Threat levels peak on Sewer Blues' ominous, John Carpenter reverberation. [May 2017, p.98]

They've added anger to their traditional wall of ferocious sleekness built on sizzling guitars and unyielding electronica. [Jul 2021, p.80]

For a man with a suspect hipster mustache and a vast lick of asymmetrical hair, Lewis' music has serious depth. [Dec 2010, p.106]

Head Down sounds highly-charged and fresh. [Dec 2012, p.84]

Spalding's improvised ensemble pieces put pay to the tittle-tattle about jazz being dead. It is very much alive. [Apr 2012, p.90]

Working '80s influences like Sade and Loose Ends into highly textured romantic anthems set in a London town shimmering in high summer. Stacked vocals, keyboards and old-school synths underscore the plentiful solos. [Aug 2025, p.84]

A confident and substantial evolution of their sound. [Apr 2024, p.89]

There's no arguing with Fogerty's singing either - nor his distinctive guitar; part anger, part mad joy, like he's playing mid-Apocalypse. As for the arrangements, they're pretty much can't-believe-it's-not-Creedence. [Sep 2025, p,86]

[Kozelek] has never sounded more inspired, achieving a rich balance of haunting atmosphere and twangy grit. [Feb 2004, p.101]

His innate genius for transforming base building blocks into rhythmically compelling, humanist dance gold shines through. [Aug 2015, p.89]

Spektor delivers everything with such guileless brio that you never notice the join [between troubadour style to chrome-clean hip hop].

The cast of Beautiful fits with unforeseen subtlety. [Nov 2017, p.103]

There's a slow-burning moodiness... together with a new directness. [Mar 2005, p.101]

Rather than slicing the Fleet Foxes cucumber too thin, Poor Man adds a whole new flavour. [Sep 2012, p.86

Jana Horn is a singing magic eye picture somewhere between the scratchy emotional static of early Cat Power and itchy Talk Talk Spirit Of Eden jazz. Unfocus and see. [Feb 2026, p.84]

It's the heartfelt lyrics, however, that will keep you coming back to this album time and time again. [Oct 2014, p.92]

Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi call spirits from the soil with enough power to trouble the Richter scale. [Feb 2019, p.91]

Here the formula is still fresh and potent, with punchy production, twisting song structures and sweeping choruses. [Feb 2017, p.96]

It possesses a charm and innocence that's genuinely disarming. [Oct 2023, p.88]

With Fate, Dr. Dog have begun to deliever the sort of super-confident songs that, up until now, have proved frustratingly out of reach. [Sep 2008, p.108]

The Stockholm group return; their cement veneer hiding a riptide of emotions. [Dec. 2010, p. 100]

He manages to retain every essential element of blues tradition, sounding as basic as Hooker, yet at the same time probes ever forward into areas previously unexplored. [Sep 2009, p.96]

Crain has always been good, but on A Small Death she's genuinely great. [Aug 2020, p.92]

What might be a bleak set of songs about fragile ecosystems and unsustainable lives is saved from desperation by the warmth of the instrumentation – strings, synths, piano – and the watchful humanity of the lyrics. [May 2024, p.84]

Haggard's now 73 and I Am What I Am is as good as anything he has ever done. [June 2010, p. 94]

One could argue the 68 tracks of live Material and multiple versions of certain songs - five of Heathen opener Sunday, for example - might be overkill. .... The exclusive four-disc Live At Montreux Jazz Festival, recorded on July 18, 2002, has a weak sleeve, but the music is blistering. [Nov 2025, p.100]

John's piano at the Festival Hall brought a stentorian new dimension to a sped-up Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) and the demos offer the sense of a band working out how to get the best from John's freewheeling melodies. In the end, they turned out to be just what was required. [May 2023, p.101]

The occasional slo-mo reverb-guitar twang, and on The Answers To The Questions a weary beatbox, cap off a supremely unsettling update on Lynchian pop weirdness. [Sep 2024, p.92]

The fistful of Memento Mori tracks - especially the slow building Speak To Me - confirm what a strong, brooding album it was, but they're rattled off early in the set, leaving a glorious cavalcade of (mostly) hits for the second half. [Feb 2026, p.81]

Mraz is an entertaining smartass. [Feb 2006, p.98]

[An] accomplished compilation. [Oct 2012, p.100]

