Lovely. [Apr 2017, p.96]

A familiar narrative, perhaps, but rendered with uniquely mordant wit. [Apr 2017, p.91]

It's been a long journey, but Spiral Stairs has finally found his voice. [Apr 2017, p.90]

Finn is still writing wordy story songs, but the breathing space elevates those words. [Apr 2017, p.97]

This disc is bloated with anti-matter sing-alongs to savour. [Apr 2017, p.98]

Much of With You Tonight lacks vim and will likely have vacated your memory by tomorrow. [Mar 2017, p.90]

Halfway through, 39-year-old Jose James undergoes an astonishing transformation via the infectiously funky, Pharrell-esque, dance cuts Live Your Life, and Ladies Man, where he convincingly morphs onto a get-down disco dude. [Mar 2017, p.92]

The street-wise intellect certainly lets his slightly off-pitched voice do most of the heavy-lifting over the stuttering spacey synthetics, phased keys and warped Rhodes of B-Roc's atmospheric production. [Apr 2017, p.95]

The lyrics tackle domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and proceeds go to charity--but if all you care about is the sound it's still terrific. [Apr 2017, p.98]

When Crisci does expansive, with the six-minute Ode To The Pleiades, the tremor is sizeable, its rattlesnake beats sinking into jazz piano riffs and iridescent synth pads, [Apr 2017, p.97]

In Mind is an altogether lovely album that quietly demand to be heard. [Apr 2017, p.91]

The increasingly salty bite of Oberst's lyrics is only sharpened by the homely warmth of Salutations' arrangements. [Apr 2017, p.97]

Mayall and his ace band revive songs by Bettye Crutcher, Jimmy Rogers and Jerry Lynn Williams alongside Piquant original material. [Mar 2017, p.96]

The uncompromising Condition is extremely attractive. [Apr 2017, p.93]

[Navita] charts her course through destruction, indifference and the city sounds: doo wop, Lou Reed-y R&R, even indie rock. It's not until she stares clear-eyed at those closest to her that the way is clear: she's to honor her Latin and Caribbean roots in story and sound. [Apr 2017, p.96]

The main feeling it provokes is sincere admiration at a job well done, but a raised pulse, unfortunately, is something Spoon can't craft from scratch. [Apr 2017, p.96]

The results are a triumph. Scott interprets everything in a manner that touches heart-strings. [Mar 2017, p.98]

Big, warm music that doesn't shout loud, yet makes itself heard. [Apr 2017, p.97]

Song-for-song Damage And Joy is the most rewarding Jesus And Mary Chain album since their prime. [Apr 2017, p.92]

It's something of a revelation. [Apr 2017, p.97]

The only musical shift is Bete Morcelee, which isn't grunge but zippy punk; the rest reprise Marry's trademark conjoining of equally joyous Afro-pop and Anglo-phonic guitar-pop. [Apr 2017, p.95]

Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus have used a familiar creative trope--the artist in residence... Fittingly, Nitzer Ebb's Douglas J. McCarthy, whose own dislocated, radical electronica feels like an overt influence. [Apr 2017, p.97]

She's clearly not afraid to prolong the exquisite agony and, selfishly, you hope Macve never cheers up. [Apr 2017, p.98]

A lively fusion of politically conscious Afro-beat electro pop. [Apr 2017, p.99]

Emotionally speaking, however, Merritt has recreated an inner life that sound agonisingly real. [Apr 2017, p.94]

Blow by blow, it all adds up to Depeche Mode's best album in years. [Apr 2017, p.95]

It's to Blakeslee's credit that Book Of Changes charms even in its bleakest moments. [Feb 2017, p.94]

Some might find the work's almost wilful-seeming opacity and slight whiff of academia off-putting. Judged on purely musical terms, however, it's a ting of great beauty. [Apr 2017, p.90]

Temples aren't stuck in the past, they've glimpsed the future. [Apr 2017, p.94]

Valerie June's siren-like vocal delivery [is] both beautiful and tempting. [Apr 2017, p.98]

Great to have back that little razor edge that Lytle loses when he steps away from his bandmates, but this might be the last time he gets away with it without a major rethink. [Apr 2017, p.96]

Reid offers up dreamlike meditations on pained experience possessed of a quiet rhythm and disarming lyrical beauty. [Apr 2017, p.91]

Its depth makes this their most satisfyingly sensual work to date. [Apr 2017, p.99]

With Heartworms James Mercer has produced another fine crop of pop. [Apr 2017, p.88]

An adroit demonstration of Power's aim to reflect today's festering political landscape. [Apr 2017, p.97]

This third outing developed a gnarly carpe diem edge. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Parlay music that while irrefutably folk, gleefully shoves aside traditionalist tropes in favour of a buoyant, full-bodied combo sound, that, passingly, recalls prime Fairport Convention while proffering a beguilingly mellifluous identity of its own. [Apr 2017, p.98]

Rich, sonic politesse on offer here. [Apr 2017, p.99]

These mostly instrumental voyages speak loudly of no known universe. [Mar 2017, p.98]

A brilliant piece of art. [Mar 2017, p.91]

Windy City is a rather safe album. [Apr 2017, p.90]

The real star is Kingston MC Racquel Jones. [Apr 2017, p.99]

The wig-out-in-wonderland title track has a poppy, Donovan approach before its unsettling phased climax. [Apr 2017, p.99]

It's not an easy album to love. [Apr 2017, p.98]

The unlikely MC tag team's incontestable third rages hard over bass-driven beats positively thrumming with vitality. [Apr 2017, p.95]

The considered Heba is not immediate, but it worms its way in. [Apr 2017, p.95]

