Metheny conjures up a dense sonic tapestry comprising kaleidoscopic tone colours. [Mar 2013, p.94]

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

Old Ideas remain a quietly surprising album, full of grace, full of sadness, but also, most importantly, full of life. [Mar 2012, p.90]

Litle Feat aren't reinventing the wheel here, but the one they have still works just fine. [Jun 2025, p.87]

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]

Resonant and bittersweet, dreamily electronic. [Jun 2019, p.96]

Standout track by far is La Chiqui where trans artist Sophie and Arca go head to head, like two tall, sonic waveforms. Extraordinary. [Sep 2020, p.83]

Unlike many of dance culture's dedicated dilettantes, theirs is a smooth and millifluous whole, underpinned by the gentle pulsing of liquid bass lines.... Delightful. [Sep 2000, p.94]

Negrito transcends his influences to create a new kind of hip, gritty, thought-provoking urban musical currency. [Sep 2020, p.83]

Any agitation on Katherine Paul's second LP is gently expressed. [Oct 2019, p.92]

A thoroughly charming patchwork of neo-'60s rock. [Jul 2013, p.82]

The past might be intoxicating, but The Candle And The Flame - lucid, conversational, immediate - is beautifully present in its moment. [Mar 2023, p.84]

The overall effect is more organic and rock. [Jul 2014, p.94]

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

This is resilient, tough, exultant music that just didn't push thorough a t the time. [Sep 2011, p.113]

Overall, Beck's playing is by turns exquisitely dainty and jaw-droppingly unhinged. [Jul 2015, p.86]

Feels as old as a cracked-leather Bible that's lasted generations and witnessed many secrets. [Apr 2006, p.98]

If you've been waiting 11 years for this, you'll be relieved to know it won't disappoint. [Jun 2022, p.87]

Coleman is the revelation, a muscular, soulful conscience in the modal frenzy, raw and swinging like a barroom Coltrane. Shorter is already headed for tomorrow, spiralling through So What and Walkin’ with acrobatic modernism. But Coleman paved the way. This is his party. [Jan 2025, p.94]

Dark, edgy, yet full of light and hope, Brother Sinner... is dazzling, moving too, and bordering on perfection. [Dec 2012, p.89]

There's a warmth and careless spirit to 96, Rome and myriad others that hasn't always been there down the years, and they've seldom bettered Save You. It really is heart-warming to have them back on point. [Feb 2016, p.90]

An array of session superheroes fill the album with crackling electricity. [Mar 2014, p.93]

What did we get for our 20-year wait? Something substantive, something deeply considered. [Jan 2024, p.87]

What Now is no less discursive, plundering so many styles that it might instead be called What Next. But working with co-producer Shawn Everett in a series of top-tier Nashville hubs, Howard makes it cohere not only through the prayer bowls that clang and drone between tracks but also through the way she captures the wild vacillations of falling in and out of something that’s possibly good and potentially terrible. [Mar 2024, p.84]

The Waterfall II comes fitted with escape hatches and launch pads. ... Those in search for a 2020 anthem, meanwhile, could do worse than the gorgeous calendar-collapse of Spinning My Wheels. [Sep 2020, p.86]

Their most accessible outing yet. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Less conceptually pure than its predecessor in terms of tone and motivation it may be, but Evil Heat's bespoke tailoring pays dividends time and time again. [Aug 2002, p.94]

Paints on a much broader canvas here than 2019's debut Fyah, roving roughshod across genres. ... In Cross's seasoned palms the tuba's possibilities feel endless. [Dec 2021, p.89]

Austin's "newgrass" prodigy moves ever onwards. [July 2011, p. 108]

Opposite House and It are his most Succinct and affecting work since the near-perfect Wit's End, the album that Mangy Love now replaces as his finest. [Sep 2016, p.98]

Still very much on the cerebral side of math-pop, Joan Of Arc have rarely sounded so open and welcoming. [Feb 2003, p.91]

What follows is a remarkably moving distillation of Blur’s 33 years as pop stars. [Sep 2024, p.84]

The result delivers delightful Dapness. [Jan 2021, p.88]

Though not an unqualified triumph... The Great Destroyer is the latest high from a band that routinely rewards the virtue of patience. [Feb 2005, p.94]

She indulges her mystical side to mesmerising effect. [Dec 2005, p.100]

This follow-up retains the enthusiasm and innocence of [its 2010 release] Dansette Dansette. [Oct 2012m p.87

