James's reputation as one of electronic music's most daring, inquisitive artists grows record by record. [Dec 2022, p.91]

Experimental, but far from intimidating. [Dec 2022, p.94]

Eclectic and even occasionally upbeat. ... His croon remains dizzyingly swoonsome. [Dec 2022, p.94]

There's often an old-world gravitas and a contemporary lightness of touch at play simultaneously, the tangible lineage of these story-rich, often long-form songs reaching deep within you. [Nov 2022, p.89]

None [of the guest artists] crowd out Hitchcock's distinctive songwriting, though, nor his undimmed ability to reach through the existential murk and grasp a revelation or two. [Nov 2022, p.90]

Vivid, touch-sensitive responses to a world unravelling. [Nov 2022, p.90]

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

Frank and redemptive, it's a journey of small Texas towns and wide open spaces. [Nov 2022, p.89]

It is as timely as it is sobering and, in places, austerely, compellingly beautiful. [Nov 2022, p.90]

Nothing Special sometimes swims so far out of focus that it's difficult to share Sheff's vision, while at other times it surges and soars towards everything that was fascinating about Okkervil River. [Nov 2022, p.84]

An intriguing, stylistic volte-face. [Nov 2022, p.94]

Under The Midnight Sun invests those primal energies with the wisdom of age, creating something fresh and powerful. [Nov 2022, p.85]

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]

A mind-blowing creation merging the high period Dungen of Ta Det Lugnt with its more straightforward predecessor, 2002's Stadsvandringar. [Nov 2022, p.91]

Lovely vocals from both Mitchell and Johnson and a mellow, timeless mood. [Nov 2022, p.87]

Their first album in eight years finds their bond as strong as ever, Burton scoring Mercer's pocket heartaches for widescreen. [Nov 2022, p.90]

If April's slick Midnight Rockers album was a post Studio One career highlight for reggae legend Horace Andy, then this dubbed-up companion LP even takes it up a notch. [Oct 2022, p.82]

Allen turned 98 this year, yet the fire still burns brightly - his otherworldly creations keeping faith with his Afrofuturist mentor's grand design. [Nov 2022, p.91]

He's not strayed too far from his usual template: beautifully crafted yet unashamedly earthly songs which soar and contemplate at just the right moment. [Nov 2022, p.89]

Loose Future positions Andrews between Waxahatchee and Angel Olsen, a triumvirate of singer-songwriters finding new alleyways in and out of familiar territory. These 10 absorbing songs, likewise, are testaments to remaining in motion. [Nov 2022, p.88]

Deceptively light on first hearing, Anywhere But Here possesses a vulnerability and depth its predecessor lacked. [Nov 2022, p.93]

Budget-price corporations such as Lidl and Ryanair take a mauling, amid a sonic barrage which occasionally coalesces into pleasing punk-funk but mostly glories in making lap-steel sound like a cement mixer. [Nov 2022, p.92]

Another self-titled album is a risky statement of intent. The Bad Plus pull it off with pith and swank. [Nov 2022, p.91]

Their penchant for bold riffs and big climaxes comes with little individual grandstanding. [Nov 2022, p.91]

It's heavy stuff, but reliably gorgeous musically. [Nov 2022, p.82]

[Cryptic, allusive, impressionistic, The Bible needs its own concordance at times. Yet, after three decades on a quest to close in on the mysteries of being human, Wagner's perceptive edge hasn't blunted. [Oct 2022, p.83]

There is piquancy in Mogwai's elegiac mix of Super, and the programmed beats heresy of Stephen Morris and Gabe Gurnsey's re-rub of Hallogallo, but the real miracles begin with the LPs proper. [Oct 2022, p.102]

The sound of an artist surfacing from his dank hypogean world and embracing a new warmth. [Aug 2022, p.89]

The lack of drums adds extra intimacy to four gently rising and falling Lloyd originals. ... Understatement is Ocean's greatest strength. [Nov 2022, p.84]

Its 13 songs are mostly slow but diverse. ... Sometimes sentimental, sung in a dusty voice that still sounds strong. [Oct 2022, p.90]

Even though it's only eight tracks long - a rare example of the band having some chill - their fifth album feel like it's operating on a cosmic scale. [Nov 2022, p.92]

Editors have hatched a perturbed and maximalist affair whose thundering algorithms target the darkest, least inhibited corners of the dancefloor. [Oct 2022, p.90]

