All 12 songs have a warmth and, often as not, a jangle and sweet harmonies. [Nov 2017, p.100]

An often winning fusion of power-pop, electronics and blue-eyed soul. [Nov 2017, p.103]

A collection of judiciously orchestrated, densely textured tracks that often demand accompanying visuals. [Nov 2017, p.94]

[Weatherall] indulges in more motorik rhythms, frazzled post-rock and glam rock beats. [Nov 2017, p.103]

Only the tart Princely funk of Boyfriend lets light through lacquered layers of modern pop production. [Nov 2017, p.103]

The insistent, even patient, rhythms that propel most songs on Wolf Parade's fourth album are some measure of hope. They suggest there's someplace the synth-rock band is trying to get, and that there is some place worth reaching. [Nov 2017, p.96]

The ’70s resonate within the 10 exquisitely crafted tracks.

The overall effect is affecting and exhausting, the listener feeling queasy and spent. [Nov 2017, p.96]

These 11 songs never let the beats-per-minute lag, and this--coupled with the easy abundance of melody with which our host continues to leaven his left-field power pop--makes for some deliciously easy listening. [Oct 2017, p.91]

Producers Ron Anielo and Matthew Koma stick to the formula. And it's not enough. [Oct 2017, p.94]

It has a head, a tail and a massive great beating heart. [Nov 2017, p.92]

Hallelujah Anyhow needs a shade more definition to cut through the reassuring vintage fug. [Nov 2017, p.94]

L.A. Witch is brief, ultra-basic, not particularly varied and all the better for it. [Nov 2017, p.97]

Gregg's vocal technique was remarkably intact despite his illness, as was his trademark ability to convey love, honesty, anguish. [Nov 2017, p.97]

It wouldn't be a Ray Wylie album without an anthem and the title track is a good one. [Nov 2017, p.97]

Not an easy listen, but admirable. [Nov 2017, p.97]

His third album in as many years, while not among his most consequential, proves that, at 71, Morrison can still perform with gusto. [Nov 2017, p.98]

If Three Futures lack depth, then, it's only because everything inside has been dragged out, up to the surface, into the light. [Nov 2017, p.98]

Like all of Numan's greatest work, Savage sounds timeless. [Nov 2017, p.100]

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]

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

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

Business as usual: expansive, often magical, raw rock'n'roll classicism. [Nov 2017, p.103]

Vol. 1 here is mellow, introspective and rootsy. [Nov 2017, p.103]

Fox spins electro-acoustic polyrhythmic patterns and grooves of a deep-space spirituality. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Tricky effectively goes missing as sultry vocal proxies Avalon Lurks, Mina Rose and Terra Lopez takes the weight, before beautifully briny closer When We Die, with original foil Martina Topley-Bird, reminds us of his peculiar strengths. [Oct 2017, p.94]

Each song struggles to reach the three-minute mark, and are all the more enjoyable for it. [Aug 2017, p.97]

Thrice Woven stirs in Norse and Gaelic legend into a bewitching barrage of arboreal-metal fury and black-winged flight, somewhere between early Darkthrone and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. [Oct 2017, p.93]

A desire to keep old traditions alive while redefining them for the 21st century drive Son Little aka Aaron Livingston, and with his excellent second album, he's achieved that. [Oct 2017, p.95]

New material like See What Love Did To Me sits well alongside these [four songs from 1967's New Masters album]. [Oct 2017, p.91]

The gauzy seductive songs feel like euphoric conjuring, chinks in the doors of perceptions that reveal another hidden capital, a misty tapestry of late-night idylls, laced with a rapturous melancholy magic. [Oct 2017, p.91]

Follow Clementine's muse, and the pay-off is huge. [Oct 2017, p.91]

Heavy matter, but eminently danceable, too, thanks to some glorious playing and an adherence to the spirit of Kuti. [Oct 2017, p.95]

