The whole shebang is a lovely thing to bring back to Real World, the label that first signed Arthur back in 1997. [Aug 2016, p.96]

Rattle's haunting weird-pop stands out like ghosts in the daytime. Spread over an album, truthfully, it's a trying listen. [Sep 2016, p.93]

They explore the tricksy time signatures and artful insouciance of Deerhoof or Tortoise with aplomb. [Sep 2016, p.99]

The Uzi/Live Skull/Come veteran conveys the therapeutic power of bleak yet lovely music. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Absolute Truth rights the ship with enough whistling milkman melodies to sink the Titanic. [Sep 2016, p.95]

And the Anonymous Nobody is another stroke of inventive brilliance from ever-humble, non-showboating masters of the long-playing arts. [Sep 2016, p.92]

Resistance to its charms is futile. [Sep 2016, p.93]

25 25's monomaniacal quest for the ultimate groove occasionally leaves the listener behind. [Sep 2016, p.96]

[A] polished second set by the Swedish '70s-inspired blues-psych outfit. [Sep 2016, p.99]

[A] fine and discerningly lean album. [Sep 2016, p.93]

Furnaces is an entirely winning proposition due to its high melodic content, making for Harcourt's best record yet. [Sep 2016, p.90]

They impress with a neo-Romanticism rather than basic rabble-rousing. [Sep 2016, p.99]

If you're mad enough to be planning a Breaking Bad-themed barbecue you've just found the perfect soundtrack. [Sep 2016, p.90]

It's foundations are suitably raw, emotional and, more often than not rhythmically muscular. And yet, by skillfully offsetting this by weaving in strands of Afro-jazz, the pervading mood is one of calming, introspective reverie. [Sep 2016, p.93]

The falsetto vocals can sound glibly glossy, but as mainstream alternative to Animal Collective they'll go far. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Wild Beasts' stripped down songs have developed incrementally into a more electronic direction and these finely detailed arrangements feature twitchy kit and synthetic drums, sequencers, abstract sonics, '80s keyboard stabs and guitars occasionally let off the leash. [Sep 2016, p.95]

Wildflower can either be enjoyed as a horizon-filling album-long trip, or by zooming in on the array of every changing, intra-song moments, as sounds and ideas flit in and out of focus. Whatever your preference, it was worth the wait. [Sep 2016, p.92]

It's Ry [Cooder] who handles the production chores and does that capably. [Sep 2016, p.94]

Sleepy Eyes is an immediate standout, as is the mellow but life-affirming title song. More playful is the excellent Two And Two Don't Make Five, a kitsch retro-groove spiked with humour and a funky organ solo. [Sep 2016, p.94]

Neville is in wonderful vocal forms ranging through lovely balladry, gospel, doo wop and funk. [Sep 2016, p.95]

The thread that binds is Tyler's enduringly impressive voice. [Sep 2016, p.95]

It could sound outdated, but instead, done with such panache and passion, it's very much alive. [Sep 2016, p.96]

His [Chris Collingwood] Kermit-does-Carole King voice can be too sugary for some, but not for high-spec pop fans. [Sep 2016, p.99]

With self-awareness and personal catharsis equally high on the agenda, everybody's favourite nerdcore veterans may not have grown up just yet, but they've certainly become better at acting their age. [Sep 2016, p.98]

Much of Give A Glimpse has the warm familiarity of a beloved sweater, but none of it sounds rote or autopilot. Mascis might be tending the same patch, but there's fresh flowers sprouting from that soil. [Sep 2016, p.88]

The cumulative effect is effortlessly gorgeous, if a little smoothed out compared to the variety and tension of the last two albums. [Sep 2016, p.96]

It's hard to imagine CRB ever re-inventing the wheel, but boy do they know how to roll. [Sep 2016, p.96]

The more you play it, the better it sounds. [Sep 2016, p.96]

[Manu Chao's] sonic tropes influence more than the three songs he appears on but Rose hasn't been around this long without knowing how to wrest the stage from the men in her music. [Aug 2016, p.94]

The album takes the artist to new territory. [Aug 2016, p.92]

Subversively moving. [Aug 2016, p.94]

Overall these are bold ideas rather than great songs. [Aug 2016, p.91]

Entertaining, at the very least. [Aug 2016, p.93]

She has moved into a more hospitable climate, where multitracking of bass-strung guitar, lap and pedal steel, electric piano and percussion have resulted in a warmer palette, a golden late-sfternoon landscape of long desert shadows. [Aug 2016, p.97]

