An eerily oneiric album of light, space and silence. [Jun 2007, p.100]

Sea Of Mirrors stands up without the set dressing. It ends with a brief reprise of the opening track, gently lighting the aisles to the exits; you might well find yourself staying put in the dark, ready to let it run back to the start and play out again. [Oct 2023, p.76]

It gives all sorts of instrumentation the confidence to surprise us. [Nov 2011, p.102]

The Ohio duo's mastery of the unmathematical Hill Country style oozes here from every groove. [Jun 2021, p.87]

Jones manages to transform these sad notes of memoir into glistening maps for moving forward. There is an optimism and experimentation in Jones's playing that is simultaneously uplifting and beguiling. [Aug 2022, p.90]

Electric Dirt, as implied, is a continuation of "Dirt Farmer's" themes, packing a sharper jolt. [Jul 2009, p.94]

The constant, keenig purity of Ohiona Molina's vocals save all this from becoming too relentlessly dispiriting. [Aug 2009, p.104

Middleton here surely approaches full brilliance. [July 2009, p.96]

It's all imbued with such unhinged energy and genre-skipping abandon that Warmduscher collectively concoct some weird pop voodoo, perhaps best heard on the swampy bastard blues of the title track. [Jul 2018, p.96]

Hendra might deal with life's compromises, but there's no disappointment here. [May 2014, p.92]

His own music finally snaps into focus: gone, the scrappy garage/glam, in favour of sophisticated singer-songwriterly pop constructed around acoustic guitar, strings, extravagantly multi-tracked vocal harmonies and consistent tunes. [Mar 2023, p.86]

Few bands can make desperation sound so all embracing and enticing. [Jun 2004, p.111]

If rock'n'roll is supposed to be dying, then these are exactly the guys we want manning the emergency room. [Aug 2001, p.98]

Something of a sonic lucky dip, these 20 short, super buzzy impregnably titled tracks often switch beats or cut-off abruptly, underlying its rule-breaking creator's rookie confidence. [Oct 2020, p.93]

[Grian] Chatten’s role feels ever more pivotal. His voice now has multiple personae, notably a Jeff Buckley doppelgänger on Romance’s upper register peals. His lyrical flow, meanwhile, makes pretty much every song an event. [Sep 2024, p.82]

Pulsing, hazy, addictive. [Nov 2017, p.100]

[Snaith] continues to explore a digital/analogue interface to mind-bending effect, balancing riotous abstraction with day-glo pop. [Jun 2005, p.97]

Much of Everything Was Beautiful has a vital, thundering pulse. ... Utterly beautiful, as advertised. [Mar 2022, p.80]

It's an immersive, and inevitably cinematic, ambient gem. [Oct 2011, p.105]

This is a hugely enjoyable landmark release. [Jan 2018, p.103]

A series of melodic sunset tales in which the bright light of Moore's piano is shaded and scattered by the dusk notes of his accompanists. [Nov 2014, p.99]

The years have proven that the deceptive simplicity of their music only increases its potency, working hand-in-hand with their long commitment to the healing powers of brotherhood and melody.

The 13 numbers they've chosen are sung with respect and restraint. And beautifully. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Scintillating electronics that line-up nicely with the space pulsations of Terry Riley, Cluster, or 9coincidence?) Matthew Bower's Sunroof! [Jul 2021, p.90]

Lucinda Williams has labelled Regan "his generation's answer to Bob Dylan," and on this evidence, that doesn't feel like hyperbole. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Eliot's songwriting, always more Jacques Brel than Jam, has palpably matured. [Jun 2025, p.84]

If the spirit of punk and the brawn of US hardcore is to be found anywhere today then it is in this, the third dazzling full-length album by The Bronx. [Jan 2008, p.110]

On a couple of tracks here he feels the need to introduce some lame house beats and equally passe drum'n'bass, which is a shame because the rest of the time he creates a vocabulary that's utterly his own. [Jun 2003, p.100]

It all amounts to Primal Scream's most satisfying album since Screamadelica, with something akin to maturity joining the still-vital urge to make transcendent noise. [Jun 2013, p.82]

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

Coates uses an eccentric blend of rich strings and muffled hardcore rhythms that are seductive, haunting and deliciously weird. [Oct 2018, p.87]

This album again showcases Marshall's exceptional ability to burrow right into the marrow of a song. [Feb 2022, p.82]

