Full of curios and cameos, My Name Is Buddy falls short of masterpiece but is dense with wonderful music. [Apr 2007, p.100]

At its best the record soars, but After The Meteor Showers' slight echo of Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" left your scribe cold. [Jul 200, p.97]

The album's eight, unusually varied essays largely eschew sonic wallpaper stereotype, invested as they are with playfulness and a genuine sense of Eastern-flavoured spiritual uplift. [Dec 2017, p.92]

Variously evoking a gnarlier early R.E.M., The Hold Steady, and, yes, Springsteen, other songs here occasionally suffer from over-telegraphed choruses, but Fallon's fervour and gift for an apposite metaphor - "I'm a weatherman watching the skies, trying to read you" - are evident. [Nov 2023, p.86]

Often startlingly brilliant. [Mar 2026, p.85]

In Europe, Manu Chao shifts albums by the millions, but there is little here to make one think Britain is missing out. [Oct 2007, p.104]

Superabundance is a record to treasure. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Mulcahy is a heavy-duty Randy Newman for our times. [Jul 2019, p.95]

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

A mostly instrumental set of spiralling guitars and scalp-prickling grooves. [Apr 2016, p.96]

This is a fine balancing of distance and engagement that put the shier back into chill out. [Mar 2012, p.103]

You can see why they've got another Golden Globe nomination for this, although most of the music here isn't in the film and the many highlights get lost in an eternity of approximately similar sonics. [Mar 2012, p.94]

A bijou flashback to a place of quiet nirvana. [Feb 2006, p.107]

For all its romance, this is a record at the sharp end of mortality. [March 2011, p. 96]

Wainwright nevertheless manages to make the songs her own. [Jan 2017, p.96]

A confounding and bewitching set of songs that feels gloriously out of time. [Dec 2011, p.100]

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

[Unfinished Business captures her vigour and verve] with its rough'n'tumble mix of R&B, country and rockabilly. [Dec 2012, p.90]

Rekindle the guileless spirit of mid-'90s alt rock in The Alarmist's twilit wistfulness; or Moment's surge of power-chord melancholy. [Feb 2020, p.96]

The record's well-meaning earnestness is a little overwhelming, but it's the stuffed-crust arrangements that really grate, everything happening at once, and often for too long. [Apr 2022, p.81]

If there are few lyrical miracles in these scattershot songs obsessed with sex, drugs and shopping, in this intuitive stylist’s mouth the words themselves are often beside the point.

They can't always resist their old ways, as autumn processional PPP shows, but Legrand's vocals feel sweeter and closer. [Sep 2015, p.87]

On record, it's nutty maze-rock with hair-raising highs and the odd dead end. [July 2008, p.112]

Less like leftovers from a previous album than another move forward, creating out of his prepared piano and mini string section something fresh, subtle and beguiling. [Apr 2009, p.106]

Musically slick but unpredictable, Only Revolutions is the stuff of stadia; a more obstreperous Foo Fighters; if you like. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

It leaves a prescribed set of more or less familiar songs, sequenced randomly with in some broad chronological parameters. [Jul 2010, p.108]

The Youth split their sound into four clear component parts: piano, drums, percussion and guitar-screes that separate out beautifully and merge grimily--just like the kids in the film itself. [May 2011, p.112]

This is a powerful performance of empathy and passion. [Feb 2012, p.99]

Kudos goes to the French Afrobeaters Fanga and Moroccan trance master Abdallah Guinea for finding a new spin on Fela Kuti's funk. [Feb 2013, p.89]

Possibly an album for Boz's benefit more than anyone else's. [Apr 2013, p.91]

Great late-night music. [Jul 2013, p.92]

If Not Now... goes a long way to pinpointing just why Marling, Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne, among others, keep calling on his services as both musician and producer. [Mar 2013, p.96]

the Krautrock gene that moulded 2012's brilliant debut Free Time! still dominates the album's early passages. [Sep 2013, p.88]

