I See You is more nuanced and upbeat than their previous records but, perhaps shrewdly, it enhances their blueprint rather than completely redrawing it. [Feb 2017, p.91]

Live In Paris is a pure window into the troubled soul of the mid-2010s Tuareg. [Jan 2016, p.92]

She's a great storyteller and her guitar has plenty of country twang. But the sound is of her own making - defined by her huge one-of-a-kind voice. [Mar 2020, p.94]

A whirl of young Tina Turner energy and powerful, expressive vintage soul vocals. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Silver Eye shows mo loss of conviction, a dense, meditative collection that explores cosmic mysteries and natural wonders without any wispiness. [May 2017, p.92]

Joe Henry's production is spot on, giving Crowell's vocals ample breathing room while acknowledging his excellent support team. [Oct 2008, p.106]

As The Moon Rests is thrillingly bleak, but not so bleak there isn't a crack of light visible at all times. [Nov 2022, p.93]

On this taut, pithy set he offers sardonic observations of human folly. [Jul 2019, p.93]

Fifth, and best, album from Montreal's big dreamers. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

The songs range from good to essential. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Thrilling. [May 2003, p.106]

Less of a musical therapy session, more of a celebration. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Titular peaceful intent is achieved. [Aug 2017, p.97]

Sonically rich and lyrically intense. [Aug 2018, p.94]

It's similar to the debut.... But there's a more vivid light-and-shade to the textures and a craft and depth to the compositions that represent a welcome distillation of Jones' art. [Mar 2004, p.92]

Few recent debuts have felt quite so enjoyable. [Sep 2015, p.94]

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]

The seven songs--mostly lengthy, one epic--have (as expected) extraordinary guitar solos, fused vocal harmonies, sprightly old-time and brooding folk. [Oct 2015, p.93]

In all, a deep treat almost on a par with Common's mid-'90s prime. [Sep 2014, p.88]

Regardless of language, it’s substantive synth-pop with broad appeal. [Oct 2024, p.91]

Starts with a raw, retro-rock song with a big, catchy chorus - one of several swaggering electric guitar numbers (Strange Companion; Loyalty; On fire) But there's a lot more going on in these 12 songs. [Mar 2026, p.87]

Reorderd, with three more excellent songs, copious sleevenotes, and some remixing and updated vocals that never detract from the authenticity of the project. [Aug 2023, p.93]

[A] collection of pithy two-minute lo-fi soundtracks. [Feb 2018, p.97]

There's no escaping Steen's brutal vision, guitarists Eddie Green and Sean Coyle-Smith and Edge-like chimes to Concrete's verses, before the terrace chorus tilts the mood back to belligerent. No Brit band is better equipped to set 2018 alight. [Feb 2018, p.91]

Restraint is key here, and ichaelson's very English version of Americana is a career pinnacle. [Feb 2018, p.96]

An unaffected and experimental, homely yet transcendent set. [May 2021, p.86]

If her 2023 breakthrough Anarchist Gospel was sparse and brooding, haunted by break-ups and deaths in the family, Armageddon In A Summer Dress bristles with Tom petty guitars, skinny-tie keyboards and a hard-won sense that - despite the miserable treatments of the have-nots - humanity might still be worth saving. [Mar 2025, p.87]

Hercules And Love Affair exist in that mighty unreal demimonde where dancing and art are not mutually exclusive. [Apr 2008, p.105]

Those bummed that the proggy leanings of his Jicks have encouraged former Pavement stepper Malkmus to indulge his inner Saxondale will find much to love on their sixth album. [Feb 2014, p.88]

Resin Pockets plays like a found notebook of rapturous Proustian melancholy, everyday moments of dreamlike revelation assembled into weakly-strummed, frailly-sung almost-pop songs that embrace the beauty of transience and imperfection. [Jul 2017, p.87]

Brighton trio take a walk on the dark side. [Feb. 2011, p. 104]

The elements that make up Best Of times were all there before, but even the band concedes that they have finally found their true sound. [Apr 2014, p.90]

It retains the singer's inherent quirks while offering a more accessible sound. [Dec 2022, p.87]

