The thrill-packed Mudflowers--as unlikely as it seems--will be high on 2015's American best-of lists. [Sep 2015, p.88]

No. 4 is a warmer, more cohesive work than 2015's No. 3. [Jun 2018, p.93]

Warmer layers are added to sparse, insistent electronics, culminating in Unificado, a nine-minute high-point of fuzz pedal density. [Apr 2019, p.96]

Making a little go a long way on a contagious return, up there with commercial peak Cabs circa The Crackdown and Micro-Phonies. [Aug 2022, p.94]

If April's slick Midnight Rockers album was a post Studio One career highlight for reggae legend Horace Andy, then this dubbed-up companion LP even takes it up a notch. [Oct 2022, p.82]

High Flyin' is a highlight of the bootleg series so far. [Jun 2023, p.105]

Road is a hugely enjoyable hoot. [Oct 2023, p.82]

As with FWF, it’s hard to discern any redemptive purpose other than the release of darker energies, but on that score Wither’s Suicide-esque pulse, All The Same’s filthy, Decius-style hi-NRG and Running’s synth-bashing rush best hit FD’s target. [Oct 2024, p.86]

Inspired by dives into recessed memories for a concurrent memoir, these songs are testaments to his experiences – and his expertise as a steadfast syndicate of the great rock song. [Oct 2024, p.88]

The Fateful Symmetry finds this political/music-making radical at his most approachable and reflective, often structuring intimate 'proper' songs around piano chords and unabashedly catchy hooks. [Aug 2025, p.79]

The swooshing, intricate Doll's House might be The Orb's purest house moment yet, preceding a closing brace, Under The bed and Kharon, that represent ambient Orb in excelsis. [Nov 2025, p.91]

The results are urgent, direct yet cerebral, drawing on some familiar touchstones. [May 2007, p.114]

Wolf's sing-speak vocals are arresting. [May 2008, p.112]

There are ravishing moments and startling lines, but these 10 tracks collectively plod, the band's early sugar-rush sophistication never returning to grace this deliberate growth. [May 2023, p.88]

Sparse backing, strings or a brimming organ interject occasionally, and enhance their combined voices on a brilliantly realised record. [Aug 2009, p.100]

The southern legend's first solo outing in 14 years. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

Act Surprised's high yield of killer songs hardly suffers for its absence of oddball filler. [Jun 2019, p.90]

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]

Ocean Child achieves its aim - emphasising the vibrant depth of Yoko Ono's (approximately) infinite universe. [Apr 2022, p.83]

[A] selection of sparingly produced wistfulness. [Jan 2013, p.95]

Stereo Mind Game certainly sustains an atmosphere, but it's a brooding and bleak one, and at times the darkness of Daughter's dream-pop can feel a bit suffocating. [Jun 2023, p.85]

Luna's obsessive valve-amp loveliness is here supplanted by a more varied spread. [Apr 2014, p.95]

It's a hugely inventive slab of sonic theatre plotted to the tiniest detail. [Oct 2016, p.99]

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

Not that much has changed sound-wise. [Jul 2005, p.114]

Perfectly conceived and executed, the album is a beautiful collection of mood music. [May 2007, p.112]

Thrilling, unpredictable and often inspired stuff. [Nov 2019, p.86]

This is chic pop electronica. [Aug 2005, p.101]

Things dip slightly in the middle when Jackson's reedy vocals are exposed against a mid-tempo backing, but it's a minor quibble. [Jul 2009, p.98]

Given the backdrop to Joan Wasser's second album was her mother's passing to cancer, it's unsurprising that To Survive also packs a soporific sadness that can be draining despite our hostess's artistry. [July 2008, p.110]

By and large, as per its title, Yours, Dreamily is a downtempo treat, tailor-made for sundazed summer evening drives with the window down. [Sep 2015, p.87]

Their best by a country mile. [Oct 2005, p.118]

An almost austere album, the production deliciously dry, forcing lyrics and beats to share the foreground. [Nov 2002, p.106]

If the likes of 154-era Wire, early Cure and New Order appeal, this is for you. [Oct 2004, p.101]

These songs move so languidly they seem self-pitying. [July 2002, p.104]

