Nelson still plays Trigger. .... Willie's technique varies 'twixt hard blues and laid-back swing. This novel approach is a perfect description for both Nelson and Hagard's personal interpretation of how they perform country music. [Jan 2026, p.83]

McFarlane creates a series of vibrant storytelling soundscapes where her sweetly soulful harmonised vocals intertwine with woozy synth sounds and throbbing electronic rhythms. [Sep 2020, p.92]

Revolver presents an accomplished, almost impenetrable sheen - which makes the archaeology provided by the outtakes and different mixes all the more involving. ... You can hear the pace of their lives and their ideas in this perfect encapsulation of The Beatles at their peak. [Dec 2022, p.96]

This is as perfect as any album can be. [Mar 2022, p.98]

The immediately obvious aspect of Magic is there hasn't been such a musically dramatic Springsteen album since "Born In The USA;" and like that album, this is a State of the Union address disguised as a pop record. [Nov 2007, p.88]

Joni Mitchell delivers a counter-intuitive, brilliant artistic response. [Oct 2007, p.90]

B-sides included here aren't without their charms but the album's genius clearly lay in distilling only the finest of Mould's new material into a powerful, singular statement. [Jul 2012, p.100]

It's on hypnotic original compositions such as Excess Success or reworked pieces like La Jetee that Parker's true genius shines through, an ability to create entire new sonic worlds from the tiniest of elements. [Mar 2022, p.88]

It's an album that at times sounds like it wants to smash your face to pieces, sometimes your heart. It's beautiful, horrible, bleak, spiteful, overwhelmed, overwhelming--a cry of panic ,despair, anxiety in the face of accelerating modernity. .... All three [previously unreleased tracks] are excellent in their way. [Aug 2017, p.100]

His first LP of complete originals is a thing of profound beauty; deep, sad, wise songs, allied to perfectly crafted arrangements, from a man who's lived long enough in darkness to address the big, heavy questions with a lightness of touch. [Aug 2012, p.96]

This is one of his most intense albums. It feels personal too. [Nov 2016, p.90]

The vital spark that graced Fleet Foxes' debut is back. [Dec 2020, p.80]

Stasium's work put a spotlight beneath these 11 songs, brightening hidden corners until Bastards Of Young, Left Of The Dial and Kiss On The Bus sparkle like unworn jewels. [Nov 2023, p.103]

Brilliant throughout. better than the official Stage with an art-rocking sound he never quite bettered. ... An essential purchase for Bowie fans. [Aug 2018, p.102]

Whether you consider London Calling to be the last great rock album of the '70s or the first great rock album of the '80s, the extent to which it fully merits its cultural and aesthetic status is utterly beyond question. [Oct 2004, p.123]

It's a damn good listen, all of it. Generous and revelatory, to borrow Rosanne's words, and at times mind-blowing. [Dec 2019, p.100]

Built on Phair's self-taught chording and a melodic sense of rich DIY potency, these compelling narratives blossom into a transfixing (and profane) particularity. [Jun 2018, p.102]

Brilliantly original. [Aug 2003, p.106]

A complete set from Minneapolis's First Avenue in January 1985, powered by the sulphurous char of Bob Mould's guitar and Grant Hart's heart-attack drumming, showcases their alchemical blend of classic pop melodicism and punk velocity, closing with apocalyptic Beatles and Byrds covers. A second disc of stray recordings previews their 1986 Warners debut and burgeoning maturity. [Nov 2025, p.101]

This is a fine celebration of a finely poetic band. [Feb 2015, p.103]

This album was Williams' breakthrough, with excellent songs.... A 20-track bonus CD offers a 14-song live set from that time and some very nice radio performances. [Mar 2014, p.105]

Exhaustive box set. ... Very much like a portrait artist will make numerous sketches, so we see the evolution of these songs as Bowie rewrites lyrics, improves melodies, tweaks arrangements, each stage an improvement on the previous. [Jan 2023, p.94]

Astounding... More even than his Exile On Main St., this is Tom Waits' Basement Tapes. [Dec 2006, p.104]

This is a thoughtful, artfully curated release that furthers the artists' reputation. [Aug 2025, p.93]

Dream River may be Callahan's most beguiling album yet. [Oct 2013, p.89]

If you're the kind of listener who has come to associate outtakes from classic albums with meagre, dryly forensic spoils, prepare to be very pleasantly surprised by Disc 3.... Rumours reminds us why we should continue to indulge them. [Mar 2013, p.100]

Sparely and intuitively performed, it's simply excellent. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

there are shivers galore on this box. [Jan 2020, p.96]

It's the sound of a band at the absolute peak if its powers. [Jul 2015, p.100]

The gold standard rock double LP, Ladyland now boasts 12 solo demos, eight studio outtakes (notably the stunning Angel Caterina, alias 1983), plus a September '68 Hollywood Bowl show. [Dec 2018, p.104]

