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]

A meld of punk brio and grunge licks. [Oct 2014, p.96]

James Brooks conjures the motorik rhythm and magnificent vistas. [Oct 2014, p.96]

The immediacy and bare-wire fizz suit his lyrical candour. [Oct 2014, p.96]

The restless thump of Out For The West stands out. [Oct 2014, p.96]

The album isn't defined by what is on the record but what's missing, and sometimes less is just, well, less. [Oct 2014, p.94]

A riotous union of scabrous '60s punk, resonant surf licks and grimy, narcotic song-craft. [Oct 2014, p.94]

If quality control on Sukierae sometimes sags amid the fecundity, all is forgotten when Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Brooklyn-based new lights Lucius help gild country-folk standouts Wait For Love and Nobody Dies Anymore with calm-yet-striking backing vocals. [Oct 2014, p.94]

There's much of Lawrence's beguiling attention to detail present here. [Oct 2014, p.94]

Things work best when the musical surroundings match their respective vocal style and they create something resembling the cinematic edge of Johnny Jewel's Chromatics. [Oct 2014, p.93]

This is a musical round-trip calculated to delight anyone who has previously enjoyed Can or Amon Duul's loose-limbed walks on the cod-tribal wild side--and enlighten anyone who hasn't. [Oct 2014, p.93]

Basement Jaxx's energy and vision appears to be undiminished. [Oct 2014, p.93]

Tricky may not be reinventing the wheel, but his focus is sharper than ever. [Oct 2014, p.93]

A more elemental approach to dance music. [Oct 2014, p.93]

[MC Taylor's] voice is a gorgeous, low-slung burr, his melodies are fireside-warm, his restless imagination follows the lineage of Southern literary giant Eudora Welty and the collective chops, overseen by long-time studio accomplice Scott Hirsch, are impeccable. [Oct 2014, p.92]

It's an even more pop-centric prism of West Coast folky radiance. [Oct 2014, p.92]

A great country music record. Nothing less. [Oct 2014, p.91]

It's a parade of warhorses and they sometimes ride a little wearily, but Winter pepped their steps by four-handed guitar shootouts with Eric Clapton on Don't Want No Woman and Ben Harper in Can't Hold Out. [Oct 2014, p.91]

Some are enchanting. [Oct 2014, p.90]

An Earth reborn, then. [Oct 2014, p.90]

For every two triumphs there's a setback like the overwrought glitchy electro Eat Rich, yet it's hard to deny the imagination that fuels these flights of fancy. [Oct 2014, p.90]

There are moments where the duo sounds unfortunately like Muse. Yet for the largest part, this collection of tightly wound, riff-oriented rock makes for an exciting debut. [Oct 2014, p.90]

The results are too eccentric and sprightly to squash the music's potential. [Oct 2014, p.89]

Listen throws a helluva lot at the wall, and not much sticks. [Oct 2014, p.89]

Overjoyed suggest not only Half Japanese's own past abut also the pre-Television, Richard Hell-overshadowed Neon Boys. [Oct 2014, p.89]

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

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

There's a crystalline gorgeousness in the production, too, that takes it out of homage territory and into a rarefied league that most recently recalls The War On Drugs. [Oct 2014, p.88]

More spontaneity might have tempered this chill wind. [Oct 2014, p.87]

This is an exciting second act, tempered by the occasionally predictable moment. [Oct 2014, p.87]

Goddess weaves a captivating spell that many are certain to fall under. [Oct 2014, p.87]

A concise 10-song encapsulation of Kilgour's eternal virtues. [Oct 2014, p.87]

[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]

With Lullaby his tricky metamorphosis from Golden God to dignified elder statesman is now complete, and the last stages of that transition make for a rewarding, often touching listen. [Oct 2014, p.84]

The result is their best and most thematically complete album since Achtung Baby. By turning towards their past, U2 have found their way back to the future. [Nov 2014, p.88]

Relic sounds like an album that could have been recorded in the last 50 years. [Aug 2014, p.89]

Trouble is they're embalmed within a high-gloss, synth-heavy production that sounds like '80s LA soft rock. [Sep 2014, p.98]

The permanence of adolescent earnestness hangs about the Young Adult novel-ish lyrics. [Jul 2014, p.92]

Although The Dew Lasts An Hour is a patchwork quilt of an album, it's so audaciously pulled off it's impossible not to grin and wonder why mainstream pop missed this trick 30 years ago. [Sep 2014, p.96]

With Ulrich Schnauss's ambient touches adding extra depth to the mix, it's the sound of a belated coming of age. [Sep 2014, p.96]

It ain't light listening but its emotions run deep. [Sep 2014, p.95]

Anyone with a dog-eared Thick As A brick or A Passion Play album will be familiar with the rich brew of prog, folk, metal and whimsy he has served here. [Jun 2014, p.95]

[A] stripped-down, beautifully stark and simple new album. [Sep 2014, p.96]

Clearly not a point of entry for the uninitiated, but all serious Wire-ologists need this. [Sep 2014, p.107]

English subjects his ghostly pastoral chorales and haunted organ tones to crashing interrogations of harmonic distortion, transforming old worlds of meditative calm into a new decaying landscape of soaring despair. [Sep 2014, p.91]

Hitchcock's own songs--especially Trouble In Your Blood and San Francisco Patrol--maintain the heartsick mood, drawing the corners of this record together into a beautifully measured whole. [Sep 2014, p.91]

Dry The River's contradictions result in an almost too-unified second release. [Sep 2014, p.98]

Only a dearth of melodic variations disappoints. [Sep 2014, p.93]

The result is an atmospheric sound, refined without losing its feisty, sometimes bitter vitality. [Sep 2014, p.98]

The bursts of industrial trash, though dexterous, feel superfluous. [Sep 2014, p.98]