Blood Karaoke ought to be an incoherent mess. Instead, it's a sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal sound collage, with unexpected twists and turns every few seconds. [Jun 2022, p.84]

The best moments - Where The Water Clears The illusion's untethered vocals, for example - come with an edge of unease, pushing Prochet onwards, upwards, and out of her beautifully suspended animation. [May 2022, p.86]

At its best, it harkens to long-lost, dense-sounding riff grinders such as Breaking Circus or Earth, but there's light as well as shade too and Broken Sugar positively twinkles. [Jun 2022, p.87]

The propulsive beats, loping low-end and metallic synths of Glass Effect push the swirling arrangements of last year's Breathe Suite EP into a deeper realm. [Jun 2022, p.89]

If 2018's fragile debut At Weddings tended to become lost in the beautifully abstract mists as the Pastor's daughter explored faith and its losses, I Don't Know Who Needs to Hear This... navigates using sharper corners and edges. [Jun 2022, p.84]

Everything Perfect Is Already Here avoids emotional overload, instead offering solace and a loving embrace, a haven of calm and normality. [Jun 2022, p.86]

Holds together as a coherent statement, offering - like its predecessor, 2015's Right On! - a more modest, bare-bones vision of the spectral, goth-adjacent dark pop of her day job. [Jun 2022, p.86]

Weighty subtexts and a consistent mood of restrained portent haven't entirely banished the aforementioned arpeggiated banality here, however, which is a shame, because in places Heather gives rein to an otherwise repressed idiosyncrasy. [May 2022, p.94]

Solid and dependable rather than spectacular. [Jun 2022, p.91]

The rest can't quite compete [with the 18-minute The Dripping Tap], and is at its best on the contrasting Magenta mountain and Presumptous. [Jun 2022, p.84]

The combination of piano and the string ensemble Scoring Berlin has some overlap with sonic contemplations of Max Richter and Arvo Part. But Eno has a distinctive style and picks just the right chord change or string colouration. [May 2022, p.88]

A saucer-eyed treat. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Mahal and Cooder are giving back here like so often before. [May 2022, p.92]

The whole thing is furious, funny and, not least in the toy-town conscious reggae of Health Is Wealth, deeply loveable. [Jun 2022, p.92]

Hugely entertaining. [June 2022, p.91]

The youthful buoyancy of Dogrel has ebbed away, there's a chill deep into the bones of these big, bold songs. ... Fontaines D.C. sound full of new life. [May 2022, p.93]

For every peak there's an occasional trough. [May 2022, p.88]

Constant hitmaker or beautiful waste of time: like all great alchemists, Kurt Vile proves you can be both. [May 2022, p.87]

This is not only Horace Andy's best album in 40 years, but it is also a work of lasting power. [May 2022, p.84]

Deeper investigations are recommended. [May 2022, p.94]

A meditative counterpoint to Reflection. [May 2022, p.94]

Cue more mariachi mystery carefully balanced on John Convertino and Joey Burn's tenth studio LP. [May 2022, p.90]

[Godrich's original tracklisting] play to what Malkmus saw as the album's "psychedelic, trippy" strengths. .... A deep dive of the box set's bonuses turns up further treasures. [May 2022, p.98]

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

The debut solo album is as ornate as 2009's Veckatimest, with Rossen now playing almost all the buccaneering acoustic guitars, cascading piano lines, cellos and woodwinds himself. [May 2022, p.94]

The sparseness lends a quiet power and intimacy to proceedings. [May 2022, p.100]

lightning Boogie is as unimaginative as its title, but when they calm down In This Lifetime, they twinkle. [May 2022, p.94]

A more intimate dimension to this incisive chronicler of beleaguered times. [May 2022, p.88]

A shoegazing-inclined Zombies sums it up. [May 2022, p.92]

The sound of a plan coming together - the novelty wearing off, but a different light switching on, all day long and beyond. [May 2022, p.88]

The Unfolding is an inventive and accessible mix of acoustic instrumentals and electronics with an elemental atmosphere. [May 2022, p.92]

The most focused and exciting White Solo record yet, a precision-tooled digital reconfiguration of his rock bona fides. [May 2022, p.89]

Camp art-pop songs matching Kassie Carlson's surreal lyrics with burbling synths and booming basses, it might snag GT the audience they crave. [May 2022, p.96]

An immersive audio tour that acts as a kind of Baltic analogue to ambient jazz pin-up boy Jon Hassell's more equatorial excursions. [May 2022, p.92]

Crooked Tree is a bountiful harvest, fruit of more dedicated application. [May 2022, p.91]

