Bela Lugosi's Dead was a happy accident. The rest of the material finds a band fumbling for direction, even touching on ska, before an eerie delay appeared to invent their sound for them. [Dec 2018, p.93]

Not quite a "new" album in the proper sense, but still a warming introduction to their world. [Dec 2018, p.89]

Notwithstanding the fact that this is a collection of outtakes, this is acid/blues rock at its pinnacle, Joplin at the very height if her primordial, unfettered powers , with Big Brother contributing a psychedelic backdrop that still stands firm five decades on. [Dec 2018, p.92]

It's probably the Rolling Stones' best album ever. ... Slim pickings of the expanded vinyl package border on the insulting. [Dec 2018, p.94]

Experience Hendrix have done him proud with this reissue. Take it as his ultimate monument. [Dec 2018, p.92]

TSOM's strange, taut, heroic beauty invariably transcends irony. [Dec 2018, p.89]

Sprawling four-CD, 64-track (11 previously unreleased) retrospective. ... Overwhelmingly, it’s Cornell’s voice that wins through--a star-burst of a scream, a full-throated delight.

A hilarious throwback to the days when bands didn't take themselves too seriously. [Dec 2018, p.89]

It's not a perfect body of work--perhaps these songs stretch in too many directions to really function as a cohesive whole. [Jul 2018, p.86]

On its own merits, 001 disrupts the notion that Strummer lost his way after The Clash, without wholly overturning it, but there's nothing remotely grubby here. [Oct 2018, p.97]

This immersive collection captures the excitement of an era sometimes overlooked between their twin peaks of Master Of Puppets and the Black Album.

It's the sound of a band making peace with their own fundamental style, without feeling the need to gild the lily. [Dec 2018, p.84]

Instead of losing intrinsic magic, Martin's enhanced it. ... Everything sounds more emphatic, more...everything. ... Bin your bootlegs, [the Esher demos are] exceptional. But the gold for completists comes on discs 4-6: the sessions. [Nov 2018, p.90]

If nine discs of REM is too much for the wallet, the collection is available as a two-CD highlights pack which includes a full disc of sessions, and a second disc focusing on a chronological selection of live broadcasts. Recommended, any which way. [Dec 2018, p.95]

Ultimately, where Imagine wins over similar projects is the degree of access Yoko has given to source material. A Simon Hilton-edited, Ono-prefaced book is exceptional. And the core album? A masterpiece. [Dec 2018, p.94]

Simulation Theory treads a thin line between cheesy chart-chasing and genuinely innovative pop rock. [Dec 2018, p.86]

Yorke's minimalist fragility fits the bill entirely. [Dec 2018, p.89]

Daughters have never sounded so strong and they've never got it so right. [Dec 2018, p.86]

Much of it's lovely, from the relaxed, melodic strumalong title track to ... well, the relaxed strumalong of just about everything else. It's the kind of album that makes you think there's nothing wrong with the world. [Dec 2018, p.84]

Good to hear the quiet one speaking up again. [Nov 2018, p.80]

Still scuzzy, still weird, long may Jon Spencer walk his own unique path. [Nov 2018, p.82]

Almost comically explosive and full of exhilarating moments. [Nov 2018, p.81]

There won't be a better record released this month, and very few this year. This is one for the ages. [Nov 2018, p.84]

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

Like all great albums, it reminds you of everything that made you fall in love with this crazy thing called rock’n’roll in the first place.

Bohemian Rhapsody's soundtrack is as dramatically paced, unrelentingly emotive and intrinsically cinematic as it's reasonably possible for any flat piece of circular plastic to be.

All four musicians have their moment in the sun to shine, while their closing take on Joni Mitchell's Woodstock bring things circle. [Nov 2018, p.83]

Hardcore doom-metal dummies may not get with this new plan, but the combination of airy psychedelia, lumbering riffs and shamelessly poppy hooks turn headbangers like Shockwave City, Bloody Runner and the epic, seven-minute title track into cinematic works of art. [Nov 2018, p.81]