Overall, it’s a robust, if somewhat exhausting, showing.

A powerful introduction to a compelling artistic presence. [Apr 2015, p.92]

The songs on All These Dreams luxuriate in their arrangements, swept along by gossamer strings, and silky backing vocals. [Apr 2015, p.92]

The overall vibe here us one of relaxation rather than tension. [Apr 2015, p.93]

Rich in sonic detail à la ’90s Outkast, ’00s Roots and present day Flying Lotus (whose fluid bassist Thundercat performs another star turn), Lamar undercuts his densely layered messages with acerbic ruminations on his newfound celebrity status that may prove polarising, but are never less than enthralling.

Bouquets from a Cloudy Sky is a fitting celebration of a band that, 50 years after the release of their debut, remain utterly unrepentant. [Mar 2015, p.107]

Tantalizing use of spare and mostly intelligible, always unsettling lyrics. [Apr 2015, p.98]

You can file the seven bonus alternative mixes under "interesting" rather than "essential," but the sheer magnificence of the rest remains undiminished. [Apr 2015, p.108]

There's a warmth to his rich, brown sugar baritone in stark contrast to the sharp shapes made by his keening, post-punk guitar. [Apr 2015, p.98]

McPherson puts authenticity over self-expression with style. [Apr 2015, p.96]

Even if consistency isn't their bag, Pond have genius at their fingertips. [Apr 2015, p.96]

The results are largely persuasive. [Apr 2015, p.96]

Joyland has a coherent feel of low slung rock'n'roll and Morricone twang. [Apr 2015, p.96]

His solo debut is packed with syntax-mangling wordplay. [Apr 2015, p.95]

The melding of the Bristolian mixmasters' complementary styles is a low-end treat. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Raw and skiffly as you'd expect. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Trad-indie may be flailing but Barat's belief is persuasive. [Apr 2015, p.92]

Finally, a grown-up album from the oldest kid at the party. [Apr 2015, p.92]

The material is faultless. [Apr 2015, p.92]

Adrift in a sun-warped dome of guitar wah, wobble and dub. [Apr 2015, p.89]

Badwan and Zeffira have done him [director Peter Strickland] proud. [Apr 2015, p.89]

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]

More than the sum of its parts, the whole is wonderfully fresh and quite lovely. [Apr 2015, p.89]

Despite their meticulous craft, these songs don't feel like curated artefacts--they feel raw, unquiet, still moving. Vulnicura might tell an old story, but it still feels new. [Apr 2015, p.87]

This fourth album's a gas. [Apr 2015, p.86]

Both otherworldly and intensely human, it's hard to resist THEESatisfaction's singular charms. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Pleasing, odd. [Apr 2015, p.98]

It's quite a departure from their trademark psychedelia. [Apr 2015, p.98]

The current group are concentrated, powerful, more subtle than in recent times but can sound a bit tidy and foursquare. [Apr 2015, p.96]

The swell and squall lets up just once, on the transcendental In A Cloud, but it's in the moments of pure sonic abandon, like Wilding, that the group truly find themselves. [Apr 2015, p.95]

A gloriously nuanced embellishment of the band's timeless virtue. [Apr 2015, p.91]

This brittle, torrid world has little light and shade. [Apr 2015, p.89]

This is impressive, soul-bearing torch-pop, yet despite some bravura vocal performances, Almond's typically declamatory delivery at times, feels rather awkwardly appended to the airlessly slick soundscapes. [Apr 2015, p.91]

Rebel Heart is the first Madonna album for a while that's at least as much for listeners as it is for dancers. Sometimes this shines too hard a light on what she has to say. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Kaleidoscopic yet reassuringly familiar to '80s indie fans. [Apr 2015, p.98]

A personal statement that is simply too accomplished to fall into pastiche. [Apr 2015, p.96]

You're left with dual perspectives that aren't quite duets, anthems of vague disquiet, and an utterly satisfying sense of an artist following his own directs and nobody else's. [Apr 2015, p.95]

Its 11, quietly assured alt-rock growers let Ben Gibbard's appealingly detached vocals and quality-controlled lyrics do the heavy lifting. [Apr 2015, p.94]

Notwithstanding the occasional banjo and flute intrusion, in essence this remains flamboyant, '60s-tinged guitar pop, forever poised equidistant between accessibility and inscrutability. [Apr 2015, p.93]

The new wave veteran's magic touch has left his current charges' blend of plaintive pop and indie-punk edginess a tad shinier but otherwise safely intact. [Apr 2015, p.92]

It's an engaging, sometimes beautiful step forward. [Apr 2015, p.92]

Knopfler retains his latter-years Celty-folk musical tone, with that measured guitar flicking in a sun-through-misty-woods way. This doesn't make for memorably distinctive songs, but his storytelling sharpens almost every track. [Apr 2015, p.91]

There's beauty and imagination aplenty here--but maybe a slight whiff of Pseuds Corner, too. [Apr 2015, p.91]

The singer-songwriter's fifth is no less over-reaching and torrid in its back-story [as 2013's Once I Was An Eagle]. [Apr 2015, p.90]

Fantasy Empire buzzes, drills and throbs with a brutal power that is relentlessly, terrifyingly exciting. [Apr 2015, p.89]

This is one heck of a wild and beautiful ride. [Apr 2015, p.89]

Even six listens in, this record offers few easy hand-holds. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Barnett doesn't quite equal this deadpan reportage [as Avant Gardener on 2013's A Sea of Split Peas] but navigates similar terrain in charming style. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Sonic Soul Surfer mostly trades in toe-tapping slide-guitar riffage. [Apr 2015, p.88]

It's lovely stuff throughout. [Apr 2015, p.87]

Carrie & Lowell has an air of insecurity underlining the sophistication of the music. [Apr 2015, p.84]

Van delves deep to breathe new life into some relatively lesser-known gems ranging from 1974’s Streets Of Arklow (from Veedon Fleece) to Get On With The Show (What’s Wrong With This Picture?, 2003), rejuvenating them with persuasive soul and passion.