[Harcourt whets] our curiosity with this six-tracker which goes to the brink but never quite falls over the edge. [Feb 2014, p.96]

Her confidence as a performer is clear, as is her growth as a songwriter. [Mar 2014, p.93]

The result is a tender and engaging listen. [Aug 2014, p.93]

This largely autobiographical follow-up uses Guy's musician friends more wisely. [Oct 2015, p.91]

McKeown adopts a sophisticated take on 4/4 grooves: with Calumet's stuttering organic rhythms offering a confident and captivating example. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Strange and lovely. [Jan 2016, p.98]

The exceptional songs of Martin Henry are served by the trio's undemonstrative guitar, bass and drums being augmented by keyboards, glockenspiel and harp. [Feb 2016, p.91]

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

Ultimately, Future Echoes is a dark pop album, as joyful as it is unexpected. [Oct 2016, p.95]

A bruised, heartsore set. [Jan 2017, p.104]

When Crisci does expansive, with the six-minute Ode To The Pleiades, the tremor is sizeable, its rattlesnake beats sinking into jazz piano riffs and iridescent synth pads, [Apr 2017, p.97]

Baobab Tree's bossa nova sway, the title track's lounge vibes and Lo Mas Dulce's electro-Tropicalia weirdness impress. [Jul 2017, p.96]

The material and performances here are uniformly strong, affirming that Wright is now a recording artist of significant stature. [Nov 2017, p.98]

A feast of sonic juxtapositions, whimsical beats and massed vocal harmonies. [Jan 2018, p.94]

Thai guitar, Saharan rock give a focus and momentum; a groove underpinning the bracing freeform racket. [Apr 2018, p.96]

A near two-hour spiritual masterclass, recorded live at London's Church of Sound, that simultaneously enhances, enriches and expands. [Dec 2018, p.89]

It lacks the gargantuan personality and all-encompassing throaty bark of FU's leader Damian Abraham to give it a USP, but Falco, as frontman, does a decent job of stamping his own marker. [Jul 2020, p.84]

Good Luck, Seeker may not be the absolute best of Mike Scott's best, but it's well within touching distance. [Sep 2020, p.82]

It doesn't work when she wails and chants her way through the closing Sun, but she's absolutely fearless, as rigorous as The Moody Blues circa Days Of Future Passed and as adventurous as Can circa Future Days. [Jul 2020, p.82]

Seamus Fogarty's songs are sparse affairs with banjo, guitars, cellos and electronics framing pithy, observational lyrics. ... There's poignancy too. [Jan 2021, p.87]

This act of restoration convinces as a good Tony Joe White album that could have been plucked from anywhere during his career. [Jun 2021, p.80]

For all its lofty subject matter, Lost In The Cedar Wood is the raucous sound of modern-day sea shanties. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Strictly for fans of "difficult." [Dec 2021, p.92]

His rueful lyrics are mostly about relationship woes, although Florida Man is more serious, dealing with racism. [Aug 2023, p.82]

While Django Django's eclectic impulses roam wild - Krautrock, house, techno, acid rave and electronica - on this sprawling set, they're anchored by duets. [Sep 2023, p.92]

Best of all is Politics Don Expose Them, which hits hard yet swings on great horn lines and a catchy call-and-response chorus. [Jun 2025, p.88]

It's a perfect mix of expertise and lightness of touch. [Jul 2025, p.87]

While the humour in Always Some MF is more bracing tan previously, it's only on the stark minimalism of Cure For Emptiness where Maltese appears truly vulnerable. [Aug 2025, p.104]

It's the limpid slow tunes - Opal, Night Shade and more - that stand out. Only Storyville overstays its welcome, spinning off into a free-form scrabble, but the lovely Something More restores harmony. [Mar 2026, p.86]

Before comedown-closer Morning Star comes the high point of a very high album: Dream Beat, woozy and sexy, with a bassline you could ride on right through the summer. [Jul 2012, p.94]

Worden can be preposterously experimental - but she's always intriguing. [Dec. 2011 p.96]