A record to give reigning empress of dancefloor diversity Roisin Murphy a run for her hard earned. [Jul 2016, p.95]

With its children's choir,s its nods to Tears For Fears circa Songs From The Big Chair, and its Kanye and Kendrick Lamar-inspired production tics, the rest of Ellipsis also brings a fresh twist to Biffy's rampant stop-start riffage. [Aug 2016, p.98]

The result is fittingly breathtaking, a singer destroying his own work, yet creating something more elegiac and profound in the process. [Aug 2016, p.90]

The message songs are delivered from the heart. [Aug 2016, p.95]

Murphy has smartly subverted the dancefloor diva image, and these songs come from the uncanny valley, android beauty not quite hiding their off-centre menace. [Aug 2016, p.98]

Slightly fey at the start, this album gets better as it goes on. [Aug 2016, p.96]

Hit reset is stronger overall, because here The Julie Ruin fixes the spotlight on its raison d'etre, a woman who, in her own words, "can play electric guitar while shaving my legs in a moving car." [Aug 2016, p.94]

Power sings in an emotion-laden, ever-modulating voice that summons the spirits of Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin as readily as Sibylle Baier or Sandy Denny. [Aug 2016, p.93]

Singer-songwriter Ala.ni's debut story of doomed love is a hazy mix of innocence and experience. ... A pearl. [Jul 2016, p.97]

A bloody-nosed hardcore ruckus that makes no bones of its debt to Black Flag's vintage thuggery. [Aug 2016, p.97]

Sublime stuff. [Jul 2016, p.92]

William Bell has forgotten nothing, it seems, least of all how to make wonderful, eternal soul music. [Aug 2016, p.88]

A fascinating pleasure and a 21st century classic-in-waiting. [Aug 2016, p.95]

The sound a minibus of demons might make stuck in a bank holiday A303 tailback. [Aug 2016, p.99]

The Follower places him alongside Caribou as a master of emotional reverie. [Aug 2016, p.99]

Not everything hits the mark. [Aug 2016, p.98]

A tad less confrontational than previous Pita releases but no less powerful. [Aug 2016, p.97]

While this ninth LP retains Plaid's signature style, it also offers far more range than dependable recent outings Reachy Prints or Scintilli. [Aug 2016, p.96]

The intensity of MC Dalek's worldly-wise apocalyptic wordplay on Guaranteed Struggle and Masked Laughter (Nothing's Left) help reinvent their trademark sound without sacrificing its essence. [Aug 2016, p.95]

Drake's genuinely fleet-footed flows and sly humour prevent his pained introspection descending into a cheesy whine fest. [Aug 2016, p.95]

With more hits than misses, Shadow is back in the frame. [Aug 2016, p.95]

Expansive and coherent, yet always subterranean and claustrophobic, this is easily Fearless's finest hour. [Aug 2016, p.94]

Life In The Dark constantly threatens to fall apart at the seams but the Felices miraculously hold their world together, the greatest campfire band imaginable. [Aug 2016, p.93]

Doubtless, it will all sound great in the car. [Aug 2016, p.93]

A challenging listen. But such is Blake's sonic invention and flair for extricating beauty from the murk, it's well worth sticking with. [Aug 2016, p.92]

Locally focused yet state-of-the-nation, in their inventiveness and force such songs as Working Poor, Lost In A Crowd and The Worst defy pessimism, good art in bad times. [Aug 2016, p.92]

The only problem is that her lyrics are sometimes relegated to back-drop status as Jarosz creates an array of enchanting sounds, set against harmonies provided by back-up musicians Jedd Hughes and Luke Reynolds. [Aug 2016, p.92]

There's often been a whiff of contrivance around the Avetts, but by coming of age they come up smelling of roses. [Aug 2016, p.92]

There is a single-minded intensity to the writing and the production which makes The Bride a very strong proposition indeed. [Aug 2016, p.91]

Gorgeous from beginning to end, Luck Or Magic is evenly split between originals and covers. [Aug 2016, p.91]

While outstanding musicianship is guaranteed, it doesn't always go hand in hand with great songwriting, but by its judicious mixing of the avant-garde and smart pop, alt rock and low-slung funk, Patience is always engaging. [Aug 2016, p.90]

The 13 eco-friendly songs from across his career are augmented to varying degrees by nature sounds: rain, thunder, frogs, horses, ducks, crickets, chickens and several critters I can't identify. Sometimes intrusive but they're often atmospheric. [Aug 2016, p.90]

