The self-analysis is elevated by Chatten's scowling poetry and producer Dan Carey's bright detailing. [Aug 2023, p.80]

With Klausener diving headlong again into elemental metaphors, No Ghost could easily become Garvey's album of 2010. [Jul 2010, p.94]

It's all 13 minutes of Bobletekno on which the full glory of Thomas's talent is unfurled, a cosmic-disco blueprint of bubbling counter-melodies, whoosing handclaps and trippy, dippy synths. [Dec 2012, p.94]

Stability and appreciation of life's little victories have rarely sounded more delightful. [Feb 2025, p.84]

A collection of songs which rings with the same deeply felt, universal truths of Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and Ryan Adam's Heartbreaker. Chillingly authentic. [Aug. 2011, p. 100]

Peaks: Tough Enough's flouncing post-punk; radiate's bright, Buzzcocks-meet-The Knack groove. [Apr 2019, p.96]

Danger Mouse's illustrious production CV is a big draw but it's his classy discretion in play here, giving plenty of space for Black Thought. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Over its 11 tracks, it draws the listener fully into its dreamworld. [May 2025, p.86]

It's all expertly crafted stuff. [Feb 2014, p.94]

'Where to Here,' Slippery Slope (easier),' and 'In My Arms' are equally deadly writing, with gripping melodies and sing-out performances that seem to have benefited from listening to his pal Rufus Wainwright--and from arrangements by Wainwright's latest producer. [Sep 2008, p.112]

Much of the album's charm lies in its simplicity, often paring back the instrumentation to focus upon the group's strongest elements. [Nov 2010, p.96]

Blurry Blue Mountain is as idiosyncratic and left-handed as ever, pregnant with moments of mercurial magic. [Dec 2010, p.104]

See-saws between manic joy and depressive darkness but never loses its sense of wit, grace or noise-dipped tunefulness. [Oct 2021, p.96]

Thrilling collective racket. [Dec 2022, p.90]

It's mighty good. [Jun 2015, p.93]

Drifts somewhere between Mogwai's softest moments and Her Space Holiday's wry prettiness. [Aug 2004, p.101]

Songs decay, disappear, swell, mutate, Dalt's seductive, lonesome voice investing them with a sinuous, alien romanticism. [Feb 2023, p.87]

Since 2010's Old Punch Card, he's added opulent modular synthesis to his armoury, a pursuit that reaches an accessible apotheosis here. [Aug 2020, p.89]

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

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

It hangs together and, indeed, convincingly documents fragmentation of the individual. [Sep 2018, p.94]

Tracks such as the thunderous Six-Pack or The Fall Of Paul might clang with dissonant noise or pinball off into a riot of machine gun rhythms, but it's generally not at the expense of songs that a festival crowd could bellow back at them. [Apr 2023, p.83]

Morton & Russell rarely overplay their emotional hand, the music colour-changing to match the narrative of damage and resilience. .... Once it locks in, Daffodils & Dirt is hard to shake off. [Jul 2024, p.88]

The evidence here is that he's maturing nicely. [Jun 2012, p.88]

Bruland has build her formative P.J. Harvey influences with a blurrier, chillier mix of guitars and electronics, landing somewhere bewitching between Broadcast, My Bloody Valentine and Lush. [Jan 2022, p.87]

Much of Ill Times Andrew Perry swings by like a more ’80s-fixated Black Keys (particularly yowler Fool For You), with Kenny-Smith unforeseeably excelling on the mike as a soul man, exorcising paternal bereavement (Dud) and the title track’s all-pervasive life agony. Old Transistor Radio busts out P-Funk proto-hip-hop, but there’s sufficient finesse here to make this team-up a keeper. [Sep 2024, p.93]

There's lyrical playfulness throughout. [Oct 2014, p.89]

The propulsive beats, loping low-end and metallic synths of Glass Effect push the swirling arrangements of last year's Breathe Suite EP into a deeper realm. [Jun 2022, p.89]

A potent psychedelic wash blurs the edges of these 10 tracks from trippy chimes to crackling static experimentation. [Feb 2019, p.93]

