[Day Breaks] is arguably her masterpiece to date. [Nov 2016, p.90]

It features the Bright Eyes/Desaparecidos frontman alone with piano, harmonica and guitar, putting down songs never quite intended as an album. This sparseness means that the focus on Oberst is tight--maybe too tight. [Nov 2016, p.90]

A worthy addition to the genre. [Nov 2016, p.92]

Her characters will wander through your imagination for days after the record's stopped spinning. [Nov 2016, p.86]

Sirens proffers another string to his bow, its nine skittering essays overlaying richly textured, genre-melding electronic sound worlds with liminal song "structures." [Nov 2016, p.81]

It's one of the most thrilling rocksteady albums to have been made since the genre emerged in the late '60s. [Nov 2016, p.89]

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

Peaks early with the opening title track. [Nov 2016, p.96]

This feels like Hiss Golden Messenger's overdue breakthrough album. [Nov 2016, p.89]

Gong carry on with positive absurdist elevation via psychedelic jazz rock. [Oct 2016, p.100]

For every shallow, Banks stirs up a hidden depth. [Nov 2016, p.90]

It benefits from producer Jim Sclavunos's emphasis on a place-you-in-the-room live approach, bringing the dark to labelmates Temples' light, as Heavenly's neo-psych vanguard marches onwards. [Nov 2016, p.94]

Reflective but brimming with aching melody. [Nov 2016, p.88]

Cohen joined by bass, pedal steel, brushed drums, recorder, flute and violin. This, if anything, has made her songs stranger still, breathing life into the ghostly riddles of cold watchmen and voices from the forest and releasing them out into the corporal world. [Nov 2016, p.91]

It's easily their best work. [Nov 2016, p.94]

Hard blues, soul and R&B take a back seat to pop tunes with a elegant turn. [Oct 2016, p.92]

Armstrong continues to lean on lyrical phases that sound clever but don't say much. Still, the album includes several strong character sketches. [Nov 2016, p.88]

On Requiem, they invert proportions, taking a variety of folk and world sounds as base ingredients and embellishing those with rock noise. Whether that's a more intriguing approach depends on if you prefer relentless musical phrases delivered on pan flute or distorted guitar. [Nov 2016, p.91]

If not every experiment works, Brown's twinkling hook-up with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt on Really Doe totally surpasses its billing. [Nov 2016, p.89]

Skeleton Tree is an extraordinary piece of work, one that might impact upon you profoundly if you choose to bed-down in its dark corridors of hurt. [Nov 2016, p.84]

Courageous, wilful, fractured and something of a triumph, 22, A Million will move you, though you may struggle to explain how, or why. [Nov 2016, p.87]

She still meanders between electronic-infused pop, Eastern-tinged R&B and AOR balladry, but crisp production and Spektor's pliant, atypically measured vocals keep things focused. [Nov 2016, p.89]

The understated widescreen desolation of their eponymous second album marked a breakthrough for Warpaint, their artfully washed-out funk-punk making more sense than ever. The follow-up, Heads Up balances that downbeat vibe with more upbeat, poppy elements, creating a tension that's electric. [Nov 2016, p.91]

[A] blissful orchestral new age soundscapes, to suggest lapping waves on late summer beaches with just the occasional cloud of gloomy dissonance to add to that authentic 2016 holiday experience. [Nov 2016, p.91]

This is a protest album and a damn good one. [Nov 2016, p.93]

The pleasantly chaotic backdrop is heavy on analogue synths and vintage space echo, and though far from the reggae idiom, Perry is at home warbling his curses and magic spells in multi-tracked triplicate. [Nov 2016, p.93]

The album features psychedelic guitar, heavy percussion, priests, deep gumbo and the main man's peerless drumming. [Nov 2016, p.93]

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

Warm, understated third LP. [Nov 2016, p.96]

Nuanced lyrics and striking melodies. [Nov 2016, p.96]

Not even the most Boss-eyed would claim the world needs another Springsteen Best-of, mostly comprising songs available elsewhere and built around a clutch of repeat offenders. Yet Freehold, NJ's famous son is barely recognisible on Chapter And Verse's first five track. [Nov 2016, p.104]