It's a journey beyond self-consciousness and towards mature vulnerability, to an evolved idea of what is musically pure. [Jan 2019, p.82]

It all conjures visions of student unrest, mud-strewn festivals and the pink island label, and the chutzpah and belief at work make it pretty much irresistible. [Apr 2026, p.89]

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

The DIY disco maverick channels vintage R&B and thrilling dancefloor pop of an '80s Madonna/Janet/TLC stripe, in a voice that's crystal cool in up and downtempo settings. [Feb 2017, p.99]

Here, Saunders marks out her own terrain, seeing how far she can go forward, and how far back. [Apr 2018, p.91]

Branch's inspired improvisations, bold melodic leaps and bluesy burr of a voice buoy over Nazary's inventive, depth-charged beats. [Jul 2022, p.91]

The album's no fence-sitter, it hits hard almost for the duration. [Feb 2015, p.90]

A heady, volatile brew that, in these emboldened settings, have the makings of anthems. [Jun 2017, p.92]

Much looser and more interpretative than its predecessor. [Jan 2008, p.111]

Wintery Brit-folk closer New Year Of Grace is also special, a full-circle update on the steadfast, if weatherbeaten, live affair which the Opening track Gradually visits earlier in ts slow-burning voyage. [May 2016, p.89]

Highlights include the cool Old Men, beer-soaked Dance With Your Spurs On and 90 Seconds Of Your Time, a dark, true-life tale that sounds both intense and insouciant. [Sep 2020, p.87]

The Raconteurs offers a much more straightforward and enjoyable 42 minutes [than Boarding House Reach]. [Jul 2019, p.84]

Subtly psychedelic, intuitively clever and constantly challenging, Everyday Robots underlines that Albarn is an artist of originality and depth, a master of the haunting, insidious melody and--perhaps this needs no reiteration--a gifted, inventive musician. [May 2014, p.84]

This time there's noticeably less fuzz and extraneous squall piled on top. [Feb 2004, p.92]

An epic ride. [Oct 2020, p.87]

Those who've found White Denim's previous albums a little too cluttered and clattery for comfort should find that D is a good deal more accessible, yet it also ends up being their most thrillingly off-kilter record to date. [July 2011, p. 112]

A remarkable comeback. [Jun 2004, p.106]

Not a single ounce of fat on the bone, Return is a road trip well worth taking. [Jan 2021, p.88]

As eloquent an emotional discourse as [Gedge] has mustered. [Mar 2005, p.101]

Strange Mercy is the shimmering, expansive sound of an artist defiantly coming into her own. [Oct 2011, p.104]

This is beautiful music that appears to breathe independently of its creator. [Oct 2012, p.95]

It’s not all perfect. You could rightly question whether the Q-Tip/André 3000 duet Kids… has any place on a ATCQ album. Or whether a glut of guest spots including Elton John, Jack White and Kendrick Lamar are strictly necessary. Yet ultimately it’s the original, immersive Tribe vibes that conquer all.

There are some beautiful moments. [Apr 2006, p.94]

A progression in Blake's music, his melodies less elusive, his productions less ethereal. [Mar 2019, p.88]

Sensuous and calm, yet cut through with deep strumming guitar and a rolling lilt, it has a folk rock drift that's less ribald, less edgy than the theatrical spark of 2021's A Common Turn and in|FLUX (2023). [Mar 2025, p.90]

As well as less oft-aired selections from Stoogean days (I'm Sick Of You, a ferocious Death Trip), the Bowie era (Mass Production) and later solo outings (The Endless Sea, off '79's New Values), there's a trumpet-led singalong for The Passenger, and Loose rendered with a near-big band swing - weird but actually rather wonderful. [Feb 2025, p.85]

The lyrics tackle domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and proceeds go to charity--but if all you care about is the sound it's still terrific. [Apr 2017, p.98]

Antidotes feels like riding a tea-tray down an icy mountainside. [Apr 2008, p.106]

The Decemberists' seventh is unlikely to weaken their commercial pull. [Feb 2015, p.91]

Treetop Flyers have not exactly reinvented the wheel but certainly given the tyres a good kicking and come up with all kinds of right. [Apr 2016, p.89]

This is a very organic, modern album. And it's brilliant. [Mar 2014, p.93]

Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light, Vol. 2 is a looser affair, showcasing Carlson's improvisational chemistry with long-term percussionist Adrienne Davies, bass player Karl Blau and cellist Lori Goldston. [Mar 2012, p.102]