As Chloë And The Next 20th Century sees Father John Misty escaping into his parallel Hollywood reality, it's highly entertaining to slip in alongside him. [May 2022, p.90]

The first half of the album is techno-pop, finely balancing euphoria and heartache. .... The subsequent ballads' more fragile. [May 2022, p.89]

Though-provoking yet full of fun, DePlume's willingness to dig dep has turned up a genuine treasure. [May 2022, p.88]

Unlimited Love's sprawling 17 tracks almost inevitably include a few free-spirited missteps, with Aquatic Mouth dance and poster Child getting stuck in a groove. Nevertheless, an impressive consolidation of their strengths. [May 2022, p.89]

[Producers Joe Goddard and Al Doyle] bring a fitting smoothness to the cheesy exotica groove of Wild Flowers, and a swinging clarity to Fatso's '80s P-Funk electro-grind. Elsewhere, At The Hotspot can be too hectic for wider recommendation. [May 2022, p.90]

With enough disco detonators aboard for three Top 5 albums, here's the feel-good hit album of 2022. [May 2022, p.95]

With most cuts clocking in under five minutes, Sonancy's austere precision carries right through to its auteur's Chrome-esque robo voicing. [Apr 2022, p.80]

On paper it might sound like a filler - nine songs, none of them original, some newly recorded, some not - but to listen to it's wonderful. [May 2022, p.94]

Nancy Andersen sings like a chillwave Sade, her understated poise more histrionic vocalists couldn't access. [Apr 2022, p.89]

[An] Extraordinary album. [Apr 2022, p.92]

Labyrinthitis is another tantalising Destroyer album, one that resists being clutched too tight or loved too hard as it roams its peculiar world. [Apr 2022, p.86]

On first listen, warm Chris is les obviously immediate than Designer, though the songs don't take long t worm their way into the mind. [Apr 2022, p.78]

It's a pity Parton has retreated into much safer and predictable territory. [May 2022, p.86]

Here and there you can hear a touch of JJ Cale breeziness and, on Ballad Of An Unknown, urban cowboy noir with socio-political lyrics. [Apr 2022, p.85]

His own poetic, empathetic songs have a knack of turning modern ills into careworn country classicism. [May 2022, p.96]

Mehldau takes the listener on a memorable musical journey. [May 2022, p.92]

The thrill lies in eavesdropping on experiments-in-progress, ad as much in the quest itself as in the flashes of genius that occasionally arise. [May 2022, p.106]

The resulting ruminations on loss prove both playful and deep. [Apr 2022, p.89]

Despite omitting anything from FFS, their career re-booting alliance with Sparks, this is as good as introductions get. [Apr 2022, p.95]

There's little commerciality, although It came back gallops along cheerily, but there is the sense of a man doing as he pleases and guessing - correctly - he'll take his audience with him. [Apr 2022, p.85]

You might struggle to identify where their influences end and begin, but Mattiel's charisma - and solid gold tunes, in the form of Lighthouse and the darkly gothic Blood In the yolk - ultimately win out. [Apr 2022, p.89]

bare-knuckled rhymes and eerie sing-song hooks deliver the trademark thrills, though Muggs' lysergic touch is often missed. [Apr 2022, p.89]

It's good: at times dreamily pensive, at others a kind of psychedelic prog, layered, sophisticated and melodic. [Apr 2022, p.83]

Great that they are back on their own label, on their own terms, but some of these "democratically produced" recordings want for a more ruthless arbitrator. [Apr 2022, p.80]

Molly Hamilton's languorous, seductive vocals further elevate simple Velvets-meets-The-Cowboy-Junkies arrangements, guitar foil Robert Earl Thomas entices with wobbly curlicue riffs and minimalist twang and psych-flute motifs on While You Wait keep things fresh. [Apr 2022, p.87]

Contrasting extremes on emotionally literate, indie rock evocations. [Mar 2022, p.90]

The albums most evoked are the mid'90s brace, Charade and Misère. The Monochrome Set remain unmistakeably themselves. [Apr 2022, p.82]

The Mysterines' raw, gothic debut crawls under the listener's skin, thanks to singer Lia Metcalfe's impressive vocal range. [Apr 2022, p.88]

Much of Everything Was Beautiful has a vital, thundering pulse. ... Utterly beautiful, as advertised. [Mar 2022, p.80]

He's embraced a lush, harmony-drenched sound akin to late-period Fleetwood Mac or even the outer reaches of yacht rock. Yet, it's underpinned by biting, literate lyrics and mostly crestfallen characters. [Apr 2022, p.83]

Under Hval's microscope, the seemingly straightforward is anything but. [Apr 2022, p.83]

