, p.75]

Quality levels are consistently high, with sublime finger-picked folk-pop reveries like I Woke Up nestled alongside sumptuous, harp-kissed, Bacharach-sized chansons like Rise Up Singing and Glimpse OF You. [Jul 2024, p.80]

The hooks go off like petrol bombs too. [Mar 2026, p.79]

Such Hot Blood sounds like a major label buff-up of their glowering, folk-flecked dusk-rock, the raw pomp of earlier albums given a national (anthem) gleam. [Nov 2013, p.89]

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]

They've crafted their most focused, direct and unburdened collection yet. [May 2025, p.74]

Recent converts need not be overly alarmed, however, for while Ellipsis contains some of the most aggressive material Biffy have yet recorded (Wolves Of Winter, the gloriously infectious Animal Style and On A Bang) there are equal measures of fragile beauty.

This immersive collection captures the excitement of an era sometimes overlooked between their twin peaks of Master Of Puppets and the Black Album.

Redeemer of Souls is irrefutable prof that Priest are still a force on the metal scene. [Aug 2014, p. 204]

It's McClain's show, with writing as young as yesterday. [Oct 2022, p.71]

In a nutshell: fuzzily fierce.

Pe'ahi sounds like their strongest gallery of timeless anthems so far. [Aug 2014, p. 204]

Now up to seven discs with live set, it's even harder to resist. [Dec 2023, p.85]

At first you think, "Meh, more generic LA stuntcore." then realise you're loving it. [Nov 2022, p.75]

Lawrence has delivered the best daft/sincere novelty pop album you'll hear all yeat. It's a sugar rush. [Nov 2025, p.81]

They've mastered the marriage of swagger and sensitivity, guts and grace. [Mar 2023, p.76]

A niche but strident record. [Aug 2013, p.88]

Debut album Dark Black Makeup is a thrilling half-hour of punk rock with a small ‘p’ but a big UNK!--hooky, heavy and furious in all the right places.

He now sounds much calmer, serene even, on Shearwater's tenth, which floats where 2016's Jet Plane And Oxbow raged. This never means it's predictable. [Summer 2022, p.78]

It's a pleasing patchwork of echoes of the past. [Feb 2014, p.92]

This isn't music intended to inspire soul-searching. With its fat, fuzzy riffs and living-for-the-weekend vibe, it's made entirely for boozy barbecues and blokey banter, and maybe the odd trip to a monster truck rally. [Mar 2020, p.88]

The Afterman: Descension is both a thoughtful and thought-provoking album, and one that works on several levels. [Feb 2013, p.94]

He doesn't disappoint as he smatters the bulk of this new record with orchestral strings. The pick of the tracks here are the pulsating Pretty Boy, the string-laden I'm Not Giving Up Tonight and the soaring Open The Dorr, See What You Find. [Jul 2023, p.84]

Anti-glory's an easy in, but you'll need to retune your ears to Horsegirl's particular frequency before this debut reveals its full brilliance. [Summer 2022, p.79]

When he's not letting loose with some typically emotive soloing on this mix of covers and originals, his voice is still every bit its equal. [May 2020, p.77]

For the most part, though, Saviors is the sound of reassuring rebellion from the midst of the 21st Century breakdown. [Mar 2024, p.80]

A group at ease with both their instruments and each other, showing no signs of rust or sclerosis despite their long lay-off. [Jun 2015, p.88]

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]

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

An evocative semi-concept work based in the 1890s. [Jun 2022, p.83]

Quality workmanship. [Mar 2024, p.82]

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

The single Mixed Emotions (I Didn't Know How To Tell You What I Was Going Through) is the album's manifesto, the chiming opening riff breaking into a wall of sound while singer Josh Franceschi howls his failure to communicate into the gale. And the onslaught rarely falters. [Mar 2023, p.78]

A loose concept album that charts the lows, highs and subsequent recovery of its protagonist, sonically it’s punchier, angrier even, than previous records.

