It's a very New York record, It's an energetic record, and while the older listener would enjoy some guitar playing frm Gordon - that sort of thing seems to be supplied by Raisen and engineer Anthony Paul Lopez - it's her attitude. not the glitchy beats, that really give The Collective its aggression and fun. [Jun 2024, p.74]

Voivod have again recorded something that will appeal to those with an open mind. [Apr 2013, p.96]

Meir is bigger, bolder and broader in its sweep and scale. [May 2013, p.91]

It's not easy or cheery, but it's loaded with old gold. [Oct 2013, p.85]

This fine album could have been recorded at any time in the past 60 years, yet also could only have been recorded by this particular man at this particular stage of his career. [May 2015, p.107]

The Crystals, Ramones, Blondie, Television, The Strokes, The Walkmen and the Friends theme all feed into Never Enough, their suave, glitter-ball garage pop debut, full of synapse-shagging surf punk melodies like Summertime, In Our Blood and I Don’t Wanna Live In California.

There’s a joyous spontaneity behind the obvious discipline. What makes this such a damn fine record is that the band never allow themselves to get bogged down in minutiae; it’s the big picture which counts.

Jones’s vocal has gutsed-up, gained a gravel-gargling Waits-ian weight that suits TRM’s swampland boogie perfectly. Elsewhere No Fool swaggers loutishly, Aldecide sows a Bad Seed vibe and Boil Yer Blood delivers on its promise. Righteous stuff and then some.

The most focused, challenging singer-songwriter record in some years.

There are no glib solutions on offer, no political polemic, just the realisation that America is now a deeply divided nation and that this issue needs to be addressed. Elsewhere, the deep soul that Haynes has been mining on some of his solo albums has been brought into the Mule paddock with The Man I Want To Be and Easy Times, along with the more sprightly Sarah Surrender, which has, dare one say it, a Hall & Oates feel.

Occasional bursts of fierce, psychotic guitar evoke the spirit of punk-rock alter ego, Rikki Nadir. Otherwise it’s voice and piano and very little else. The intimacy is at times so intense it’s almost frightening. It is, to borrow the title of a VdGG song, ’eavy mate. There are some clever subplots too, Hammill being at the very top of his lyrical game.

The rehearsal tapes (appended as ‘Bonus Discs’ for some reason) are a raucous mesh of noise and then stabs of brilliant invention that cut through like a radio signal coming out of white noise. The unpublished photographs, nuanced liner notes and, deliciously, a download code for yet another concert (Hyde Park, 1971) not only reaffirm Fripp’s tenacity to keep creating and doing things in his own way, but to also frame those moments, hold them forever and see them sparkling in the light.

A clearly more reflective Springsteen emerged on tracks such as Tougher Than The Rest and One Step Up, the songs’ minimal backing placing emotions front and centre. It was a more scatter-gun Springsteen on Human Touch and Lucky Town, released on the same day in 1992, his hired studio hands struggling to provide the same heft as their predecessors, but the likes of Better Days and If I Should Fall Behind from the latter album shone like diamonds in the rubble.

An excellent snapshot of the post-punk, post-Iggy-tour Bowie, consolidating his past and present incarnations for the faithful in significant style. [Aug 2018, p.96]

It's to her credit that this open-hearted material never comes off as cloying. [Oct 2018, p.85]

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

There's a sort of crazy idealism to their music which brings them tantalizingly close to such sources, while becoming increasingly indomitably themselves. [Apr 2019, p.84]

Like the best Stones songs, there’s never any dating Keith’s immortal spirit, and Talk Is Cheap holds its head high as it relentlessly reaffirms that that was indeed some knife.

Overall this is worthy addition to the Cale catalogue. [Jun 2019, p.85]

Another album, another triumph, then, and rarely more richly deserved. [Summer 2019, p.84]

This is no means a case of Brock and co serving up space rock comfort food to the faithful. But at the same time the final, nine-minute The Fantasy Of Faldum would be welcomed onto any Hawkwind album of the last 40 years. [Nov 2019, p.80]

All are multi-layered, offering moments of both beautiful intimacy and blazing rage. For most bands, attempting this juxtaposition would be disastrous, but here it sounds sublime, seamless.

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

Cinematic, evocative and potently trippy. [Jun 2021, p.83]

Here Hiatt's palette tends a little towards country, but the best cuts still fall to the blues. [Summer 2021, p.83]

While it does start to get a little repetitive, it's good to hear a band straying off the beaten track too play timeless music just for the sheer hell of it. [Dec 2021, p.72]

Although there are 16 tracks here from four sessions at the BBC's Maida Vale studios between that date [June 8, 1994] and August 2001, there's something about the four tracks they recorded while riding high o Dookie's success that crackle with extra force. [Jan 2022, p.89]

His masterful combination of feel and technique reaches frequent peaks, with rousing, Jimi Hendrix-inspired rocker Death Of Me and slow burner I Found Her showcasing his fluid, emotive playing at its best.