The songs have a sort of likeable innocence; humanistic and quirky. ... Nothing not to like here. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Five minutes in her personal company would likely be exhausting, but for this album's duration her brain salad music is fantastical. [Apr 2022, p.82]

Thirty-five albums in, incredibly, GBV are still scaling new heights. [Apr 2022, p.80]

[Still Life] finally moves her on from being just "one to watch" to the woman of the moment. [Apr 2022, p.81]

Achieves optimum velocity from the off, and barely settles for less than a vigorous simmer throughout. [Apr 2022, p.85]

A companion piece, maybe, but these songs can stand alone. [Apr 2022, p.84]

After nine songs averaging under four minutes, Moore closes with The Realization, 10 minutes of converging light and dark, and one of the finest piece of music that he has put his name to. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Merrick's smoke-ring vocals rarely become agitated; the lyrics are unforced, unadorned, conversational to the point of artlessness. ... Yet there is tension here, lurking in the disconnect between Merrick's nonchalant vocals and the simmering volatility of the music. [Apr 2022, p.82]

It's unashamedly nostalgic, but her voice remains pure and true. [Apr 2022, p.84]

Stark, resolute songs. [Apr 2022, p.85]

Boasts duets between Esperanza Spalding ab=nd Q-Tip, Musiq Soulchild and posdnuos and a deep-voiced rap from Meshell Ndegeocello that perfectly marries H.E.R.'s downcast balladeering. Much of the rest, however, is little more than showy, slick and generic R&B, with Glasper becoming virtually untraceable. [Apr 2022, p.89]

Though the percussive, struck guitar strings interlude Zilch is perhaps an inquiry too far, caroline's flair for conjuring the liminal space between sleep and wakefulness frequently enchants. [Apr 2022, p.89]

One or two numbers have too many twiddles; but then there's the waltz-like Are You In Love?, no longer a teen crush but adult, gently humorous and intoxicating. [Mar 2022, p.85]

The record's well-meaning earnestness is a little overwhelming, but it's the stuffed-crust arrangements that really grate, everything happening at once, and often for too long. [Apr 2022, p.81]

Packed with urgency, edge and scope, it's light years ahead of the competition. [Apr 2022, p.89]

The album's 12 intimate essays, described as "elegies as much as songs," feel like ghostly, poignant testaments to our times. [Mar 2022, p.86]

The result is Proustian, the 18 tracks an overwhelming rush of joy. [Apr 2022, p.82]

While tracks like The Whirl, Receiver, Sensory Street and Human are among Marr's most impressive, Fever Dream is too long, uniform and persistent to enjoy in one sitting. Perhaps best, then, to take your time and discover its sparkling delirium in its 4 x 12-inch singles form. [Apr 2022, p.81]

For all Wild Loneliness's concerns about our ailing world, it's unmistakably a tonic. It's also a life-affirming thank-you note for what we have left. [Apr 2022, p.87]

Trentemøller deftness in balancing light and shade and a multi-layered approach are key to its allure. [Mar 2022, p.87]

Ocean Child achieves its aim - emphasising the vibrant depth of Yoko Ono's (approximately) infinite universe. [Apr 2022, p.83]

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]

Nas's fifteenth is a heap of comfort food for old-school rap fans. [Apr 2022, p.90]

A wholly unsanitised vision, where screeching white noise guitars eclipse thundering beats in a reverb dungeon far from prissy "Health & Safety" regulation. [Apr 2022, p.80]

Throughout, Earthling toys with classic radio-rock clichés, only to cleanse them of jadedness via Vedder's trademark wholehearted investment, a trick which still charms. [Apr 2022, p.88]

Small World suffers from sonic conservatism: The Tame Impala-lite of I Lost My Mind is undercooked, while It's Good To Be Back's tracly synths are a touch self-parodic. [Apr 2022, p.88]

Sinewy. ... Lines brings a clear echo of mid-period Pink Floyd to the table. [Mar 2022, p83]

There's a lot of it, nearly five hours' worth, but you don't need to have a working knowledge of the inside of a Lambretta to enjoy the sharp-suited sounds here. [Mar 2022, p.98]

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

Modern country-funk jams packed with slick guitar licks, springy basslines and endless hooks. [Mar 2022, p.90]

Donaldson keeps refining what is essentially one song. ... Fortunately, Donaldson's undeniable homage is exquisitely on the nose, one comforting swoon after another. [Mar 2022, p.86]

Lighten Up takes its sometimes melancholy frown, turns it upside down and delivers an infectious beam of musical sunshine. [Mar 2022, p.82]