Once the album stops yelling and stamping for attention, the strong suits of this outfit come through, and dark, sinister atmospheres trademarked by Depeche Mode and The Banshees are allowed to thrive. [Jul 2021, p.81]

Play fast and loose with notions of Americana. [Aug 2025, p.77]

Nico-styled, Stereolab-crafted, stylishly kosmische-ed, pastoral near prog. [May 2026, p.79]

Same edgy, post-punk, anything-could-happen-next discomfort about them [as 90s band Compulsion]. Which is nice. [May 2025, p.79]

He elects to drag his material through the dirt, and the ramped layers of fuzz and distortion actually improves on the originals. [May 2024, p.75]

Get Gone is a tumble dryer full of retro ideas given a contemporary currency by their restless drive, which evades categorisation.

Some of his catchiest tracks of recent years offset the records indulgences. [May 2026, p.79]

Gilded vocal harmonies and gently chiming guitars are uppermost as the band move through subtle variants of form and texture. [Aug 2023, p.77]

Whereas the DVD offers a longer set, including jewels in her crown like Broken English, the CD selects just 45 minutes, highlighting more recent material and covers, before sauntering into a forlorn As Tears Go By, a resilient Sister Morphine and a finale of The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan.

Some pretty satisfying final testaments, then, but you also get the impression that Kramer in particular spent his final years having more fun than most septuagenarians can reasonably expect. [Nov 2024, p.72]

Predictably lyrically recherche, self-consciously Fall-esque and potentially driven by weapons-grade PTSD-ah. [Jul 2023, p.86]

The tone lightens marginally for the relationship rampages of the second half, with Baby Needs A Cookie bordering on pop melodies and Leather Dreams revelling in a sultry churn with a hint of S&M, but Blue Hearts is ideal fodder for smashing in the news channel to.

Jack Wyllie's sax and Laurence Pike's drumming keep the feel raw and live throughout. [Oct 2018, p.89]

As ever, they paint from the broadest of palettes to create a portrait of a city rich in cultural and musical diversity. [Aug 2021, p.80]

This white-hot furnace of a black-rock milestone shows Living Colour more scathingly relevant (and desperately needed) than ever.

This is just an especially focused, varied set of entertaining Bonamassa tunes. [Sep 2018, p.90]

If the music's a bit uniform, it'd sound great scoring a scene in Sons of Anarchy. [Nov 2014, p.91]

There’s a charming vulnerability to it all, and although they still amp up the rock when necessary – a riff at the heart of Brambles is fittingly prickly – Dark Rainbows is a brooding, subtle, ballad-stuffed affair from a band that refuses to be hemmed in by their own history. [Apr 2024, p.76]

What The Journey lacks in subtlety--nothing here quite matches the beauty of Porrohman or the sheer exuberance of In A Big Country--it makes up for in heart. [Jun 2013, p.92]

A homage to the alchemical combination of Stills, the late Mike Bloomfield and Blood, Sweat And Tears keyboardist Al Kooper, it has all the hallmarks of a venture guided by pure nostalgia. However, on Can't Get enough, Stills, largely pulls it off. [Aug 2013, p.84]

Admittedly, it still shines and chimes, the charming Yesterday Was Just A Dream is a highlight, as is the swaying Brand New Day, but the opening skiffle of You Belong To Me and the indifferent Go Down Rockin’ (as inspired as its title might imply), are Bryan Adams by numbers.

Lambrini Girls are political but transgressive, smart but not pretentious (no way!), humourous, but dark - very dark indeed. Subversive, in all the hidden senses of the word. [Feb 2025, p.73]

Kudos to Pure Love for taking a ludicrous concept of comedy commercialism and successfully straightening its face. [Feb 2013, p.95]

There are no new tricks, but there’s plenty of life in these old dogs yet. [Nov 2024, p.72]

Opener Finally Free is the instant crowd pleaser, but slow-burners Diamond Girl and Pink Snow find them in ambitious new album rock territory. [Jun 2015, p.89]

They’re a light-footed prospect, made still more intriguing by Erika Wennerstrom’s curiously detached vocal.

At their best, the Wizard can still makes you spurt blood from every orifice. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Electric is a return to one of his best attributes, the snarling electric guitar. [Mar 2013, p. 95]