Lee is free--and it sounds wonderful. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Remaining loyal to Laurel Canyon and the NY underground, the collision of '60s classicism and noise is joyous. [Oct 2017, p.94]

Mike Scott still has something worthwhile to say, but on Out Of All This Blue you wish there was a little less of it. [Out 2017, p.91]

His socially conscious lyrics can be clunky but never overwhelm the light, acoustic setting. [Oct 2017, p.98]

At least Wake Up Now lifts its voice in protest during turbulent times, rising even when it doesn't quite shine. [Oct 2017, p.93]

It's the "ballads," for want of a better term, that provide V's definitive highlights. [Oct 2017, p.89]

In conception and execution, Concrete And Gold stands as Foo Fighters' most beguiling record to date. [Oct 2017, p.88]

Though this debut might lack any real moments of surprise, guitarist Tom Morello still manages to squeeze unholy sounds out of his instrument while Chuck D's apoplectic anchorman baritone reminds us of his lyrical power and unique timbre. [Oct 2017, p.96]

What stands out most about Give More Love is that Ringo's vocals have matured stylistically from his trademark amiably blokeish tones, and are stronger and more expressive now. [Oct 2017, p.90]

A supercharged, hook-heavy pop-metal attack that impresses but rarely convinces. [Oct 2017, p.98]

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

An album of miasmic, trippy electro-pop, heavy krautrock rhythms and sinuous digital funk. [Sep 2017, p.93]

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

A more focused excursion. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Everywhere Bourne's judicious minimalism proves compelling. [Sep 2017, p.89]

Meredith and David Metcalf craft slow-rolling CA ghost ballads, beguiling end-of-days stories with the same mournful beauty as The Triffids' Born Sandy Devotional. [Oct 2017, p.98]

As ever, Butler weaves these disparate ups and downs without visible joins. [Sep 2017, p.91]

A couple of cracking originals of his own and beautiful production. You have to doff your cap. [Oct 2017, p.95]

The sumptuous How Soon The Dawn and gently rcok'n'rolling I Can Burn shine. [Oct 2017, p.98]

MC Dalek's indignant imagery can be tricky to unpick, yet his barbed lines are hard to dislodge on Weapons And Battlecries. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Powerful to the point of brutality, but affecting. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Just occasionally the jangles get repetitive; sometimes, good things do go on too long. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Tragedy and regret, all captured in beautifully glowering analogue. [Oct 2017, p.93]

The best moments find Deerhoof unadulterated, like the angular tropicalia of Begin Countdown, or drummer Greg Saunier's Prefab Sprout-like Ay That's Me. [Oct 2017, p.94]

Classic OMD tropes are almost overdone on this, their 13th studio album. [Oct 2017, p.88]

Big, brave and laudably odd it is, then. [Oct 2017, p.93]

American Dream feels like a strong re-statement of what they do, and what they can mean, a record that, despite its fear of death, feels very much alive. [Oct 2017, p.86]

As striking as her career-defining 2010 album, The Brothel. [Sep 2017, p.92]

This is vaulting, widescreen soundscaping of the first water. [Oct 2017, p.92]

[His bathroom's] natural reverb add a wobbly-otherworldly feel. [Sep 2017, p.96]

This new material finds them in [a] more experimental mode. [Oct 2017, p.90]

Strong synth tunes and beats, bristling with vocal angst. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Gogol Bordello's passport-abusing, transcontinental musical journeying occasionally feels like being faced with an over-ambitious tapas plate. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Hippopotamus is never anything less than wildly entertaining. [Oct 2017, p.88]

At times, it recalls the late-'60s acid blues experiments on Leigh Stephens' Red Weather and Peter Green's The End Of The Game but with a shimmering summer optimism and textural complexity all MacKay's own. [Oct 2017, p.92]

The once-lairy Scots' high-volume potency remains beyond question. [Oct 2017, p.92]

