The boy done good, again. [Jun 2011, p.100]

Lee's declared love of hymns, evident in his falsetto flutter and overarching cavernous mood, should ensure former Oasis fans won't clamor for Bluebell Field or Hold Me Forever, the key tracks to Money's particular, profound brand of Mancunian sound. [Sep 2013, p.91]

Smelts the classic rock canon (Madness, Blur, Bowie, Small Faces) into an infectious, head-spinning punch. [May 2005, p.109]

The Curious Hand is that rare thing in folk: original, self-contained and unencumbered by the genre. [Dec 2017, p.88]

Achieves optimum velocity from the off, and barely settles for less than a vigorous simmer throughout. [Apr 2022, p.85]

The pace rarely rising above languorous, the lyrics resolutely wistful, with the now 50-year-old Sandoval's vocals the compelling focus across 11 drowsy, folk-rock noir essays. [Dec 2016, p.88]

It's good: at times dreamily pensive, at others a kind of psychedelic prog, layered, sophisticated and melodic. [Apr 2022, p.83]

A typically heartfelt and demonstrative record given to wistful glances backward. [Aug 2006, p.90]

There are twists, but no clutter, just a gentle lyricism leaving every song lit from the inside. [Feb 2007, p.100]

Tuttle locates the beauty, complexity, joy and decay within Chapman’s demos and opens them out into a new kind of collage-kosmische, finding the European psychedelic resonances in Chapman’s multilayered blues patterns and reworking them for some kind of grand, universal eternity. [Oct 2024, p.87]

A sweaty, dirty cellarful of noise. [Feb 2007, p.102]

For twisted garage buffs these unsettling sounds are, again, a joy. [Dec 2012, p.89]

[The term techno] seems inadequate for the magnificent noise emanating from Clark. [Dec 2014, p.96]

Affirms that Boris can bench-press myriad weighty sub-genres in their sleep. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]

Grinderman 2 finds the group continuing their musical voyage inot the id. [Oct. 2010, p. 91]

Though McLennan's poetry, hurt and melodic gift is lost, his partner's crafted vignettes are the closest we have to the timeless albums they make together. Inferno stands among them, a few stops down the line, and for Forster, like the rest of us, life turns another page. [Apr 2019, p.84]

A blistering, breathless set of dynamic, high-impact punk rock aiming straight for the heart and jugular. [Feb 2015, p.94]

It's their slickest yet. [Feb 2012, p.99]

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]

The razor-wire riffs some of their best. [May 2015, p.98]

All told, another luxurious wallow in art and agitation. [Jul 2016, p.98]

Timeless fare presented with panache and enduring love. [Jul 2016, p.97]

Vincent's voice is so unusual and beguiling, it almost detracts from the lyrics, but they eventually punch through. ... Vincent and Another Sky enthrall. [Sep 2020, p.88]

Blood Moon seems like Craft's real start, and one of the most exquisite soul-searching odysseys of this or any year. [Jul 2016, p.93]

Regan cross-wires mid-'60s Dylan and Paul Simon with the '70s CBGB pantheon, his songcraft on the verge of cohering his quirkily arresting strengths into true brilliance. [Feb 2010, p. 92]

If that all sounds bleak, it is. Yet Lives Outgrown is also very beautiful. [Jun 2024, p.80]

Great late-night music. [Jul 2013, p.92]

Editors' fourth retains their customary grandeur and gloom, but with a new immediacy and surety, as Tom Smith matures into a truly commanding frontman. [Aug 2013, p.86]

Ultimately, what redeems Letter To You from notions of idealised nostalgia is the rigour of its performances, particularly those of Springsteen himself, who for the second successive album is in the singing form of his life. [Dec 2020, p.78]

Where Gunshot Lips fits in only adds to the intrigue of this exquisite dark jewel. [Nov 2017, p.102]

The tracklisting may be a bit route one, but the music is far from it. [May 2023, p.86]

