This rolling membership opens the palette considerably. ... The songs that leave the biggest impression, however, are the raucous yet soulful bangers. [Mar 2020, p.89]

More recognisably Air-like despite half its tracks being merely serviceable collaborations. [Feb 2020, p.89]

[Wolf Parade] stand against the day, insisting, "We can begin again." Doing it less with grand declarations than moments of grace. [Mar 2020, p.89]

Not Pet Shop Boys in highest definition, Hotspot still provides a vivid panorama of their world. [Mar 2020, p.86]

Shauf is as musically jaunty as Josh Rouse. [Mar 2020, p.92]

Some career-catchiest tunes and a lively self-production make Sing an absolute triumph in repositioning. [Mar 2020, p.91]

These great songs live on through reinvention; Bonny Light Horseman have done them proud. [Feb 2020, p.87]

Lurid yet skillfully inconclusive music for these precarious times. [Feb 2020, p.88]

Been Around has heart, soul, a voice and tunes to die for, an early highlight of 2020. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Full of warmth, humour and depth. [Feb 2020, p.86]

Forsyth's emotional power is entirely here and now. [Feb 2020, p.88]

These are songs that chime delicately within uncertain world, in the best possible way, neither here nor there. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Dream On is packed with heartbreak, yet has a deft pop instinct too, courtesy of producer Patrik Berger. [Feb 2020, p.94]

Rekindle the guileless spirit of mid-'90s alt rock in The Alarmist's twilit wistfulness; or Moment's surge of power-chord melancholy. [Feb 2020, p.96]

Instead of meeting fire with ire, there's an attempt to provide calm, clarity, a space to contemplate what really matters. [Feb 2020, p.93]

If the arrangements and performances are as good as retro-rock gets--with veteran drummer Gene Chrisman and keyboard player Bobby Wood among Auerbach's American Sound Studio band they would hardly be otherwise--the lyrics seldom boast a single sentiment or turn of phrase which isn't threadbare. Otherwise, never a dull moment. [Feb 2020, p.92]

Their fusion of Franklin James Fisher's gospel howl and post-industrial beats has grown into something searing and infernal. [Feb 2020, p.90]

It takes its time luring listeners in. [Feb 2020, p.91]

Like Hope Sandoval, Savior's smoky timbre is cucumber-cool rather than over-emotive. [Feb 2020, p.86]

The Only Ones reassures concerned fans that all is very well in Camp Milk Carton. [Jan 2020, p.90]

A frontier bliss-out. [Dec 2019, p.96]

Fogerty remains a force of nature who matches Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney in his commitment to energising nostalgia, his shows less living jukebox than soul-stirring communion. [Feb 2020, p.86]

These enigmatic narratives work well--the themes can be unearthed at one's leisure, immersed in music that's both poignant and delightful. [Feb 2020, p.88]

In the album's second half, Georgia aims beyond euphoria and thrills with Mellow and Ray Gun's hip-hop shade, Honey Dripping Sky's aching power ballad and Ultimate Sailor's Tangerine Dream-style banks of ambient synths. [Feb 2020, p.92]

While relatively straitlaced on hooky earworms Good Mood and Hexagons, it vanishes into a netherworld of hypnotic minimalism amid Tol Circle's warped Mantovani exotica and the title-track's spaced-out disco frug. [Jan 2020, p.91]

The low-fidelity recordings add a refreshingly unpretentious, non-commercial realism. [Dec 2019, p.102]

Lavishness their deep influences merits. ... Endless Indian summer. [Feb 2020, p.107]

It's Holmes who provides the spark throughout Cypress Grove. [Feb 2020, p.94]

A delectably warm sonic pool that invites frequent plunges. [Feb 2020, p.91]

A rare beacon of quality amid the shoddy posthumous rap parade. [Feb 2020, p.91]

The 2009 live comp shows how testing their sets can be, with long glitchy interludes between colourbursts of song. [Feb 2020, p.96]

U-Bahn's debut satisfies as a hugely enjoyable listen. [Jan 2020, p.87]

Edgy, operatic, driving and frenetic. .. Restful listening, this is not. [Feb 2020, p.89]

