The sound of a band untethered, revelling in their resurrection. [Jan 2020, p.98]

[Teenage Kicks is] arguablt not even the best song on this compilation. Wednesday Week's gorgeous melody, You've Got My Number's killer riff and the haunting, fragile Julie Ocean are superb, while we can even forgive them for their Human League-baiting My Perfect Cousin. [Mar 2020, p.101]

Blur 21's extraordinary warts'n'all scope makes its subject's odyssey momentous and tangible. [Aug 2012, p.98]

The demos here colour in the blanks and the alternative mixes are like watching a favourite movie from a different camera angle. But Against The Odds reminds the listener that there were always two Blondies. [Sep 2022, p.98]

With its wealth of sonic adventure, its thoughtful merger of the personal and the political, and its four choice guest spots (Jack White; Kendrick Lamar; James Blake; Abel Makkonen Tesfaye AKA The Weeknd), Lemonade is a dazzling example of pooled talent coalescing around an iconic doyenne. There can be little doubt on whose head Prince’s crown should now sit.

What's really mind-blowing is the audio quality of that initial 60-year-old performance (and indeed, the box set in general), which is so lucid that it sounds as if Miles is in the room playing right next to you. [Aug 2015, p.106]

Ants... represents a substantial step forward for them. [Mar 2022, p.84]

All its [The Gouster] tracks have been released before, though it's interesting to hear them in their original sequence. And the most obscure songs certainly merit more exposure. [Nov 2016, p.104]

From the title's Depression-era jokes onwards, Cooder protests like it's 1939. [Oct 2011, p.96]

Bouquets from a Cloudy Sky is a fitting celebration of a band that, 50 years after the release of their debut, remain utterly unrepentant. [Mar 2015, p.107]

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

At Carnegie Hall, doesn't so much add to the legend as confirm the original was no studio-contrived fluke. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Brilliantly original. [Aug 2003, p.106]

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

The sound is excellent, especially considering the age and the state of technology of some of the recordings. The songs, too, are invariably excellent. [Jul 2009, p.111]

Most of us missed the party 42 years ago, but now it's boxed for our infinite pleasure. [Nov 2013, p.99]

The music's suboptimal sound quality is only a minor drawback to a sonic experience whose raw intensity is both disquieting and uplifting. [Nov 2021, p.102]

Where Elephant does differ from what has gone before is in terms of quality. It's just better all round. [Apr 2003, p.88]

it's uncompromising stuff, but these unsung horrors are unsung no more. [Apr 2018, p.92]

It's a new remix of the original album that dazzles. [May 2026, p.101]

Not only because of Ellis's extraordinary vocal command and gasp of dynamics but because his songs manage to be both mysteriously personal and yet immediately emotionally resonant. [Feb 2026, p.80]

This package is more than worthwhile because it gets closer to the original vinyl. [Jun 2010, p.112]

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]

Titanic Rising is a revelation. These opulent, sculptural songs have sacrificed none of Mering's idiosyncrasy, or ability to unnerve. [May 2019, p.87]

Magnificently paced and candid, these 11 songs surface self-doubt and self-assurance as Marling learns to let parts of herself go. [Dec 2024, p.85]

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

The genius of past Outkast isn't diluted or diminished across these disks, rather it's doubled, expanded and explored. [Sep 2003, p.99]

[A] rich and complex album. [Sep 2012, p.95]

Stands as both love letter and elegy and encompasses the deeply held emotions of both. [Aug 2023, p.86]

Despite playing with pop forms, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately holds Hadreas's experimental shape, his artistic line. ... A slow burner, in every way. [Jun 2020, p.94]

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]

Idiot Prayer is extraordinary, breathtakingly varied within its minimal format, and compelling throughout. [Dec 2020, p.84]

Apart from the comprehensive compilation aspect and the rich live presence, this double CD also pauses to capture the remarkable way he welcomes 20,000 people to his fireside. [May 2009, p.98]

With the flawless Umber at its core, Bitch Magnet is final proof, if Jon Fine needs it, that his band have escaped the historical side streets of title, genre and geography, motoring out into the vast plains of Great American Albums. [Mar 2012, p.109]

This box brims with supportive evidence [that they were "the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world."] [Oct 2013, p.103]

A Grand… isn't as immediate and vivacious as its predecessor. But credit to Skinner for pushing things forward; he remians one of the most compelling voices in British pop culture. [May 2004, p.94]

