A quaintly dated second set haunted by cliche. [Apr 2019, p.89]

Here, White Manna have created grown-up lullabies of the most primal kind.

Sign O' The Times might be Prince's apex. .. The extras on this eight-CD/13-LP set, however, include a lot of dry-humping, second-rate material that hints at the decline he would go into in the 90s and beyond. [Oct 2020, p.91]

Treasured songs suffer repeated acts of vandalism. On many nights, Dylan and the guys howl the chorus of Like A Rolling Stone frat party-style. Conversely, the 1974 release Forever Young (from the Planet Waves album) gets regular care and rises in stature as a Boomer benediction. [Oct 2024, p.83]

Doherty himself remains endearingly cack-handed and poetically confessional but uncontrollably wayward. By the final third, the band appear to have given up and gone to the pub. [Jun 2019, p.84]

Sprightly mid-life Americana. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Peace Trail is a wide-open-sky gem that feels wild and free, while Cowgirl Jam s stupendous, a vintage Young showcase of instrumental assault and battery. Frustratingly, these highlights are punctuated by the six Paradox Passage instrumentals, which desperately miss a visual accompaniment to hang off. [Jun 2018, p.90]

It's a roguish enough distillation of Aussie rock's most okish corners. [Sep 2022, p.73]

Accomplished but derivative.

With all profits going to MusiCares, it’s a worthy effort--if not an entirely worthwhile one.

A rockier proposition, re-channelling the militant, straight-ahead postpunk spirit of 1980, especially on Psychic Attack.

A curious curt selection with no obvious crowd-pleasers, but doubtless KC fans will rise to the challenge. [May 2015, p.107]

Double down on revitalising their music while finding new logs to throw on the philosophical fire. [Oct 2023, p.81]

If you fancy being barked at by a grizzled campaigner about pesticides and sea pollution over three-chord sludge and ragged-glorious guitars, then you’ll love what Young and co cook up here. If not, stick to Harvest.

They're also still some way off leading any packs, but they're making up ground. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Classy but strangely sterile. [Sep 2022, p.77]

Social Cues feels like the sound of a great band in desperate need of some down time. [Jun 2019, p.88]

Utilising informed guitar sound palette and Johnny Marr ingenuity. [Aug 2020, p.89]

Here he duly revisits his own past, on an album that blends new material with covers of his old work and that of others.

The basic country sounds frame a compelling singer. [Apr 2015, p.97]

Where Is The Water twists and meanders hazily before shifting into gear with a riff from the Jack White school of thud, while opener Needles is excitable garage rock with a stiff, post-punk edge. And over in the kaleidoscopic corner, Wheels Within Wheels flips merrily from one psychedelic landscape to the next and includes a wriggling organ solo that sounds as if it's being squeezed from a tube. All in all, it's quite the adventure. [Dec 2022, p.75]

It's rock'n'roll for aging urchins who don't know how to quit. [Apr 2015, p.98]

The result borders on easy listening with a yacht-pop vibe, before the psychedelic starbursts come out to play. [Nov 2022, p.75]

There’s a demo version of The Ramones’ Rockaway Beach included here, which is as scratchy and worn as you might imagine and, remarkably, lacks any of that patented, and much missed, Motörhead kick. Much better is their gnarly version of Metallica’s Whiplash; if you didn’t know any better you’d swear it was one of their own. Ditto Twisted Sister’s Shoot ‘Em Down.

Romy Vager's vocals are raw, earnest, and Tambourine is Brain Worms distilled, a taut memoir of remote mourning. [Jul 2023, p.87]

Magnetic may veer close to Maroon-5-at-their-very-best territory, but let's not get sniffy. It's a life affirming, joyful record. [Jun 2013, p.91]

There’s little to distinguish its 10 tracks from each other, beyond Wishing’s stark, startling verses. It’s a shame, because Fafara clearly believes in what he’s doing, and this is far from a bad album. It’s just not enough to reach beyond the faithful.

Great in parts, but flat and clumsy in others, Bellamy’s bid to become more serious appears to have stunted what he does best, which is operatic excess fuelled by volcanic emotion.