Football Money is breezy and concise--10 songs, 28 minutes--but generously ladled with charm. [Feb 2020, p.86]

Free Nationals' blissed-out, woozy slow-jams make for a low-key triumph. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Save a few saggy, meh0ish collaborations mining genres, this sparky yet spiritual blend of bum-rushing hard bangers and deep soul dives further underscores his three-dimensional star quality. [Feb 2020, p.86]

On a par with McCraven's similarly sprawling and revolutionary Universal Beings--and that's no mean feat. [Jan 2020, p.89]

The big sell is a new mix of A Momentary Lapse. [Jan 2019, p.103]

A step up from last year's choogling Livin' The Die: freakier and funnier. [Dec 2019, p.88]

there are shivers galore on this box. [Jan 2020, p.96]

As in life, variety spices this highly entertaining tribute compilation. One for the stocking and beyond. [Jan 2020, p.86

Portrait gives us what the composer feels are the definitive versions of these tracks. It's also an excellent introduction to this most singular of musicians. [Jan 2020, p.88]

A deep, thrilling listen. [Jan 2020, p.88]

Eight long-deleted vinyls 45s and EPs bring back prized gems by The Congos, Linval Thompson and Freddy McKay, the 24-page large-format booklet putting everything into perspective. [Jan 2020, p.104]

A challenging but far from inaccessible work. [Jan 2020, p.91]

Reggae/dub comes no more vital, nor far-sighted, in 2019. [Jan 2020, p.85]

The herbally-enhanced sound he creates is blissfully minimal and knowingly sultry, Galcher Lustwerk's enervated baritone amplifying the somnolent mood. [Jan 2020, p.91]

It takes several listens to mentally sync wit its wonky, lurching rhythms. [Jan 2020, p.91]

It's a compliment that guest spots by simpatico icons Iggy Pop and Kool Keith are by no means the best things here. [Dec 2019, p.86]

This time, the quieter moments are more keenly affecting. [Jan 2020, p.89]

Another hip-rolling, dabke masterclass. [Jan 2020, p.92]

Promising debut. [Jan 2020, p.92]

A soaring Here In Spirit joins reincarnation musing Who Am I? at the pinnacle of its daft-genius. [Jan 2020, p.92]

The sound of a band untethered, revelling in their resurrection. [Jan 2020, p.98]

This is a mellifluous and hook-laden, brimming with Russell's quotidian snapshot lyrics. [Jan 2020, p.99]

This vivid, confident collection cuts across the UK bass continuum, mixing abstract house and no-rave with moody mysticism. [Jan 2020, p.91]

While dark moments abound, Bad Wiring is also thick with the evergreen anti-folkie's charm. [Jan 2020, p.92]

At times Little Common Twist seems to misplace its destination, but it's also warm and embracing; not so much ambient as aural amniotic fluid. [Jan 2020, p.91]

Sounds reassuringly expensive. ... Decent instrumental takes on Lao Schifrin's The Cat plus Fiona Apple's elegant Don't Worry 'Bout Me make this more than the stocking-filler that won't unnerve Aunt Norah. [Jan 2020, p.90]

Spotlights the songs' grit and humanity, albeit still substantially finessed by mixmaster Bob Clearmountain. [Jan 2020, p.90]

Ultimately, The Band raised all stakes, and a half-century later, musicians are still striving for its excellence. [Jan 2020, p.90]

Pollard's lyrics are characteristically oblique, but persistence pokes through as a theme. [Jan 2020, p.90]

O'Hagan has taken apart what he's known for and put it back together in an entirely fresh ways. [Jan 2020, p.89]

The result might be Orcutt's most beautiful album, a phantasmal union of folk, blues, rock and country visions that crackles with the intense fire of his own country's turbulent history. [Jan 2020, p.89]

A fitting culmination of the run that began with Old Ideas in 2012. [Jan 2020, p.88]

An album hitting some dead ends, as other avenues open up. [Jan 2020, p.88]

It's frustrating to hear them bringing so much to material that doesn't quite coalesce, it's something like listening to holograms of actual songs. [Jan 2020, p.85]

