Another point of reference is Gorky's Zygotic Mynic and it's Girl Ray's appropriation of their scherzo sensibility lifts the three-piece beyond pastiche, feeding songs such as Don't Go Back St Ten and Where Am I Now with a musical strangeness that's totally alluring. [Sep 2017, p.90]

It's a little fragmented, maybe two or three songs too short, but still brimming with his sweet-sour magic. [Sep 2017, p.88]

Its second pits their sharp improvisational wits against Evan Parker, Byron Wallen, Tori Handsley, Sarathy Korwar and Yussef Dayes. [Sep 2017, p.90]

Raft is a woozy drift between euphoria and unease. [Aug 2017, p.31]

Breakthroughs can never be predicted with certainty, but Kinder Versions is Mammut's convincing international calling card. [Aug 2017, p.90]

Sixty-plus years later, E lives up to his legend, rooted in African-American rhythm & Blues and bursting with explicit erotic energy, controlling his nuclear-fuelled enthusiasm with the gravitational force of his magnificent voice. [Sep 2017, p.102]

This is a completist's delight in drab artwork. [Sep 2017, p.100]

Vega's spirit still blazed with righteous passion even when his body was giving out. Now it glowers like a ghostly light sculpture from beyond the grave, predicting current atrocities and still bang on for modern times. [Sep 2017, p.89]

At times things get wincingly experimental; but mostly, it's claustrophobic and deeply magnetic. [Aug 2017, p.96]

Ron in terrific voice; Santana's Latin rock and jazz notes both beautiful and rousing. [Sep 2017, p.96]

New Facts Emerge could be said to be business as usual: ie, it cannot be quantified, and pulses with raw music, stimulating confusion and a certain monstrous glee. [Sep 2017, p.88]

An unexpected treat, as he takes great liberties with some of the material. [Sep 2017, p.93]

When he slows for a stroll through You Ain't Going Nowhere and offers up the obscure Abandoned Lover as a wonderfully interpreted finale, you're hit by the realisation that Willie has actually pulled off what is unquestionably a daunting challenge. [Sep 2017, p.94]

The album's ethos is about teamwork rather than individuals, and on that level it succeeds magnificently. [Sep 2017, p.89]

Tremendous fun throughout. [Sep 2017, p.87]

Even the Hey Jude-y crowd singalong works. ... The album as a whole also has a coldness that threatens to undermine the point that Everything Now strives to make. [Sep 2017, p.87]

The album ebbs and flows with a winning fluidity. [Sep 2017, p.86]

The effect is a bit like pleasantly nodding off to a Mazzy Star record and, like the smoke off the titular post-coital gaspers, the intoxicating atmosphere lingers long after the tracks have played out. [Sep 2017, p.88]

In general the Heaton touchstones are all present here--shortage of definite articles, politics, wrinkles, a rockabilly number--with an energy and a sly melodic wit which puts Crooked Calypso up with his best work. [Sep 2017, p.90]

Save for a couple of re-edits, this deeply satisfying blend of emotional techno, Afro rhythms and stripped back house comprises all Daphni Originals. [Sep 2017, p.93]

All told: a summer soul smash. [Sep 2017, p.93]

One seriously heavyweight record, even by Boris' far-reaching standards. [Sep 2017, p.92]

Odd tracks recall Animal Collective, but these immersive 63 minutes mostly ripple with hallucinatory effect, overdubs virtually free of beats. [Sep 2017, p.92]

Claustrophobic ambient, minimal techno and orchestral themes for waiting for the axe to fall. 100 per cent Laibach. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Sets a high bar. But she clears it, with soulful, oddball, Jersey-girl-in-Nashville aplomb. [Sep 2017, p.96]

It's unfair he no longer sounds unique. As a transmitter for cute. stylistic oddness, though, he remains staunch. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Two distinct personalities: Death LP (dark and groovy) and the titular short film soundtrack (disjointed and upsetting). [Aug 2017, p.96]

Occasionally overwrought but never dull. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Musically simpler and less baroque than The Graceless Age, the album's autobiographical arc is conversely harder to glean, its lyrics more oblique. Murry's greatest ability, however, is to make the listener wince uncomfortably while peeking through their fingers at his captivating, compulsive honesty. [Aug 2017, p.88]

Raskit junks its predecessor’s egregious schmaltz for marauding bass and spartan trap backings. They amplify a biting double-time flow his nearest rivals would readily trade jaws for, Dizzee slaying his competition on Focus and Wot U Gonna Do? and literally eating them for dinner on Space (“Can’t find enough time to dine on rappers / All these MCs are looking like tapas”). There’s depth, too.

