[Doesn't] reinvent any wheels but flesh out the blues/pub-rock format with quick wit and keen observation. [Oct 2018, p.86]

Clever without being too clever, but only just. [May 2020, p.83]

This second solo album dissects an array of internal torments in scarifying style; more gruesome and brutal than ever, and often glitching like a fractured psyche. [Oct 2025, p.72]

No-wave dislocations take the B-52's around the back of CBGB to be savaged by Le Tigre. [Jan 2022, p.85]

Manson’s nihilistic take on 2017 is interwoven with glimpses of personal darkness, wrapped up in mutually constrictive and damaging relationships on epic dirge Blood Honey and the closing Threats Of Romance, ordering a partner to do his murderous bidding on the Muse disco blues Kill4Me, and mourning the loss of his father on the seven-minute centrepiece Saturnalia. But even here there’s a renewed crackle to Manson’s attack--a viper regaining its bite.

What they lack in scope is more than made up for by the physicality of their attack, chopping out jagged chords and rank fumes of garage-y noise. [Sep 2013, p.89]

The electronic drive and mildly gothic atmospherics of 2018's acclaimed Call The Comet survive, albeit transferred away from songs of Trumpian horror and sci-fi utopia on to tracks about friendship and empathy (Ariel) and staying strong through the pandemic (Spirit Power & Soul). All These Days intrigues. [Jan 2022, p.82]

Envisioning sci-fi detective themes (Chasing The Tail Of A Dream), mariachi manhunts (It’s You) and Wall-E Of Arabia (Connector), it’s an imaginative if one-level album, animating only for the scuzzy motorik blues pop of Million Eyes, Fear Machine and Holy Revelation or the crisp, catchy psych-pop of Miss Fortune.

Torture, disgust and danger are all here, but so too are some sharp-barbed observations on screwed-up modern living. [Sep 2013, p.90]

This album reflects its maker--a restless spirit that now and then stumbles on something special.

There are plenty of great songs on here, but no stone-cold classic. [May 2018, p.86]

[L7] still sound as toxic and ornery as ever, their songs sharp and savage, their solos short and sweet, their vocals still capable of freezing testicles at 50 paces. [Summer 2019, p.82]

Visceral stuff, but here's hoping their post-Fitzsimmons (RIP) era takes The Hives on further unexpected journeys. [Sep 2023, p.80]

With Shooter Jening's outlaw holler and Sheryl Crow doing her backing-singer bit, the results are country slick but the execution is flawless. [Summer 2019, p.82]

Black And Blue is the sound of an enduring rock’n’roll firm updating the business. .... Expanded versions of this reissue include loose workouts with Jeff Beck, who entertained himself on the Meters-like funk of Rotterdam Jam. [Jan 2026, p.84]

So J did his usual effortless stand-in thang on guitar, and with Lou writing two beautiful soft rockers and Murph powering away on drums created another album to stand if not quite the equal of the original Dinosaur albums that around the end of the 80s helped change the face of US alternative rock, then somewhere close.

While the album Widow's Weed has all the usual heavily layered atmospherics, there's an even inkier feel than before. [Summer 2019, p.83]

The best 1983 album released in 2025. [Nov 2025, p.78]

It’s 1984 forever for the Scorpions, a return to slick, semi-hard rock and power ballads.

Taken in a single sitting, the rewards from this record are manifold. [Summer 2019, p.83]

Idlewild remain as dependable as ever. [Nov 2025, p.78]

This overdue follow up to debut What Is? proves that years of touring a live show described as an "aural orgasm" hasn't blunted their sense of humour. [Sep 2013, p.92]

The music is taut, compressed and, in places, vulnerable and beautifully resonant. [May 2018, p.90]

Ninth album Quiet And Peace is roughly one third quiet, peaceful and Chris Stapleton-like. ... elsewhere, All Be Gone and Lonely Fast And Deep recall the lumberjack Lemonheads of '93, but there's forward motion too. [May 2018, p.90]

It’s all a bit glazed over, grungeless, too well finished, lacking the sense of suppurating wounds.

It's wise, but rhythmically, musically, it feels Byrne's age. [May 2018, p.91]

Alcohol And Cocainemarijuananicotine, is borderline endearing, while Love Thyself reminds us that Taylor-Taylor can still write pop hooks whenever he can be bothered. [May 2024, p.77]

[The album] runs from garage rock to impressive reggae-tinged fuzzstompers. [Sep 2013, p.93]