Their groovy, meditative parlaying consistently elevates Live! Beyond the realm of optional for-diehards-only purchase. [Feb 2001, p.94]

The album... is one of such remarkable beauty. [Oct 2004, p.96]

It's the small, tragic details you notice on TLROE. [Jun 2023, p.84]

Boone's rich, Rickie Lee Jones-meets-Chrissie Hynde voice is the careworn bedrock upon which these bruised, dynamics-rich songs depend. [Feb 2019, p.92]

A collection of tunes with groove at its synthetic heart. [Apr 2021, p.83]

Wabi-Sabi is as becalmed and warm as it's wracked and haunted. [Feb 2016, p.94]

The beautiful results make it clear that, unlike poor Charlie Brown, he does understand. [Jan 2015, p.92]

It's a wholehearted, utopian and irrefutably exciting record. [Nov 2007, p.94]

Strong and loose, political and personal, Pearl Jam get the balance absolutely right. [May 2020, p.84]

Matt Sweeney's commitment to supply Bonnie "Prince" Billy with "guitar parts that hold his voice like a chalice holds wine" is fully delivered upon here. [May 2021, p.76]

Rodgers wears his now mellower, less macho persona well on Coming Home and Photo Shooter, but the writing input of an Andy Fraser or a Mick Ralphs, say, is sometimes missed. [Nov 2023, p.86]

Mostly You Had Me At Goodbye is an artist stretching out and eagerly grasping a whole new world, one that she should easily conquer. [May 2017, p.94]

This is one of Bowness's most vivid collections. The sound is rich and full of depth. [Apr 2019, p.86]

Another star turn for soprano Lavinia Blackwall. [May 2018, p.98]

The quiet simplicity of In The Light, Long Way From Home or piano-led My Eyes suggests a delicacy within the songwriting pair of Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz that will prove far more satisfying in the long run than any future Top 10 Success. [May 2016, p.88]

Meticulously constructed, yet with melodies and rhythms born out of improvisation, it's an album of two halves, moving from euphoric collapse to an uncertain contentment. [Jun 2018, p.89]

Any sense that the listener is being short-changed is blown away by the sheer quality of the writing and production on offer. [Dec 2022, p.84]

Very sad and very beautiful. [Apr 2011, p.100]

This is, however, their most mellow, reflective and tempered release yet. [Sep 2009, p.95]

The results are highly accomplished and consistently gorgeous. [Jul 2016, p.92]

Good Luck, Seeker may not be the absolute best of Mike Scott's best, but it's well within touching distance. [Sep 2020, p.82]

At times the effect is sinister, at others soothing and hypnotic, like fog-borne siren songs, or the ghosts of liturgical choirs caught high in the cathedral vault. [Oct 2020, p.91]

It's gritty urban dramas never become too heavy-hearted, the breezy tunes blowing through like prime Jonathan Richman. [Jul 2013, p.84]

A beautifully poised collection of deep, off-kilter, quasi techno and smudged ambient. [Aug 2024, p.87]

Despite two years spent on its dense construction, Music Complete rarely feels stilted, though it could use a stricter edit.... Yet the compensatory highs go beyond expectations. [Oct 2015, p.89]

His piano-playing is a joy, his vocals a dramatis personae of lively characters. ... The whole thing feels--thrillingly, poignantly--like you're in the room with him. [Oct 2018, p.84]

Universal Energy sucker-punches with an 11-minute masterclass in shapeshifting disco, and Vasto's clanking delirium clinches these industrial shadow-dwellers' influence on everyone from Derrick May to Underworld. [Dec 2020, p.83]

There's no danger of Wanderer outstaying its welcome, but while it's a brilliant return, it wouldn't be quite right too claim it as a triumph. Not because of the quality of these songs but because Wanderer is a record that know the cost of living and the price of losing all too well. [Oct 2018, p.82]

Lovely. [Oct 2005, p.114]

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

Te brushed drums, vintage electronics and hushed vocals on Memory Of a Cut Off Head play like they were recorded in a bunker under siege. [Dec 2017, p.94]

A mixture of old-school smarts and mellifluous modernism. [Apr 2006, p.103]

