There's even more of a streamlined feeling to Seeds.... but there's precious little which surprises. [Dec 2014, p.93]

Such is its weight and accomplishment that it could easily be the work of Gavin Bryars or Arvo Part. [Dec 2014, p.92]

Superbly eerie and echoey evocations such as View From The Mirror and The Golden Bough don't need big productions to make your ears prick up, just their disturbing use of minor chords and subtle sound effects. [Dec 2014, p.90]

The Endless River is big on atmosphere, just a little light on songs. [Dec 2014, p.88]

Sheer vastness occasionally swamps the pained intimacy of Young's vocals and open-heart songs of regret, nostalgia and reflection. [Dec 2014, p.88]

These old dogs have plenty new tricks left. [Dec 2014, p.92]

This is an album that expands upon a growing body of work. [Dec 2014, p.92]

Her piercing, angelic voice, redolent of Tori Amos, is given a sparkling canvas by Claes Bjorklund's synth battery. [Dec 2014, p.96]

One of the best rock'n'roll albums of 2014. [Dec 2014, p.96]

The blueprint's not rewritten, but Something From Nothing and The Feast & The Famine dose the Foos format with steroids, while Grohl's earnest delivery redeems the occasional detour into cliche. [Dec 2014, p.89]

If The Way's latter stages descend into lumpy Who-y rawk, the earlier auditory apparition of Buzzcocks in tuneful excelsis will always be welcome. [Dec 2014, p.89]

No amount of heavy-friend noodling can redeem One Night Stand and Driving Me Wild, and Ferry's Send In The Clowns would have Krusty renouncing his vocation. [Dec 2014, p.88]

Frazey Ford undeniably models here new album on those delicate masterpieces [Ann Peebles' I Can't Stand The Rain and Al Green Is Love], but it really works. [Dec 2014, p.90]

Harris's spellbinding songs still feel beautifully half-hidden, buried in black space. [Dec 2014, p.92]

A relatively orthodox live recording. [Dec 2014, p.92]

His overall grasp of what he is doing has never been surer. [Dec 2014, p.93]

Simple stuff, sparsely rendered, with a weighty undertow. [Dec 2014, p.93]

A challenging move from such a young artist who deserves to have his fans take a leap of faith. [Dec 2014, p.94]

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

The all-pervasive teenage sexual obsessions on his tenth album can only come across as sweaty-palmed and distasteful. A shame, because musically Pom Pom's 17 tracks are uniquely inventive. [Dec 2014, p.96]

[The term techno] seems inadequate for the magnificent noise emanating from Clark. [Dec 2014, p.96]

The album's soft-haze strings are to die for, and the trad-sounding Trusty And True has admirable reach and dignity. [Dec 2014, p.100]

[IX meerges] distortion and tunes with heartfelt euphoria and big breakdowns. [Dec 2014, p.102]

There's no flash, no showing off, just some rock-solid playing from the quiet man of Afrobeat. [Nov 2014, p.100]

They are strange, sibylline and gorgeous. [Nov 2014, p.94]

With much of Harrison's early solo output slammed upon original release, these remasters allow us time to search for the diamonds in the dirt. [Nov 2014, p.109]

[A] more light-hearted, and lightweight, fifth album. [Nov 2014, p.106]

By revealing a snapshot of the creative process part-way through, the working mix included on IV's companion CD only adds to tone's grasp of their artistic achievement. [Nov 2014, p.106]

A fifth studio album filled with hooks aplenty and gonzoid fun. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Their nostalgic lo-fi jangle and reverb surf guitars sound, weirdly, like a SoCal version of The Coral, with synths. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Distorted vocals, metallic clunks and disquieting sonic strangeness in spades. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Accomplished, shiny, but hard to get excited about. [Nov 2014, p.102]

It is impossible to wholly mess up a great pop songwriter's work; second, it is equally impossible to improve upon a perfectly crafted original recording. [Nov 2014, p.100]

An unsettling soundtrack of misanthropic club dystopias. [Nov 2014, p.99]

Freeman has emerged from Ween with his mojo intact, and less inclined to platy the joker this time around. [Nov 2014, p.99]

He's rarely sounded better. [Nov 2014, p.98]

Not so bad as to frighten connoisseurs of, say, Dub Housing's post-industrial emptiness passages, but, yes, it's a "difficult" listen. [Nov 2014, p.98]

It is a deeply odd but consistently compelling work. [Nov 2014, p.98]

A strand of misanthropy and musical bloody-mindedness makes for an uneven listen and feels like a band in transition. [Nov 2014, p.98]

The result is a sulky, euphoric blend of Ramones, Runaways and Cheap Trick, with maddening echoes of Iggy Pop, Ash and The Undertones. [Nov 2014, p.96]

He serves us a telling portion of autobiographical, Nashville-flavoured Americana. [Nov 2014, p.96]

Stereolab fans will not be disappointed. [Nov 2014, p.95]

Many of the inventive musical excursions were improvised live in the studio. [Nov 2014, p.95]

Yet another acknowledgement of these two commanding talents. [Nov 2014, p.95]

It's knowingly throwaway exhilaration all the way. [Nov 2014, p.95]

Hardcore Julius fans might recognise old tunes but the London-based musicians have given them all a fresh coat while the boss blows up a storm. [Nov 2014, p.94]

For all its ambitious and admirable wilfulness, the sound of Casablancas playing in his sandpit is still an acquired taste. [Nov 2014, p.94]

