[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]

While the woozy house piano of Mad World, contained dynamics of Mind's Eye and tension-building twists and turns of Oasis are early highlights, RAkei's crying falsetto and brooding croon often carry far too leisurely songs whose midtempo grooves run the risk of rolling into one. [Jul 2019, p.86]

Blom hits all the alt-rock pleasure centres. [Jul 2019, p.96]

The pick of the Lou-less numbers are Dear Heartbreaker, a marching homage to Tom Petty, and the shuffling, Springsteen-lite Pretty Soon. But the Reed/Lofgren songs muscle their way to the top of the pile. [Jul 2019, p.94]

This time there's more of an improvised, experimental feel. ... Once again, Beam wrote most of the songs, but the imprint of both acts is pretty equal. [Jul 2019, p.94]

An epic beast. playing to their strengths while also sprawling in new directions. [Jul 2019, p.89]

Beautiful and surprising album. [Jul 2019, p.88]

Vibrates with a thrilling energy. [Jul 2019, p.94]

Where it really gets interesting--when you notice how music evolves and genre names become meaningless-is when the walls of commerce tumble down because musicians found freedom in the cracks and crawled through. [Jul 2019, p.106]

The big screen really suits him. [Jul 2019, p.94]

The incomplete tape of his concert. ... Some of the best moments on the 11 surviving songs from this University of Tuscaloosa show with Jack Nitzsche, Ben Keith, Tim Drummond and Kenny Buttrey are the mellow, almost hymn-like After The Goldrush and the edgy Alabama. [Jul 2019, p.107]

On this taut, pithy set he offers sardonic observations of human folly. [Jul 2019, p.93]

As passionately exciting as anything in the classic Carlos canon, Africa Speaks is an album of highlight after highlight. [Jul 2019, p.87]

Countless bands can switch from quiet to loud effectively; few do it with such overwhelming power as Jambinai. [Jul 2019, p.91]

Three Demons is yet wilder, more alien and untidy, swerving trad rockabilly's regulation grooves and crescendos in search of an often sinister and cactus-trippy otherness. [Jun 2019, p.94]

His vocals reverberate with the passion of Bobby Womack, the sensuality of Al Green and the sincerity of Curtis Mayfield. The music, an interlocking web of bass and drums, fanfaring horns and wah wah, carry his romantic ballads and socially engaged protest. [Jun 2019, p.95]

This time Fussell has a full band to flesh out his vision, providing front porch grooves that carry the same kind of woody resonance as those of The band. [Jul 2019, p.91]

It's wholly bewitching. [Jul 2019, p.90]

An exotic and exuberant affair with hard-rock, electronica and symphonic elements. ... Some might find the afterlife that Farrell's Kind Heaven promises a little daunting, ultimately. There's a helluva lot going on all the time. [Jul 2019, p.89]

The more upbeat swing to the songs doesn't dull the crispness of her songwriting. [Jul 2019, p.90]

You get the Dylan stuff from those places in full, which allows a real sense of how each show worked. ... There are plenty of other breathtaking moments, many collected onto a final disc of "rare performances." [Jul 2019, p.103]

The synths are generally leaner and the production darker, while guitars butt in for the grungy turmoil of Bitch and Mary Magdalene. [Jul 2019, p.86]

Oddly seductive, genre-refuting curio. [Jun 2019, p.91]

An enfolding, transcendent work of aural theatre tracking Artaud's journey. He would probably have approved. [Jun 2019, p.94]

In trying to make an album that pointed to where he wants to go as an artist, Hawley has taken the best parts of his past and uploaded them onto one sublime record. [Jul 2019, p.90]

Judicious use of pedal-steel, fiddle, Southern horns and strings brings subtle power, with McKagan just occasionally lending shades of Mott The Hoople to proceedings, and singing with an admirable new confidence and conviction. [Jun 2019, p.90]

If you dug them back then, you'll likely dig them now. [Jun 2019, p.93]

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]

Rainford is a late-career answer to 1978 Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread, and beyond all reasonable expectation, fully its equal. [Jun 2019, p.94]

Ishmael Ensemble cleverly, psychedelically blur the lines. [Jun 2019, p.91]

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

Scott continues to ring changes elsewhere, hence the gung-ho title track channels Robert Parker's '60s Mod classic Let's Go Baby (Where The Action Is), and Right Side of Heartbreak (Wrong Side Of Love) brings sweet soul hooks. [Jun 2019, p.91]

It doesn't equal their Back Stabbers/Ship Ahoy period but it comes close. [May 2019, p.90]

Sule Skerry is partly programme music, partly good old-fashioned concept album. His approach feel rather literal at times. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Act Surprised's high yield of killer songs hardly suffers for its absence of oddball filler. [Jun 2019, p.90]

10 songs that are the apotheosis of their spartan sound. [Jun 2019, p.95]

The third set sounds clean and efficient at the expense of real zest. [Jun 2019, p.96]

Diviner came out of post-band convalescence and a spell of recalibration, yet for all the intense, cocooning introspection in these songs, Thorpe is obviously more than ready to face the world alone. [Jun 2019, p.93]

A fine writer who is really finding her voice. [Jun 2019, p.94]

Amid the aggro, Taylor's intense stack-heeled charisma dominates: whether raging or romancing, she's the queen of this glorious chunder from Down Under. [Jun 2019, p.88]

Destroyer shifts up a couple of gears for a less cosmic,more hard rockin' thrust, complete with headlong NWOBHM riffs and even shredding. [Jun 2019, p.90]

The album feels confessional, courageous. ... Yes it can be bleak as hell but Flamagra's artistic artistic triumphs are sublimely uplifting. [Jul 2019, p.92]

Her third album is a small masterpiece of restrained quirks; a slowburner that rearranges retro signifiers in a genuinely creative way. [Jun 2019, p.91]

Creatively, Reward is on point. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Versions of Jon i Mitchell's Don't Interrupt The Sorrow and Bob Dylan's Only A Pawn In Their Game are surprisingly persuasive. Elsewhere, it's like being imprisoned in the teenage Moz bedroom/brain. [Jun 2019, p.89]

The restraint, especially from the horn section, is astonishing; the overall effect absorbing to the point of transcendence. [Apr 2019, p.93]

Mavis's voice is still strong and convincing. [Jun 2019, p.87]

The band interpret the album title as a play on Portuguese for "Shadow Or Doubt," as in the choice between comfort zone and uncertainty. It's a line they confidently tread throughout. [Jun 2019, p.93]

Original, but with traces of early Dizzee, Rodney P and The Streets in Slowthai's savvy grime-punk. [Jun 2019, p.96]

A sumptuous, sonic world built from dense, sampled snippets, repetitive phrases and percussive sound design. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Ultimately, it's a record filled with beauty that tries to do what therapy does: sort through a mess of emotions and reorganise them into something that makes more sense. [Jun 2019, p.84]