All its [The Gouster] tracks have been released before, though it's interesting to hear them in their original sequence. And the most obscure songs certainly merit more exposure. [Nov 2016, p.104]

There are points of similarity here with Kraftwerk, particularly on Clockwork, the electro and house styles of '8-s Cabaret Voltaire, the pumping bears if Front 242, and also the percolating sequencers of Favtory Floor. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Brought To Book starts off as a classic Hammill Piano ballad, but like many songs here it goes through metric convolutions while still keeping its melodic coherence, crashing through the hedges of its own maze to get from A and B. [Oct 2016, p.97]

Rosenberg's gently-rendered songs too often rely on stock images. [Oct 2016, p.96]

The French singer renders smoky blues. [Oct 2016, p.100]

It's testament to his long-time dedication to the drone dirge and dark pop sweetness of the VU, JAMC ect. that it all fits seamlessly. [Oct 2016, p.100]

What makes The Complete BBC Sessions so compelling is that it's mostly work-in-process, and Zeppelin veer played a song the same way twice. [Oct 2016, p.107]

A palpably open and free atmosphere underscores these songs, on which the same exotic and dexterous musical arrangements Rostam honed with his old band allow Leithauser's sandpaper Sinatra to truly swing. true dream team. [Oct 2016, p.96]

Nothing nosebleedy in its warm, evocative patchwork. [Oct 2016, p.100]

He likes to throw an occasional hot coal into your lap, such as The Pugilist’s angry strings, and Comfortable Love’s rock torrent, somewhat Jeff Buckley-esque. Yet the naked, tearful Alright and Good Lust cut the deepest, when time seems to stand still in the face of Keaton’s suffering.

[Michael Christmas's] relentlessly goofy and incredulous tales about everyday absurdities crown an unconventional marriage made in alt-rap heaven. [Oct 2016, p.97]

A colourful, catchy and quietly impassioned record. [Oct 2016, p.90]

The presence of four hired songwriters dilutes the duo's offbeat DNA. [Oct 2016, p.96]

Ultimately, Future Echoes is a dark pop album, as joyful as it is unexpected. [Oct 2016, p.95]

Dense and dark as always, but with new light seeping through the undergrowth, Unseen is The Handsome Family's masterpiece. [Sep 2016, p.95]

While focus isn't really his thing, when Presley and his minimal combo cohere, they're scratchily persuasive. [Oct 2016, p.97]

Hval's most rounded missive to date unsettles. [Oct 2016, p.98]

Shine A Light is a labour of love and a personal indulgence for its two creators, but it's always welcoming. [Oct 2016, p.93]

The alternative takes are uniformly excellent, with studio chat, and even a stray telephone interrupting Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall. Above all, In The Jungle Room revels once again how superb his voice remained to the very end. [Oct 2016, p.110]

There's something disarmingly joyous about it with only hints of the darker music that they also create. [Oct 2016, p.99]

This new nine-track album catches the duo performing together in Europe during 2011 and clearly shows that despite their infrequent collaborations, they create a special telepathic musical synergy in each other's company. [Oct 2016, p.97]

A zippy half-hour's worth of inspired, unlikely juxtapositions and deftly perverse songcraft. [Oct 2016, p.96]

We Move is warm, slick and modernist. [Oct 2016, p.96]

A series of richly textured, ambient instrumentals from pedal steel guitar. [Oct 2016, p.92]

Bowles apples his clawhammer style to reverberating experiments. [Oct 2016, p.100]

The main deal here concerns a dozen new tracks, deliciously delivered in that soulful quaver of a voice. [Oct 2016, p.92]

Opening and closing tracks Begin and Oh Men are breezy, playful electro pop, but for the most Gordon creates a variety of grand soundscapes to which the singer adds gentle, disembodied vocals. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Michael Collins' latest sounds like a 21st century Ween--knowing pastiches of '70s Laurel Canyon, '60s jazz soundtracks and more, with guests. [Oct 2016, p.100]

A ton of fun, just like the old days. [Oct 2016, p.92]

The result is 11 dazzling, fabulously hooky pop-rockers. [Oct 2016, p.95]

Peaks on Joy Division-ish New Structures and the helter-skelter title track. [Oct 2016, p.100]

There’s little that disappoints here, even after Jack’s parting of ways with Meg to plot a solo course.