If you can bear the canonical duplicates, the seldom played discs, and, above all, the cost, this is a box no John Martyn fan can do without. [Nov 2013, p.96]

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

What began as a benefit for Swami Satchidananda and evolved into a summoning of John Coltrane’s spirit now stands as a tribute to the liberating force of Alice Coltrane herself. It’s a communion. Drink deep. [May 2024, p.101]

A black-clad twist on quality pop that should rightly be blitzing from alt-radio throughout 2025. [Mar 2025, p.86]

A continuous mix of hedonism, virtuosity, scholarship and, as one of her disco antecedents would have it, Good Times. [Nov 2022, p.84]

The music, which is characterised by extraordinary switches in style, reflects the diversity of the archive, morphing from bleepy electronic and futuristic R&B to churning garage rock with distorted megaphone vocals. [Oct 2023, p.81]

Let It Be might be the runt of The Beatles litter but it's half of a very good album. ... The outtakes discs are very much works in progress, as The Beatles chat and work their way through new songs: an eavesdrop into their process. ... What comes through is how true The Beatles were to the idea of going back to their youthful inspirations. [Dec 2021, p.99]

The nonpareil group's best record in exactly a decade. [Apr 2023, p.82]

A delight of many layers. [Aug 2021, p.83]

An epic beast. playing to their strengths while also sprawling in new directions. [Jul 2019, p.89]

The box set joy is the archive additions, their whiff of ancient wasted sweat. [Jan 2016, p.102]

Some of the best moments, though, are when you can get past their familiarity and hear the newness of the individual voices creating the harmonies – and also hear how much they seem to enjoy and inspire each other. [Dec 2024, p.103]

A breathy soundworld throbs with chillout opportunity and toggles toothache-sweet grunge buzz, Laurel canyon lilt and skyward soundtrack The Last man On Earth. Alive with confessional ideas. [Jul 2021, p.80]

Channelling prog ambition, punk attack and all the daring of Krautrock, Pere Ubu were extraordinary. [Sep 2015, p.103]

Flegel's ability to surprise and disturb rarely dims, the experimental held in exhilarating balance with their pop gifts. [Apr 2025, p.82]

A heartily uplifting brew of scruffy street style, swear words and stammering pop tunes which sweat musical history. [Sep 2001, p.99]

It’s not all perfect. You could rightly question whether the Q-Tip/André 3000 duet Kids… has any place on a ATCQ album. Or whether a glut of guest spots including Elton John, Jack White and Kendrick Lamar are strictly necessary. Yet ultimately it’s the original, immersive Tribe vibes that conquer all.

The acoustic demos in this forensic reissue lay bare Tweedy's raw hurt and beguiling melodies; alternative takes of the title song and I'm Always In Love show the sturdy bones of Wilco's early alt-country ideals. [Dec 2020, p.97]

A tendency to indulgence... undermines the album's overall potency. [Aug 2005, p.96]

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.

Carrie & Lowell has an air of insecurity underlining the sophistication of the music. [Apr 2015, p.84]

Bright Phoebus turns out to thoroughly deserve its reputation as a milestone in British folk rock. [Sep 2017, p.104]

Stripped back and raw, his mesmerising guitar front and centre, this is gritty old-style blues with a laser-sharp modern focus. [Dec 2021. p.86]

No Cities To Love stares down its troubles, power and joy ultimately lying in the hands of the people who can write such songs. [Feb 2015, p.86]

So many ideas, so much beauty and a fitting memento of Trish Keenan's poetic songwriting and inimitable, unimpeachable voice. [May 2024, p.100]

The emphasis on experiment and process means there are fewer newly-excavated compositions - Like Veils Said Lorraine, a For The Roses orphan; the modal guitar reveries Sunshine Raga and Bonderia, the former with tabla and free-form trilling - but no less in the way of surprises. [Dec 2023, p.96]

It's artfully rumpled, but the ragged angry gasps that close the record confirm Bridgers' songwriting isn't the effortless dream it seems. [Jul 2020, p.78]

The righteousness is on full display in New York City. On Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bono howls, “We’re so sick of it!” If such declarations were beginning to sound sanctimonious at the time, 30 years of legit activism--including sitting down repeatedly with ideological adversaries such as Trump VP Mike Pence--casts Bono’s piety as the real deal. ... Thirty years later, U2 continue their pursuit of the righteous; looking back to be sure, but suited to this moment all the same. [Jul 2017, p.104]

A winningly downbeat brand of urban realism, set to minimal, pounding drums. [Apr 2002, p.115]