The electronic undercurrent that's hummed throughout Hyde's musical life to date is there on Edgeland, but only in the gentlest of forms. [May 2013, p.85]

Praxis achieves the tricky balancing act between playful and poignant. [May 2013, p.90]

It's a downbeat party, but one with real atmosphere. [May 2012, p.88]

The quality across this neat primer demands the high star rating. [Apr 2010, p.112]

A clearly cathartic album that further proves Annie Clark to be a brilliant and multifaceted musical force. [Jun 2024, p.83]

Minimal, murky, magnificent. [Aug 2015, p.96]

Not even the most Boss-eyed would claim the world needs another Springsteen Best-of, mostly comprising songs available elsewhere and built around a clutch of repeat offenders. Yet Freehold, NJ's famous son is barely recognisible on Chapter And Verse's first five track. [Nov 2016, p.104]

Honeycomb is really closer to the Dylan of New Morning than Blonde On Blonde; an angry young man finally transformed by a new voice and outlook. [Aug 2005, p.95]

There’s a vulnerability and a very English kind of saudade to Below A Massive Dark Land, but also a sense of individual purpose [Nov 2024, p.94]

Tasseomancy's third album moves with a deceptively breezy sway. [Jan 2017, p.94]

Forgotten outfits like The Romans and Mod Fun come on like the '60s band Thomas Pynchon invented in The Crying Of Lot 49, but the prevailing geekdom suggests a scene that's ultimately as indie and introverted as our own C86. [Apr 2026, p.98]

Many who don't like Springsteen may love this. Many who love Springsteen may hate this. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Straightforward but elliptical; direct but enduringly rich; the unseen, in between. [Feb 2019, p.86]

As Hear My Song proves, she was never about the standard. An inability to rein herself in, to be anything other than Laura Nyro, remains the hallmark of her stop-start career. [Feb 2024, p.92]

It's an artful and lyrically dense synth-pop LP. [Mar 2016, p.96]

Filled with the restless tension of forever moving on from relationships, situations or cities, her rarefied empathy hits a haunting peak on For The Miner. [Feb 2014, p.89]

Africa Express score by proffering a raw immediacy and innovative spirit that instantly expels any whiff of imperialist musical tourism. [Feb 2014, p.88]

The Future Will Come's title seems presciently loaded, its content primed for a mainstream meet'n'greet. [May 2009, p.108]

Jamaica Queen;s potty-mouth hits rap home run on brutally enjoyable debut. [Feb. 2011, p. 105]

With the voice of Linda Ronstadt and songwriting gifts of Joni Mitchell, there simply isn't anything to dislike about Old Flowers. [Jul 2020, p.84]

The rehearsal-room feel of Mwng succeeds in capturing the organic, woody, mystical atmosphere that was sometimes missing from its highly-polished, heavily-digitised predecessors.

More thoughtful and restrained than the heavily tattooed band's raucous live (and already very well-attended) shows may have promised, Shallow Bed is full of passion, nonetheless. [May 2012, p.88]

A poised and expansive record. [Aug 2019, p.90]

A cathartic soundscaping of the rugged Northern California landscape. [Jul 2015, p.91]

Radiating breezy melancholic warmth and lonely midnight chills. [Oct 2019, p.89]

CookUp highlights Gendel's daring interpretative strengths. [Apr 2023, p.87]

Nuanced lyrics and striking melodies. [Nov 2016, p.96]

While Time Skiffs sounds deeply, existentially scattered, every atom is in its rightful place. [Mar 2022, p.87]

Ever constructed around our hero's robust tenor and rattling acoustic, then adorned with A-grade orchestration, it inescapably evokes Urban Hymns. [Nov 2018, p.93]

An oddly seamless follow-up to its distant predecessor. [Nov 2005, p.110]

A many-moods piece for complicated times. [Mar 2021, p.85]

The 28 masters perfectly preserve the fight-or-flight cortisone power and tired, forlorn grandeur of late period Elvis. But it's the 27 outtakes that truly startle. [Nov 2013, p.98]