The 75-year-old's first album in six years is both tough and tender. [Nov 2014, p.93]

A soothing balm in anxious times. [Nov 2014, p.93]

The result is one of her most wide-ranging and satisfying collections. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Niagara is a remarkable debut. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Inspiral Carpets sounds like the band did back in 1989 on their Dung 4 demo. [Nov 2014, p.92]

PlectrumElectrum, the band set, although rockier and fuller, is just as random [as Art Official Age]. [Nov 2014, p.90]

[A] confusing, sprawling grab-bag. [Nov 2014, p.90]

Hither he thunders, with an excellent 11-track battery co-produced by super-sticksman Jim Keltner in Memphis. [Nov 2014, p.90]

NehruvianDoom might be slight, but it deftly whets the appetite for more. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Though Blue Water is sunk by its stilted piano arpeggios, Lady, the record's other piano ballad, has real substance. [Nov 2014, p.100]

A powerful mix of dramatic, slow-moving sound and Walker melodies and narratives. [Nov 2014, p.99]

You couldn't wish for a more fitting musical soundtrack to the rest of your 2014. [Nov 2014, p.96]

A dreamy, immersive mood piece that is as personal as it is instantly accessible. [Nov 2014, p.93]

Gorgeous minimalist songs are punctuated by Prince-like synths and Ware's impressive vocal range. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Gray returns in strident form with this mature mediation on womanhood, sex and love. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Audacious, hook-packed debut. [Nov 2014, p.102]

It yields mixed results. [Nov 2014, p.100]

A brave, inspired step into the unknown. [Nov 2014, p.100]

The resultant instrumental album, although about atmosphere and texture, is more filmic and wide-screen than before. [Nov 2014, p.99]

Eclectic as it is, Weatherhouse is largely convincing evidence of a singular voice being belatedly found. [Nov 2014, p.99]

Their star power indeed might be largely borrowed, but they wear it well. [Nov 2014, p.98]

The results, often transcendent and inventive, incorporate gospel elements and "found sounds," while retaining the spirit of shaky DIY experimentation. [Nov 2014, p.95]

He may not be a born singer, or particularly vocally charismatic, but he sounds like he means it, and that's more than enough. [Nov 2014, p.94]

The gauzy hypnotism of opener Infinite Trips sounds as if was beamed in from a far more enticing album altogether. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Mid-life crisis rarely sounded so appealing. [Nov 2014, p.90]

"Hesitant" is the right word for his attempt at creative rebirth. [Nov 2014, p.92]

Hard to know if he's upbeat or down--at times it might be a break-up album--but enjoyable either way. [Nov 2014, p.92]

Straight and true, without a trace of rear-view-mirror sentimentality. [Nov 2014, p.92]

Jackson Browne's return after six years feels dutifully dragged out of some deep somnolence, maybe exhaustion. [Nov 2014, p.90]

Daft, overblown and sometimes unintentionally hilarious. [Nov 2014, p.90]

This panoramic attempt to make sense of life's one certainty beyond taxes flutters far above the digital static of 2008's breakthrough Los Angeles into twisted, ethereal jazz territory. [Nov 2014, p.89]

[An] irresistibly immersive fourth album. [Nov 2014, p.89]

What is missing is that impish, dangerous side, the famous contorted grin and all that it suggests: humour and horror, surprise and confrontation. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Leonard's half-spoken, slow, dark blues growl is powerful. [Nov 2014, p.86]

Each track employs a different variation on a naïve, early Depeche Mode synth-pop beat, over which a keyboard melody bloops and Dury whispers forlornly about a missed romantic opportunity or existential let-down. [Nov 2014, p.92]

This is a record that rewards digging into Treays' melodic moods and lyrical follies. It is also a staggering collection of exceptional songs. [Oct 2014, p.86]

This album underlines she's more than a mere rock'n'roll totem. [Oct 2014, p.91]

Were every song as great as I'm Free, Blue Skies and Call Me Faithful, this would be a classic too. [Jun 2014, p.94]

Enter is 21st century big band jazz at its most brain-spinning. [Sep 2014, p.91]

They serve up a tastier morsel with Mary Mary, a slab of tripped-out cosmic disco. [Oct 2014, p.93]

For the most part A World Lit Only By Fire finds Godflesh sounding just as brilliantly brutal as ever. [Oct 2014, p.92]

A selection of his own trademark cliches. [Oct 2014, p.90]

It's unequivocally the guitarist's most cohesive and satisfying artistic statement yet. [Oct 2014, p.91]

The Breaks is an album of staggering neo-classic rock ambitions. [Oct 2014, p.86]

This is the most uncompromising album of the year. [Oct 2014, p.96]

There's still precious little here that's not been said before with more originality. [Oct 2014, p.93]

If your perfect musical Venn diagram contains Oneohtrix Point Never, Machinedrum and Terry Riley, Suicideyear will satisfy your equation. [Oct 2014, p.93]

On this recording--as well as his body of work--Trane proved that music is the superior language. And that there is only one John Coltrane. [Oct 2014, p.100]

Sweet, but not quite satisfying. [Oct 2014, p.90]

It's the heartfelt lyrics, however, that will keep you coming back to this album time and time again. [Oct 2014, p.92]

If Lerche lack Beck's nous, he makes up for it with a cavalier freedom. [Oct 2014, p.92]