Benefiting from a stable line-up throughout, Song of the Pearl manages to sound brighter and more dynamic while retaining its predecessor's visionary essence. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Throughout, it's the sheer quality of Nau's songwriting that truly impresses. [Jul 2017, p.89]

Night Cafe, The Future Will Be Silent and the earworm that is Dresden might just be some of their best ever pieces. [May 2013, p.90]

The slow-burners can drag, but it peaks again on Down and Eno-ish Waiting. [Jul 2017, p.96]

It's Bronxie's heart, soul and natural world-inspired epiphanies that charm most. [May 2015, p.96]

Ten spare, spacious folk-Americana songs, many of them lovely, and the instrumentation is subtle and beautiful. [Sep 2020, p.87]

True, [Merritt] still sings in a voice that's subject to fairly strict demarcations of range and malleability, but his deft spadework in the trench of song-craft more than compensates. [May 2004, p.93]

Overall this record is a heady, expansive treat. [May 2024, p.90]

Only God Was Above Us feels like a record made by a band once more comfortable in their skins. [May 2024, p.86]

The folk-adjacent auteur’s ninth studio LP is alive, Natalie Merchant-style, to the marvels of creation, but also the vulnerability that comes with suddenly having a physical stake in the future of humanity. [Oct 2025, p.88]

New York is one of Reed's strongest solo albums, with its tight focus, impassioned lyrics and spare, almost punky music. This is a deserved reissue, but the extras - a complete, energetic live rendition of the record from 1989, and some outtakes including he unissued The Room - are for fans only. [Nov 2020, p.92]

Raw yet warm, Love What Survives has a distinctively comforting setting. [Oct 2017, p.92]

Songs packed with breathless synth and guitar drama, yet still sounding deceptively simple. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Maker's vocal may be Thom Yorke-like, falsetto lift0-invcluded, but that equidistant spellbound bittersweet spot is Aero Flynn's outright. [Sep 2015, p.91]

Imelda May can voice rockin' blues, slap-bass rockabilly and smoky torch jazz and she can do it incredibly well. [Nov. 2010, p. 102]

While keyboardist Vijay Iyer and bassist/Moog player Shahzad Ismaily summon a succession of iridescent, jazz-ambient drones and stimulating pianistic inventions, the compelling centre here is always Aftab's extraordinary voice, a thing of languorously modulating beauty. [May 2023, p.84]

The most energised performance Costello has committed to record in a long time and - despite his protestations that The Imposters are an entirely different band - his most classic Attractions-like album since 1994's Brutal Youth. [Feb 2022, p.83]

foon's USP here is her voice, an instrument of somnolent, gossamer allure which floats gracefully, if opaquely, amid the eddying, amniotic music. [Jul 2013, p.92]

An entire LP of these earthy yet cerebral pop constructs would have been no hardship whatsoever. [Oct 2011, p.92]

Simply played, gently sung, graceful, literate, folk rock. [Apr 2006, p.98]

By combining the searing intimacy of a boombox-constructed mixtape with progressive and delirious bars, Earl's third album offers a rare kind of insight, sagacious from a 24-year-old. [Mar 2019, p.80]

Thanks to its exquisite craft, and Remy's feel for her characters, that project finds its finest expression yet in Heavy Light. [Apr 2020, p.86]

Arranged with exquisite care, not a swooning backing vocal, Gram Parsons echo or Brian Eeno-influenced synthesizer out of place. [Apr 2020, p.89]

Their third tribute set is exactingly detail-correct. [Dec 2013, p.90]

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

With tensions at its core, Pre Language fuses white light with the darkness of anxiety. [Mar 2012, p.102]

This is the band taking stock, creating a record that has a bleak, sonically rich beauty. [Jul 2025, p.88]

There’s always been a debt to The Beatles percolating around within Segall’s vast discography: a certain elegant way with a tune, a Lennonish rasp, that’s suggested he could make a more straightforward album, with a little more appeal beyond the garage rock illuminati. Possession is essentially that record, one where his Beatlesy nous aligns to a sort of strutting glam-baroque, without losing the dynamism that made Segall’s scrappier projects such fun. [Jul 2025, p.82]

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

Transience is another reminder that Eric Goulden is arguably the only one of his Stuff-era peers to remain a scarily powerful and forward-moving musical threat. [Jun 2019, p.90]