Mitski has long stared at happiness and wondered what comes next; here, she spies it, smiles and then shrugs, the smart band beneath glowing like some warmth hearth on a cold Los Angeles Night. [Oct 2023, p.85]

You get the Dylan stuff from those places in full, which allows a real sense of how each show worked. ... There are plenty of other breathtaking moments, many collected onto a final disc of "rare performances." [Jul 2019, p.103]

Manzanita mostly shimmers obliquely with light and spells. [Apr 2023, p.90]

Vaporous, layered, beautifully evocative, with moments of discordant madness. [Co-Album Of The Month [with 'Blood Money'], May 2002, p.94]

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

Her reading of Anthem makes Leonard Cohen’s hymn to resilience and resistance feel like a bespoke gift from another writer who knew about life in the shadows. .... It’s as that distant flickering light, illuminating the path to better times, that Staples excels. [Dec 2025, p.76]

Sounds great and further reveals the era-oddness of Prince's blending of '80s drum machine funk with late-'60s heavy rock. [Jul 2022, p.100]

His stark solo work--with an amplified wood board for footstompin'--remains the stuff that'll Hook ya. [Jan 2018, p.102]

Over its 11 tracks, it draws the listener fully into its dreamworld. [May 2025, p.86]

All the components that make the Arcade Fire such a gripping live proposition remain intact on this full-length debut. [Apr 2005, p.96]

Don't worry so much about what it all means, lie back and let the tape hiss. [Jun 2024, p.89]

An album for anybody who likes rock music to sound angry about something. [Mar 2013, p.89]

WMPPRR is one of the most powerful psychedelic releases to have come out this year. [Nov 2016, p.86]

Gazelle Twin masterfully keeps us in suspense, incorporating strongly evocative sonic components. Around track eight the tension subsides, yet this doesn't affect the overall consistency. [Feb 2024, p.86]

Iechyd Da documents a period of intense anguish with careful understatement and smart musical references. [Feb 2024, p.87]

Ten songs in all, played on acoustic and electric guitar and occasional banjo, with a perfectly understated band. [Aug 2025, p.80]

Albini's hardline technical/philosophical missive is the tastiest 'discovery' in this inevitable 20th anniversary box set--tastier, indeed than any of the unheard music. [Nov 2013, p.101]

The Record is beautifully integrated, each song feeling like an ongoing conversation, a harmonious thread they can pick up any time. It’s very much worth getting to know it. [Jun 2023, p.85]

Its raw, emotional heartbeat is laid bare at the onset. [Dec 2017, p.94]

As with Daptone's soul projects, the emphasis is on authenticity and integrity and the result is spot-on. [Jun 2018, p.94]

From a brilliantly tense 1977 cover of the Detroit Emeralds’ 1972 disco hit Feel The Need, to a Velvets-drone re-murking of Dylan’s She Belongs To Me and his recent doomy techno-goth NIN collaboration Star, these rough, raw and unfinished gems remind us that Ferry’s art was never just about surface perfection but always in what lies beneath. [Dec 2024, p.99]

Perhaps the most uncomplicated and joyous of them all. [Jul 2025, p.80]

A glorious snapshot of Silver in his prime. [Dec 2025, p.99]

Each member is the main player in their sphere, while remaining part of the whole. [Jul 2021, p.92]

A tightly coiled album, covering 17 tracks in 45 minutes, Maps leaves much to unpick. [Jul 2023, p.87]

Thirty years, 170 shows, a repertoire of 400 songs in 3,509 performances: from that motherlode we have 48 nuggets chronicling the live career of the South's Bruce Springsteen. [Dec 2009, p. 111]

If there's one complaint about Exterminator, apart from Bobby's rubbish rapping on Pills, it's that much of it feels like reworked outtakes from Vanishing Point.

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]

Only relenting for the odd Tinariwen-esque chill moment (Takoba; Imajughen), this one's an amps-on-11 polemical masterpiece that warrants worldwide respect. [Jun 2024, p.90]

It results in an intimate album shuddering in the blast of an icy onslaught of crisp, wintery piano. [Dec 2013, p.87]

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

From labyrinthine opener Men In Bed, the material is inimitably Smith-esque, and if it is tempting to dig for premonitions of mortality, the Frank Zappa-via Hanna-Barbera thrills of Busty Beez or Skating feel like the work of a very much living artist. [Nov 2025, p.89]

A thorough pre-history, ending just before the release of first studio album, Everything Falls Apart. [Dec 2017, p.104]