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

Tucker has created an album that should endear her to those who still raise the outlaw flag while also appealing to hard-edged pop-tinged rock believers. [Oct 2019, p.83]

There's social critique and black humour in spades, though the blanket-warm harmonies often smother The Rails' tougher messages. But if you want comfort in trying times, wrap up here. [Sep 2019, p.90]

Once again Tucker demonstrates his knack of creating simple, incantatory, almost folky vocal lines, which pivot around a few telling chord changes and lodge in the memory long after the music stops. [Sep 2019, p.91]

Twelve Nudes' unbridled howl, mania and joy is on the nose. [Sep 2019, p.95]

How To Live is more of a creative evolution than a total break from Cooper's previous music. [Sep 2019, p.88]

Their needling attack punctures fevered egos on There's No One Like You, and cooks up some pleasingly wonky acid-rock, but best of the bunch is the closing flourish When Do I Get To Sing "My Way." [Sep 2019, p.88]

There is sweetness--Shuffling Stoned's hyperfocused vignette; the title track's mystical George Harrison drone--but August feels like the product of a wandering mind deliberately slipping through the cracks. [Sep 2019, p.89]

This is a different sounding Billy Childish. Not Radically different, but enough to notice that something's going on. At the root is personal tragedy: he had a nervous breakdown last year, and lyrics, written more like prose than punk missive, deal with mortality and the passing of time. [Sep 2019, p.88]

This is a sweet entry point. [Oct 2019, p.92]

The bluesiest tracks are best (Beat The Drum; Witness). [Oct 2019, p.92]

i,i never sounds less than excellent, with wide-open acoustic/electric audio structures allowing pizzicato strings to waft through and rising clouds of horns to blow in unexpectedly. It really is bleeding edge stuff. [Oct 2019, p.90]

Her first album since 1968's Kufunta on Immediate. The former Ikette's voice is little changed since those days and still rooted in powerful gospel. [Aug 2019, p.88]

Spontaneity suits him; weaving jangly groove-grit with melody and just the odd overly-earnest lyric. [Sep 2019, p.96]

It all adds up to the heavy, heavy sound of extinction rebellion, King Gizz developing themes they first explored on 2017's Murder Of The Universe. [Sep 2019, p.94]

A questing, festering record, Face Stabber isn't for the faint-hearted, but its lows are outnumbered by exhilarating highs. [Sep 2019, p.95]

A first strike of the match before they burn their own path forward. [Sep 2019, p.94]

The Center Won't Hold sounds like a band urgently resetting their course, putting their fury and fear ona war footing. At times., it's on a industrial scale. ... There are gorgeous pop songs here, too. [Sep 2019, p.84]

Respite is infrequent with Blanck Mass, but when it arrives, its effects are heightened. [Sep 2019, p.91]

Succinct and entirely self-preformed, Regan's typically poetic sixth album conjures a singular, almost meditative mood via fingerpicked guitars, backwards-recorded instruments and subtle textures. [Sep 2019, p.95]

His rare talent for corralling emphatic musicians into his rhythmically intense, entrancing vision adds a whole new spin to the Indo-jazz continuum. [Aug 2019, p.91]

The whole soundtrack comes downbeat, mum-like fusion of standard instruments and glitchy electronics run throughout all the atmospheric instrumentals. [Sep 20129, p.89]

A chequered beast swiveling between ill-fitting newe adventures in growling rock electronica and hazy, '80s-throwback dram pop. It's somewhere between that Safe Place seem happiest, Eternal Recurrence, Jump Jet and End Game revisiting hazy, propulsive Ride territory of old--complete with the odd crap lyric--but the laidback, Syd Barrett-like Dial Up and arrhythmic, big-sounding In This Room show they still have genuine class. [Sep 2019, p.86]

To most ears, this late-night, whipcrack-sharp chooglathon, finally unveiled, sounds astounding. What were they like on a good night? [Sep 2019, p.107]

While six of these 19 tracks are intricately wrought miniatures, it's the supreme confidence of four-minute relative marathons Peel Free and horn-pricked parental paean Bloom Wither Bloom that shine. [Sep 2019, p.91]

Her eerie, seductive first solo outing takes your brain to a new plane. [Sep 2019, p.93]

A stopgap isn't quite what The Hold Steady need right now, but as a holding exercise it's hard to fault. [Sep 2019, p.89]

Sprawling yet rewarding, Blume is a sprightly, athletic consolidation of the journey so far. [Sep 2019, p.93]

Each of the album's 10 songs is a downbeat, dreamy, ultra-melodic yet angular nugget. [Sep 2019, p.90]

Enter a floating world of the surreal, of gently uneasy listening, warped strings and distorted brass, as if Chris Montez led an Indian mariachi band. [Aug 2019, p.93]

Derretirse displays a consistent fondness for gauzy shimmer and hypnagogic atmospherics. [Aug 2019, p.93]