If the band have upped the musical chaos, there's still an unashamedly romantic feel. [Feb 2018, p.98]

Nelson has not lost any of his breath control and singular phrasing. [May 2021, p.78]

There's real beauty here and Silberman marries eventual accessibility with gentle boundary-pushing to create his own, thoughtful world. [May 2021, p.84]

Surrender Your Poppy Field's focus delivers GBV's strongest set in years. [Apr 2020, p.88]

On This Land, Clark and his guitar stay true to the mission. [Apr 2019, p.92]

This is mostly an album about England, about hearts beating wild and strong through wind whipped, rain-lashed, solace-in-introspection northern living. [May 2009, p.97]

Mavis's voice is still strong and convincing. [Jun 2019, p.87]

Ripped + Torn attests to the sophistication of their songwriting with this brutalist form. [Aug 2025, p.80]

Muscular adaptations of Stephen Stills' How Far and Parliament's Get On Out Of The Rain stray into '70s Who territory, with stirring arrangements and hot Townshend licks, while his courageous tilt at Nick Cave piano ballad Into My Arms roils with heartache that can;t be faked. [Jun 2018, p.89]

East India Youth has barely tinkered with the formula for his second full-length--a good thing. [May 2015, p.93]

There’s joyous invention at work here, along with nagging hooks which bury themselves deeper with every play.

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

The Redeemer finds Blunt adding a series of potent new weapons to an already well-stocked musical armoury. [Jun 2013, p.88]

In amongst the jumble of influences, trad indie-guitar Parquet remains: in, say, the early Go-Betweens-y Just Shadows, and the galvanising lyrics of collective consciousness - written pre-pandemic, but wonderfully inspiring for late 2021. [Nov 2021, p.84]

Earthquake Glue sees a return to the satisfyingly stylistic cohesion of 2001's Isolation Drills, ... while retaining the impressionistic aural fug that's so key to the band's appeal. [Sep 2003, p.98]

Aoba's hushed voice makes for an immersive meld of indie-folk, classical and jazz. [Jan 2022, p.91]

A beguiling outing, cinematic in scope and ambition. [Jan 2022, p.86]

This is no holding exercise. Instead, think beautifully conceived curio. [Apr 2023, p.85]

It works beautifully, the band gently distorting their songwriting surfaces wit sudden psychedelic sun-spots and experimental flares. [Dec 2025, p.81]

There are comeback and then there's the new Cult album opener. [Jun 2012, p.88]

Rock solid debut from an exceptional singer. [Dec 2025, p.86]

For all its survivalist blues and everyman politicking, Mourning really connects when the Ali gets up close and personal. [Oct 2012, p.89]

The sum total is unmistakably, and welcomingly, Interpol. [Oct 2014, p.89]

All in all, this is an unqualified triumph. [Nov 2015, p.86]

Sean Lennon continues to impress. [Nov 2006, p.104]

It was a scratchy and sassy sound, funky and fun.

Memory Man comes at you with a hesitant rush, portraying bespectacled, nice Mr. Hales as an improbably suburban Jeff Buckley--no glamour, all passion. [Oct 2007, p.94]

This self-written, almost wholly self-played treasure trove of lavishly arranged widescreen epics owes as much to John Barry as John Grant. [Feb 2025, p.90]

Throughout there is a sense of making music for the sheer thrill of it. ... This is Newcombe celebrating the moment and at his best. [Aug 2022, p.92]

Hellfire, for all its sporadic intensity, is less harsh than previous Black Midi records. [Aug 2022, p.83]

In these crop-to-fit times, omnivorous, visionary pop is at a premium, and there's all the more reason to prize an omnivorous visionary pop record like the Week That Was. [Sep 2008, p.96]

When his sturdy tunes do hit the jackpot, one wonders why Kirsty MacColl's hit with A New England is such a rare cover. .... Like all political songsmiths, Bragg seeks to transcend the didactic and stir the blood, and largely succeeds. [Dec 2023, p.101]

Somehow, he and producer Jake Davis have conjured an utterly compelling account of Tyler's lurching mental health. [Jun 2025, p.87]

The result is fabulous, Ogerman framing Krall's sultry, languorous delivery with arrangements that are opulent yet don't swamp her voice. [Jul 2009, p.93]

Toledo's ability to craft songs that swerve from fuzz-pop to jaded melancholia making him a cut above his underground contemporaries. [Jun 2016, p.92]

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

[Richard] Warren still makes great pop music--free of formula but full of character.

