He decided to “rock out” at every subsequent opportunity, so that mass audiences understood and acknowledged the founding role of bluesmen in rock. This album might be considered a further step in that direction.

Eight short, sharp shocks in 30 minutes provide a perfect stun-blast soundtrack for today’s shattered society.

The Vaccines' retro rock'n'roll clearly suits this kind of next-generation upgrade. [Oct 2021, p.79]

A stunning stripped-to-the-bone reinvention. [Nov 2021, p.83]

Though Weirdo's pop smarts err on the glossy, there remain enough hooks and swagger here to convince. [May 2023, p.80]

Tracks like Horns Below Her Halo and the title one are some of the best in their class. [Summer 2023, p.77]

An acquired taste, perhaps, but a neat 20s tweak of 90s grunge/grrrl tropes. [Summer 2023, p.79]

An urgent half-hour adrenaline surge that will lodge itself in your brain after just one listen. Impressive. [Dec 2023, p.73]

If it’s dumb fun in the sun you’re after, these are the rodents you’re looking for. [Sep 2024, p.69]

The new tracks – the first since 2022’s comeback album The Tipping Point – embellish their spacey pop melodies with skittering ambient beats (The Girl That I Call Home) and contemporary psych disco (Say Goodbye To Mum and Dad). Recent songs included in the live portion from Tennessee’s FirstBank Amphitheater also transplant their 80s elegance into today’s airy electropop and synthrock. [Dec 2024, p.74]

There’s a rejuvenated feel to this reunion album of the ‘dream team’, which is themed around the impact of sleep disruption from sleepwalking to nightmares. [Mar 2025, p.77]

A pure pleasure. [Aug 2025, p.75]

Lazarus--partly because it’s a show with a great band, partly because many of David Bowie’s songs are peculiarly adaptable to the musical format--works as a record.

Their strength is in their inclusivity--yes, they’re from a punk background, but this is melodic hardcore with killer choruses to stir the hardest of hearts, bursting with a positive energy that channels your adrenaline until passive listening becomes all but impossible.

They can still craft the odd pop-rock banger. [Jul 2023, p.87]

An all-round triumph. [Sep 2013, p.90]

Their world-weary shtick has more passion than depth. But. as ever, they do it with conviction, their uncomplicated love for heritage rock informing every warm, wonky, soulful note. [Sep 2020, p.88]

Kowalewicz’s oration on the similarly punky Hanging Out With All The Wrong People adds a Broadway-esque dynamism, while stand-out single End Of Me is brimming with chemistry from alt-rock behemoth Rivers Cuomo. The track’s pastiche of twangy Blue Album-era riffs and kitschy Weezer choruses showcase all that was good about yesteryear.

Where classic and post rock meet experimentalism, the brooding soundscapes portrayed by the theme of LA's dark underbelly is one of 2023's most inventive surprises. [Jan 2024, p.80]

It charts its course with verve and accessibility, offering a masterclass in powerfully economic guitar rock. [Jul 2014, p.97]

Perfection, though, remains unattainable thanks to Barney Sumner, whose enthusiasm is such that he adds an uncommon amount of whoops and yelps to songs that really do not need any. [Aug 2013, p.89]

A bit of filler, but mainly killer.

Four 11-minute "Improvised modal drones." [Nov 2019, p.85]

Sleaford Mods are still kicking ass with acerbic beauty. [Feb 2026, p.80]

The Minus 5 remain a star-heavy Trojan horse for McCaughey's songwriting. [Jun 2015, p.97]

A little too shiny and over produced in places, but Life Journey is a trip worth taking. [Jul 2014, p.92]

Commune may seem a little pat, a compendium of psychedelic, exotic and ethnic sounds, but it makes for a handy compilation. [Oct 2014, p.89]

It’s a deeply intimate, deeply beautiful examination of regret, loss, disappointment, solitude and personal demons, made all the more alluring by his warm, frank, subtly emotional vocals.