An undeniably enjoyable career-twilight collection. [Sep 2023, p.82]

Wrongtom's enthusiasm for collaboration is everywhere apparent on In East London's salute to the capital. [Nov 2012, p.94]

The hydra-like mix of music genres which FaltyDL has previously taken direction from has been refined into deep burnt, highly charged, twisted electronic soul. [Feb 2013, p.91]

The fourteenth Bad Seeds record is willfully untidy and, at times, pretty chaotic. It also rocks like crazy. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Love's Crushing Diamond is restful, woven, baroque. [Feb 2014, p.89]

Musically, the influence of dubstep is readily apparent. [Dec. 2010, p. 99]

It's the skill of Tabor, the lyric interpreter, that is most telling and, predominately set around atmospheric piano and accordion arrangements, this deeply affecting collection of sea stories demonstrates the core of her art almost to perfection. [Mar 2011, p.108]

San Fran stalwart John Dwyer continues to deliver quality goo goo muck with his subterranean garage-psych combo. [Aug 2009, p.104]

Portland's college-rock heirs downsize with Peter Buck-featuring sixth album. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

Don't be deceived: these songs have the substance to become - unlike those eBay purchases - an obsession that sticks. [Apr 2024, p.83]

Abetted by producer Photay's sharp editing skills and tactile sound design, KALAK's wildly careening spirituals up the ante with missionary glee and emotional intelligence, Korwar tapping into the diversity of the Indian diaspora via some of his most captivating, immediate and inventive compositions to date. Not for the first time, he's raised the bar. [Dec 2022, p.88]

It's an uncannily beautiful listening experience. [Oct 2021, p.92]

Contra is the sound of a band driving themselves to very satisfying extremes. [Feb 2010, p. 96]

[Leithauser] revels in letting his talent run free, outwith trad rock arrangements. [Jun 2014, p.92]

Icily cinematic, Arnalds has a widescreen future. [Dec 2020, p.85]

Warm, understated third LP. [Nov 2016, p.96]

The pair's debut creates an inviting somnambulant soundworld. [Jan 2021, p.85]

LP1 is a hugely self-possessed debut, the work of an artist whose vision--not only her visual sense--is strong. [Sep 2014, p.89]

The more chances Tears For Fears take, the more they thrive, and they take chances here: seems like a new album was a good idea after all. [Apr 2022, p.88]

Wormslayer feels like the band's most consistently corporeal record since the Britpop era's iconic K. [Mar 2026, p.83]

Few can match The Cribs for their facility with bruised melodies and crunchy dynamics, perfecting here a transatlantic noise that draws equally on Smithsian jangle (the jaunty Never The Same) and Sonic Youth squall (Dark Luck). [Mar 2026, p.86]

Sounding sharper than they have done in years, they’re more up for the fight than perhaps ever before.

Land Is Hell is alive with 21st century energy. [Oct 2013, p.96]

Before The Dawn is glorious and confounding--in other words, pure Kate. [Jan 2017, p.96]

Despite being awash with regret, this record never falls apart, keeping its integrity, holding itself together with warmth and grace. [May 2026, p.88]

It’s a truly gorgeous record, capturing the grand contrarian at his happiest, living in the present and reworking the past. [Nov 2024, p.89]

They're five albums in and they keep getting better and better. [Mar 2020, p.91]

These six new tracks flow neatly on from those recorded for Tche Belew 40 years before. [Mar 2018, p.95]

A return from the wilds. ... Some of the best vocal melodies Tabish has yet channelled. [Jun 2020, p.93]

Its 10 fuzzy, through-the-bottom-of-a-whiskey-glass intimacy, with Anthony's acoustic guitar and rich baritone voice conveying songs of existential wonder and lament. [Feb 2013, p.93]

This pan-generational Jones/Dap-Kings team have been injecting new vitality into a classic form since 2002, and the people will certainly want their strong new soul album. [Feb 2014, p.90]

It's his best original work by some yards. [Aug 2021, p.84]

This is warm, analogue-smudged R&B that blossoms with repeated plays. [Jun 2019, p.95]