Brown's post-production science turning these intricate guitar matrixes into something smeared, meditative and wholly transporting. [Feb 2026, p.97]

Even as she turns 73, Williams sounds present, ready to mix it, and therefore as good a hope as we have. [Mar 2026, p.83]

There's so much controlled carnage to this double LP that it just flashes by. [Feb 2026, p.90]

Bailey has been constantly moving towards something truly great and Can't Take My Story Away gets her closer still. [Feb 2026, p.82]

Van's back, lending vocals to Ain't That A trip, a joyous R&B number that provides one of many highpoints on Hunter's eleventh album. [Jan 2026, p.86]

By turns numinous and spectral. [Feb 2026, p.81]

Music that's moving, beautiful and uplifting. [Feb 2026, p.83]

Keeps a glossy electropop trajectory, but there's a precarious tilt to the shoegazing rush of Do You Still Believe In Me? or the startling heartbroken lyrics of Dolphins. [Feb 2026, p.87]

An inspired, unique dramstist, at the peak of his powers. [Feb 2026, p.81]

If this is a less turbulent FWF manifestation, they're still powerful, churning perilously. [Feb 2026, p.80]

Dry Cleaning have lost none of their distinctive edge, their idiosyncratic set-up proving to be endlessly elastic, as big as they want, as small as they need, 
to capture the chaos of the world. No hidden messages here: Secret Love is a wonderful record.

There are sweet moments on The Demise Of Planet X - not least guest appearances from Aldous Harding (Elitest G.O.A.T.) and Life Without Buildings' Sue Tompkins (No Touch) - and a more delicate musical palette, but the overwhelming mood is one of weariness; with the state of the world and the tedious, endless gotchas. [Feb 2026, p.85]

If you like your teen dreams served a la Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, you'll find plenty to swoon along to here. And no nonsense. [Jan 2026, p.87]

Wish You Were Here somehow still connects. Lyrically affecting, musically adventurous, but always accessible, it's as relevant now as it was a half a century ago. [Jan 2026, p.92]

Inner Day's voyage around the edges of the avant universe might be challenging, but it can also be mesmerising. [Dec 2025, p.83]

Her songwriting pen has never been sharper. [Jan 2026, p.83]

Live God does what the best live albums do: capturing both the thrills and spills of the performance and the audience's rapturous response to it. [Feb 2026, p.82]

The fistful of Memento Mori tracks - especially the slow building Speak To Me - confirm what a strong, brooding album it was, but they're rattled off early in the set, leaving a glorious cavalcade of (mostly) hits for the second half. [Feb 2026, p.81]

Frequently gorgeous collection of slow-motion jazz standards. [Feb 2026, p.87]

Not only because of Ellis's extraordinary vocal command and gasp of dynamics but because his songs manage to be both mysteriously personal and yet immediately emotionally resonant. [Feb 2026, p.80]

It'll leave you hoping De La never stop. [Feb 2026, p.80]

The packed tracklist suggests perfectly imperfect nuggets. ... The haunted, magical lies of Gonna Learn Too Crawl, meanwhile, invite close listening to his more muted, intimate moments, too. [Feb 2026, p.81]

Hatchie is moving into interesting territory. [Feb 2026, p.84]

A title that came to John Darnielle in a dream vividly interpreted as the score for a musical. [Feb 2026, p.90]

Absorbing follow-up. [Feb 2026, p.90]

How much of ...Jazz Age was completed before Bailey's death is unclear, but his final at is one of his greatest. [Jan 2026, p.84]

This is an outfit broadening its musical horizon as the record spins. [Jan 2026, p.88]

A clearer-headed Goulden has given eight of those under-loved songs the garage verité treatment they needed all along for England Screaming. [Dec 2025, p.82]

Zajac's gnomic lyrics make the direct bits hit that bit harder, and if there are swamp-fuzz debts to J.J. Harvey, it is still a powerful piece of personal witness-bearing. [Jan 2026, p.85]

Otherworldly as it is ineffably uplifting. [Jan 2026, p.82]

A lovely album, but not one which lingers. [Jan 2026, p.87]

Nugent's own stately take on I Am Asleep And Don't Waken Me, Caoimhe Hopkinson's lovely Jamieson's Favourite and Junior Brother's joyous tumble through The Lark In The Morning bring playful spirit to old pub session favourites. [Dec 2025, p.87]

Holy Island nods to mid-period Flying Saucer Attack, Souvlaki-era Slowdive, maximum-shimmer Ride and motorik. Such influences are offset by an innate drama which inexorably draws inwards. There is, though, a potentially overwhelming backstory. [Jan 2026, p.91]

Thick Rich And Delicious is moreish powerpop; a dish best served loud. [Dec 2025, p.87]

With Childish producing, they pick up where they left off. [Jan 2026, p.84]