Scum is a joyous mash-up of cheap beats, precinct-loitering aggro punk and youthful vim; it's by no means a classic, but you suspect Cardy may well have one in him soon. [Oct 2017, p.94]

Invitations rushes of feeling are rich and real. Filthy Friends are a genuine supergroup surprise. [Oct 2017, p.96]

Clever, unflinching, experimental and catchy. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Her more organic songs stand out melodically amid layers of modern production mulch. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Holiday Destination needs to be uncomfortable and it is, a beautifully realised disturbance of any remaining peace. [Sep 2017, p.92]

Dwyer's crew are oft-cited as the world's most exciting live rock band; they're also making some of its most exciting rock records. [Sep 2017, p.93]

May can be schmaltzy, yes; but also needle-sharp. [Sep 2017, p.94]

The Right To Love is a heartbreaker from the beautifully phrased, opening reading of Hoagy Carmichael's Skylark through to a final I Get Along Without You Very Well. [Sep 2017, p.91]

Knowingly nostalgic, it's an album with a very strong sense of itself. [Sep 2017, p.86]

Despite the eclectic material, the slow tempos and monochrome tone gets wearing. [Sep 2017, p.94]

A taut, fraught dalliance with '90s trip-hop melancholy vivified by spidery Sisters Of Mercy-esque guitar figures and a gruff cameo from Massive Attack's Daddy G. [Sep 2017, p.91]

It's a long time since Kelly drank at this well, and Life Is Fine is a deep, deep draft. [Sep 2017, p.90]

It's both organic and future-facing. A true metamorphosis, this album sees Queens Of The Stone Age shedding an old identity to discover new ways of playing the same song. [Sep 2017, p.84]

The results are patchy. [Sep 2017, p.92]

It might not look like it's going to leap out and grab you, but Beam here launches a soft emotional ambush. [Sep 2017, p.87]

The end result is a triumph; a late-night drive that starts somewhere in '90s Michigan but arrives home, in a gloriously disorientating future. [Aug 2017, p.90]

No 11-minute epics this time, but there are two stand-outs: Neil Young-esque Cumberland Gap, and Airplane, as hypnotic and moving as anything on The Harrow & The Harvest. [Sep 2017, p.92]

Baobab Tree's bossa nova sway, the title track's lounge vibes and Lo Mas Dulce's electro-Tropicalia weirdness impress. [Jul 2017, p.96]

While Foreign Light trades some of his past eclecticism for a super-soulful hook-up with singer-songwriter Andrea martin, his acute ear for sasquatch basslines and simpatico collaborators remains undimmed. [Sep 2017, p.91]

It's defiantly uneasy listening, becoming more uneasier still when No Help Pamphlet comes in sounding like a lost Badly Drawn Boy Song. [Sep 2017, p.88]

Bright Phoebus turns out to thoroughly deserve its reputation as a milestone in British folk rock. [Sep 2017, p.104]

Hook-packed mini-album, direct first-person narratives are sung with knowing sweetness over sunny guitar classicism. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Woodland Echoes is an unhurried album full of paeans to passion and nature. [Sep 2017, p.94]

The Road Part 1 is described by Lavelle himself as having "a foot in modern London"--a link that is at best tenuous. As a melting pot of disparate ideas, however, it's frequently gorgeous. [Sep 2017, p.87]

To The Bone keeps its pop and prog influences in a near perfect balance--flash and flamboyant at times but with some lovingly crafted big tunes. [Sep 2017, p.86]

A sleight of hand that transforms its low-key, elegiac ruminations into defiant affirmation of life. [Aug 2017, p.93]

FramesPerSecond is an atmospheric introduction. [Aug 2017, p.90]

This is potent, frequently explosive stuff. [Sep 2017, p.87]

Grizzly Bear sound enchanted with the pure pleasure of texture; hooks take their time to emerge, but Morning Sound and Sky Took Hold are the best entry points to this stately, meticulous music. [Sep 2017, p.90]