Abyss is a darkly compelling tour de force. [Sep 2015, p.94]

In The Court Of... sounds both warmly familiar yet dazzlingly fresh.

Because Of The Times burns with all the invention and ambition that seemed to have been sucked out of its predecessor. [May 2007, p.108]

This is Lopatin's most cogent record yet. [Dec 2015, p.91]

Relentless vocal shards create the sensation of being stabbed in the head with a whalebone comb, but when voices and concept coalesce... you begin to see the point. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

All in all, with its pervading doubts and joyful release, Glowing In The Dark is very much for these times. [Mar 2021, p.86]

It really does seem that a decade-long period of interbal artistic crisis has been resolved, beautifully, even triumphantly. [Apr 2008, p.98]

No wheels were reinvented in the making of this record, but it travels straight to the heart nevertheless. [Aug 2020, p.92]

A set of sad, beautiful, guileless, country-folk songs [Jan 2013, p.102]

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

The skittish energy of a Lene Lovich is still there but now that quirkiness is crossed with slices of JAMC-fuzz and dream-pop trails. [Apr 2014, p.94]

His overall grasp of what he is doing has never been surer. [Dec 2014, p.93]

Intriguing melodies, immersive arrangements and a haunting choral climax. [Nov 2016, p.96]

The reinvention is thrilling to eavesdrop. [June 2008, p.106]

The resulting sings--beautifully built around guitar, piano, drums and strings--are as their psycho-geography would suggest, intimate autobiographies, about ruined relationships. [May 2013, p.88]

The result successfully veers from radio-friendly gems Everyday Magic and Time Waited (built around a tumbling piano sample from pedal steel player Buddy Emmons’ 1969 LP Emmons Guitar Inc) to Free-styled riffer Squid Ink and bluesy closer River Road. [Apr 2025, p.78]

From Palm Beach, the new wave of 21st century powerpop. [July 2010, p. 97]

The thread which binds is Merchant's seductive, bittersweet voice, something which quickly finds the richer you, than nourishes it. [Dec 2001, p.104]

While the music is a combination of old Smog and new... there's a freshness here, a sense of change, and most remarkable, a real empathy on display. [May 2003, p.89]

This is music you can lose yourself in. [Oct 2003, p.110]

The Darkness swoop dangerously close to parody, but pull off the dizzying, sublime soprano hi-jinks of I Believe In A Thing Called Love, the deft pop-rock of Friday Night and Love On The Rocks WIth Ice's overbearing machismo with the grace of seasoned circus acrobats. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Brodericks' augmentations tend to eclipse Rngle's sometimes evanescent songwriting. [Jan 2008, p.101]

Lawrence Arabia's world may lean toward Edwardian anachronism, but that echo of simpler times will charm your socks off. [Jan 2010, p.123]

Cat's Eyes are the sound of something beautiful in a state of slow decay. [May 2011, p.104]

The 28 masters perfectly preserve the fight-or-flight cortisone power and tired, forlorn grandeur of late period Elvis. But it's the 27 outtakes that truly startle. [Nov 2013, p.98]

Nutini has grown up, and his music has grown with him: in a world littered with handsome young singer-songwriters who become obsolete some time between their first hit and first album, it's an admirable achievement. [May 2014, p.88]

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

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

These are gallingly sad, often crudely simple folk songs, interlaced with menace, though her assertions of agency are just as bracing as the dark parts. [Jan 2018, p.105]

This likable debut peaks on Everything Apart's breezy kosmische shuffle, and Lennon-ish I'll Be Alright, but its airiness doesn't always work. [Feb 2019, p.93]

Act as an instrumental coda to 2018's superb There's A Riot Going On. [Oct 2020, p.94]

The vocals are spot-on and so is the musicianship. [Apr 2021, p.82]

Perhaps the most mellow and settled LP of White's career. ... These slow burns seem good for White. [Aug 2022, p.84]

The flittering hooks of Whitty's first solo outing impact with tender grace. [Feb 2023, p.90]

From the get-go, JID022 crackles with a kinetic energy that drives the album's unrelenting, addictive dance pulse. [Dec 2024, p.89]

Hen's Teeth is benchmark roots music from start to finish. [Apr 2026, p.85]

Hood's vision for the band has always been cinematic--never more so than here, in fact--but by mid-album tracks such as "Get Downtown" and "After The Scene Dies," things are becoming sketchy.