There are effortless covers of Bo Diddley (Dearest Darling) and Slim Harpo (Got Love If You Want It), but mostly it's Childish's own back-catalogue that is mined and re-imagined here. [Jan 2026, p.82]

Rock solid debut from an exceptional singer. [Dec 2025, p.86]

They conjure contemplative moods (A Cowboy Without Cows; Night Library) without rogue textures, no instrument or showy motif photo-bombing the arrangements. [Jan 2026, p.90]

Stunning. [Jan 2026, p.84]

Nelson still plays Trigger. .... Willie's technique varies 'twixt hard blues and laid-back swing. This novel approach is a perfect description for both Nelson and Hagard's personal interpretation of how they perform country music. [Jan 2026, p.83]

A huge step forwards: certainly professionally but surely personally too. [Jan 2026, p.84]

Anthology 4 offers another transporting parallel view into how The Beatles did what they did, from the pre-fame beginnings to the end and after. [Dec 2025, p.12]

Amid these diaries of dissolution, there is defiance - plus a consistent compositional potency that suggests latter-day Damon Albarn. [Dec 2025, p.85]

Teamed, the trio's rich vocal-blend and sometimes sparkling, sometimes scruffed modern country is deeply impressive. [Jan 2025, p.84]

Moments of odd musical cosplay, meanwhile, are outshone by such hits as Silly Love Songs and Let 'Em In. [Jan 2026, p.96]

A glorious snapshot of Silver in his prime. [Dec 2025, p.99]

A complete set from Minneapolis's First Avenue in January 1985, powered by the sulphurous char of Bob Mould's guitar and Grant Hart's heart-attack drumming, showcases their alchemical blend of classic pop melodicism and punk velocity, closing with apocalyptic Beatles and Byrds covers. A second disc of stray recordings previews their 1986 Warners debut and burgeoning maturity. [Nov 2025, p.101]

Elevated by Austra's opera-trained vocal, thrilling fluctuations confirms she's progressed from grief to anger, and with serene finale Good Riddance, acceptance. [Dec 2025, p.84]

The absolute highlight is Dion's magnificently assured live performance of his own King Of The New York Streets. .... New York Minute stands out, with its overt nods to Dion's late-1950s doo wop sides. [Jan 2026, p.89]

The shock of the new has evaporated, but she's subtly evolving and broadening her palette. [Dec 2025, p.78]

["This Is How We Make Our Dreams Come True" is] one misfire in a never-predictable and constantly shapeshifting and imaginative album. [Jan 2026, p.85]

If Melody Nelson had been hit by a car driven by Arthur Vercocai rather than Serge Gainsbourg, this could have been the result. Jan 2025, p.91]

Hard to pin down, harder not to enjoy. [Jan 2026, p.90]

The shadowy melodies of New Case and Forgotten Token, a pulverising meditation on displacement, display a depth and sophistication suggesting greatness in Upchuck's future, if the dystopia doesn't get them first. [Jan 2026, p.84]

Jolting with energy and pitch-black humour, Stardust is a sonic pink'n'mix that finds Brown firmly relocating his psychedelic wildness. [Jan 2026, p.87]

Describe takes time to coalesce, but even through the mists, Jadagu makes her presence felt. [Jan 2026, p.86]

Mostly it's sparse, as a lonesome album should be. [Jan 2026, p.86]

Here the ensemble hangs together a little more coherently. [Jan 2026, p.86]

Everybody scream is both a re-statement of what made her so beguiling and a gentle step forwards. [Jan 2026, p.85]

Snocaps might plan on melting away as quickly as they formed, but here, at least, they've left an indelible mark. [Jan 2026, p.80]

Their trademark bubblegum choruses are all reassuringly present, with a handful of songs here good enough to tough it out with anything on their early revered studio albums. [Dec 2025, p.83]

If Love And Fortune covers messy terrain, the 22-year-old traverses it with cool panache, plus shades of Gen-X touchstone Juliana Hatfield and Eleanor Friedberger's glistening Rebound. [Dec 2025, p.84]

Another songwriting masterclass. Again. [Dec 2025, p.78]

Hooks and choruses still pour out of White Lies, but there's a lack of cohesion that stops Night Light blazing quite as it should. [Dec 2025, p.81]

It's not always easy to get emotional purchase on these songs, but the hint of something moving beneath the immaculate surfaces makes the challenge worthwhile. [Dec 2025, p.86]

A spare, transient, restrained thing. Yet it's that restraint that ultimately defines its brilliance; the sound of a more confident, assured artist realising that it might be better to travel slowly than to arrive. [Dec 2025, p.86]

A bold and beautiful record borne of quiet surety, this is their best since The Trials Of Van Occupanther. [Dec 2025, p.86]