There's no great leap forward here but the spring in their step is unmistakeable. [Sep 2013, p.87]

Evan Brettin's sometimes self-conscious production affectations cannot obscure a thoroughly lovely psych-pop album. [Nov 2015, p.88]

A deceptively simple set of songs that manage to explore his Southern roots while sounding as if they've always been around. [May 2026, p.84]

[These 14 jazz-pop miniatures offset whimsical structures and playful flaws with sharp hooks. [Dec 2024, p.94]

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

The deliciously daft Litter Love, all skronky synth and cavernous twang guitar, Stoltz comes on like The Wombles' nemesis--and dishes enough pop suss to brighten Mike Batt's eyes. Fans of Kelley's wonky back-pages gem You're Out Of This World will also lap-up Wobbly. [Dec 2015, p.89]

Her insinuation of millennial angst-pop into pre-millennial alt-rock is so deft and affecting that Sometimes, Forever rewards the investment. Soccer Mommy feels like the real deal, [Jul 2022, p.92]

While not as revelatory as 1995's Live At The BBC, On Air is a very enjoyable collection. [Dec 2013, p.98]

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

It is her most intense, but perhaps also her most pleasurable excursion yet. [Jan 2008, p.104]

An exquisitely recorded, enjoyably messy affair. [Nov 2011, p.102]

A wonderfully upbeat, Sherwood-produced comeback. [Nov 2023, p.89]

These songs have a sharp, glittery edge, like a neat tequila slammer. [Apr 2019, p.92]

Heartmind is unlikely to break him out of the smoked-glass shell of cultdom. ... Yet this album does display notable lushness. ... It proves McCombs doesn't need any dream machine to induce new visions: 10 albums in, he's more than capable of looking at the world differently all by himself. [Sep 2022, p.84]

[Laurenz's] supple grooves energise their quixotic synth patterns and intricate guitar-scree, ensuring this wordless yet dramatic debut triangulates the oft-dweebish worlds of electronica, no wave and retro sci-fi with a funky red-blooded brio. [Sep 2008, p.106]

Riotous takedown of eco-hypocrisy and corporate greenwashing to the accompaniment of rhythms so wildly exuberant they could rearrange loins. [Aug 2021, p.89]

The lack of drums adds extra intimacy to four gently rising and falling Lloyd originals. ... Understatement is Ocean's greatest strength. [Nov 2022, p.84]

It may make for a rollercoaster musical ride, but it's utterly thrilling. [Mar 2024, p.88]

This is fresh, contemporary American music and Dion's throat is still golden despite the mileage. [Aug 2020, p.91

Blom hits all the alt-rock pleasure centres. [Jul 2019, p.96]

This is jazz in its loosest, least bridled sense, blurred to shimmering, impressionistic effect. [Aug 2020, p.91]

Waterhouse's 2012 debut, Time's All Gone, combined strong songwriting with an impressive, hard-voiced approach, and this follow-up does the same again. [May 2014, p.94]

The pace occasionally saunters, but this is an ultimately positive exercise in the group's titular "reflection and response." [Aug 2018, p.95]

Hard Rain's warm, overriding lo-fi aesthetic is a neat contrast to the no-nonsense virtuosity of his group outings. [Jul 2019, p.89]

Here and elsewhere, Vampire Weekend's growing self-assurance serves the needs of the song without playing to their perceived strengths. [Jun 2013, p.84]

Baffling excursions into exotica also make Fantasy Island different enough to reignite their "wow" factor. [Nov 2021, p.91]

Bold, colorful creations. Surf is most definitely up. [Jan 2012, p.93]

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

The devil's in the details, be it the drum machine patterns that propel Church or the lush pedal-augmented textures of Medieval, while the instrumentals that open and close the album aren't simple throwaways but highlights. [Sep 2015, p.86]

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

Whitmore's sparse new songs brilliantly realised. [Oct 2011, p.105]

It plays to all their debut's moody, elegant, widescreen strengths while illustrating the changes since. [Sep 2012, p.86]

Forsyth's emotional power is entirely here and now. [Feb 2020, p.88]

Still crossing the many rivers of doubt, hope and despair that have faced him since his American Music Club days, Mark Eitzel's tenth solo album can nonetheless throw out surprises. [Feb 2017, p.96]