Love Is Magic is Grant entertainingly magnified, but the emotional returns comes slightly diminished. [Nov 2018, p.93]

Each time they break free of their own locked groove, achieving mood-elevating uplift via genius structural shifts, or wig-flippin' solos spiritually comparable with Hendrix or Neil young. [Jan 2013, p.98]

That [Psapp] completely circumvent high blood sugar whimsy is testament to the duo's songwriting ingenuity and Durant's silken vocal cords. [Apr 2005, p.89]

She draws in appropriate songs by Merle Haggard, Patty Griffin and Jack Wesley Routh, but excels them all with her own 'Not Enough.' [July 2008, p.104]

There are plenty of cherishable moments to be savoured. [Jan 2015, p.96]

East India Youth has barely tinkered with the formula for his second full-length--a good thing. [May 2015, p.93]

Catches the sense of wistful dislocation that comes with trying to go home again, the after-hours sidewalk cafe intimacy of Manejando Por Pando or Cancion Mama suggesting quiet reckonings and reorientations. [Aug 2025, p.83]

For all the heartache, Blu Wav is surprisingly uplifting, transcendent, even.[Feb 2024, p.85]

It's no surprise that there isn't the immediate drive of 2011 Daptone debut No Time For Dreaming, it the energy and cohesion of follow-ups Victim Of Love (2013) and Changes (2016). But Black Velvet's appeal grows. [Dec 2018. p.85]

Glitters like broken glass. [Jan 2012, p.92]

The songs dive off in unexpected directions, but remain linear. [Nov 2012, p.87]

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]

More robust moments provide the necessary shift but, with all its delicate finesse, Forgetting The Present largely prefers to take its oblivion lying down. [Aug 2014, p.86]

A cathartic soundscaping of the rugged Northern California landscape. [Jul 2015, p.91]

[For Bteer, Or Worse] maintains the same innate love of his subject and feeling of bonhomie. [Nov 2016, p.94]

This comes together perfectly as he preens and stalks and sneers, like a sulky, world-weary Bowie. [Aug 2019, p.90]

These great songs live on through reinvention; Bonny Light Horseman have done them proud. [Feb 2020, p.87]

It has a home-made, handcrafted feel and an almost impossible intimacy. [Feb 2020, p.91]

A little strange, a little strained, Mercy still rings with its own truth. [Jun 2021, p.88]

While it's true you can often hear what upset the highlife connoisseurs, the bulk of this collection of outsider art holds up 30-plus years on. [Jun 2024, p.98]

In truth there's little here that wouldn't belong on the 1992 breakthrough, Let Me Come Over, their enduring warm embrace marking Buffalo Tom as a band you can grow old with. [Jul 2024, p.84]

The Alabama five-piece, alongside producer David Cobb, totally cut loose, upping the octane to hard rockin’, guitar crunchin’ Southern gospel soul. [Sep 2024, p.86]

It’s not all dreamy-headed stuff – Relief, for one, achieves rocky lift-off – but for the most part The Good Kind Tom Doyle sustains a compellingly airy atmosphere throughout. [Jan 2024, p.83]

This is very much alright. [Apr 2025, p.82]

Enthralling fever dream of an album. [Apr 2025, p.82]

The shock of the new has evaporated, but she's subtly evolving and broadening her palette. [Dec 2025, p.78]

This is an outfit broadening its musical horizon as the record spins. [Jan 2026, p.88]

Wormslayer feels like the band's most consistently corporeal record since the Britpop era's iconic K. [Mar 2026, p.83]

Craven Faults harness electronic power to recount compelling stories. [Mar 2026, p.88]

The epic A Friend Like You, the tenderest song about being unable to walk away from a relationship, rueing "why the hell do you have to be so sweet", or the self-explanatory Sad Song, ironically the jauntiest track here. [Jun 2026, p.87]

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

Smart, sensual, self-loving and self-critical, pissed-off and hilarious. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Several songs here feel swamped. [Nov 2020, p.88]