Her reading of Anthem makes Leonard Cohen’s hymn to resilience and resistance feel like a bespoke gift from another writer who knew about life in the shadows. .... It’s as that distant flickering light, illuminating the path to better times, that Staples excels. [Dec 2025, p.76]

Lloyd is joined by pianist Jason Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell, who prove highly empathetic collaborators, creating delicately nuanced backdrops that are conductive to the saxophonist's poetic storytelling. [Nov 2025, p.82]

An album that's rarely short of lovely. [Dec 2025, p.78]

Iconoclasts is its own untamable beast. Adventurous sonically, dynamically rich, it feels daunting, deep as the Mariana Trench. [Dec 2025, p.81]

The Belair Lip Bombs exude the simple joy of being in a band, breezing out of your speakers without affectation. [Dec 2025, p.82]

Intermittently challenging; ultimately it offers a comforting embrace. [Dec 2025, p.85]

The parallel blossoming of a writer and performer climaxes in two discs of Dylan's October 26, 1963 show at Carnegie Hall, the apotheosis of the vibrating imagery and magnetic command of his breakthrough phase, where Ballad Of Hollis Brown is a demonic spell but in truth every damn song is a transcendence. Who needs electricity? [Dec 2025, p.92]

It works beautifully, the band gently distorting their songwriting surfaces wit sudden psychedelic sun-spots and experimental flares. [Dec 2025, p.81]

There's a fine story-telling country song (No One Knows Us); a dramatic rocker (Church & State) - and songs whose piano and multiple harmonies feel like church (You Without Me; Joni). But it never sounds less than gorgeous. [Dec 2025, p.78]

Love Chant might also be described as scrappy, vulnerable and heartfelt, but it is also loose, exuberant and animated in a manner that seems faithful to who Dando is today. [Nov 2025, p.84]

Great to hear these session giants unchained. [Oct 2025, p.83]

The results are sometimes sublime, like the numinous drones and electronic eddies of Do, at other times unsettling and vaguely dystopian. [Nov 2025, p.89]

The wait, rewarded. [Dec 2025, p.85]

Holy grail or curate’s egg, diehard fans will run to this 5-disc package and relish even its flaws. Adding the original album simply emphasises what we already knew: Nebraska represents the very best of Bruce Springsteen. [Dec 2025, p.92]

Hamdan works slowly, but this has been worth waiting for. [Oct 2025, p.87]

With production cash lavished on them, the songs lustre anew. [Dec 2025, p.84]

There's a succinctness to Some Like It Hot. .... But pleasingly, they've not junked their angsty edge amid this pop-oriented realignment. [Nov 2025, p.88]

Skinner and band navigate uncharted waters with sass and skill. [Dec 2025, p.82]

Pollock might not take up space often, but when she's finally front and centre, you don't want the lights to go down. [Nov 2025, p.83]

It struts with confidence. [Nov 2025, p.85]

While the concept means Parks' violin takes a backseat, it makes for a dizzying, future-facing hybrid of dancefloor sounds. [Dec 2025, p.85]

Completists will appreciate the three-disc focus on the One To One charity concert from August 30, 1972: one disc apiece for the afternoon and evening sets and a ‘hybrid’ selection of the best of both. But intimate ‘home’ recordings, in fact taped in hotel rooms, are more tantalising. [Dec 2025, p.67]

The new sound of young Scotland. [Dec 2025, p.82]

Her voice is as earnestly soulful as Tracy Chapman, as deep and characterful as Nina Simone - and, like Simone, when the emotion engulfs her, the results are electrifying. [Sep 2025, p.87]

The album gels and is unexpectedly airy: with its souffle-light facade and full-fat core, this is a delight. [Dec 2025, p.83]

The poetic soloing ad celestial melodies of Carried It All Around and woozy, irresistible anthem In Hollywood affirm that The Besnard Lakes are masters of their art. [Dec 2025, p.83]

Wasner downplays the rockier aspects of her previous two solo records to delve into her Joni bag, pulling out both folk and AOR models - with streaks of Americana - sourcing gorgeous melodies to match her glowing vibrato that resembles a young Lucinda Williams. [Dec 2025, p.84]

There are meanders and lulls. Yet for a record intended to reflect and connect Lateral and Luminal, Liminal stands up on its own, not so much a final destination as a buzzy, fluid crossing-place for Eno and Wolfe's ideas. [Dec 2025, p.79]

The tempo is up, the brass arrangements individual, and St. Paul's extraordinary voice is swooping effortlessly between falsetto and gravel. [Dec 2025, p.86]

As with all Necks recordings, it's essentially one long piece of music, a slowly unravelling fabric that continues to delight, surprise and beguile but never repeat. [Nov 2025, p.88]

While Corporal is recognisably Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, their seventh LP is evidence for a reinvigoration; one which may bring fresh ears their way. [Nov 2025, 85]