The information exchange attains a near perfect equilibrium between sanctified melody and distress signals. [Oct 2021, p.91]

McLaughlin's inner creative fire is till burning brightly on Liberation Time. [Sep 2021, p.78]

An expansive, summery jazz-funk crossover that lives and dies on its monster grooves. [Aug 2021, p.85]

The Beach Boys vault, though, is full of Dennis tracks, and Feel Flows makes a great showcase for that Wilson's unlikely gifts, and the inconsistent strategies that bedevilled the band. [Sep 2021, p.90]

It's essentially a particularly dark MSP bravely attempting to go a bit ABBA, failing miserably but in the process creating a skewed but alluring new pop persona. ... A hit. [Oct 2021, p.97]

The playing is dappled, unostentatious, the mood often disarmingly pretty. [Jul 2021, p.85]

More moments of delicate beauty than before. [Aug 2021, p.90]

Music that is dizzying beautiful, but never precious. [Oct 2021, p.88]

City Pressure, the military-industrial complex, social injustice, ganja and plague/lockdown frustration are soundtracked by city-sized industrial noise and merciless rhythm. [Oct 2021, p.88]

The Old Fabled River deals only in wistful enchantment, with four, typically bardic, otherworldly Roberts originals augmented by traditional ballads and a brace of Norwegian hymnals, achingly emoted by saxophonist Marthe Lea. [Aug 2021, p.88]

These songs aren't quite the blast of fresh air needed after months of dreaming about new horizons, but as you'd expect from Damon And Naomi, they're a beautifully curated analogue. [Oct 2021, p.96]

Jackson is in magnificent voice throughout. [Oct 2021, p.88]

See-saws between manic joy and depressive darkness but never loses its sense of wit, grace or noise-dipped tunefulness. [Oct 2021, p.96]

The result is a warmly autumnal, subtly adventurous set. [Oct 2021, p.90]

When Robert Smith guests on the strident How Not to Drown it's a perfect retro storm. Yet the opening Asking For A Friend has a very 2021 clatter, while Violent Delights evokes a sugar-free Ellie Goulding. [Oct 2021, p.98]

The only unsatisfactory element of The Ballad of Dood & Juanita is that it's too short. [Oct 2021, p.92]

Wainwright's fifth LP has artistry galore. [Sep 2021, p.78]

In the main, conjure strange, eerie atmospheres filled with ghostly spirits like those inhabiting the recordings of Del Shannon and Joe Meek. [Oct 2021, p.95]

Not quite up to par with the last three indie label releases, but he set the bar high. [Oct 2021, p.93]

Achieved what they wanted: Mariah Carey scaling dramatic peaks on Somewhat loved (There You Go Breakin' My Heart); Babyface recrowned the king of quiet storm on He Don't Know Nothin' Bout It, and Usher, the love doctor, all breathy and hot on Do It Yourself. [Oct 2021, p.95]

Their enthusiasm for the project is palpable and if their joyful noise turns just one listener onto the original, it's job done. [Sep 2021, p.82]

The free-est, fun-est, most psychedelic Villagers record so far. [Sep 2021, p.76]

More cohesive and less Britpop than 2018's Brickbat. More trenchant too. [Aug 2021, p.87]

Highly polished, rootsy but gentle rocking with some big hooks, even if the quality wavers a little over 15 tracks. [Sep 2021, p.88]

Bristling with hooks, this thoroughly enjoyable set deserves to be spilling out of open windows wherever it's summer. [Sep 2021, p.81]

Shine[s] a light on forgotten corners of the influential '70s label's past. [Jun 2021, p.94]

Sinner Get Ready spotlights the itinerant Californian's magnetic vocals by removing harsh textures, reflecting her move to rural Pennsylvania with a majestic palette of choral polyphony, crashing percussion and traditional porch and church sounds. [Sep 2021, p.86]

With its 10 tracks and 24-minute running time, this unexpected sequel--its sleeve nodding playfully to Dr Dre's 2001-might look like a small-scale musical property, but once inside, it's a mansion. [Sep 2021, p.84]

More cohesive, languid and countrified [than Floaters and October Song]. [Sep 2021, p.83]

Delivering a deliciously unsettling and artful listening experience. [Sep 2021, p.83]

While Heart-Shaped Scars might not be the first flowering of such wistful folk mysteries, it still brings in a good harvest. [Sep 2021, p.80]