Dark, intense and utterly compelling record. [Nov 2017, p.98]

Allen is inspirational throughout, creating a range of personalised drum patterns, and hey! You can dance to every darn thing. [Dec 2017, p.88]

It's not all bleak: within the lumbering inevitability that a drum machine brings, Broadrick pulls off a singular funkiness, which ensures that the titular 'purge' is fully transcendent, even enjoyable. [Jul 2023, p.90]

If...'s successful melding of epic vision and intimate solemnity marks an exciting new beginning. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

A picaresque journey through the cosmos. [Feb 2013, p.86]

Moves in a similarly contemplative and conversational vein to 2020's To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1, gently but assiduously pushing the boundaries. [Apr 2025, p.86]

Revealing and uplifting. [Feb 2015, p.94]

That these and a tranche of equally alluring gems were never released during Russell's lifetime only adds to their poignancy. [Dec 2008, p.104]

From the get-go Freedom Of Speech takes no prisoners. [Mar 2012, p.93]

Van delves deep to breathe new life into some relatively lesser-known gems ranging from 1974’s Streets Of Arklow (from Veedon Fleece) to Get On With The Show (What’s Wrong With This Picture?, 2003), rejuvenating them with persuasive soul and passion.

It sounds surprisingly, hypnotically groovy. [Jul 2017, p.96]

God Help The Girl has real class. [Jul 2009, p.99]

An album whose wider appeal reaches for powerpop nirvana. [May 2015, p.98]

Amid these epic soundtracks of rage and empathy, the legend of the Loaf lives again. [Jan 2023, p.86]

Has a pronounced acoustic bent. [May 2003, p.95]

The Cordon Bleu-trained chef transforming humble ingredients into Michelin-starred delicacies at once melting, tender and sweet. [May 2014, p.93]

Despite including some familiarly-styled acoustic reflections, 101 is very different to 2007's New York-influenced Keren Ann. [May 2011, p.104]

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]

There's enhanced pop acumen and elemental shivers too, so maybe make that the new Lykke Li. [Jul 2015, p.89]

A vessel for unsettled emotional truths. [Sep 2015, p.95]

Symbols of hope still gatecrash his bruised world. [Dec 2020, p.80]

Barbed but beautiful. [Nov 2017, p.103]

Now 25 and treading Nirvana/Hole-influenced terrain better suited to the bleed and luster of these uncensored songs of self-empowerment, she has found her perfect skin. [May 2023, p.94]

A feast for the committed follower. [Jan 2021, p.98]

Alongside jay Berliner's guitar lines, meaty chunks of organ, grooves aplenty and a soulful collection of new songs, it's a convincing performance. [Dec 2019, p.86]

It bursts with love--for family, for the power of musicianship, but most of all, like Lidell's hero Stevie Wonder, for the art of storytelling. [Nov 2016, p.88]

Buckingham's pop ear is still highly attuned. [Oct 2011, p.106]

End Of The World could be Don't Fear The Reaper Mk II while a fad cover of NRBQ's I Want You Bad delivers Heart-racing teenage kicks. [Dec 2017, p.89]

[An] intriguing debut. [Sep 2005, p.103]

Warrants deep exploration. [Nov 2018, p.95]

A slow-burning cracker. [Apr 2006, p.101]

An exquisite distillation of hope and perseverance, mystery and humanity. [Jun 2022, p.87]

As fine as anything they’ve done, making a virtue of their shoestring gear and lo-fi recording tech to create minimal space-rock morsels focused on interior melancholy. Their melodies are sluggish, warm and desolate, their arrangements spare but affecting. [Jan 2025, p.90]

Yes, it lacks the ambition of Norton Folgate... but compensates with pop nous. [Dec 2012, p.89]

Maverick pop genius soon reveals itself. [Dec 2014, p.96]

It's another sonically sumptuous milestone for the Northern Irish composer/producer. [May 2021, p.87]

