Closure, and then some. [Jan 2017, p.101]

Album four reverts to their initial template of hyper-melodic, lyrically skewed, synth-pop. ... Back on form. [Apr 2018, p.87]

This 18th LP is their finest since '90's Painkiller. [Apr 2018, p.96]

Keith's surreal wordplay has one leg planted firmly in the future, ensuring Dr. Octagon is still one of a kind. [Jun 2018, p.96]

The album has its own voice. [Jul 2018, p.95]

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

It's always good when, after 30 years as a music critic, the hairs on your arms stand on end. [Sep 2018, p.89]

Enter a floating world of the surreal, of gently uneasy listening, warped strings and distorted brass, as if Chris Montez led an Indian mariachi band. [Aug 2019, p.93]

O'Hagan has taken apart what he's known for and put it back together in an entirely fresh ways. [Jan 2020, p.89]

Spotlights the songs' grit and humanity, albeit still substantially finessed by mixmaster Bob Clearmountain. [Jan 2020, p.90]

The sum total of this umpteenth solo long-player in 40 years is that the prodigious and progressive Landreth is his own man - a futuristic traditionalist. It's time that wider audiences took notice. [Apr 2020, p.88]

Some of his best songs yet. [Mar 2020, p.88]

Only a droll stab at Dueling Banjos shades into the hokeyness that could've cursed the entire project. [Jun 2020, p.95]

Reality Tunnels finds the Bristolian beat-master reaffirming known skills while cultivating fresh ones. [Aug 2020, p.87]

It's early days yet, but Fenne Lily might just be a major talent in the making. [Oct 2020, p.89]

Travis remain curiously unrevered, but 10 Songs is fine work nonetheless. [Nov 2020, p.86]

KG is no mere retread of the earlier album, Stu Mackenzie's custom-built electric baglama leading him in unexpected directions. [Jan 2021, p.86]

It's exactly what you'd expect, but in a good way. [Feb 2021, p.83]

Some of the vocals sound like first takes, which gives them an honesty (maybe a bit too honest on opening track In the Summertime). But from here on, it's just lovely. [Aug 2021, p.82]

Music best experienced as the sun drops below the horizon. [Nov 2021, p.91]

Musca is far more than filler. Opening with the crunching sweep of two Doors, Herbert sets sail on a (wonky-ish) 4/4 course. Hypnotised is moody, throbbing house with a UK garage skip. [Nov 2021, p.91]

At its best, it harkens to long-lost, dense-sounding riff grinders such as Breaking Circus or Earth, but there's light as well as shade too and Broken Sugar positively twinkles. [Jun 2022, p.87]

Barnes's first outing in seven years offers a timely blast of healing positivity, all but impossible to resist. [Jan 2023, p.84]

Another Day To heal opens encouragingly. ... Midway through, La La Land derails, as Queen Of Spaces errs into forlorn folky picking, while Slowly On The Wheel opens with one-finger piano and voice. The Chugging Face Eraser and Baba O'Riley-ish Pockets pulls things together. [Feb 2023, p.84]

A blend of well-crafted original material alongside several covers. [Mar 2023, p.89]

Her lovers rock take of Patsy Cline's Walking After Midnight further strengthens reggae and country's fine romance, and who could have predicted that Morrissey's Everyday Is Like Sunday would sound like an out-take from the Special AKA's IN the Studio when reworked as rocksteady with woozy horns? [Jul 2023, p.82]

Beneath the Day-Glo surface, Chemtrails rage away. [Jan 2024, p.89]

This is his finest collection of melodies yet, reflecting candour, tenderness and pthos with no bare polemic to disrupt the intimate tone. [Jun 2024, p.89]

There’s nothing here to startle, just further confirmation that Cantrell remains a force to be reckoned with. [Dec 2024, p.84]

Full Moon thunders on near-relentless sub-bass (Mntanami, about her absentee father) and post-dancehall Amapiano beats, with interludes of wishy-washy synthy vulnerability - a serviceable backdrop upon which this irresistibly raunchy personality reliably shines. [Feb 2025, p.88]

