These eight tracks bind the smart emo of Brand New to the rootsy alt.country of a Bright Eyes or Ryan Adams, stroking nostalgia and tugging the heartstrings throughout. [2 Jul 2016, p.52]

If life is still depicted largely as a struggle against despair, these songs nevertheless suggest that small moments of happiness can be found amongst the darkness. If the message of No Joy is ultimately one of perseverance, it’s fitting that this is an album which seems set to grant its creators a new lease of life.

The record flows effortlessly from disco to all-out rock ballad, and it ends with a stunningly atmospheric climax only they can pull off. [6 May 2017, p.52]

A dirgey treat. [2 May 2015, p.53]

[A] shattering farewell LP. [10 May 2014, p.53]

These songs do not merely take a cursory glance at varied and disparate styles, but are, in fact, detailed and carefully conceived excavations. [2 Aug 2014, p.52]

There’s all manner of the energetic offerings you’re yearning for here. But there are the slower soul-bearers too, in the same vein as the classic I’m With You, such as Avalanche, which will appeal to fans of what Olivia Rodrigo is doing.

Lamb Of God are not the band they once were. Those were the sounds of then. This is the now.

Into Oblivion is probably the best thing the Virginia metallers have done in 10 years. It’s not a reinvention, but neither is it Lamb Of God making their album again. The whole thing boils with caustic energy, red in tooth and claw.

Like all comebacks worthy of the listener's time, Indie Cindy is more than a rehash of the group's earlier near-hits, and is instead an outing that manages to surprise and enthrall. [19 Apr 2014, p.53]

This is the work of a brilliant artist who is singular in both talent and vision. [14 Sep 2019, p.54]

For all the record's big riffs and bravado, there's plenty regarding matters of the heart, from the heart. [10 Sep 2016, p.50]

A selection of genuinely catchy songs built around cast-iron melodies.

You couldn't accuse it of being a complicated listen. Thankfully, the truncated frustrations of Catalina Fight Song ensure Joyce Manor are still a challenging one. [26 Jul 2014, p.53]

For the first time in too long, it is a Weezer record that rocks exactly how a Weezer record should.

Every moment is charged with the perfect balance of power, melody, and muscle. [26 Mar 2011, p.51]

It's been as long time, but Do To The Beast finds The Afghan Whigs doing what they do, ahem, beast. [19 Apr 2014, p.54]

There’s little to link the various tracks on this eclectic collection, nothing to make it a coherent whole, but it certainly underlines the band’s extraordinary ability to shape-shift. Mastodon have changed over the years, but Medium Rarities proves they have always operated in a dimension that isn’t entirely earthbound

Bangers like Die By The Sword and Hole In The Head share not only the four syllable song titles of the Balls To The Wall/Fast As A Shark Days; they're chock-full of those classics' runaway riffage, searing solos and tooth-cracking attitude, too. [5 Aug 2017, p.52]

This is another modern classic from a classic band. [14 Sep 2019, p.55]

Once again, it's a sonic petrol bomb that makes you feel like you've been set on fire, and once again The Prodigy have proved nobody does it better. [3 Nov 2018, p.59]

All of this is very good. Even better for the fact that, even though it ties to the movie, it doesn't have much reason to exist beyond the sake of doing it. It's wild, off the cuff, youthful, over-excited, exactly how this stuff is meant to make you feel.

Their most confident collection yet, full of persuasive rock songs in which Taylor, her voice punchily prominent in the mix, holds court on a variety of important topics.

They're back with a glorious melange of influence that borrows from everywhere but combines to sound like no-one else on earth. [1 Aug 2012, p.54]

It’s an exhibition of just what a simply, fundamentally good band Foo Fighters are, and how skilled with a tune and a melody Dave Grohl is. You couldn’t call it stripped back as such, but its less hectic nature throws things into slightly sharper focus.

Every Loser is superb. But more importantly it encapsulates Iggy’s essence, not by reframing for a modern audience or pandering to trends, but drawing out the timeless qualities of its author: his anger, his sense of wonder and romance, and his downright strangeness.

Their seventh record might just be their most melodically expansive yet. [27 Aug 2016, p.52]

They're still aggressive, heavy and furious, but this new approach also makes them relevant, incisive and swaggering again. [10 Dec 2011, p.50]