Some of the lyrics that should sound like cliche feel more legit as we hear Segall wade earnestly into the aches and joys of existence. [Sep 2019, p.90]

An incantatory history of the acoustic guitar, as instrument of devotion, dance and lament, at times The Borametz Tree also feels like a book of incantations, spells for the universal elixir of joy, conjured up by a master alchemist. [Jul 2019, p.93]

The piano's push into poignancy is occasionally too much, but Yawny Yawn largely feels like new information, a clear-sighted re-vision of a tremendous set of songs. [Sep 2019, p.86]

Clark has incubated this elegant, eclectic collection that shuttles between haunting modern classical and folktronica, complex sound design, brutal beats and scabrous noise. [Aug 2019, p.93]

A poised and expansive record. [Aug 2019, p.90]

All in all, Duck is the sound of a band trying way too hard. [Sep 2019, p94]

This intimate 2013 show at Los Angeles' storied Wiltern Theatre--beautifully shot for Blu-ray--is proof, revisiting tracks from throughout their catalogue, opening with a searing, gloriously sludgy grind through Incessant Mace. From there, they showcase their many facets. [Sep 2019, p.107]

This comes together perfectly as he preens and stalks and sneers, like a sulky, world-weary Bowie. [Aug 2019, p.90]

There's something rather comforting about finding them wholly unchanged after four decades and nearly 10 million album sales. [Sep 2019, p.89]

The result is a funk-filled bundle of fun populated by a polyphony of farcical political figures, where anger is tempered by something more potent: satire. [Sep 2019, p.88]

Simian Angel is a continuation of those percussive ideas [in his previous albums], but with a far more abstracted, exploded view. [Sep 2019, p.91]

The Stockholm-based composer edges into metallic wave-like dissonance, using organ and guitar to explore points at which sonic clarity starts to mess with our spatial awareness. [Sep 2019, p.91]

KoKoKo! wield improvised technology with the deftness of touch to create the kind of pop music you'd expect to hear in the best post-punk disco in heaven. [Sep 2019, p.94]

This is long-form drone perfection. [Sep 2019, p.91]

Pure Bloom is a cleaner, more austere work, yet just as emotionally overpowering. [Sep 2019, p.95]

The group's fusion of emo-core anguish, riot grrrl rancour and bruised indie-rock is the perfect vehicle for songs channelling heartache, rage and betrayal, but the ban's true gift lies in fashioning this catharsis into well-crafted songs. [Sep 2019, p.90]

Even though her dreamscapes are surreal, there are moments that jolt. [Sep 2019, p.90]

Anima is his third solo album, outside of soundtracks, and it's his richest. [Sep 2019, p.87]

The likes of Strange Quiet, wit its pretty, pointillist synths and wobbly drones, the stately crystal guitar-flecked Capsule, or the tremulous, opalescent Under The Moon, serve to deepen the original album's strange, wonderstruct mood. [Aug 2019, p.108]

[Mykal] Rose's takes on Screaming Jay-via-Nina Simone's I Put A Spell on You, Roosevelt Sykes' 44 Guns and Johnny Otis's Bad Luck Shadow are superb roots with Rose's voice imbued with passion and sincerity. The remainder falls miserably short though, due to mismatched material, misdirection and worst, liberal use of incongruous heavy blues-rock guitar. [Aug 2019, p.97]

Audience delight is palpable. [Aug 2019, p.98]

The case is made for this wilful outfit's prog-jazz with a hardcore punk heart. [Aug 2019, p.90]

Hard Rain's warm, overriding lo-fi aesthetic is a neat contrast to the no-nonsense virtuosity of his group outings. [Jul 2019, p.89]

There's an artful intricacy to her lo-fi pop. [Aug 2019, p.92]

Highlights include an Afrobeat makeover of Curtis Mayfield's Billy Jack and a soul-jazz revamp of Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime. [Aug 2019, p.90]

The whole album suggests the assured songwriting will in time be matched by the sloughing-off of any nods to the familiar. One to keep a beady eye on. [Aug 2019, p.96]

It's something of a lucky dip, lurching between lean electro jams with a half-finished feel, robust MC skills, Young Fathers-like melds of chants and bleeding synths, and the breathy exhortations of Maskandi guitar legend Phuzekhemisi. [Aug 2019, p.97]

With several songs appearing twice covered by different acts, the malleability and strength of The Midnight Organ Fight material is clear. [Aug 2019, p.88]

It's a globe-trotting celebration of jerky, angular tempos. [Jul 2019, p.86]

Sauser-Monnig spins a gorgeously spare, frail web, as if she and instrumental allies Nick Sanborn and Phil Cook only pressed record as dawn was breaking. [Jul 2019, p.95]

Expertly sequenced as a narrative of lethargy, collapse and recovery, Purple Mountains is ultimately an album about return. It is the sound of David Berman coming back from the cold and converting it to a welcoming, lyrical warmth. ... Prepare to be taken in. [Aug 2019, p.86]

The result is the right step forwards at the right momement. [Aug 2019, p.96]

