His solo debut is packed with syntax-mangling wordplay. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Topped off with lo-fi synths and Victor Truicard's taut riffology, PSY are fresh, fiery, top fun. [Mar 2011, p.101]

No wheels were reinvented in the making of this record, but it travels straight to the heart nevertheless. [Aug 2020, p.92]

Full of understated elegance, Ode reminds us that Mehldau's is an increasingly significant body of work. [May 2012, p.82]

A Wasteland Companion revels in the layers of experience overlaid on life, building up texture, building up meaning, building up songs. [May 2012, p.87]

An album of joyful, desperate and messy songs, as honest and delicious as any on Pavement's 1992 classic, Slanted And Enchanted. [Sep 2001, p.92]

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]

An open, emotionally congruent record that never tries to be clever and yet rarely seems dull. [Apr 2004, p.99]

Heathen is a fine restatement of classic Bowie elements with contemporary twists. [July 2002, p.110]

A record of disarming directness. [Oct 2015, p.89]

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]

After eight years, EWF are right back in the groove. [Oct 2013, p.98]

The brothers’ art for art’s sake sensibilities drive pleasingly obtuse yacht-rocker Sounds About Right and fractured prog-funk oddity Curfew In The Square, while I Might Have Been Wrong’s ace chorus feels like an ambush after its clammy, insomniac verse. [Nov 2024, p.91]

Pieces... delivers greater consistency. [Oct 2006, p.104]

It's both so clever and so very charming. [Nov 2006, p.114]

Grohl can still subvert his own formula: opener Caught In The Echo brilliantly synthesises Ian MacKaye with Paul McCartney, and the needling pulse of Window is superior Josh Homme-age. The wired Child Actor, meanwhile, reveals a conflicted man behind the persona. [Jun 2026, p.86]

Hearing this in its entirety 45 years on, it really is up there with Young's greats. [Oct 2023, p.97]

The result is as good as anything Cale's delivered in years. [Nov 2012, p.91]

Playfully eccentric, it pushes the boundaries of the psych-pop revival in a way that's thankfully more redolent of MGMT's Congratulations than Ariel Pink's more self-conscious "mature" themes. [Mar 2013, p.88]

Mogwai [parlays] the hoary quiet/loud arrangement dialectic into a thing of immersive, undeniably affecting potency. [May 2016, p.89]

At her new best, Peyroux sings as elegantly as Peggy Lee and writes lines bearing the downbeat clarity of Leonard Cohen. [Apr 2009, p.98]

Lapalux has joined the ranks of contemporary electronica's finest, like Flo Lo himself. [Apr 2013, p.95]

Taylor's beseeching voice and invigorating take on gospel is sincere and moving. [May 2013, p.96]

His newest group find hum as ever ricocheting between rusty rock'n'roll and perfect pop melodicism, the title track to their debut album adding string-adorned country-psych to his CV, while the rest of his contributions finding him on his strongest form. [Mar 2011, p.1010]

A surprisingly stark yet passionate affair, with just enough unorthodoxy to suggest that a multilayered musician lurks at its roots. [May 2015, p.94]

While personal and sexual politics were always implicit within Taylor's bovver girl workouts, her words have grown tougher and sharper. [Oct 2021, p.89]

It is the sound of an introverted man reaching out to the workd and speaking uits language. [Oct 2009, p.102]

The best Orbital album since 1994's Snivilisation? Certainly. [May 2012, p.87]

Sculptor yields centre-stage to Randell's haiku-like celebrations of human spirit and suburban transcendence. [Aug 2018, p.94]

It's a mark of Shauf's talent that songs this deft could ever have been left to gather dust. [Dec 2021, p.92]

Absence finds New Orleans trumpeter Blanchard and regular band E Collective effortlessly shifting textures, with disguised flares of long notes and high blasts casting fresh melodic light on much-covered works Fall and Diana. [Nov 2021, p.89]

These 14 songs mostly charm and world-build in under three minutes. [Sep 2025, p.79]

Armon-Jones's fiery soloing is intrinsic to the headnoddable whole. [Oct 2019, p.91]

Musca is far more than filler. Opening with the crunching sweep of two Doors, Herbert sets sail on a (wonky-ish) 4/4 course. Hypnotised is moody, throbbing house with a UK garage skip. [Nov 2021, p.91]