Like Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man's Out Of Season, say I'm A Harmony operates on a different plane. [Dec 2017, p.93]

The Magic Numbers have made one of the records--perhaps the record--that 2005 is destined to be remembered for. [Jul 2005, p.110]

A magnificent record. [Jan 2004, p.104]

The seething, sweat-drenched yet shiny Doolittle is the complete package--and still a reason to believe. [Jan 2015, p.108]

The parallel blossoming of a writer and performer climaxes in two discs of Dylan's October 26, 1963 show at Carnegie Hall, the apotheosis of the vibrating imagery and magnetic command of his breakthrough phase, where Ballad Of Hollis Brown is a demonic spell but in truth every damn song is a transcendence. Who needs electricity? [Dec 2025, p.92]

Dry Cleaning have lost none of their distinctive edge, their idiosyncratic set-up proving to be endlessly elastic, as big as they want, as small as they need, 
to capture the chaos of the world. No hidden messages here: Secret Love is a wonderful record.

This is long-form drone perfection. [Sep 2019, p.91]

It's remarkable how organic and right (as opposed to gimmicky) the church voices sound on these 14 melodic folk, spare soul and various-tempo blues songs. [Apr 2006, p.98]

Even Russell's most intimate recordings could make him feel like a phantom; as details are filled in, the phantom expands. [Aug 2023, p.94]

Brooklyn duo deliver shock psychedelic masterpiece. [May 2010, p. 96]

It sears through the essence of what makes this band special, the brave voice and ebullient delivery of singer-songwriter-guitarist James Mercer. [Apr 2004, p.98]

Who's Next may not have been Pete Townshend's chose destination, but it encapsulates The Who better than anything before or since. It's the art=school provocateur, the bare-chested rock god and their virtuoso, brandy-soaked rhythm section at their peak. [Nov 2023, p.96]

Songs terrific, band sensational, and -- big plus -- Costello's voice late-developing way beyond that pinched whine into an instrument of substance and character. [Oct 2004, p.97]

From experimental to twisted pop, drill to R&B, techno to Ambient, James draws a precise and brilliant musical Venn diagram. [Jul 2021, p.87]

Life Is People is superb. [Sep 2012, p.84]

The live disc's souped-up version of Drive notwithstanding, what comes across is that AFTP is at heart a sublime collection of folks songs. ... A winning package. [Dec 2017, p.103]

Some of the best songs he's written since Heartbreaker. [Jan 2004, p.98]

Smilers is a masterpiece from a songwriter who's quietly chronicling the blanched last days of a sunshine empire. [July 2008, p.112]

A masterpiece, exactly the sort of record that your average sentient pop genius should make in 2002. [May 2002, p.99]

Finds her super-brassy, minimally-tooled groove machine in peak form. [Oct 2023, p.97]

The urgency is tangible, as is the sense that while Simpson is smashing up genres as a rapid response to extreme times, he’s also landed on one of the best ideas of his increasingly remarkable career. Mutiny After Midnight doesn’t propose an escape from the now, it demands we confront it head-on, by being our most righteous and uninhibited selves. [Jun 2026, p.84]

The Basement Tapes ignored every record-producing rule while remaining true to the muse. [Dec 2014, p.109]

It is all heart, it is truth and it is beautiful. [Jun 2003, p.94]

The dark matter of his fall that holds The Graceless Age together is formidable stuff. [Jun 2013, p.85]

It's difficult to detach this record from the harrowing specificity of its backstory, yet Riderless Horse never makes you feel like an intruder. That's testament, after 12 long years, to Natasia's skills, the undimmed songwriter able to transform all the pain and horror into something indelibly beautiful. [Aug 2022, p.88]

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is a record of grand hopes and epic imagery, and powerful, uplifting music--the most accomplished of his 20-year career. [Apr 2009, p.102]

Are these essentially live recordings of a visceral, in the moment experience? Of course they are. You can’t fake that vital spark. ... Live And Dangerous still stands as the band’s finest hour; the crystallisation of all that made them so irresistible, so brilliantly volatile. [Feb 2023, p.94]

Friedberger's finest solo album to date. ... Supple, elastic, and in forward motion, it loses nothing in translation. Vibrate, resonate. [Jun 2018, p.86]

Throughout the record, there are audible seeds of the sublime AOR sound that Nicks and Buckingham-era Fleetwood Mac would further finesse. .... It's also easy to hear why Frozen Love - the proggy, shape-shifting holy grail of Fleetwood Mac's most combustible couple - so impressed Mick Fleetwood. [Nov 2025, p.96]

The scope and breadth is startling. [Oct 2004, p.94]

The jazz roots of George Clinton's Mothership, Ra's visionary music now sounds simultaneously joyous and bereft, a possible future now consigned to the past. [Feb 2017, p.107]

No-one’s going to show you everything, as she sings on Hejira, but this collection shows a woman out to see as much as she can.