Fingers Crossed marks another welcome return. [Oct 2016, p.98]

By finally abandoning the pursuit of making alt-rock sound as pristine as possible, Twin Atlantic have actually struck upon something much more significant here: their identity. [Oct 2016, p.96]

The 12 songs are dilatant, vibrant. [Oct 2016, p.93]

A burbling concept piece with moments of poppy and demonic. [Oct 2016, p.100]

An astute writer whose lyrics--frank, observational, brutally self-aware--make her songs feel deceptively simple. [Oct 2016, p.100]

A third LP of warm, retro pop jangle. [Oct 2016, p.100]

Up close and uncompromising, Exodus Of Venus elevates Cook into the top echelon of Nashville's new breed, an all-too-rare female voice among a a largely make elite. [Oct 2016, p.95]

Funny, learned and poignant by turns, Foreverland is a masterfully-arranged, part-chamber-pop record underpinned by Hannon's natural playfulness. [Oct 2016, p.93]

Astronaut..., then, could be King Creosote's finest hour yet. [Oct 2016, p.93]

It's a hugely inventive slab of sonic theatre plotted to the tiniest detail. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Amnesty's dark, metallic electro-pop creates an overwhelming Strum Und Drang. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Packed with airhorns, grunts and slashing keys, its tempo shifts at will, a reminder of a singular talent. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Bayley's lyrics--inspired by fly-on-the-wall over-hearings--add depth. [Oct 2016, p.109]

Alone, the music feels like a too-long experiment, albeit punctuated by lovely songs. [Oct 2016, p.109]

An album full of inspired electronic melody and pastoral reflection culminating in the heartsore title track. [Oct 2016, p.100]

Heat haze indie pop with Brit post-punk lyrical realism in place of slacker zaniness. [Oct 2016, p.109]

Here never becomes too cosy, there are also plenty of sparkling textural buzzes and blips to ensure that Teenage Fanclub's traditional consistency remains impressive rather than soporific. [Sep 2016, p.91]

Schmilco in particular is best consumed as a contemplative whole. [Oct 2016, p.94]

Away is a looser and more poignant than the band's previous releases ever hinted. [Oct 2016, p.95]

The results, like a digestible Oneohtrix Point Never, are gloriously sweet natured. [Sep 2016, p.93]

Olsen never gives into indulgence, however, her songs keeping their shape, their direction and their impact to the end. [Sep 2016, p.90]

It’s a beguiling, meandering sprawl that rewards total immersion.

Total Depravity strives to add something new to the mix but Andrews' habitual preoccupations keep The Veils from moving forward. [Sep 2016, p.96]

A multifaceted diamond that moves his gentle vocals between musical dark corners and soaring expanses. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Parrots invoke a woozy, enthralling chaos that's imbued with a golden, sun-blushed charm. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Opposite House and It are his most Succinct and affecting work since the near-perfect Wit's End, the album that Mangy Love now replaces as his finest. [Sep 2016, p.98]

Ghost Stations is blithesome evidence of Marconi Union expanding on their ambient/downtempo tag. [Sep 2016, p.93]

The 22-track vinyl's an ace place for newcomers to get electrified. [Sep 2016, p.107]

His voice is parched, so the songs, many acoustic and trailing brutal honesty, speak clearly enough to grip you in their gnarled fist. [Sep 2016, p.98]

A much more emotionally spooked record than either of its MOR predecessors. [Sep 2016, p.97]

It's an appropriately trying listen, far removed from 2010's relatively mannered debut. [Sep 2016, p.92]

Almost exclusively orchestral, this soundtrack works brilliantly as a half-hour suite. [Sep 2016, p.90]

A powerful intoxicant rather than just another retro genre exercise. [Sep 2016, p.92]

The on-stage versions bring genuine human warmth--healing even--to Vulnicura's raw emotional truths. [Sep 2016, p.99]

This joyous, head-spinning dash to beyond the end of the yellow brick road audaciously fuses the chamber chorale, folk, the theatrical and torch song to create an album which could soundtrack a cabaret hosted by the Wizard of Oz himself. [Sep 2016, p.98]