When harnessed, Taylor Hawkins' energy is the right stuff. [Jan 2020, p.85]

Though making the common mistake of over-investing in the frame of guitar and piano licks and bodging the big picture of the song, Ron Wood's tribute is not the worst in the world. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Matt Maltese's second album persists with velveteen schmaltzy AOR; like yacht rock on a budget. His graceful croon, though, is more jaded this time, combining with the hollowed-out production for a deluxe dose of remorse. [Jan 2020, p.84]

A poignant tribute. [Jan 2020, p.84]

13 evocative songs. [Jan 2020, p.84]

The combination of shimmering sonics and dislocated characters is what makes Hyperspace so holistic, and compelling. [Jan 2020, p.83]

A meditative, deliciously low-key collection produced by Lee Townsend. [Nov 2019, p.91]

Total fun for your brain. [Dec 2019, p.107]

A clutch of moving haikus. ... Knowing, experimental, hopeful, ironic, this could be Mary Margaret O'Hara--wringing your heart, engaging your brain. [Dec 2019, p.89]

Musicians writing and singing about being in the seventies is a rare thing in the Peter Pan world of rock--but The Who do it exceptionally well. [Dec 2019, p.92]

The songs about hurt, hardship but also hope are sung in raspy voices with sparse guitar and farming tools used as percussion. [Dec 2019, p.88]

The working drafts may have comprised a more direct, accessible album. But this monument to Clark's troubled masterpiece shows how deep and far he was willing to go to capture--and share--the salvation in a song. [Dec 2019, p.107]

No Treasure But Hope is further refinement of what they've been doing in the past. [Dec 2019, p.89]

An uncomfortable listen, especially the Big Star's Third-esque When I Think Of You, but also an album imbued with acceptance and dignity. [Nov 2019, p.93]

It's a challenging listen, but more exhilarating than pretentious. [Dec 2019, p.95]

Its instrumental first disc a foreboding seas of sputtering synths, dislocated drums and disorienting ideas. Yet rare moments of beauty peak through. ... A similar wilful primitivism pervades disc two. [Dec 2019, p.95]

It's really a nightmare world Oldham describes, but he cloaks it in tender beauty, slight-of-hand that remodels human failure into heartening endurance, a consoling story against the cold. [Dec 2019, p.88]

The Sisypheans is measured and reflective. [Dec 2019, p.91]

Beat-less but involving standouts like Memphis Helena, with its plangent lead line intimately tracked by Nelson's hushed hazy intoning, and elegiac, rippling acoustic guitar-propelled Muriel Spark are as inexorable and immersive as a high summer sunset. [Dec 2019, p.92]

It's a good album, but the standout track is just him alone on Beograd, a swirling big-room French house track, where he is beautifully lost in the beats. [Dec 2019, p.93]

Profligate, self-indulgent and, against all oddly, hugely satisfying. ... [The single-disc] Sampler Edition is a handy 58-minute entry point to the mad endeavour. [Dec 2019, p.90]

Girl Ray's metamorphosis is still ongoing, and that their true final form may resemble something darker and more substantial than Girl's neon reveries, diverting though they are. [Dec 2019, p.94]

His most complete artistic statement to date. [Dec 2019, p.93]

Wildcard marks a brilliant reassertion of Lambert's magnetic wit. [Dec 2019, p.89]

Closer listens reveal small universes of movement, tension and suspense pulsing just beneath the surface. [Dec 2019, p.88]

From Out Of Nowhere is a stronger, better focused set than its predecessor. [Dec 2019, p.84]

It is a hazy path through a dusty landscape of sadness and enlightenment that never arrives at answers or certainties, but shimmers with an eternal mystery. [Dec 2019, p.90]

It's a damn good listen, all of it. Generous and revelatory, to borrow Rosanne's words, and at times mind-blowing. [Dec 2019, p.100]

A meditative record that flutters elegantly and throbs with delicious menace. [Nov 2019, p.95]

There are certainly treasures here if you sift through Guv's prolific unburdening. [Dec 2019, p. 94]

Twigs plants words with tenacious deliberation and care, but sometimes the result is over-studied, a gentle industrial emo. [Dec 2019, p.93]