The Alabama five-piece, alongside producer David Cobb, totally cut loose, upping the octane to hard rockin’, guitar crunchin’ Southern gospel soul. [Sep 2024, p.86]

At its best, a healthily camp, good-spirited fusion on Abba and Blondie. [Sep 2014, p.98]

Life On Earth is a compassionate, humane record at a time when it can only be a gift. [Mar 2022, p.78]

[A] flawed but magnificent album. [Nov 2015, p.88]

Another game-changer; via a 13-piece ensemble. [Jul 2023, p.82]

This is one darkly alluring trip. [Mar 2006, p.108]

A bold and encouraging modern pop debut. [Nov 2013, p.90]

His most impressive skill is echoing the laid-back charm of Bill Withers and the melodic instincts of Stevie Wonder. [Dec 2006, p.104]

A rump-shaking whole. [Feb 2017, p.99]

John B Sheff's wavering, sometimes overwrought, vocal takes getting used to, but it's worth it for songs like these. [Mar 2008, p.108]

His previous album Midnight At The Movies was good, perhaps not Americana Music Award-winning good, but I'm not in charge. This one, However is way better, an album I wanted to play again as soon as it was done. [Oct 200, p.101]

You don’t need to know how many times and ways Wilco addressed these songs over two years to be dazzled and moved by the madrigal-guitar and astral-piano dance in Muzzle Of Bees, or the jaunty pop-psych bait of Handshake Drugs with its undercurrent of helplessness and allusion to Tweedy’s own battle with prescription medication (soon won through rehab). But it’s an instructive windfall in dedicated experiment and resolve. [Mar 2025, p.94]

A masterclass in sound design, Bolted creeps up slowly then engulfs you. [Dec 2023, p.91]

They've made their finest LP since 1995's "The Charlantans." [June 2008, p.112]

Yanya's music calls to mind gritty jazz/rock griot King Krule, Sampha's contemplative street soul and her key teenage influences: Pixies, Winehouse and The Libertines. Her spiky guitar playing is confidently pushed to the front of the mix here. [Apr 2019, p.86]

He's beautifully world-weary in songs such as 'Valley of the Low Sun' and 'Will it Grow.' [Sep 2008, p.102]

The most instantly appealing to date, channeling a high degree of emotional intensity and a remarkable sense of joy through minimal instrumentation. [Jul 2020, p.87]

Twelve Nudes' unbridled howl, mania and joy is on the nose. [Sep 2019, p.95]

A similar osmosis of Bunneymen and Chameleons' dramarama as Interpol. [Mar 2004, p.106]

Ethereal snatches of long-lost voices from old 78s, stentorian tones of TS Eliot and--on Richardson Road--Robert Wyatt adds plenty to this warm-hearted electronica. [Aug 2012, p.87]

Rice establishes an extraordinary intimacy here. [Oct 2003, p.107]

There are moments when dear slips down pop alleys, but for those following, there's a creeping sense it could turn a bit Don't Look Now at any second. [Sep 2012, p.86]

It's the rarest of soundtracks: one that makes you excited to watch the documentary, not the other way round. [Feb 2026, p.80]

A useful and thoroughly entertaining precis of one of the great 21st century rock projects. [Jan 2021, p.101]

Swearing At Motorists are drunk'n'roll successors to The Replacements and Guided By Voices. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Blau exercises an instrumental vision to rival his studio and vocal nous. [Jan 2018, p.90]

This is a new mature indie scene in the making. [May 2022, p.94]

There’s some very fine rock songs (Sally Was A Cop revisits the “Oh-oh-oh” singalong on Willie Mays Is Up At Bat from Temple Beautiful) and excellent ballads, from Americana closer It’s A Good Day To Be Alive to truly beautiful Red Sky Night. [Nov 2024, p.89]

This terrific follow-up [to 2016's Hold On] captures the sparks again, and there are plenty of them. [Mar 2018, p.97]

Hulking beats and a cloudy, black electronic roar set the tone, but powerful sound design is the key. [Feb 2020, p.91]

The waves that roll through Mosaic are chiller, more austere, but no less beautiful. [Feb 2025, p.89]