Without making concessions, she's delivered her most accessible album yet, perhaps even her best. [Jun 2022, p.84]

No one could have predicted Endless Wire would be quite this good. [Nov 2006, p.98]

Songs that any liberal-minded Cat Stevens fan will adore. [Dec 2006, p.120]

Nu-riot grrrls who may well be doing it better than anyone since Bikini Kill. [Feb 2025, p.91]

If Guthrie sometimes plods wearily, betweenwhiles you get a hot stew of the laconic anger and irony that inspired the Seeger-Dylan-Springsteen-Bragg-and-beyond heritage. [Dec 2013, p.101]

It just sounds so good. Warm and natural. And Earle's voice has rarely sounded better. [Aug 2022, p.91]

She delivers twisted, nostalgic jazz, flanked by her Spanish husband's eerie Portuguese guitar.... Lovely. [Mar 2016, p.98]

An album of humming, depthless power. [Nov 2011, p.102]

Tight Knit is a beautiful, lazy album of befogged West Coast dreams. [Apr 2009, p.107]

It began with 2013's minimalist Blindspot, harrowing on lost love; moved into 2014's Distance, trying to accept things; and here's reflection. [Jun 2016, p.94]

There are startling moments: the title track’s D&D blues-rock, for example, The Groundhogs doing The Tempest in a nasty basement; or Juvenile’s ice-rink keyboards, McCombs ennobling and mocking adolescence (“You suck/I suck/Primus sucks”). Other songs, though, creep up more subtly, such as Miss Mabee’s Elliott Smith hush, or Peace’s heartbreaking Go-Betweens valediction. [Sep 2025, p.80]

Captures Radiohead during their majestic 2000s, delivering muscular, meticulously detailed material to an audience eager for rousing, off killer anthems (There, There) and piano-led laments (We Suck Young Blood) alike. [Nov 2025, p.101]

Another strong set. [Oct 2018, p.94]

If the likes of 154-era Wire, early Cure and New Order appeal, this is for you. [Oct 2004, p.101]

Further enriched by the palate of Fratti’s cello and Tosta’s brass, Sentir… is an extraordinarily possessed, uncanny world of its own. [Aug 2024, p.83]

Fox spins electro-acoustic polyrhythmic patterns and grooves of a deep-space spirituality. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Here, the 36 unreleased tracks (albeit including alternate or instrumental versions of the LP cuts) highlight the outside influences that each brought to the table. [Sep 2024, p.96]

Thirty-five albums in, incredibly, GBV are still scaling new heights. [Apr 2022, p.80]

Ron Mael's lyrics are elegiac, witty and forensically detailed; Russel Mael delivers them exquisitely and they specialise in ear worms. [Jul 2023, p.82]

Like Eddi Reader's Sings the Songs Of Robert Burns, this is bard bigging-up of note. [Oct 2011, p.97]

[They] stand apart, wedding guitar-free sounds to refreshingly vulnerable sentiment. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Free Nationals' blissed-out, woozy slow-jams make for a low-key triumph. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Across the ensuing 85 minutes there are sufficient six-string pyrotechnics, pop hooks and lyrical urgencies to shame an artist a third his age. [Jan 2019, p.88]

Eternal Hand, Dream Of Mine and the love-up, XTC-flavoured relish The Possibility honour the band's history and mystery. [Apr 2026, p.86]

As with Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, we're dealing with an invigorating, many-faceted work of diverse instrumentation and durability. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Despite the classical milieu, this is very much Metheny music. [Apr 2021, p.87]

Tuneful ’60s folk-rockers Lucky #8 and Mary Miracle raise the tempo while closer Fractal Canyon is a joyful epiphany of redemption. [Feb 2025, p.84]

Let's Stay Friends is a triumphant fusion of graft and glimmer. [Nov 2007, p.96]

From Clapton to cosmic rock, Afro-pop and experimenting with dizzying ease. [Oct 2012, p.96]

Profound? Hardly. Fun? Indubitably. [Jan 2013, p.93]

Baxter Dury blossomed on 2017's Prince Of Tears. ... This sixth solo outing explores further that album's blend of mechanical funk and luxuriant orchestration of female-sung choruses and character monologues. [Apr 2020, p.86]

In short, genial, infectious guitar pop like they used to make. [Feb 2008, p.102]