Compiled with discipline, diligence and no little love, Archives Volume II is an immersive treat. It’s primarily for fans, but even the most casual of acquaintances will find much to adore here. [Jan 2021, p.93]

Intense and stripped back, with only his own art to fall back on, Cave cuts a truly formidable figure. This is an album you will return to again and again. [Dec 2020, p.85]

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

Collection of coldly beautiful electronica. [Dec 2020, p.83]

III mostly avoids the genre's penchant for endless navel gazing and just delivers the ear-shattering goods. [Dec 2020, p.83]

The music hits hard enough on its own. [Dec 2020, p.82]

The melodies are sweet and the lyrics still bear his adult-child cartoon whimsy, but there's a dark optimism beneath it all. [Dec 2020, p.81]

While the hazy creep if bleeding skull candles still waft through DVG's music this is essentially a white magick album, pulsating with light and sunshine and bursts of raga-punk exuberance. [Dec 2020, p.81]

What is great about this album is that it conveys a feeling of lethargy, tiredness, the onset of old age, while never sounding tired, lethargic or clapped out. [Dec 2020, p.80]

It can, by nature, feel like drowning in melted marshmallow over 55 minutes, but great moments stick out like ice sculptures in a snowdrift. [Dec 2020, p.80]

A spellbynding brew. [Nov 2020, p.87]

Offering gems, misfires and revelations, Elton: Jewel Box is an absorbing opening of the vaults.

The humanity is palpable throughout his lyrics and delivery, and the album avoids preaching in favour of insightful storytelling, good humour and warmth. [Sep 2020, p.84]

All dozen tracks are winners. [Dec 2020, p.80]

It’s all cracking stuff. The early Motown song Money (That’s What I Want) and Muddy Waters’ Rock Me, Baby add soul, and the studio chatter is worth hearing if only to catch Morrison calling out for Kentucky Fried Chicken and announcing that The Doors’ next album will be called Ride Out.

These now achingly familiar songs never sounded so good. ... An immaculately packaged, multi-format tribute.

23 tracks is too many. ... But when it's good - as on Marc Almond's ballady Teenage Dream or David Johansen's R&B stomp through Get It On, it's great. [Oct 2020, p.84]

The 14 tracks add up to a brilliant work full of confidence and ideas, all laid out on a massive canvas of invention and variety.

A gift for completists, music historians and obsessives. Even for them, approaching it in one sitting is a challenge. Instead it’s better to savour it episodically, because each segment ends on something of a cliffhanger: you can hear her evolve from gamine coffee-shop folkie into a masterful, angel-voiced singer-songwriter as the collection develops.

The best thing about Royal Tea is that every track could easily drop into Bonamassa’s live show – which is more than you can say for Redemption. Back on track in every sense.

Their fourth album takes yet more detours, but without ever losing sight of the path. Devotees of lead-heavy riffs will be spoilt by the title track and Rites Of Passage, and the pace never exceeds sluggish.

This is no pure nostalgia trip, though. Both House Of A Thousand Guitars and Rainmaker take shots at the ‘criminal clown’ in the White House, and Letter To You is as young at heart as any of Springsteen’s proudest moments, a sign that we’re some way off the credits yet.

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.

An essential album that gets better with every listen. [Nov 2020, p.86]

There's a lot to take in, but Petty was at one of his many peaks and this is worth luxuriating in. [Nov 2020, p.92]

An intricately crafted return to form. [Nov 2020, p.85]