Each track is a short story, a beautifully composed snapshot of a moment in a life, all set to choruses masterfully crafted to slot in alongside the radio-rock classics of the 1980s.

He's still creating an introspective mood, even if the threat of hardcore eruption seems to bubble under the surface. [Nov 2023, p.78]

Destroyer may shake and shudder but it never falls apart. [Jul 2019, p.81]

On third album Double Vanity it seems the wide-open spaces of their Oklahoma home have inspired something rather beautiful to zone out to.

Reassuringly awkward. [Jan 2021, p.87]

The weirdly comforting sound of an oddball genius proffering words of hope as the word burns all around us. [Summer 2025, p.78]

Sensitive and thoughtful doesn’t have to mean a lack of a good time. [Jan 2025, p.78]

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

The music is mostly luminous and spellbinding, but the slender 33-minutes us disappointing, a mini-album when such huge cosmic themes deserve deeper, broader consideration. [Jul 2023, p.78]

The Chilis are back together, having fun. And it feels good. [May 2022, p.80]

Sick Scenes is among LC!’s most accomplished collection yet.

A lot of this record sounds like Psalm 69 if you turned the drum machine to the ‘Blur’ setting, a snarling hyperspeed punkdustrial vomitorium of choppy samples and churning metal riffs. It’s not all armed audio warfare, though.

For all the vein-bulging intensity--which reaches heroic levels on standout The River--you're left with the sense that Gallagher remains a great singer short on top notch material. [Nov 2019, p.81]

They'll never completely escape the past, but it sounds like they're finally at ease with it. [Apr 2020, p.82]

IV takes a more measured pace around bleaker themes.

Overall, it's a pleasant album and one that covers a lot of bases. [Jun 2019, p.86]

Mesmerises with tales of sobriety and redemption (it says here) that sound more unapologetically stoned and out there than ever. [Apr 2024, p.83]

The band's heart-grabbing riff hooks found on Into The Blue and sultry Siouxsie Farrago are in short supply, but as closer Left Too Soon grows from astral acoustic ballad to customary cataclysm, there's no let-up in their seductive assault. [Nov 2021, p.70]

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

Eerie fingerstyle guitar playing decorates Bibb’s checklist for better living (‘Get to know your neighbours, especially the ones who don’t look like you’). [Jan 2025, p.83]

Wild, erratic and out for adventure, your mother warned you not to hang out with albums like this.

While Wayne, Lucid Nightmare and the 50s mirrorball romance of Crystal Night maintain the crisp retro spark of old, the rest of this somewhat inspired 55-minute mess smacks of the Fat Whites’ sticky-trousered narco-country.

The resulting sound is mature and measured, with similarities to Dulli’s work with the Twilight Singers more easily applicable than anything in Whigs essentials Congregation or Gentleman.

Knopfler's slide into the cosy vale of rootsy retro is clearly irreversible, but he certainly makes trad a luxurious place to get pampered for an hour. [Apr 2015, p.97]

Much of the mid-section is spent down in the bayou with an acoustic guitar. ... Sink in. [Jul 2019, p.82]

Genderbender is a born star, charisma dripping from every syllable, while The Melvins’ trademark heaviness complements and contrasts her bohemian, dramatic delivery like sea salt in caramel. This fairy wears boots and is ready to kick ass.

There are brief pit-stops for pensiveness on the whirling Room 137 and the baroque Barstool Warrior, but the dominant thread is superior thrash.

It’s Silversun Pickups rolling up their blazer sleeves, plumping their shoulderpads and cruising out of Silver Lake, LA with a fourth album that buzzes like pink neon and rolls like convertible wheels on steaming tarmac.