The young seven-piece have since progressed at warp-speed, here passing the full-length test with confidence. [Mar 2021, p.90]

The music nods obviously in the direction of Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, and Bruce Lee. [Mar 2020, p.93]

More sharp work from these urban outfitters. [May 2015, p.91]

This is an album that expands upon a growing body of work. [Dec 2014, p.92]

It's still one giant leap into the unknown, with all the notions of genre once again gleefully sidestepped. [Dec 2012, p.82]

Héritage is a triumphant return, a complete rewriting of what their purpose and apprach were a decade ago. [Feb 2015, p.85]

The most satisfying Melvins-related release since Nude With Boots in 2008, Crystal Fairy also makes for a fine entry-point into Teri Gender Bender's dark, gnarly and theatrical oeuvre. [Mar 2017, p.97]

It all adds up to more willful magic from Plant. [Oct. 2010, p. 94]

Possessed of hazily catchy and irresistible choruses, the end result is an endearingly affectionate blend of radio-friendly AOR and homely indie-rock touches anchoring their grand pop to something human. [Mar 2008, p.106]

Silence is not an option when Hyvonen is this witty and brazen. [Mar 2009, p.115]

Happy or sad, these are fine songs. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Animal admirably slips standard musical taxonomy to take on a life of it own. [Aug 2021, p.83]

The foggy nights of soul chronicled here lend Chastity Belt's bruised indie pop a weight that suits it. [Jun 2017, p.89]

With standards so consistently high, picking further peaks is a tough call but the surging wah squel of 'Over It' and 'I Don't Wanna Go There's' stellar guitar squall also score way up at the top of the scale. [Jul 2009, p.105]

This long-rumoured debut is a thing of stark intimacy, rendered by just Pearson's rustic voice and roughly picked guitar, with an occasional smear of wintry violin or doleful piano. [Apr 2011, p.100]

The uniting factor, though, is Gabriel's greatest gift as a writer, vocalist and arranger. [Aug 2020, p.101]

Amid all its big, primal energy there are enough ideas to suggest the fans' early faith is justified. [Jul 2016, p.94]

Ezra Collective's confidence hits a fizzing high on this freewheeling 14-track double. [Dec 2022, p.87]

A romp through Bootsy's former glories, subtly retooling them to sound comfortingly familiar yet not anachronistic. [May 2011, p.106]

True Love Cast Out All Evil is a genuine triumph of the spirit and heart. Other 62-year-old surviviors have released comeback albums as good, but none better or more uplifting. [Jul 2010, p.90]

Contrasting bleak truths with giddy popsike, bubbling defiance and a rebuff to arts-funding BS. [Jul 2024, p.95]

A soaring, feverish conflagration of sense and sensuality. [Sep 2018, p.90]

The intimate strings that lace the title track's elegiac sequence of pedal-effect guitar movements is a fresh high, the shadow-playing six-string storytellers surpassing the limitations of their intimate format. [Aug 2024, p.89]

An affecting release, it demands repeated plays, emerging as canorous, sly and bewitching. [Aug 2013, p.90]

Still ethereal and episodic, it's less sequestered, more outgoing [than Ekstasis], with an influx of strings and brass bringing warmth to concoctions of stunning invention and variety. [Sep 2013, p.94]

Campbell's lyrics might not match Petty's poetry, but the immediacy, energy and spirit are all there. [May 2020, p.95]

It’s brilliant, moving stuff, and if this were to be David Gilmour’s final record, it’s certainly the best of his solo career. [Oct 2024, p.80]

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

For Use And Delight is by turns plaintive and rocking, a wistful rhythmic journey into a band's true beating heart. [Nov 2015, p.90]

Highway Companion abounds with Dylanesque first-, second- and third-person stories of rolling stones with no direction home, and how wear and tear is grinding them to a halt. [Sep 2006, p.90]

One of their best, with most tracks written by various band members. [May 2026, p.89]

[It] sees their "spooky American music" get creepier still. [Apr 2007, p.97]

A thing of dark, possessed beauty. [Mar 2017, p.96]

An album whose drawn-out grooves spiral seductively like dandelion clocks in the breeze. [May 2018, p.93]