An album for banjo/fiddle fans and music history buffs. [May 2025, p.84]

That confiding voice retains its hushed intimacy throughout but there's a lack of the soaring melodies that distinguish her recent collaborations with Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. [Aug 2025, p.76]

New radiations is not without moments of ponderous stasis. Nadler still shines as a spell-weaver and mistress of moods, though. [Sep 2025, p.79]

A delightful collection of woozy, folk-tinged, hallucinogenic pop. [Sep 2025, p.83]

Jolting with energy and pitch-black humour, Stardust is a sonic pink'n'mix that finds Brown firmly relocating his psychedelic wildness. [Jan 2026, p.87]

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]

Seductive and meditative. [Jun 2026, p.93]

If dark forces are gathering, her songs do not lack an icy beauty. [Jun 2026, p.90]

These are certainly boss songs – Easter Lily feels like the strongest collection of material U2 have mustered in at least 20 years.

The touchstones - Julee Cruise, Kate Bush, The Blue Nile - are more classic than experimental but the heartbreaking emotions remain utterly real. [Jun 2026, p.88]

Maverick pop genius soon reveals itself. [Dec 2014, p.96]

Meredith's precision helps control the fun, but this is another buoyant invention from her musical lab. [Dec 2019, p.95]

This cleaner-sounding set finds the quartet's elemental power now yielding to poise, thier speaker-bleeding blues and jagged riffs leavened by folk shimmer and country jangle. [Mar 2009, p.110]

It's an intriguing new incarnation for Bauer: Om and pop. [Jul 2014, p.88]

The winning formula could hold Chvrches back from breaking new ground. [Oct 2015, p.90]

Certainly, these times demand an earnest folk-punk poet of the poeple, but Turner's tracts are a little too woolly to truly connect. [July 2011, p. 105]

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

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

Cheeky, but delightful. [Apr 2009, p.106]

Mogwai [parlays] the hoary quiet/loud arrangement dialectic into a thing of immersive, undeniably affecting potency. [May 2016, p.89]

The whole record's buzzy, hat-wearingly trendy; but also irresistible, and almost boundlessly exciting. [July 2008, p.104]

Un Dia is if anything, even more challenging, a set of songs that demand interpretation even as they beautifully defy it. [Nov 2008, p.106]

Punchy, seductive, surreal. [Jul 2014, p.92]

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]

Sweet, but you couldn't eat a whole one. [Aug 2018, p.96]

A clear-voiced statement of pop intent. [Apr 2013, p.97]

Irma and producer Scott Billington have devised the perfect setting. [Sep 2008, p.1000]

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

In Amber goes the whole hog. ... Frequently beautiful and occasionally offers succour. [Jul 2022, p.90]

[It] sees their "spooky American music" get creepier still. [Apr 2007, p.97]

This album is a beauty. [Nov 2018, p.93]

It's Shabason's sax that endures; pensive and humane, even when assailed by glitches. [Dec 2018, p.92]

Alex Menne's Dolores O'Riordan-ish yodel still dominates and can overwhelm the songs, but Big Thief fans should take note. [Dec 2019, p.96]

In the best sense, she ticks boxes. With a slightly kooky voice, the bravery to unconventionally strip things down (the acoustic Dark is propelled by drums), a winning way with a hook (Missing Out swings) and a turn of phrase which veers from acerbic ("She says 'I might be a genius'/Well, she could be a model...") to lovelorn ("I want you to come over/So I can lay in your lap"). [Jul 2024, p.86]

The tune count is down and it's sometimes a little too Mr. Motivator, but these sonic smiles can still be infectious. [Oct 2007, p.106]

The almost tangible sonic richness, like much here, redolent less of lyrical conservatoire pianism and more of a twitching avant-chamber orchestra co-conducted by Basil Kirchin and Harry Patch. [Apr 2014, p.95]