O'Brien sees dead people, spits at love, puts himself inside the heads of fellow bus passengers and defies anyone to categorise his music. It's a rich experience making the attempt though. [Jul 2010, p.92]

Deep, rewarding songs, rich in authorly detail, which, not for the first time, position Rateliff, still only 45, as a new Springsteen. [Aug 2024, p.81]

Black City is the devil leering over Asa Breed's shoulder, a seedy, dirty place--but a fascinating one, too. [Sep 2010, p.99]

The Sun Awakens isn't wildly different (from its predecessor)--though it introduces tripped-out electric guitars to Chasny's homespun palette. [Jul 2006, p.102]

Here they sound commanding and convincing as they do on-stage. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Wasted Light finds Foo Fighters at their boldest, their most vivid. [May 2011, p.101]

[A] smart and accessible record. [Nov 2011, p.95]

Their thrilling music rooted in old country with touches of blues and gospel can't help but remind you of Jack and Meg and Johnny and June. [Jun 2013, p.93]

Ne So is a thing of delicacy, it's a silky, immersive grooves and intertwined guitars weaving a subtly seductive canvas against which Traore's smoky vocals, often couched in close harmonies, waft. [Apr 2016, p.92]

The result is tender, powerful avant-rock to shake the walls. [Jun 2017, p.94]

Hyper-tense, but worth it. [Aug 2018, p.91]

These songs aren't quite the blast of fresh air needed after months of dreaming about new horizons, but as you'd expect from Damon And Naomi, they're a beautifully curated analogue. [Oct 2021, p.96]

This is the album to prove that great Afrobeat doesn't have to be a Kuti family affair. [Sep 2012, p.97]

You don't dip into this music--it fully engulfs you. [Oct 2015, p.95]

The album works better as [a] vehicle for Williams' fiery, lucid spiels and inventive productions than straight-up narrative. [Jun 2016, p.97]

This Fascinating, individual and exhilarating fusion welds classical tropes to such diverse elements as Arcadian folk, doo wop, Steve Reich and Greek Mythology. [Oct 2012, p.95]

This new box set offers a ton of unreleased tracks (47 in total). Ranging from the ropey – Schoolyard sees him at the age of 32 singing about losing his virginity at 16 to, erk, a 14-year-old girl; Horny Pony features a toe-curling rap – to the bafflingly binned, they nonetheless provide real insight into Prince’s creative mind. Highlights include ghetto chronicle The Voice, jazz instrumental tribute Letter 4 Miles (recorded two days after his friend Davis’s death) and, best of all, the gently trippy Alice Through The Looking Glass. [Dec 2023, p.105]

This is Nelson's best album in over a decade, following flirtations with blues, reggae and jazz. [June 2010, p. 94]

Distractions' expanded palette takes in grime, experimental R&B and robotic house, like an alternate soundtrack for an arcade racer. [Jul 2017, p.91]

Makaya McCraven's alchemical abilities and subliminal technical savvy offer both a sensitive update of the Blue Note label's depth-charged catalogue and a welcome pathfinder for the uninitiated. [Jan 2022, p.83]

Constant hitmaker or beautiful waste of time: like all great alchemists, Kurt Vile proves you can be both. [May 2022, p.87]

Unlikely to soundtrack your next dinner party, but it's hard not to marvel at Matmos's cut-and-paste mastery. [Jan 2023, p.93]

It's All True joyfully returns to the shimmering electronica of old. [Aug. 2011, p. 98]

It's hard to imagine a more perfectly realised Wire artefact. [Sep 2002, p.95]

Lean arrangements, never predictable melodic ticks and some of Byrne's most deliciously quirky lyrics ensure an event-packed listen. [Apr 2004, p.99]

Their second outing makes no effort to remap their coordinates: they remain riffy, distorted, full of nocturnal energy, possessed of rollicking good tunes, but also open up a more expansive goth-rock strain on indie-radio cuts. [May 2015, p.94]

If Congrats is no less aggressive than its three predecessors, the crisp Neon Dad qualifies as pop and Acidic is a weird kind of joyous electronic ska. [Jun 2016, p.92]

Blood Karaoke ought to be an incoherent mess. Instead, it's a sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal sound collage, with unexpected twists and turns every few seconds. [Jun 2022, p.84]