It reaffirms Kano's position as a consummate grime all-rounder. [Apr 2016, p.86]

With the flawless Umber at its core, Bitch Magnet is final proof, if Jon Fine needs it, that his band have escaped the historical side streets of title, genre and geography, motoring out into the vast plains of Great American Albums. [Mar 2012, p.109]

U-Roy remains on form throughout, delivering everything in his relaxed yet confident style, all testament to his enduring talent. [Aug 2021, p.87]

Native Sons adds a local twist as Los Lobos roll back--with new, inventive detail--through their LA roots and influences, binding the Chicano branch of '60s rock and California from the other side of town. [Sep 2021, p.78]

The 10 tracks here find the band bridging the gap between saloon singers and barroom rockers, the results playing like Frank Sinatra fronting The Replacements. [Jul 2017, p.90]

Fan The Flames and French African Queen end the CD with real vigour. Confirmed fans will lap it up. [Jun 2016, p.93]

Expanding on the rolling grooves of 2009'a Song Of The Pearl, The Gathering is a sonic monster. [Apr 2011, p.101]

In short, this is exceptionally good contemporary pop. [Jun 2009, p.109]

Garbage haven't released an album this immediate, melodically strong and thematically interesting since their self-titled 1995 debut. [Jul 2016, p.91]

There's not a note put out of place as they invite us to enjoy the good natured be-in. [Apr 2011, p.104]

A restful, even romantic experience, Kastlander echoing Tracey Thorn's plaintive soul, in a beguiling confluence of wan Scando-folk currents and American hip hop. [June 2010, p. 97]

She sings calmly from the heart, flowing beautifully, her simplicity enhanced by his [producer Howe Gelb] delicate downmix touches. [Jul 2013, p.94]

Every song puts a tap in your toe, a worm in your ear and a smile on your face. [Oct 2018, p.85]

It's not all strum und drang though. The beatless despair of Källans Återuppståndelse shows the harmonic subtleties at play within Von Hausswolff's bewitching repertoire of dissonance and drama. [Feb 2022, p.87]

An intriguing blend of countrified, down-tempo acoustic charm. [Nov 2015, p.96]

EXPO's bleak outlook is explored inventively, live and electronic elements expertly collaged from an unpredictable sonic palette. [Mar 2026, p.81]

The effect is memorable. [Oct 2012, p.91]

Glowing collection of covers. [Jan 2018, p.88]

Here, his eloquent trumpet is framed by musical backdrops that range from noir-esque alt-rock to ambient soundscapes and jittery hip-hop beats. [Feb 2018, p.93]

Linderman owes what happened to her with this superbly honed musical novella. [Feb 2025, p.80]

While The London Sessions takes her in fresh new directions, Blige's own identity remains the dominant flavour. [Jan 2015, p.98]

A bold redrawing of creative frontiers, Lux Prima is a gamble that pays off, handsomely. [Apr 2019, p.88]

Mudhoney celebrate 20 years of mucus-crusted punk hootenannies with a raw restatement of basic priciples. [June 2008, p.113]

[The songs] are among the most immediate he's recorded. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Painfully literal in its detailing of grief. [Jul 2017, p.91]

Intimate, timeless music. [Jul 2017, p.92]

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

Luminous Night reflects the yin-yang duality of a player whose axework has feulled Both Comets On Fire's freakout euphoria and the post-apocaltptic spok of Current 93. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Ultimately, such details of momentum and mood are testimony to how Them Crooked Vultures flouts the supergroup manual. It doesn't sound like the work of rich men on holiday, but rather three serious individuals looking to prove themselves over again. [Jan 2010, p. 88]

Cameron Neal earths this plangent guitar-rock with his anxious cris de coeur and admits to a teen Smiths crush, which helps explain the metropolitan jitters and Marr-like cadences that feed into Fear In Bliss. [May 2014, p.91]

Booker responds with young and evergreen playing, a typically euphonious mixture of economy, precision, warmth, color and melody on tight groovin' instrumentals. [Jun 2011, p.101]

Cathartic and beyond satisfying. [Jun 2013, p.102]