King Of A Land is an elegant, warmly orchestrated work. [Jul 2023, p.89]

The title track and Singularity speak of a trajectory where AI gives a final push to an already cannibalistic pop culture. But this thesis is spiced with joyous synthesis. [Jul 2026, p.91]

Cooder has history in his brain, veins and fingertips as well as a gift for sound collage. [Nov 2014, p.109]

This time Baird's own compositions dominate. [Nov 2011, p.100]

Its sure-footed '60 psych, garage and country is potently rendered. [Aug 2022, p.89]

'Of Raymond' one exquisite lick of brass sends out enough light to illuminate the whole record. [Nov 2008, p.106]

It is his most facinating, and bewildering, record to date. [Jan 2008, p.104]

The best tracks see the pair sparring over hymnal slow-burners that feature contributions from Neil Young, Brian Wilson, and Booker T. [Dec 2010, p.108]

The Manticore Tapes constitute an alternative history showing just how potent early Motörhead really were. [Aug 2025, p.92]

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]

They still sing some parts in unison, but here their voices are arranged more imaginatively. [May 2014, p.89]

Regardless of these felicitous connections, however, Hoop remains her own invention and the appeal of her biographical details doesn't lie so much in the glitzy endorsement of Waits as in the fact they chime so perfectly with her melding of Kat Bush sensuality and Mary Poppins whimsy. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

A ghosts' convention set to music. [Nov 2003, p.130]

This has wit in spades, an irrepressible love of language and genuine originality. [Oct 2004, p.110]

The six lengthy meditations here refine the formula. [Jan 2023, p.84]

Fluttering, arpeggiated melodies, ice-crisp percussion and muscular beats mean tracks like Ya Po kick hard and linger long on the palette. [May 2014, p.93]

It's astonishing how, despite his 32 instrumental credits and 20 guests, it still sounds dustbowl-empty, as if these were missives from The Great Depression, time-wise and spiritually. [Aug 2015, p.93]

Blending gargantuan, rack-stretched riffs with corrupted kosmische synth drones, spectral vocals and unyielding, relentless drums, the alchemical result [Oro: Opus Primus] is the heaviest form of psyche-doom space rock. [Jul 2012, p.85]

Chris is an imposing structure, one likely to dominate 2018's skyline. There are, however, still heights left to hit. [Oct 2018, p.89]

Profligate, self-indulgent and, against all oddly, hugely satisfying. ... [The single-disc] Sampler Edition is a handy 58-minute entry point to the mad endeavour. [Dec 2019, p.90]

Onstage his confidence was sky-high, his command total, much as it was in the studio. [Dec 2016, p.105]

The band's most persuasive album. [Feb 2006, p.92]

All this ambitioin coagulates into an irresistible, tumbling, tune-filled whole. [Dec 2006, p.118]

Throughout, Susman's serene croon delivers tantalising oblique images - "We'll talk a different language eventually/Shape every disaster carefully" (Mediocre Demon) - which add more layers to an already rich hue. [May 2026, p.88]

That he is reunited with producer Mitchell Froom only partly accounts for the likeness this album shares with his '90s work. [Jun 2006, p.111]

Throughout, frontman Stuart Murdoch's succinct dramas are typically populated by vulnerable dreamers and seekers, some still Young And Stupid (the opening track), others a reflection of how his Christian beliefs embrace the tenets of Buddhism. [Jun 2022, p.87]

Seesawing between pristine songcraft and experimentalism makes for a diverse, satisfying whole. [Apr 2021, p.94]

Connoisseurs of punk's darker corners and post-punk's experimental extremes will have their socks rocked off, totally. [Apr 2007, p.108]

Strange's earnestness is artful, and Farm To Table an uplifting triumph. [Jul 2022, p.88]

[A] luscious layercake of flange and Echoplex. [Jan 2013, p.90]

It's a dream, this pop. [Nov 2011, p.100]

Literate, thoughtful and rhythmic, and with Sullivan unveiling a rich baritone croon, Between Dog And Wolf marks something of a late-in-the-day career high. [Sep 2013, p.88]

Cocoa Sugar is an audacious high-wire act which captures them at a potent peak. [Apr 2018, p.91]

Though the lyrics sometimes explore the US's increasingly polarised political allegiances, Leithauser's passionate optimism and the record's grooving drums keeps our spirits up until mesmeric guitar arpeggios usher in the beautifully pensive title track/closer. [Apr 2025, p.79]