The pair's debut creates an inviting somnambulant soundworld. [Jan 2021, p.85]

Cameos by Vampire Wekend's Ezra Keonig and Tamil rapper M.I.A. add to a joyous but knowing smorgasbord that will play equally well in a Lilongwe disco or Shoreditch/Brooklyn trend hole. [Oct 2009, p.107]

A set of busy beautiful whispers, 62 minutes of exquisite suspended animation. [Apr 2003, p.87]

Charms on the surface yet stays in the memory. [Oct 2002, p.108]

Part of a singular lineage of deceptively amiable and peculiarly British music that reaches back from Supergrass to Madness and Squeeze. [Nov 2002, p.102]

A slow-burning cracker. [Apr 2006, p.101]

Thanks to The Roots, Costello has new access--and Wise Up Ghost should bring new listeners to mess with. [Oct 2013, p.94]

They sound in rude health to me. [Aug 2018, p.96]

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]

Slick's shuddering electro, 808 handclaps and foundation-bothering Miami bass drops go to work on your endorphin levels and display astute songcraft. [Mar 2010, p.100]

The first half of this Bristol-based quartet's debut is too idolatrous, but the second plunges into deeper cavernous spaces. [Apr 2015, p.89]

The slightly muted beats across Record suggest the memory of good times, but the joyous flash of self-recognition on Dancefloor shows they are far from over. [Apr 2018, p.95]

The most coherent album Gelb has produced in some years, up there with the best of his considerable canon. [Apr 2019, p.92]

If the arrangements and performances are as good as retro-rock gets--with veteran drummer Gene Chrisman and keyboard player Bobby Wood among Auerbach's American Sound Studio band they would hardly be otherwise--the lyrics seldom boast a single sentiment or turn of phrase which isn't threadbare. Otherwise, never a dull moment. [Feb 2020, p.92]

Svelte, mostly acoustic collection is so refreshing. [May 2020, p.94]

Their template of new music plus archival spoken word is revitalised here, with Earhart’s writing voiced anew by actor Kate Graham. Towards The Dream is guitar-twanging exhilaration. [Nov 2024, p.84]

Strange Life warrants recognition, Stein and co's passion undimmed. [Mar 2026, p.80]

The results are melodic, gently atmospheric indie rock that often fits the neo-shoegaze paradigm. [Sept. 2011, p. 101]

Williamson outlines her personal mythology; as a lover, a daughter and, by the closing Piano Love, a future mother, via songs sung in a resonant, often Patti Smith-like voice, over a heat haze backing of Rhodes piano and guitar. [Jul 2018, p.90]

The revivified Bush Tetras prove No Wave's not dead. [Sep 2023, p.86]

Over 12 mostly blueprint-hugging songs returns diminish, but scuzzy beat-box disco outrider What Did I Ever To You is great. [Sep 2023, p.86]

A sprawling and lengthy affair, this album rarely falters. [June 2010, p. 98]

Sixteen short, sharp blasts of garage pop, Castlemania addles Dwyer's catchy, wryly dippy ditties with mind-melding mellotron blasts and acid-fried clarinet and flute additions. [Aug. 2011, p. 96]

The combination... works just fine. [Oct 2005, p.114]

For all the grey matter on display, this is a Technicolor record. [Jul 2013, p.94]

With swaying synths, popping drums, synth melodies and wistful lyrics, it's Depeche Mode for the juicing era. [Dec 2019, p.96]

No Fixed Point In Space is as on point as it is off grid. [Nov 2023, p.92]

Humour saves the Liars. [Sep 2002, p.110]

Having grown in style and confidence with each album and displayed a flair for charting life's ever-changing weather patterns, here they do so with real, deeply-lived insight and dazzling pop expertise. [May 2021, p.82]

There's precious little subtlety, but plenty of brutish hooks. [Jun 2021, p.88]

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

The lovely Jaakko Eino Kalevi, the most coherent album so far from the former Helsinki tram driver, is a gem.