An inspired madman's tribute. [Dec 2014, p.105]

Primitive And Deadly is a whole other beast, perhaps the closest that core members Dylan Carlson and Adrienne Davies have ever come to a remotely conventional rock album. [Dec 2014, p.105]

Language Of The Dead is a 21st-century wake-up call, dismissing the knowledge of a civilised past and demanding we toss our "idols into the sea," to catch some of the rock'n'roll "lightning" slashing throughout the skies instead. At such moments, the cathedral-sized keyboards don't sound quite so fake. [Dec 2014, p.105]

Too much of Big Music seems to be reaching for a gravitas it can't back up with emotional or musical substance. [Dec 2014, p.104]

While we can probably do without his appropriation of You Are My Sunshine, the covers of Edgar Winter's Dying To Live and Tell 'Em I'm Gone are both moving and powerful. [Dec 2014, p.104]

It gets a bit samey, as if noise alone is enough of a statement of intent. Thankfully, things pick up in the second half. [Dec 2014, p.104]

This is a more conventional album. [Dec 2014, p.104]

Tunes and sound both stay below the Gold Standard. [Dec 2014, p.104]

It's the glowering six-minute stormcloud of Numb that steals the show here. [Dec 2014, p.103]

It's a pleasure to report his studio debut catches the spark. [Dec 2014, p.103]

Even dislocated from the TV show, Sonic Highways remains among the most concise and powerful Foo albums yet. [Dec 2014, p.102]

The Fall, in the same old, and very different hands, remain freshly formidable. [Dec 2014, p.99]

Overall, too much of The Endless River is suffocated by prog-normative dreariness and a high, conventional varnish. [Dec 2014, p.98]

Always engaging, occasionally magical. [Jan 2015, p.129]

It's a great way of refreshing an often overly familiar catalogue. [Jan 2015, p.124]

In other hands, this would make for a frustrating listen, but there's a melodic warmth to mainman Stu Mackenzie's cosmic musings. [Jan 2015, p.120]

Necessarily lo-fi, one accepts the sonic limitations of cheap tape and the fact this material was never meant to be released. [Jan 2015, p.120]

Since 1983, The Melvins have been a wonderfully unstable constant on the rock fringes. Still fronted by Buzz Osborne of the explosion-in-a-mattress-factory hairdo, they continue to make good on that paradox with Hold It In. [Jan 2015, p.116]

Lost Domain will leave the listener raw. [Jan 2015, p.114]

It's the more textured and dynamic moments that raise this Herculean slab of cutting edge heaviness into the realms of a stone cold classic. [Jan 2015, p.114]

Rock Or Bust is actually a very lean piece of work. [Jan 2015, p.114]

Glossy arrangements sometimes owe more to Foreigner than to Focus, but this is a prog affair. [Mar 2014, p.100]

This is bigger, bolder, and better in every respect. [Mar 2014, p.97]

Smart enough to avoid slavish imitation, Temples already sound strong enough to breathe new life into old forms. [Mar 2014, p.101]

The fourth album is a joyful tornado of shamelessly old-school indie pop. [Feb 2014, p.97]

Tracks like Drive, Novocaine and Black cloud sound like the soundtrack to a 1980s brat-pack comedy, nut the sheer vim and vigour with which they're delivered still make it a rock 'n' roll rush. [Jan 2014, p.116]

Back To Land lets the sun in through the grooves. [Jan 2014, p.116]

A beautifully constructed, artful and imaginative debut. [Jan 2014, p.116]