Fresh Blood’s 10 tracks span an impressive spread of moods.

Her second full album centres on sophisticated rococo pop, but there's also a nice viscous, keyboard-heavy prog undertow. [Mar 2015, p.93]

Chic, soulful, but more boom and swoon than hooks. [Feb 2015, p.96]

Ultimately, Chasing Yesterday is an assured second step on Noel Gallagher’s solo path--more sure-footed lyrically, while bearing a very becoming new-found musical spaciness.

It suggest that a future as pullover wearing folkies is theirs for the taking if they fancied it. [Mar 2015, p.94]

At this temporal distance from the shock of their new, the post-millennial Pop Group are engaging, galvanizing, and far from unlistenable in its ongoing fusions of Afrobeat, funk and dub.

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]

[Signs Under Test] satisfies the soul without losing its precision-tooled digital lustre. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Mick Jones's production captures a vibrant, timeless analogue vibe, particularly on the sister's sassy numbers. [Mar 2015, p.97]

It is full of sublime moments. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Occasionally, the histrionics and faux-biblical warnings of this guitar-drum duo tread a fine Spinal Tap line, but they do its majestically they can only be admired. [Mar 2015, p.95]

Viet Cong aren't quite home yet, but they're getting there. [Mar 2015, p.100]

The music is too futuristic--and, more bizarrely, too rooted in Indian Ocean folk roots--ever to get weighed down in heaviosity. [Mar 2015, p.96]

While the material heads nowhere new, there's a good feeling to all that's happening. [Mar 2015, p.99]

This debut stands apart, not because it hails from St. Petersburg but for its speedy and electronically iced take on shoegaze. [Mar 2015, p.100]

The overall tone is one of forbearance rather than rabble-rousing provocation. [Mar 2015, p.100]

Ghost Culture;s pungent, treacly melodies and fidgety, complex syncopation are a robust blend. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Odd, occasionally unsettling, always memorable. [Mar 2015, p.97]

The material is cleverly sourced. [Mar 2015, p.97]

The results are at first comically unexpected, then intriguing. [Mar 2015, p.94]

While Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth impress with the monolithic power of their noise, there's little else that compels here. [Mar 2015, p.94]

[The] third Egyptrixx album has a fidgety, unsettling quality. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Their debut exists in a musical moment, conjuring a freedom and thrilling abandonment in its hypnotic shuffle boogie and punky blues rock riffs. [Mar 2015, p.93]

You've heard it all before, but rarely done so well. [Mar 2014, p.98]

An album of studied precision and endless textures. [Mar 2014, p.95]

Thankfully, frequent shards of light lift the gloom and raise the spirits. [Mar 2014, p.95]

It's a journey worth taking with him. [Mar 2014, p.95]

There are grand arrangements and barbed bon mots in the style of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, but what's most striking are the more restrained moments. [Mar 2014, p.94]

This is a very real example of "that difficult second album." [Mar 2014, p.93]

On the whole, they succeed by taking a careful layered approach. [Mar 2014, p.100]

All told, a spellbinding journey. [Mar 2014, p.100]

Nobody's expecting Steve Earle & The Dukes to break new ground, but when they break sweat, Terraplane comes to life. [Mar 2014, p.100]

Ain't nothing original, but it feels--and sounds--mighty fine. [Mar 2014, p.98]

Though a very beautiful whole, the mid-tempo Picture You is samey and only breaks its mood on Fryshusfunk. [Mar 2014, p.98]

Nothing here is ever structurally predictable, nor is it all cacophonous. [Mar 2014, p.98]

A few shuffling moments suggest Sunday pub lunch surrounding by Bugaboos, but when Gonzalez hits his meditative stride--Every Age's there-is-a-season stateliness, the post-rock smudges of What Will---he owns the room. [Mar 2014, p.98]

An effervescent, ebullient record. [Mar 2014, p.97]

A multifaceted--yet cohesive--creation that burnishes anew the golden age of space exploration. [Mar 2014, p.93]

A vivid, pulsing rhyme banquet that's out-there, edgy and kaleidoscopic. [Mar 2014, p.96]

More deliciously downbeat analog instrumentals. [Feb 2015, p.96]

For unswerving fans only, and not of Pink Floyd. [Feb 2015, p.96]

This extraordinary record is more refreshing burst than last gasp and its timelessness speaks more to life than death.

He sounds the most determined he has in over two decades. [Feb 2015, p.94]

These self-penned songs feel so timelessly authentic they might have been dredged from the deep well of traditional British Isles song from which Roberts regularly sips. [Feb 2015, p.95]

Their most remarkable record in years. [Feb 2015, p.95]

There's tear-in-the bear country, an angry field song, but the killer is Sorrow's shine. Classic Jim White. [Feb 2015, p.95]