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]