It's Bondy's most disturbing record, but equally his most memorable. [Jun 2019, p.88]

If David Lynch were looking to soundtrack dreamlike disassociation, he need look no further. [Jun 2016, p.91]

Exhortations are soundtracked by languid funk that occasionally stumbles into trip-hop autopilot but is mostly electrified by Peng's restless inspiration. [Jul 2021, p.87]

An album of great emotional depth and uninhibited artistry. [Nov 2007, p.96]

Beyond box-ticking cameos from Snoop, Nas, Eminem and Busta Rhymes, horror film-stringed posse cut The Vow (with relative unknowns Mad Squablz, J-S.A.N.D. and Don Pablito) shows LL at his sharpest, “movin’ chess pieces like telekinesis” and stretching his elasticity to ridiculous extremes. Call it a comeback. [Oct 2024, p.88]

District Line is Mould's strongest song collection since Sugar's alt-rock paradigm, "Copper Blue." [Mar 2008, p.102]

The core remains Roberts' discomfitingly pure way with diction. [May 2005, p.109]

The Hawk Is Howling finds the Glasgow's guitar army relaxing the taut, economical songcraft of its 2006 predecessor, "Mr. Beast," and setting a new standard for irreverent track titles. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Equal parts fierce and sprightly. Excellent. [Jan 2003, p.93]

She breathes the vocals as if she were drifting in and out of death's door. [May 2003, p.95]

Old skool studio wizardry abounds. [Mar 2004, p.107]

Richman gets more reflective with age. [Aug 2004, p.86]

Exuberant and undeniable... if you don't own a Luna album, start here. [Aug 2002, p.112]

Paul Simon still has it.

Finds [Wolf] firmly ensconced within a four-piece-band format, but still coming up with the lyrical goods on a regular basis. [Dec 2005, p.102]

Despite two years spent on its dense construction, Music Complete rarely feels stilted, though it could use a stricter edit.... Yet the compensatory highs go beyond expectations. [Oct 2015, p.89]

He and his band sound focused and spry over eight beautifully arranged songs produced by Jackson and Pat Dillett. [Feb 2019, p.90]

An intriguing LP that balances inner existential turmoil with external grace. [Mar 2014, p.96]

A mixed bag then, but a welcome return that promises much. [Jul 2021, p.80]

It's Lynn's show, and she and the band are on fine form. [Apr 2021, p.81]

Gone is the Fisher Price-redolent instrumentation and found--sounds, in their place something more measured and radio friendly. [Jun 2009, p.98]

Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. [Jun 2009, p.94]

More akin to their second LP. [May 2013, p.96]

Tracks like Half Angel Half Light suggest the passion remains fully intact. [May 2013, p.96]

Animal Joy surfs similar channels to their last release, The Golden Archipelago, evoking stratospheric textures anchored down by melodically well-honed tunes. [Mar 2012, p.102]

Callahan is back on track. [Jun 2005, p.104]

Their studio albums have been moving away from virtuoso instrumentals toward vocal songs, of which this album has some excellent examples. [Dec 2007, p.104]

Five years after the self released Robyn, she's teamed up with the Teddybears Klas Ahlund again but made a subtle shift away from the Top 40 to something more leftfield. [July 2010, p. 97]

It's all Iggy-growl motorik country-boogie and modal psychedelic blues jams. [May 2014, p.96]

[Wand] deliver their heavy acid rock distortions with an Oxford-shirted campus naivety that lends their debut an added weird darkness. [Oct 2014, p.86]

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

Peace Or Love is sophisticated without being easy, a quiet storm all of its own. [Aug 2021, p.86]

Side two, however, veers into arch Euro-pop (I Don't Have Control Sometimes) and moody balladry (Stand By Me), and Sunflower Bean's new-found confection begins to set one's teeth on edge. [Jun 2022, p.87]

Danger Mouse asked the pair to write songs for Ike Turner and ended up producing the best album of their career so far. [May 2008, p.111]