[Mike Crossey's production] effectively strips them of their core classicism. [Dec 2020, p.85]

It's ace, but he's not a man you'd trust with secateurs. [Jun 2021, p.83]

The gravel-voiced 62-year-old coasts along on foot-stomping jukebox cliché at times, but his howling murder ballad Fixin’ To Die burns with an agreeably ragged fury, while plaintive finger-picking story songs such as News From Colorado are welcome reminders that he can sometimes out-Springsteen The Boss himself in the heart-stirring Americana stakes.

The combination of Chuck D and B-Real’s wholly different vocal deliveries is a revelation throughout: the former’s commanding baritone and preacher’s power contrasting beautifully with the latter’s nasal sneer and street-smart menace. Similarly, the chemistry between Morello, drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford has never been in doubt, and here, while generally less aggressive than they were in their youthful pomp, that effortless ensemble groove ensures that none of these tracks will fail to free minds and asses.

This much MOR anguish does get draining.... Still, wonderfully cathartic for when you need a god cry. [Oct 2013, p.88]

Texas have gone back to basics, reconnecting with the solidly crafted simplicity of their earliest albums, Southside and Mother's Heaven. [Jul 2013, p.90]

For serious fans--and them only--this album is a revelation. [Oct 2018, p.83]

The best moments aren't the straightforward boogie tunes--some of the album sounds like a backwater George Thorogood--but on the numbers where other influences creep in. [Mar 2015, p.93]

Altogether, tons of twang for your buck. [Summer 2021, p.83]

As ever, and in the best sense, Farrell aims high and wide. [Jul 2019, p.80]

Southern rockers like Under The Gun, Get Yourself Together and Breaking Down are as infectious as mad cowboy disease. When they do branch out, it's into Fleetwood Mac gossamer balladry and adorable Stealers Wheel soft rock. They'll find that the world has not changed the locks. [Aug 2019, p.83]

A set of songs whose freshness reflects the spontaneous manner in which they were recorded.

["It's A;right, It's OK" is] Yet another foray into shameless retro pastiche, then, but it concludes this gloomy, ear-bashing album with a welcome blast of rousing optimism. [Jul 2013, p.90]

The re-inclusion of guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch to the band has seen Korn embracing their dense roots and they’re all the better for it.

24-track double album of brittle, emotive folk pop and alt.rock.

Red Fang might not take themselves too seriously, but thankfully Arrows rocks pleasingly hard indeed.

In some ways the club-sized audience helps Hendrix, who hated large open-air shows, and he’s positively chatty at times on the first set, which includes a feisty In From The Storm and a trebly-sounding Foxy Lady. The second set is looser and in danger of falling apart at times, before Hendrix wakes up and rips through Stone Free.

Ultimately, every track on this masterfully sculpted set courses with life-affirming pop-rock passion.

A must-buy, if only for the brilliant soap-opera twist of watching Johnny Borell rise from the ashes. [Nov 2018, p.81]

Encapsulates shoegaze, garage, grunge, self-analytical Gen Z catharsis and off-the-leash, anything-goes, fourth-album-itch experimentation, yet still retains its key pop core. [Nov 2023, p.81]

Some of Stomping Ground sounds much as expected, like the chunka-chunka boogie of If You Wanna Rock’n’roll and My Stomping Ground, assisted by Eric Clapton and Billy Gibbons respectively. Elsewhere there are more surprising moments. [Dec 2021, p.69]

This is not easy listening but it is arguably Laibach's most sonically rich, least ironic, most mature work to date. [May 2022, p.81]

There's way more Breeders-reminiscent 90s alt. meat on the bones. [Nov 2023, p.81]

The cover of Tift Merritt’s Bramble Rose is affecting too, a stately country shuffle that finds Henley trading verses with Lambert over pedal steel and mandolin, while Jagger blows harmonica and sings like a cat pleading to be let in from the rain. At other times, the album is less successful, particularly when it falls back on weepy honky-tonk tropes.

Play The Goddamned Part sounds like an annihilated sci-fi war zone haunted by the ghosts of nightclubs and patrolled by warbots constructed from the shrapnel of jazz saxophones. The more ambient I’m Not From This World feels like sticking your head into an alien death race’s knackered fusion drive and getting a face full of proton beam. Elsewhere, remnants of rock’n’roll survive the sonic desecration. ... It all reflects the corrosion of the millennial age, personal, political and ecological.

That it's as listenable as it is intelligent sweetens the deal. [Sep 2025, p.80]

Forever sounds like a Bon Jovi album. Rock songs, power ballads, it's a big-sounding record designed to be played to big rooms. Admittedly it's no New Jersey, but that's like expecting to still fit the T-Shirt you bought on that late-80s tour. [Jul 2024, p.76]

The atmosphere is stunned, reverential. [Jul 2022, p.87]