There is quiet drama here--especially on the gothic crawl of Spiders or Home's extended inner-space walk--but sometimes The Soft Cavalry struggle to project it beyond their own moody boundaries, or to find that extra charge. [Aug 2019, p.92]

It's an unlikely explosion of X-Ray Spex, The Raincoats, Oliver Mtukudzi and Stella Chiweshe, but it's a winning one. [Aug 2019, p.97]

Although the assured songs are beautifully framed by sparkling arrangements, To Each His Own suggests--as BNQT had too--Pulido is sidelining what might be more rewarding for listeners: getting on with Midlake to help realise his musical vision in a less obvious manner. [Apr 2019, p.91]

The Brilliance of I Was Real is visceral rather than intellectual. It lies in how 75 Dollar Bill locate the possibilities of transformation and release, of physical and spiritual abandon, in border-destroying party music. [Aug 2019, p.94]

Mulcahy is a heavy-duty Randy Newman for our times. [Jul 2019, p.95]

If these tracks often sound like bejewelled, undiscovered relics then much of that is down to the tough musical palimpsest on which Bratten worked. [Aug 2019, p.93]

Visionary, exhausting, Dusk To Dawn is an extraordinary experience. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Field recordings of Alphine birds are used for restraint. ... Yet each of the hour-long album's eight interlinked pieces is a distinct entity, and still a song as such. [Aug 2019, p.92]

While not completely immunised against country cliche--I Thought You'd Never Leave has the audacity to reference a pick-up truck--his songwriting is what strikes hardest. [Aug 2019, p.95]

Kicks is an up-and-down affair but Rickie Lee Jones remains pleasingly unpredictable. [Jul 2019, p.88]

There's no doubt these are expertly constructed songs, but it feels as if the emotional wiring h as been botched. ... Let's Rock lacks the connection to be truly electrifying. [Aug 2019, p.89]

Over nine more filmic songs, a quaint magic unfolds. [Aug 2019, p.93]

Featuring chamber music, operatic art singing, spoken word, drum circles and horns and woodwinds ecstatically blowing--all outside-time examples of the group's motto: "Great Black Music, Ancient too the Future." [Aug 2019, p.95]

A joyously spiky yet danceable debut. [Aug 2019, p.90]

Jambu captures Belem's delirious party spirit in full swing. [Aug 2019, p.108]

It's a wonderful listen, and the joy in creation that is obvious in these 15 tracks, is nearly enough to wipe out the sadness of his loss. Nearly. [Aug 2019, p.102]

Slick and melodic but more Placebo than Pumpkins. [Aug 2019, p.98]

Ringgo Ancheta continues on a liquid ambient-funk, gliding across a set of between album one-offs and remixes. [Aug 2019, p.98]

A few missteps, but horn-pumped soul-rocker Love Again is a happy return for the Jersey Shore prince. [Aug 2019, p.98]

Opener Habub Faye is a lovely slice of sophisticated pop, as are the rootsier Macoumba and Ay Coono La. ... Yet there is still space for two absolute clunkers. [Aug 2019, p.97]

His violin-led handiwork dazzles and swoons more than ever. [Aug 2019, p.96]

If aging has robbed the 86-year-old of anything, it's not audible here. [Aug 2019, p.96]

An inspired makeover that only serves to complement Weaver's past achievements. [Aug 2019, p.93]

These songs sound like they were made to be played on-stage (other than a few that don't lift off the ground). [Aug 2019, p.95]

When the Vampire pals are good, they are very good, but they just occasionally sound like their bloody Marys have been spiked with garlic. [Aug 2019, p.92]

The pace plods on some mid-tempo tracks, but overall this is a personal, politically-charged mix of dark thoughts and good vibes. [Aug 2019, p.88]

Bruce Springsteen began making this album in 2010--like golden reflections late in the day, it's been worth the wait. [Aug 2019, p.88]

Model 500 fans, prepare for increased static. [Jul 2019, p.96]

While such songs can be taken on a simple level as a promise between two lovers, like so much great soul music, tghere's a sense that Black Pumas, responding to the current mood of division and fear, are providing a what-the-world-needs-now- is-love message. [Jul 2019, p.90]

A pulse-racing revolt into style. [Jul 2019, p.96]

Though Robinson's limited lyrical purview rarely moves beyond "moths, dragonflies, bumblebees," the well-trodden poetry of the road and the inevitable woman with silver rings on her fingers, his soulful rasp, when combined with the Brotherhood's easy, 200-gigs-a-year musicality, is hard to resist. [Jul 2019, p.95]

There is a slight trophy cupboard quality to Ronson's accumulation of contributors but the conception, if not the feeling, is impeccable as ever. [Jul 2019, p.93]

Hot Chip remain ruthlessly consistent and relentlessly reliable. [Jul 2019, p.86]

The result is mesmerising--one lone, moving meditation on love and England and murderous empire. [Jul 2019, p.86]

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