A pleasant way to pass time in transit, but not a destination itself. [Oct 2022, p.82]

Burgess's bushy-tailed optimism and quality control never dips. [Nov 2022, p.94]

This is as moving and real as Orton has ever been. [Oct 2022, p.86]

For all the ways these songs frenetically pinball into different corners, the nervous scratch and scrap of guitars tightening up and unspooling around obtuse angles and machine-gun rhythms, there's a deceptively complex musicality pinning everything together. [Nov 2022, p.89]

These former young lions are well on their way to becoming venerated old masters. [Nov 2022, p.91]

Vieux is on fine form, but it's yet more evidence that the Texans are one of the sharpest groups around. [Oct 2022, p.84]

This harder edge suggests a long, bounteous road into the future. [Nov 2022, p.93]

Two Sisters is arguably Davachi's finest work to date. [Nov 2022, p.87]

These four sidelong pieces, buttressed by a trio of percussive friends, are gentle journeys into the great beyond. [Nov 2022, p.87]

The inventiveness on display is undeniably impressive, but the process sometimes hides a little too much of the artist behind it. [Nov 2022, p.86]

A massive step away from his band's sound and more towards that of his friend and touring partner Nathaniel Rateliff. No one could dismiss Mumford as a lightweight folk tourist after this. [Nov 2022, 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]

Music ripe for reappraisal. [Nov 2022, p.98]

They remain a magical band still searching for a commensurate album, arriving at a record whose thrills are real but fleeting. [Nov 2022, p.92]

Where his breakthrough LPS deftly shaped improvisations into compositions, In These Times reverses the trick - adding textural depth and layer upon layer of intrigue to McCraven's emotionally-charged meditations on life and identity. [Oct 2022, p.80]

Over 50 years on, it remains a remarkable achievement, not just for its ambition but its execution. [Nov 2022, p.96]

With Willie, his son Lukas's band and Neville helping out elsewhere, there is audiable love in the room. Three final, reflective and intimately presented Rebennack originals shin, but best of all, perhaps, is his take on The Traveling Wilburys' End Of The Line.[Oct 2022, p.90]

This excellently curated three-disc set uncovers a selection of previously unreleased outtakes. [Oct 2022, p.102]

A few tracks disappoint; but there's lusty Fever Forever and graceful Beating On The Outside, which could be Roseanne cash. [Oct 2022, p.90]

Balances past and future with stylish precision on uplifting fourth LP. [Oct 2022, p.92]

Combs's developmental arc as a songwriter continues to soar, and this deep, deep reflection suits him to a tee. [Sep 2022, p.93]

Anderson's lyrics have rarely sounded more transparent. ... Autofiction builds its own emotional momentum as Suede, once again, write new chapters of their story. [Oct 2022, p.88]

A far cry from the murky jazz-metal wig-outs of yore, TMV is a triumph of melody, smooth instrumentation and soul. [Oct 2022, p.82]

Jones manages to transform these sad notes of memoir into glistening maps for moving forward. There is an optimism and experimentation in Jones's playing that is simultaneously uplifting and beguiling. [Aug 2022, p.90]

Each note feels laser cut, accompanied by the bellowing bass keys that have long characterised Geist's work. [Oct 2022, p.87]

The vigorous, often zippy arrangements finessed at guitarist Jonathan Pearce's Auckland home studio offer chipper contrast to the subject matter, Stokes a thoughtful, knowing presence. [Oct 2022, p.89]

The stories collected on Death Cab For Cutie's tenth album are rich in both detail and substance, with solidary lines that can unravel you. [Oct 2022, p.82]

How Do You Burn? finds the group on vintage form throughout. [Oct 2022, p.82]

More coherent than some rejigged castoffs ought to be. [Oct 2022, p.84]

The arrangements sound less finessed, less "performed" and more file-shared this time out, and you sense Patient Number 9 has known corrective surgery. The great man's ongoing rage against the dying of the light still as its triumphs, though. [Oct 2022, p.85]

Crackdown is fuzzy but focused and shows the blues' future is in capable hands. [Oct 2022, p.86]

The 12 songs making up their self-titled first album, though, are broad in scope and full of individual flourishes. [Oct 2022, p.89]

A bold sequel whose charms unravel further with each listen. [Oct 2022, p.84]

One of the States' great indie rock institutions, finding renewal largely in the familiar. [Oct 2022, p.86]