TKO raps over vignettes with sonic left turns. His style sneaks in social comment. [Oct 2022, p.92]

Rocky bests every beat thrown at him. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Her lovely nuanced voice is fully spotlit amid the passions of both Stay and Better Off, showcasing a remarkable new talent. [Jun 2017, p.90]

It's bracing, intense stuff, though the bleak wit that runs through Morris's proclamations and Dimitri Coats' brawny riffage ensures the earache is addictive. [Dec 2022, p.90]

This is an adventurous, joyful album from a major talent. [Aug 2009, p.98]

F&M hit peak funkiness on this fat-free blend of Krautrock pulses and pop melodies. [Nov 2022, p.94]

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.

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

Even with zero knowledge of what is going on lyrically, these songs are often beautifully evocative. [Oct 2025, p.85]

Mostly, a terrific piece of work. [Nov 2003, p.120]

The album's abstemious drums help the untethered material breathe, and on point contributions include Lisa Hannigan, and fellow voyager Daniel Lanois, whose sombre instrumental opener Prelude To Song primes us for gravitas-laden songs of loss, warning, transformation and stoicism. [Mar 2023, p.92]

It's brevity, meanwhile, ensures this sweetly, powerful group don't wear out their welcome. [Aug 2015, p.93]

The surface of Another One is pure pleasure; underneath, it's not quite so easy. [Sep 2015, p.90]

There's a wit, charisma and individuality at play that lends teeth to Rilo Kiley's tasteful alt country/indie-rock sound. [Mar 2005, p.104]

A succinct record about wisdom accrued through adversity, its layered arrangements packing subtle psych tropes and world-weary vocal-harmony. [Aug 2024, p.88]

Green sounds in his element. [Apr 2005, p.100]

What makes this combined reckoning of Brian's last, fully-engaged studio albums for The Beach Boys, with all of their peaks and flaws, such an enlightening, unexpected pleasure is the chance to hear the earnest dedication and breadth of inspiration in this brief window of renewal, long obscured by false promo and Brian's ongoing trials. [Apr 2026, p.96]

A richly detailed synth-pop LP of admirable sophistication. [Jul 2023, p.82]

Dream On is packed with heartbreak, yet has a deft pop instinct too, courtesy of producer Patrik Berger. [Feb 2020, p.94]

Warbling soul, classical lieder, No Other's stage-musical rapture, the title track's echo of Copeland's 1986 New-Age-synth album Keyboard Fantasies - all united by his seemingly unshakeable belief in humanity. [Aug 2023, p.84]

Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! feels simultaneously enormous and tragic; the sound of victory, firmly set in the jaws of defeat. [Jan 2013, p.91]

The new focus on these songs' lyrics proves deeply powerful, a different and profound kind of high. Consequently, The Dark Side OF The Moon Redux is wholly valid, the unnerving, stirring adjunct Waters was aiming for. [Nov 2023, p.87]

It all shines a light on Cash's enduring artistry. [May 2018, p.94]

For it's pop smarts, Ten Love Songs feels like Sundfor's international breakthrough. But it's everything else--the disquieting atmosphere, her voice, the sinuous, haunting melodies it carries--which sets it apart. [Mar 2015, p.93]

The album is saturated with heartbreak and bad decisions, perfectly decked in country-politan arrangements. [May 2019, p.87]

Bristling with hooks, this thoroughly enjoyable set deserves to be spilling out of open windows wherever it's summer. [Sep 2021, p.81]

The Triad's twinkly elegance is packed with rich detail that greatly rewards deeper investigation. [Jun 2016, p.96]

A darker set altogether, through more direct than its predecessor, Forget The Night Ahead manages to marry both crushing noise and sparse elegance. [Nov 2009, p.100]

It's a wonderful listen, and the joy in creation that is obvious in these 15 tracks, is nearly enough to wipe out the sadness of his loss. Nearly. [Aug 2019, p.102]

Daytona stands loud and proud among Pusha T's best work. [Aug 2018, p.91]

All the elements which made its predecessor so great are here, but in excelsis, and occasionally excess. [Sep 2002, p.95]

There's an artful intricacy to her lo-fi pop. [Aug 2019, p.92]

Instinctual, fully lived-in record, it touches and thrills. [Nov 2021, p.93]