Suitably weathered by age and experience, [Dion's voice] hardly gathered rust and has retained its lustrous power and soulful richness. Co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Wayne Hood wisely pins that voice to the centre of this fabulous record, with A-listers very much in supporting roles. [Summer 2020, p.86]

They've filtered their inheritance through their jam-band generation, and the sound is heavier, muddier at times. [Sep 2020, p.88]

From Saturnine & Iron Jaw’s haunting ambience and chugging Led Zeppelin guitars, to the trippy, pitch-black tones of See You Next Fall and the cathartic finale Rats In Ruin, it’s a dark, enticing feast for the senses, with one foot in ancient times and the other in some far-off dimension.

A consolidation of their strengths--muscular guitars that alternate from hardcore styling to more sensitive deliver--and a greater sense of melody. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Furious first single Cast The First Stone sets the pace for an album that’s utterly relentless in its intensity. There are the now-expected acoustic interludes so you can catch your breath here and there, but as face-melters like Wolf Named Crow and Forgive Me will attest to, this is Corrosion Of Conformity with their amps and their snarls turned up to 11. Thank Christ.

The whole damn album's as sweet as a pecan nut. [Nov 2014, p.93]

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]

Thrilling stuff from four Glaswegians with genuine hunger and real passion. [May 2020, p.83]

This si the sound of lost Los Angeles; of excitement; of wildness; of a deep-rooted passion for biting rockabilly riffs, for life itself. This is beautiful, urgent and, frankly, unlooked for. [Summer 2020, p.84]

New remastering bolsters the album’s strengths, adding warmth and definition to King Of Pain, Wrapped Around Your Finger and Every Breath You Take. .... With an album’s worth of period B-sides and bonus tracks, the set’s two discs of unreleased material strike gold with Sting’s brisk, electro-pop demo of Murder By Numbers, and a slinkier, horn-driven funk arrangement of O My God from the Synchronicity sessions, both infinitely more enjoyable than the bland album versions. [Aug 2024, p.81]

They're fully committed to the mythology of Gong throughout. [Apr 2026, p.79]

There's no faking this kind of quality. [Nov 2014, p.93]

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

Motorik psychedelia at its finest, The Lucid Dream have stepped up.

Since nothing has come close to emulating Sail’s sales, it’s easy to dismiss Awolnation as one-hit wonders; Here Come The Runts shows what a mistake that would be.

The result is an autumnal masterpiece to rank alongside anything by Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash. [Nov 2014, p.92]

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]

Their best record since the last one you liked. [Jun 2020, p.88]

Thirteen songs, 40 minutes and not a moment wasted. [Nov 2020, p.84]

That The Church remain so vigorous and vibrant is a delightful surprise indeed. [Jun 2023, p.75]

Feels both reassuring and stirring. [Sep 2024, p.71]

Thunder, bottled. [Feb 2014, p.95]

This is a record to sink into, not to shock you into action. The Rev’s best.

Echo is a lustrous cosmic echo of Walk On The Wild Side, while the Doorsy atmospherics and celestial hooks of Ninth Configuration and Question Of Faith shroud personal and religious soul-searching that suggest Wrong Creatures is actually a conversation with their younger, wronger selves. Certainly the dark carnival of Circus Bazooko and stirring postrock finale All Rise prove they’re tackling their crippling Psychocandy addiction, making Wrong Creatures something of a colourful rebirth.

It’s enchanting rock’n’roll that might well tempt you into selling your soul – if only for one night of sweet soft-metal abandon. [Jun 2025, p.72]

Forget the bolt cutters, Apple's already shed her last shackle. [Summer 2020, p.87]

Among the out-takes, acoustic sketches, etc here, it's the a-capella versions of various tracks that touch the most, displays of harmonic unity in the midst of disharmony. [Dec 2022, p.83]

Picking up from last year’s Big Bill Broonzy tribute Common Ground, here the Alvins run riot on another covers set.

An absolute blast. [Sep 2024, p.68]

This is the best Exodus album since 1989's Fabulous Disaster. [Nov 2014, p.94]

It's the spikes, barbs, caterwauls and tantrums that define The Muffs, set them apart, and make Whoop Dee Doo as essential an album as any you'll hear all year. [Aug 2014, p. 208]

A torrid tumble of greatness. [Summer 2020, p.89]

The Early Years feels like a huge, essential slice of rock history, showing a band with the world at their feet who could, and did, go anywhere they pleased.