Minor key, acoustic introspection done so beautifully it's as if they're singing to one another in the dustlight of a pub backroom. [Aug 2017, p.97]

It's a highly-strung record--tiringly so sometimes--but The Dears walk its emotional tightrope with an acrobat's grace. [Aug 2017, p.93]

Titular peaceful intent is achieved. [Aug 2017, p.97]

This debut long-player has been greatly anticipated, and does not disappoint. Skating an agreeably fine line between conscious dancehall and complex nu-roots, Chronixx delivers 15 deeply personal explorations of Jamaica and the challenges it faces.

Occasionally it feels a little too theatrical--as on Willie O' Winsbury--but its roots are in the right place. [Aug 2017, p.95]

Few of his collaborations stick or turn out to be more than the sum of their parts. [Aug 2017, p.88]

The result is a thrilling excursion, possessing an otherworldly ambience and substance you'll spend months decoding, every spin yielding something new. [Aug 2017, p.88]

The songs remain sweet and sad, delicately picked folk foregrounding a serene voice. [Aug 2017, p.97]

Years of sideman work have given Smith a certain world-weariness; that grit makes this newfound joy ring clear as a bell. [Aug 2017, p.93]

Born on a Gangster Star is the more accessible volume. ... The result is a thrilling excursion, possessing an otherworldly ambience and substance you'll spend months decoding, every spin yielding something new. [Aug 2017, p.88]

Amid all these tribulations, Toro Y Moi still quarries a few gems. [Aug 2017, p.89]

Sparkling banjos arpeggios; freak-out saxophjone; John Parish's inventive production; a wealth og strong, beautifully-enunciated vocal melodies--tons has gone into the latest work from Kate Stables, aka This Is The Kit, and all of it is good. [Aug 2017, p.91]

A record that exudes the glee and relief of emotional recovery. [Aug 2017, p.93]

Bluesman's solid soul and guitar chops fit snugly with Hi band. [Aug 2017, p.97]

Every Valley is timely and useful. [Aug 2017, p.89]

For the most part, Haim remain drive-time ear candy, undeniably slick and effervescent. [Aug 2017, p.88]

2017's TLC are clearly more comfortable reminiscing, making their good-natured fifth less futureshock, more time machine. [Aug 2017, p.89]

Winter Woma is something of a throwback but all the better for that. [Aug 2017, p.95]

Immersive, but not entirely absorbing. [Aug 2017, p.91]

As ever, though, their sheer weight in numbers often becomes overbearing. ... Yet, while their palpable urgency is frequently dissipated in the splurge, Hug Of Thunder's peaks are sky-scraping, indeed. [Aug 2017, p.88]

A storyteller in the grand tradition, with the instrumental skills and a crack band. These songs tell her story, of a hard-lived life, of love won then lost. [Aug 2017, p.

A consummately composed lesson in narrative songcraft, which tugs on the heartstrings as it sails into the sunset with Take Me Home. [Aug 2017, p.86]

Here, solid collaborative vibes in the wake of all that life trauma make for rousing, edge-of-collapse rock action. [Aug 2017, p.89]

There are some lovely moments. ... But ultimately, the impossible ambition of Planetarium looms over every single moment. [Aug 2017, p.89]

This ragged, feverish concoction, fortified by choppy-bar-band tropes as Sensor mirrors Paul Westerberg's disillusioned bonhomie. [Aug 2017, p.90]

Throughout Ribbons, you feel Adam's guitars as much as hear them, his use of drones, volume swells and Eastern-flavoured trickery taking us deep into the mystic. [Aug 2017, p.91]

The results are largely sublime. [Aug 2017, p.91]

A humane and typically eclectic affair with winning flashes of eccentricity. [Aug 2017, p.92]

Her relaxed experimentation is more inviting than hearing Longstreth grind his axe. [Aug 2017, p.92]

Powerplant sees Girlpool's naif-pop mature into a brittle, unpredictable, subterranean pop that recalls Pod-era Breeders. [Aug 2017, p.92]

The gift of such unadorned recordings--no attempt to conceal the hoarseness in closer Sky Blue Sky, for instance--is the proximity to the singer and his songs. [Aug 2017, p.93]

So You Wannabe An Outlaw may be one of his very good, rather than great albums, but it's truly wonderful to hear him having such fun making it. [Aug 2017, p.93]

The record increasingly drifts into hazy, slo-mo dream-pop, which inescapably pales besides the bolder tracks upfront. [Aug 2017, p.94]

[Moyet] sounds notably energised throughout this second electronic pop outing. [Aug 2017, p.94]