Sometimes it's more about a blues feeling, encompassing high-lonesome, electric country-blues rock, two-chord garage rock and at its most beautiful on the opening track Promise The World. [Apr 2017, p.94]

[Jackie] is another near-masterpiece. [Apr 2017, p.93]

A vital album for an anxious era. [Apr 2017, p.90]

Impermanence resonates like a lullaby, or a prayer. [Mar 2017, p.90]

Trimming, paring and refocusing has made Frontier Ruckus a far more enticing package, and if Milia isn't quite in the league of similar writers such at The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, he's catching up fast. [Mar 2017, p.93]

Wintery designs warmed by the likes of Bitchin' Bajas layering instruments, voices and electronics. [Feb 2017, p.99]

A delightful demonstration that sticking to your guns can be well worth it. [Mar 2017, p.95]

Without sounding like a faintheart, it comes as a relief that this album features a crop of high quality songs and instrumentals playing with dazzling finger-picking. [Mar 2017, p.90]

It's hard to fathom what such a talented songwriter needs to indulge her inner karaoke quite so far. [Mar 2017, p.97]

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

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]

Deep immersive dream landscapes of calm and uncertainty that seem to push at the boundaries of space and time. [Mar 2017, p.97]

The resulting work is an entrancing inner space voyage through shapeshifter drones and radiant electronic nebulae. [Feb 2017, p.96]

A vast swirling dystopia of euphoric white noise. [Mar 2017, p.97]

The tenth album from the fabulous Sadies is up there with the best. [Mar 2017, p.93]

With Memories Are Now, she understands exactly when to use the bridle and bit on these wild, wise songs. [Mar 2017, p.98]

The 12 songs here are mostly wild, loud, anarchic and irreverent but hardly ever subdued. [Feb 2017, p.96]

Everywhere ageless rock'n'roll brio comes freighted with careworn sagacity. [Mar 2017, p.93]

If nothing else, this yearning, realpolitik-infused road movie of an album is one to point to the next time somebody pronounces there are no decent protest songs any more. [Mar 2017, p.92]

Elaborate motorik grooves, dense, post-rock complexity and intricate electronic experimentalism. [Mar 2017, p.94]

A music from within. [Mar 2017, p.93]

Hypnotic channels occasionally, degrade into ruts, but more often this is a fabulous freakout. [Mar 2017, p.98]

Pissed Jeans might deal in uncompromising, near-unlistenable noise, but in a world gone increasingly crazy, their scourging hi-jinks make more and more sense. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Black Star Riders have delivered a record befitting their pedigree. [Mar 2017, p.94]

This short but sweet EP is her love letter to the Lone Star state. [Mar 2017, p.93]

A crop of high quality songs and instrumentals played with dazzling finger-picking. [Mar 2017, p.90]

Their natural domain is bouncing festival stages, but, with pounding beats and attitude, this is the perfect way to usher people there. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Sports is more circumspect and subtle. Yet when the hooks of White Pebbles, Bad Rockets or Syncing In slyly take hold, the effect is indelible. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Mehldau sounds at home on folksy rambles like Tallahassee Junction while Thile imbues the jazz standard I Cover The Waterfront with a desolate tone, his plaintive vocals accompanied by suspenseful mandolin tremolos. [Feb 2017, p.90]

These are top space-jams. [Feb 2017, p.90]

Undoubtedly one of his strongest. [Feb 2017, p.97]

Sampha's solo debut sits somewhere between the ghostly avant-soul if Frank Ocean and James Blake's emotionally wrought electronica. [Mar 2017, p.90]

Understated, lovely. [Feb 2017, p.98]

When the album's latter half descends into cluttered abstraction, Delicate Steve measures up as disappointingly slight. [Mar 2017, p.96]

Rueful, ruminative and ultimately hypnotic, Garden Of Ashes sings a welcome blues for the coming apocalypse. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Annual waft of immersive drones, synthscaped romance, glassy yogic remixes. [Feb 2017, p.99]

Lush and emotive. [Feb 2017, p.99]

Jardin retain the EP's satisfyingly minimalist approach. [Feb 2017, p.92]

Ultimately Prisoner is tethered by sturdy, familiar images of tightropes and trains. [Mar 2017, p.94]

One of the year's best. Which year? Any year. [Mar 2017, p.92]

[A] disarming, relatable debut. [Mar 2017, p.97]

It feels more like 10 individual songs than an album. [Mar 2017, p.93]

Thoughtfulness never rocked so hard. [Mar 2017, p.96]

Little Fictions is more upbeat in tempo and outlook an sounds like a band given a jolting shot of B12. [Mar 2017, p.88]

The faithful can still but with confidence--these are polished performances--but others may weary of a long journey round past glories. [Feb 2017, p.96]

The Pace of The Passing is, ultimately, oddly inscrutable, a musical ghosting, seductive, meticulous textures elegant compensation for the lack of a strong centre. [Feb 2017, p.90]

This eponymous offering once again demonstrates his effortless, and seemingly innate, ability to make the familiar feel fresh and enticing. [Feb 2017, p.90]

A rump-shaking whole. [Feb 2017, p.99]

The DIY disco maverick channels vintage R&B and thrilling dancefloor pop of an '80s Madonna/Janet/TLC stripe, in a voice that's crystal cool in up and downtempo settings. [Feb 2017, p.99]

It's dense and intense digital compositions enter your headspace with stealth or, at other times, occupy it with an assault of breathless beats. [Feb 2017, p.95]

Stellular serves up a lovely, liberated tonic in dark times. [Feb 2017, p.93]

This follow-up is more considered, though occasionally suffers from one too many mid-paced hard rock standards. [Feb 2017, p.90]