A lofty ambition [songs to heal some souls], perhaps, but one this resonant and deeply pleasurable album achieves with grace and groove. [Aug 2021, p.78]

There is plenty going on: doomy folk blues; sparse Woody Guthrie-esque folk; slow, sad Sweet Refrain and The Levee On Down. There's also passionate, pissed-off, rousing country rock. [Sep 2021, p.85]

Their unique gift for sounding at once thoroughly unhinged and ferociously in control is intact. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Thirstier comes on like a bold, heady catharsis. [Sep 2021, p.86]

Native Sons adds a local twist as Los Lobos roll back--with new, inventive detail--through their LA roots and influences, binding the Chicano branch of '60s rock and California from the other side of town. [Sep 2021, p.78]

Animal admirably slips standard musical taxonomy to take on a life of it own. [Aug 2021, p.83]

An enthralling step on her musical journey. [Aug 2021, p.83]

This is Sign 'O' The Times territory. ... When Prince wanders from the funk path the results are more mixed. ... Yet there's strength in Welcome 2 America's commitment to the idea of the Classic Prince Album. [Sep 2021, p.93]

A joy to behold. [Sep 2021, p.81]

There are some anthemic rockers--the '70s Stones-esque Until Justice Is Real is good, the strident backing vocals not so much--but most of the album's highlights are the midtempo or slower songs. [Sep 2021, p.84]

Spiral slowly reveals a core mood, triangulated between Talk Talk, Radiohead and Pink Floyd models of taut, blissful, trance-inducing rock, but often beat-driven. [Sep 2021, p.86]

Amid the chaos, some rare calm and solace from Emmylou Harris's favourite rhythm guitarist. [Sep 2021, p.78]

Audaciously, it all coheres. The vision is precise and the execution meticulous. The album's 14 songs are tightly arranged and energetically delivered. [Sep 2021, p.81]

These songs engage on intimate, interior level. [Sep 2021, p.95]

It is Crosby's stubbornly enduring voice--the will to live and create in that gift after he came so close to throwing it away--that binds the wonder and mission on For Free. [Aug 2021, p.81]

Yellow scatterguns through P-Funk, Alice Coltrane, gospel, Sun-Ra, electric-era Miles Davis and '70s jazz-fusion with glee. [Aug 2021, p.85]

Capturing his bad life choices, regrets and hopes at their most immediate. [Aug 2021, p.84]

Shades of Harry Nilsson and the odd splash of Allman Brothers-like lead guitars further distinguish this one-man band outing. [Jul 2021, p.84]

U-Roy remains on form throughout, delivering everything in his relaxed yet confident style, all testament to his enduring talent. [Aug 2021, p.87]

Riotous takedown of eco-hypocrisy and corporate greenwashing to the accompaniment of rhythms so wildly exuberant they could rearrange loins. [Aug 2021, p.89]

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

The musicianship's great, Lloyd Maines' production's gorgeous and there's a slew of highlights. [Aug 2021, p.87]

It's like watching people chuck matches into a box of fireworks: sparks everywhere, but - excitingly, frustratingly - you're never sure where they're going to land. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Bowie's live vocal is excellent on a cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam, and the sound is seriously beefed up by the addition of Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson partway through the set, but massively new or consistently brilliant it is not. [Aug 2021, p.98]

Overall, Preacher's Sigh & Potion ... has a sketchy feel that will likely only appeal to those keen to hear every stage of Dear's musical development. [Aug 2021, p.95]

Vibrant and uninhibited, dotted with rule-bending twists, Mood Valiant is the sound of summer. [Aug 2021, p.88]

Mvula is a gifted arranger with a distinctive cri de coeur, and this is where she soars. [Aug 2021, p.83]

It throws up its fair share of sunshine treats. ... Consumed in one siting though, the relentlessly Day-Glo vibes can get a little sickly. [Aug 2021, p.81]

Magnificently unsanitised ramalams in the shape of Please Come In and BFIOU. [Aug 2021, p.88]

10 tracks of grainy electronic drift, tension and poignancy. [Aug 2021, p.81]

It's not easy listening, but profoundly engaging and redemptive. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Brainy, jazzy, prescient. [Aug 2021, p.88]

Crafty, insidious creations which gradually accrue substance and emotional heft even as they remain soothing on the ear. [Jul 2021, p.83]