John Schmersal's quirky falsetto lights up this debut. [May 2014, p.96]

They're still sparkling. [May 2024, p.91]

Ghostpoet serves up his bruised, tender heart with the steely precision of a master sushi chef. [Jun 2013, p.89]

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

Muted, syncopated beats, ghostly pedal steel and icy Solina string machine conspire to create the effect of a slow-motion scene: unwanted debris blowing away in the wind, with our stronger and more resolved singer standing at the centre of the wreckage. Even amid the ashes of her past, it seems, Margo Price keeps burning ever more brightly. [Feb 2023, p.80]

It doesn't matter whether we're spying through his windows when he's so clearly spying through ours, his peculiarly stilted narratives and ageless music fusing into universal images of loneliness. [Feb 2003, p.94]

A taut, fraught dalliance with '90s trip-hop melancholy vivified by spidery Sisters Of Mercy-esque guitar figures and a gruff cameo from Massive Attack's Daddy G. [Sep 2017, p.91]

His wistful songs impart wisdom quietly, but on All In My Sleep gloriously lets rip. [Nov 2020, p.90]

It's properly cosmic stuff. [Jan 2012, p.97]

The songs remain brilliantly elliptical surveys, often of contemporary America. [Sep 2015, p.103]

Among wild wanderings, Trees Speak frequently snap back to a crisp, jazzy bassline groove, making their whole far-out adventure hard to resist. [Feb 2022, p.87]

This is Swans at their most user-unfriendly and trouser soiling. [Sep 2012, p.94.]

Brown's post-production science turning these intricate guitar matrixes into something smeared, meditative and wholly transporting. [Feb 2026, p.97]

A mature work from a fascinating man. [Oct 2005, p.110]

Mosquito is enticing. [Apr 2026, p.90]

Heartbreaking, heartwarming, Eric's still very much a contender. [Jan 2016, p.92]

Its essence remains constant, as post-punk, soul and Southern rock collide in an ever-delectable succession of hyper-melodic bangers – sunny online-trolling satire Flash Bare Ass, and faith-keeping marital romancer Light On surely count amongst JP’s career-best. [Jan 2025, p.82]

The best pieces here really are as good as their previous iterations; very occasionally, perhaps even better. [Jun 2026, p.96]

Its troubled state suits the melancholy in Hinson's soul, his broken burr laid like a wreath across lingering strings and the wistfulTexas twang of his tunes. [Jul 2010, p.104]

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

Fans of self-possessed art-pop are directed here. [Apr 2020, p.91]

These 11 songs - several expansive - are often sophisticated indie pop with a lot going on. musically and lyrically. [Jul 2022, p.95]

A vital album for an anxious era. [Apr 2017, p.90]

Here he mines Suicide and Depeche Mode's sleazy synth overtures. [Mar 2016, p.100]

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]

A debut album of psychedelic gospel-tinged gems. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Their unique gift for sounding at once thoroughly unhinged and ferociously in control is intact. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Amid the jagged funk-offs, a synthesized steel band and the odd keyboard etude colour a strong debut. [May 2015, p.94]

Musically, it's the richest record of Pulp's career.... We Love Life isn't perfect, but it is vital. [Nov 2001, p.96]

While such songs can be taken on a simple level as a promise between two lovers, like so much great soul music, tghere's a sense that Black Pumas, responding to the current mood of division and fear, are providing a what-the-world-needs-now- is-love message. [Jul 2019, p.90]

With its beautifully balances smorgasbord of UK garage, drum 'n 'bass, this is the album the person on the night bus in records by Burial would really be digging. [Jun 2013, p.89]

In all, a very promising debut. [Nov 2020, p.90]