While production high jinks threaten to override shapeshifting songs like Neon and Angst, the delicate balance between Ellery's lithe effectual voice and Skye's layered abstractions continues to confound expectations in singular skew-whiff fashion. [Oct 2022, p.89]

Her uncompromising politics never come at the expense of the music. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Perfect for Twin Peaks' Bang Bang bar, but at 90 minutes duration its lesser parts drag like an over-indulgent director's cut. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Sim's painful journey also feels like catharsis, and packs a vivid statement of musical intent. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Seen from 2022, Stereolab's sheer breadth of endeavour here can justly be vaunted as heroic. [Oct 2022, p.100]

Pale Blue Eyes' debut album deftly executes a type of electro-inclined pop which initially surfaced as the edges of post-punk softened to embrace melody over angularity. [Sep 2022, p.94]

Forsyth knows exactly how far to let out the line before returning to the earth's atmosphere, leaping forward, bringing it home. [Sep 2022, p.95]

McKenzie is so focused on craft ahead of melody that an album this determined to be without jokes might have actually benefited from a couple. [Sep 2022, p.93]

12 self-penned kitchen-disco bangers, each one a gem. [Oct 2022, p.84]

King fulfils his promise. ... His honey-rich voice and whipsmart guitar playing are the standouts here. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Bares no audible strains of road weariness. ... Retain[s] all their live urgency. [Sep 2022, p.91]

Its overload of big-picture polemic, explosive virtuosity and tune-rich entertainment certainly takes some unpacking, yet is consistently thrilling. [Sep 2022, p.89]

Their ongoing Heavy Rocks series plays things relatively straight, however, restricting their palette to metallic tones. Even so, this third volume rewrites the rulebook. An opening brace of tunes gallop like vintage Motorhead, if they were being chased by wild banshee saxophones. [Oct 2022, p.90]

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]

Smith's usual meditative, ambient-leaning approach is dialled back in favour of soaring wonky pop, ornate neoclasical and even quasi dancefloor movements. It gives rise to her most joyous music yet. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Though musically more fulsome, lyrics are still key. [Sep 2022, p.96]

If All Of Us Flames feels more hopeful, rest assured there is o downscaling of tension or combat. [Sep 2022, p.89]

With every album, Jacklin is finding more of herself, strengthening her voice. It's complicated, but Pre Pleasure is a joy to hear. [Sep 2022, p.88]

Though the ingenuity of the project occasionally outguns the quality of the songwriting, Darnielle's spadework has resulted in a zesty, spontaneous-sounding record. [Sep 2022, p.95]

A trip that feel like it's over way too soon. [Sep 2022, p.89]

His voice remains strident as the album veers from pared-down solo to spritely contributions from the likes of Chaim Tannenbaum and David Mansfield, plus a less successful string arrangement. [Sep 2022, p.90]

A concept album set in the 1890s, revelling in simplicity. [Oct 2022, p.92]

What makes it great is something else - an energy and a vibe that give the strange sensation you're there with them. [Oct 2022, p.84]

It's a free-wheeling surge of glitchy beats and fizzing, ravey energy, with the wobbly UK garage underpinnings of Echo Party a notable standout. [Oct 2022, p.86]

TKO raps over vignettes with sonic left turns. His style sneaks in social comment. [Oct 2022, p.92]

A mix of pulsing, oven-ready bangers and darker reflections, Freakout/Release exudes the confidence of a band operating at its giddy peak. [Sep 2022, p.91]

Heartmind is unlikely to break him out of the smoked-glass shell of cultdom. ... Yet this album does display notable lushness. ... It proves McCombs doesn't need any dream machine to induce new visions: 10 albums in, he's more than capable of looking at the world differently all by himself. [Sep 2022, p.84]

Fluorescent keyboards crowd Kiwi Jr.'s once-open spaces on Chopper, making the surface of their first "produced" LP feel more like an oil slick than the band's past terrain of jagged delights. [Sep 2022, p.93]

Breathlessly brilliant stuff. [Sep 2022, p.93]

Danger Mouse's illustrious production CV is a big draw but it's his classy discretion in play here, giving plenty of space for Black Thought. [Sep 2022, p.86]

The entirety celebrates the ecstatic simplicity of that era [1950s-60s] of pop. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Mixture of West Africa and Caribbean influences. Oscar Jerome's glowing highlife guitar opens Dide O, a midway tryptic with Soul Searching (Afrobeat) and We Give Thanks. (soul). [Sep 2022, p.96]