When the title track and poignant closer This House Has No Living Room, open out into bare-wire nocturnal balladry of limitless emotional beauty, Burslem's single-minded mania is vindicated, and the listener's happiness guaranteed. [Mar 2019, p.98]

It's not easy to make Sabbath-style proto-metal sound fresh, but Black Mountain have a way of writing songs that go to the places you hope they will without descending into cliche. [Oct. 2010, p. 92]

An irresistibly raucous entree to their world. [May 2020, p.88]

It's a sumptuous collection. [Nov 2014, p.100]

Sometimes playful, sometimes starkly beautiful. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

What you may lose in rock'n'roll kicks you gain in poignancy and poetry. [Mar 2013, p.86]

No Geography bears testimony to superior crate-digging chops, cut-up skills and disco. [May 2019, p.86]

Musically, Stewart's ambition to marry first-album Suicide with Einsturzende Neubauten and latter-day Scott Walker has been realised with aplomb. [Mar 2014, p.95]

Her second full album centres on sophisticated rococo pop, but there's also a nice viscous, keyboard-heavy prog undertow. [Mar 2015, p.93]

Animal Joy surfs similar channels to their last release, The Golden Archipelago, evoking stratospheric textures anchored down by melodically well-honed tunes. [Mar 2012, p.102]

Beautifully arranged, its four pieces amplifiy Sunn O)))'s signature drone rumble. [Jun 2009, p.96]

Hinterland feels less like the spirit of the dance floor and much more like the crush of a weaponed march. [May 2015, p.98]

[A] dark and glorious vision, reinterpreting Nashville country-soul hits from the '60s and '70s. [Jul 2016, p.97]

These songs conjure shifting states-of-consciousness. [Aug 2017, p.97]

An intimate, thematic country-blues-rock set. [Nov 2021, p.93]

Amadou & Mariam have created a thought-provoking time capsule for future historians; a genuine masterpiece documenting the Malian unrest that is poignant, passionate, and directed equally at the head, feet and heart. [Nov 2017, p.101]

This is a record of delicately sculped nuages, all wispily sung by guitarist/keyboard-player Wata. [Mar 2022, p.80]

A densely orchestrated album that, even by his standards, is full of reflective melancholy. [Dec 2017, p.90]

Following 2009’s ‘re-enactment’ shows, here, finally, is this fabulous, full-blooded seventh LP. Aficionados will be punching the air within the first minute of opener Hide & Seek: it’s all there. [Oct 2024, p.82]

This second album builds on [2017's Feed The Rats'] sure foundation, the tracks now numbering six and dialling down the long-form indulgence in favour of more tightly focused song structures that sacrifice nothing in intensity. [Dec 2018, p.88]

There's little commerciality, although It came back gallops along cheerily, but there is the sense of a man doing as he pleases and guessing - correctly - he'll take his audience with him. [Apr 2022, p.85]

It seems to have been compiled via the randomness of fridge poetry, but that's a strength rather than a weakness. [Mar 2026, p.96]

Hammill's best solo album in a long time. [Dec 2017, p.91]

On Reflection swirls, flutters and swoops like leaves on the breeze. [Jan 2018, p.89]

Blackwell remains an inveterate magpie of all things psychedelic. [Sep 2023, p.84]

The latest set of back-porch ballads, junkshop country hymns and chiming indie rock--all born of his beloved Arizona desert. [Nov 2013, p.94]

Elegiac Montreal collective's relatively orthodox sixth album. [May 2010, p. 97]

The three October US shows, top-drawer soundboard recordings that have been around for years, are full of those supersonic instrumental flights that are so dependent on mood. [Mar 2020, p.1032]

Heart-melting second album from Icelandic folk minstrel. [Oct. 2010, p. 92]

He might still be too unashamedly oddball to conquer the charts, but this is another work of warped brilliance. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

Classic weep-alongs. [Feb 2012, p.99]