There's some blurring over 17 tracks, but as a whole piece, Freetown Sound is a record with unusually sharp focus. [Aug 2016, p.90]

This album isn't shy, but the jittery electro-pomp and lyrical cleverness can feel off-puttingly arch. [Aug 2016, p.90]

There's more meaty and time-honored blues extractions on the title track and the four-square Zeppelinism of Black Coffee, but somehow, particularly on Fade Out's balladic angular grind, these journeymen lack the emotional oomph to tear your heart out, or, indeed, shake your money maker. [Jul 2016, p.96]

It's the lesser-spotted Mike D and Chan Marshall aka cat Power who snag this troublesomely titled fourth album's crowning moment. [Jul 2016, p.92]

As confident a second statement as you could wish for, full of strong melodies, affecting lyrics, sharp playing, immense arrangements and sympathetic production. [Jun 2016, p.86]

Each piece worms in and stays there. Brice has enhanced the voices of others for too long. Now, her own needs to be heard. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Blood Moon seems like Craft's real start, and one of the most exquisite soul-searching odysseys of this or any year. [Jul 2016, p.93]

The result is confusing, as with any roots artist messing with synths and beats. Even so, when he doing his familiar stark, keening vocal and raw country-blues thing and sentimental lighters-aloft pop, he's still deeply impressive. [Jul 2016, p.92]

These tracks chose to morph and mutate rather than petrify in any sense. [Jul 2016, p.92]

It's audacious, experimental and, unsurprisingly, resists literal interpretation. [Jul 2016, p.94]

Just a tad more quirkiness would be welcome. [Jul 2016, p.92]

This compelling, enlightening aural history gives [lesser-known artists] a worthy platform. [Jun 2016, p.102]

Several of the songs on River are, aptly, long and meandering, passing the ears in a liquid, ungraspable way. You can drift away on it. [Jun 2016, p.104]

Featuring a previously recorded vocal by Davy Jones, who died in 2012, it’s a match for any of their ’60s hit 45s. It also features all four Monkees, the only song of the 13 here to do so. The remainder, penned by the group, musician fans and long time cohorts, feature Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith and for the most part recapture the enchantment of the original group.

Much of Why Are You OK may be lush and beautiful, but there are too many rambling tracks to put it up with Bridwell's best. [Jul 2016, p.95]

Less of a musical therapy session, more of a celebration. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Malody might be uneasy listening but it's as brave as it is completely unexpected. [Jul 2016, p.90]

The 52-minute suite was mostly recorded live, as Ray vamps, beautifully as always, through shivery glades of country blues, girl-group drama and Link Wray throb: this time around, she dwells at the shadowy end of the street, with less room for levity. [Jul 2016, p.93]

Genders' decision to forsake his husky tones for a forthright falsetto immediately adds an unsettling nuance to Throws' twisting tales and burrowing melodies. [Jul 2016, p.93]

This is real chase-the-devil-out revival with Reed's cut-throat scream and bluesy guitar playing pinned to an anything-goes-in-the-name-of-the-spirit backbeat. [Jul 2016, p.90]

Producer Joe Henry complements Toussaint with respectful production and respected guests including Charles Lloyd, Van Dyke Parks and the thrilling trilling of Rhiannon Giddens. [Jul 2016, p.94]

So really, Let The Record Show is a game of two halves, a little jumbled up perhaps, but one in which Rowland ultimately triumphs. [Jun 2016, p.90]

For all its grace and subtlety, this is a vigorous, life-affirming record. [Jul 2016, p.90]

Here they are, refreshed and refocused if not exactly reinvented. [Jul 2016, p.90]

The results are highly accomplished and consistently gorgeous. [Jul 2016, p.92]

With Sing to the Moon, Laura Mvula set a new standard for 21st century soul. With this follow-up, she's raised that standard higher. [Jul 2016, p.89]

It's only when Lennon takes over that the collaboration really works. [Jul 2016, p.94]

Simon's new music sounds inventive, surprising and catchy to boot. [Jul 2016, p.94]

Pierced Arrow's 10 tracks range from strutting, power-chord anthems and barroom boogies to riff-driven shuffles. [Jun 2016, p.91]

Stitched together with a number of spoken word excerpts from the likes of neo-shaman Terence McKenna, it's music rooted in the early UK rave scene. [May 2016, p.91]

Its music whose provenance is the dance floor, but steeped in emotional warmth. [Jul 2016, p.95]

Garbage haven't released an album this immediate, melodically strong and thematically interesting since their self-titled 1995 debut. [Jul 2016, p.91]