The music is charming, if a little simplistic at times. [Aug 2017, p.94]

Perversely, however, amid the overbearing production values, it's that grizzled, needling voice that keeps matters connected to the street, where Little Steven's heart truly belongs. [Aug 2017, p.95]

It's the insular intimacy of Korkejian's songs, like Zephyrs whispered in your ear, that make this debut such a triumph. [Aug 2017, p.95]

Stubborn Persistent Illusions may be their best yet. [Aug 2017, p.96]

[A] fine, part-politicised follow-up. [Aug 2017, p.96]

There's a real poignancy to waltz-time close The War, which is partly a tribute to the late Labour politician Jo Cox, but Gilmore also houses rally calls amid floorfillers. [Aug 2017, p.96]

Largely insubstantial. [Aug 2017, p.97]

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

Deliberately nostalgic. Musically, however, it sounds fresh-packed. [Aug 2017, p.97]

It's an album that at times sounds like it wants to smash your face to pieces, sometimes your heart. It's beautiful, horrible, bleak, spiteful, overwhelmed, overwhelming--a cry of panic ,despair, anxiety in the face of accelerating modernity. .... All three [previously unreleased tracks] are excellent in their way. [Aug 2017, p.100]

This parade of audacious flops is a powerful introduction to this great band's pleasures, should you need one. [Jul 2017, p.104]

Cathartic, rich and true. [Jul 2017, p.88]

Bouncy production keep things light; Pharrell-ish Feel It Still, soulful So Young; but perhaps too light. [Jul 2017, p.96]

It's a raucous portrait of a well-drilled band on fire. [Jul 2017, p.87]

It dives into the UK's musical melting pot, blending reggae, hip-hop, Asian beats and dancefloor nous. [Jul 2017, p.93]

Whatever Royal Blood have surrendered in volume here, they have gained in new dimensions. [Jul 2017, p.89]

A winsome, nostalgic atmosphere. [Jul 2017, p.91]

His strength is his honesty. He couches his anxieties in simple but poetic language as his band find the sweet spot between country and rock. [Jul 2017, p.90]

Resistance bubbles with zest and vitality. [Jul 2017, p.87]

It's not the easiest to digest in one sitting, but its languorous, tripy/hippy cocktail is refreshingly unique. [Jul 2017, p.91]

When the music gets quieter there is an irritating increase in tape hiss. [Jun 2017, p.89]

The slow-burners can drag, but it peaks again on Down and Eno-ish Waiting. [Jul 2017, p.96]

Wisely not handing over the reins completely to the makeover crew, the new Sangaré is not so very different from the old one--and when you have a voice like hers, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference what knobs are being twiddled in the studio. Sangaré rocks in her own way, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Throughout, it's the sheer quality of Nau's songwriting that truly impresses. [Jul 2017, p.89]

Earth-shattering breakbeats take a backseat to slicker, smoother, jazzier efforts and broad-brush over-emoting for much of its ponderous second half. [Jul 2017, p.91]

McVie brings the sing-song pop; Buckingham, the whispered vocals and fingernail-splitting guitar solos. [Jun 2017, p.86]

At its best, Weather Diaries rejuvenates their burn-it-down guitars ad pretty vacancy. ... But some of the old problems remain: a thin lyrical wash, an occasional plod. [Jul 2017, p.86]

The righteousness is on full display in New York City. On Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bono howls, “We’re so sick of it!” If such declarations were beginning to sound sanctimonious at the time, 30 years of legit activism--including sitting down repeatedly with ideological adversaries such as Trump VP Mike Pence--casts Bono’s piety as the real deal. ... Thirty years later, U2 continue their pursuit of the righteous; looking back to be sure, but suited to this moment all the same. [Jul 2017, p.104]

Anyone who blanched at Herrema's strychnine sandpaper vocals won't be seduced by this set, however, and Hagerty only rarely scale the truly sublime heights of harmololdic skronk within his reach. [Jul 2017, p.90]

If this is about cities, it's cities glimpsed in poetic, fragmentary dreams. [Jul 2017, p.90]

There is no doubt that Ditto can command the attention, but these songs don't quite sweeten the deal enough. [Jul 2017, p.89]

It's a slight concept (and a short album), which may be to the singer's benefit: in the past she could be off-puttingly clever in a very French way. OUI seems to be saying to us: "Yes, I'm simply a singer. Just Come and enjoy the music.". [Jul 2017, p.93]

Chuck sets an example for everyone else to follow. [Jul 2017, p.94]

With everyone now doing '80s-dance-pop, these Parisians seem more veteran than hipster on this set of Italo-disco and sophisticated pop. [Jul 2017, p.96]