All coalesces, near-inexplicably, as yet another excellent album. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Tries to understand where to go, and whether he's already there. ... Life is a casket. And it's golden. Both are true. Brock apparently has figured it out. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Taylor's balm-like burr delivers a blissful moment of healing. [Aug 2021, p.81]

Some of the vocals sound like first takes, which gives them an honesty (maybe a bit too honest on opening track In the Summertime). But from here on, it's just lovely. [Aug 2021, p.82]

Lyrically she still falling in love, but the slow burn of Consequences reveals more nuance with each sitting. [Aug 2021, p.83]

Some artists, such as Beck and Khruangbin with their art-funk overhauls of Fund My Way and Pretty Boys respectively, build traditional, if inventive remixes around Macca's vocals. Other go further and basically cover the songs. [Aug 2021, p.83]

Reflective, lyrically and musically. [Aug 2021, p.84]

Convocations - conceived in lockdown and isolation - represents anguish and discombobulation, without having yet reached acceptance. [Aug 2021, p.84]

It's even more tightly coiled, its motivational and cautionary messages immediate and often terrifying, its roots as ancient as the rolling landscape around is native Holly Spring, Mississippi. [Aug 2021, p.86]

Peace Or Love is sophisticated without being easy, a quiet storm all of its own. [Aug 2021, p.86]

There's a pleasing, Bowie-ish swagger to Elfman's vocals and a steam-punk thrust to Big Mess's heavy, junkyard percussion, the album's caustic, chaotic arrangements utterly fearless throughout 18 rather exhausting songs. [Aug 2021, p.86]

An intense, slightly avant chum. [Aug 2021, p.86]

While autumnal gems like Rabbit chime with recent months' universal experience of isolation and inertia, Earth Trip also mirrors the salvation many have found in nature, its gentle, J.J. Cale-esque country-rock tempos evocative of restorative rustic rambling. [Jun 2021, p.82]

Boy From Michigan is Grant in panoramic mode, looking back and looking forward to create his biggest picture yet. [Jul 2021, p.86]

Dacus finds the pages of her diary she just can't shake, turning them into songs that are destined to stay with you, too. [Jul 2021, p.78]

Hardcore fans will be sold on the passion, others may struggle. [Jul 2021, p.86]

While not short on garage freakouts there's added twang to Hell In Texas and a spaghetti western shimmer on New day's unheavenly chorus. [Jun 2021, p.90]

Throughout Francis Lung turns dark emotions into bright and welcoming songs. [Jul 2021, p.83]

Scintillating electronics that line-up nicely with the space pulsations of Terry Riley, Cluster, or 9coincidence?) Matthew Bower's Sunroof! [Jul 2021, p.90]

Candlepower isn't the full picture yet, and it only lasts seven tracks and 19 minutes, but it's a fine start. [Jul 2021, p.81]

Wolf has established his own distinctive and mighty voice. [Jul 2021, p.89]

A deep, powerful and satisfying album. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Exhortations are soundtracked by languid funk that occasionally stumbles into trip-hop autopilot but is mostly electrified by Peng's restless inspiration. [Jul 2021, p.87]

They've added anger to their traditional wall of ferocious sleekness built on sizzling guitars and unyielding electronica. [Jul 2021, p.80]

The quantity and quality of the songs they have unearthed that didn't make it onto Deja Vu is pretty amazing. [Jun 2021, p.99]

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

Idles and Tom Morello score highly by taking an edgy staccato approach, faithful to the original songs, but La Roux's synthy take on Damaged Goods teases out an unexpected amount of melody. [Jul 2021, p.83]

Gibbons' gnarly guitars and sand-blasted voice are impeachable. [Jul 2021, p.80]

Dreamers Are waiting is possibly the most Crowded House-sounding album crowded House have made since their Crowded debut. [Jul 2021, p.83]

It's his most moving writing of his career. [Jul 2021, p.83]

From experimental to twisted pop, drill to R&B, techno to Ambient, James draws a precise and brilliant musical Venn diagram. [Jul 2021, p.87]

A mixed bag then, but a welcome return that promises much. [Jul 2021, p.80]

It moves sedately and seductively, a brooding mass of reverb, drone and throb, all counter-pointed by Trappes' gossamer-light vocals. [Jul 2021, p.87]

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]