The works-in-progress disc of this handsome reissue package gives an even starker impression of a man rummaging joyfully through the studio toy box, now slapping down an instinctively lively drum beat, now jumping on a synth he’s only just plugged in, and rolling with it.

A record of startling breadth. [Feb 2003, p.96]

The two CDs move forward with an eerie dread and romantic wonder; violin, piano, bass, celeste, cello creating an alternate wordless narrative to normal Cave blather. [Oct 2009, p.115]

Ultimately, the official album remains the crucible of the artist who flourishes to this day. [Dec 2010, p.112]

With Callahan's romantic certainty comes rare writerly confidence: several tunes bask in this miraculous feeling. ... Outright classic. [Nov 2022, p.86]

A hugely enjoyable whole. After a fortnight's heavy rotation, it has yet to reveal its fatal flaw. [May 2017, p.89]

The tempo is up, the brass arrangements individual, and St. Paul's extraordinary voice is swooping effortlessly between falsetto and gravel. [Dec 2025, p.86]

The whole thing only underline what a ferocious rock band they had become. [Nov 2017, p.106]

Is not only utterly delectable but manages to find genuinely new ways to shape heartbreak. [Dec 2002, p.114]

A musical odyssey across a real and imagined landscape of mountains and cities, dreams and memories. [May 2005, p.95]

The bluegrass scene is now offically in touch with its feminine side. [Sep 2001, p.96]

It's hard to imagine a more comprehensive collection from such an important group. [Dec 2016, p.98]

Tempest is Dylan's best musical album of this century, a vibrant maximising of strict rules and the savaged-leather state of that voice. [Oct 2012, p.84]

Eight long-deleted vinyls 45s and EPs bring back prized gems by The Congos, Linval Thompson and Freddy McKay, the 24-page large-format booklet putting everything into perspective. [Jan 2020, p.104]

Perhaps not as many musical genres are represented as might have been but it's still a good reminder of just how many styles Holly's music crossed and influenced, if not invented. [Aug. 2011, p. 99]

It routinely achieves a perfect fusion of forma nd content. [Dec 2021, p.87]

By revealing a snapshot of the creative process part-way through, the working mix included on IV's companion CD only adds to tone's grasp of their artistic achievement. [Nov 2014, p.106]

This is unashamedly traditional: committed, personal and really quite perfect. [May 2014, p.91]

The result is an album that goes far beyond emulation or pastiche to capture the emotional heart of a strange and elusive film, soaring from rapturous highs to quiet, introspective lows, vital romantic life undercut by a melancholy twilight sadness. [Apr 2018, p.89]

SFA's first truly flawless album.... Sad, lush, romantic, beautiful, heartbroken, crazy, this is an album powerful enough to make you shout out loud in public or cry alone at night. [Aug 2001, p.96]

Fantasy Empire buzzes, drills and throbs with a brutal power that is relentlessly, terrifyingly exciting. [Apr 2015, p.89]

The fabulous final versions of these songs often haven't travelled far from their rougher cuts, possibly because Harvey's voice, matured into a sumptuous growl, anchors the mood in enough grandeur. [Nov 2020, p.94]

Sensitively remixed and remastered--like cleaning stained glass for brighter colours--and in combinations of formats, here's a masterpiece that lives up to its legend. [Oct 2018, p.106]

[They] have made an evolutionary leap in rock. [Jun 2005, p.108]

Have One on Me is a very mature work indeed, even its resonant, discursive themes are underpinned by Newsom's usual playfulness. [Apr 2010, p.90]

A jarring and gorgeous reminder that our suffering is neither new nor negligible. [May 2021, p.79]

There's much to digest here but absolutely no filler--each song is a priceless gem. [Jan 2004, p.110]

Some of the songwriting is exceptional. [Dec 2003, p.114]

The result is fittingly breathtaking, a singer destroying his own work, yet creating something more elegiac and profound in the process. [Aug 2016, p.90]

Pollock might not take up space often, but when she's finally front and centre, you don't want the lights to go down. [Nov 2025, p.83]

What Dizzee Rascal has done with this record is find his own - profoundly satisfying - balance between grime's digital vortex of ringtones and car alarms and an older more contemplative electronic tradition. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Elephants On Acid finds Cypress Hill not only recapturing the dynamism and urgency of their early-90s heyday, but also taking that energy somewhere completely new. [Nov 2018, p.84]

A richer feast, from more humble ingredients, could scarcely be imagined. [May 2012, p.82]

Less exotic perhaps than the West Coast, Brazilian, German and Franco-Italian musical forays of the past, but even more remarkably musical, intriguingly textured and affecting. [Nov 2003, p.130]

Luminous and alive, Dear Scott is just what Mick does: Head music, straight from the heart. [Jun 2022, p.82]

Great songs and renewed relevance aside, Woody at 100's greatest bounty may still be Guthrie's own sketches and illustrations, beautifully reproduced in the book. [Oct 2012, p.101]