Hval's folkish vocals and poetic framing deliciously counterpoint a fusillade of muscular beats and Volden's jabbing guitar. [May 2021, p.87]

2012;s Rhine Gold album leant more on burbling electronica, while Grasque pushes further still, into slow R&B jams, chillwave, even George Michael when Makrigiannis uses his higher register. [Mar 2016, p.95]

In The Future showcases a group who knows exactly what they're doing. [Feb 2008, p.101]

One Day Away, with Urban, is country-lite, but everything else is heavy with the weight of Guy's skill and experience. [Jan 2014, p.101]

Krautrock-tinged, distortion-clouded synthpop covered in soft blankets of breathy, post-Cocteau's vocals... Just breathe it in. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

A must for fans of either protagonist, plus devotees of classic Todd Rundgren and Ween. [May 2017, p.94]

This is a powerful collection of contemporary battle hymns that rings out lie a well-needed musical call to arms for the 99 per cent. [Feb 2014, p.88]

With its acute portraits of a troubled and tangled life, Reunions is ultimately a story of redemption through fatherhood and self knowledge, epic country-soul opener What've I Done To Help setting the mood perfectly. [Jun 2020, p.95]

Fans of Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs take note. [Nov 2008, p.19]

Joyland has a coherent feel of low slung rock'n'roll and Morricone twang. [Apr 2015, p.96]

Above all it rocks. A hooky, memorable album. [May 2012, p.87]

A clear rejuvenation, the occasional triteness that softened earlier work largely absent from these close-woven songs. [Nov 2003, p.125]

In general the Heaton touchstones are all present here--shortage of definite articles, politics, wrinkles, a rockabilly number--with an energy and a sly melodic wit which puts Crooked Calypso up with his best work. [Sep 2017, p.90]

Something More Than Free is as close as he's yet come [to a classic album]. [Aug 2015, p.92]

Ha Ha Sound reveals that the band still have a penchant for 3/4 time, still transcend their cinematic influences effortlessly, and Trish Keenan still conjures wondrous lyrical evocations of unspecific tenderness and yearning. [Aug 2003, p.98]

This is restrained music-making; a slow-release capsule of languid grooves, haunting vocals and crafted songwriting. [Sep 2015, p.93]

He likes to throw an occasional hot coal into your lap, such as The Pugilist’s angry strings, and Comfortable Love’s rock torrent, somewhat Jeff Buckley-esque. Yet the naked, tearful Alright and Good Lust cut the deepest, when time seems to stand still in the face of Keaton’s suffering.

The sisters soar even higher here. [Feb 2022, p.91]

A bewitching brew of experimental jazz, droning electronics and raw, progressive rock. [Dec 2017, p.87]

Matt Maltese's second album persists with velveteen schmaltzy AOR; like yacht rock on a budget. His graceful croon, though, is more jaded this time, combining with the hollowed-out production for a deluxe dose of remorse. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Brightly flags up their sixth album's abundant strengths. [Jul 2023, p.98]

Polwart conveys contrasting themes of tragedy, redemption, hope and homecoming with immensely affecting guile. [Jan 2018, p.93]

Deer Tick impress with their pop nous and sheer verve. [Aug 2023, p.81]

Thundercat has finally made the all-out pop album he's been hinting at. It fits like a glove. [May 2026, p.91]

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]

It has a home-made, handcrafted feel and an almost impossible intimacy. [Feb 2020, p.91]

Volcano continues where 2021's Loving In Stereo left off. [Sep 2023, p.86]

Songs of experience, beautifully realised. [Jan 2025, p.86]

The arrival of his first child and Trumpism, shadowed by a friend's death, have filled Brighter Wounds with heightened bliss and anxiety. [Mar 2018, p.94]

Ominous drones, clanking banjos, filthy weather: a winning combo. [Feb 2025, p.87]

Her jazziest yet, expressive alto-sax and hypnotic spoken words ladle emotional gravitas onto its fevered meditations and splintered storytelling. [Nov 2023, p.94]

The 12-tracker doesn't feel as "big" as 2020's funky On Sunset, nor as even as the woody True Meanings, but the array of styles means no one will walk away untouched. [Jun 2021, p.88]

On this form, long may Damian Jurado stay lost. [Feb 2014, p.88]