If The Rapture haven't quite transcended their influences yet, they are at least making a thrilling, febrile noise on the way. [Sep 2003, p.106]

This sort of works, but clearly their obsession lies with the lyrics. [Sep 2008, p.106]

As usual, it mixes vintage country, soul and R&B. Be cool, however, listen on, and it comes together. [Oct 2011, p.106]

A beautiful, eerie thing. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Paley's voice is a little frail but it's true, and his picking skills are as finely honed as when he gave lesson to the young Ry Cooder and Jerry Garcia. [Oct 2012, p.90]

An almost perfect Sunday-morning album that's hard not to praise with only the faintest of damns. [Dec 2012, p.94]

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

It is no ragbag collection, even if several tunes are little more than snippets. [May 2015, p.92]

Untethered Moon leaves no doubt these guys are on fine form again. [Aug 2015, p.95]

By opening out his vocals slightly from the gruff mutter of yore, Ashworth has extended his music's emotional range to that of a battery-powered Kris Kristofferson. [Sep 2015, p.94]

Live albums often disappoint but this one doesn't. [Jan 2017, p.101]

Annual waft of immersive drones, synthscaped romance, glassy yogic remixes. [Feb 2017, p.99]

Tiersen's lavish melodic gifts resonate loudest without the bangs and whistles. Glass-like repetitions of Templehof and Prad exerting a heartfelt tug.[Mar 2019, p.97]

It resets her musical dial by abandoning the borderline Nick Cave-isms of Welcome... to amp up the rock dynamism which first won her attention.[Mar 2019, p.92]

Hearing the acoustic demo for In The Heat Of The Morning, you have to feel for Bowie. Without the fussy grooviness of the studio version, it finds him in revelatory, limbering-up-for-Ziggy mode. ... The most significant discovery is Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe ... soft-voiced and 12-stringy, it's a tail-between-the-legs yarn with choruses sung with a hard-boiled intimacy worthy of John Lennon. [May 2019, p.103]

The synths are generally leaner and the production darker, while guitars butt in for the grungy turmoil of Bitch and Mary Magdalene. [Jul 2019, p.86]

Apocalypse rears its head in bare-bones instrumentation, reverberating synths and lyrics that hunt for a meaningful future. [Nov 2019, p.89]

Fogerty remains a force of nature who matches Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney in his commitment to energising nostalgia, his shows less living jukebox than soul-stirring communion. [Feb 2020, p.86]

As restless and fidgety as ever. [Feb 2020, p.91]

It's Wobble's unmistakable geometric bass patterns which anchor these 11 collaborative tracks. [Apr 2020, p.89]

The uniting factor, though, is Gabriel's greatest gift as a writer, vocalist and arranger. [Aug 2020, p.101]

There may be a couple too many mid-tempo chugs among Phantom Birds' 13 tracks, but Berry has a knack for lyrics that pick away at self-doubt and brave public faces. [Nov 2020, p.86]

lightning Boogie is as unimaginative as its title, but when they calm down In This Lifetime, they twinkle. [May 2022, p.94]

A saucer-eyed treat. [Apr 2022, p.84]

11 searching, beautifully rendered songs which rhythm section Jay Bellerose and Jennifer Condos finesse with artful subtlety. [Jul 2022, p.91]

Their ongoing Heavy Rocks series plays things relatively straight, however, restricting their palette to metallic tones. Even so, this third volume rewrites the rulebook. An opening brace of tunes gallop like vintage Motorhead, if they were being chased by wild banshee saxophones. [Oct 2022, p.90]

Hozier's audacity can feel outsized and overbearing, but his tandem of earnestness and eccentricity here is more winning than not. [Sep 2023, p.91]

A beautifully poised collection of deep, off-kilter, quasi techno and smudged ambient. [Aug 2024, p.87]

End Beginnings can fill rooms - but is equally devastating on headphones. [May 2025, p.91]

Litle Feat aren't reinventing the wheel here, but the one they have still works just fine. [Jun 2025, p.87]

Yildirim's group put the focus on melody, instrumental prowess and the melancholy in her voice. [Aug 2025, p.83]

The songs here are among his most direct and fully focused. [Oct 2025, p.81]

If Come Closer occasionally strays into the arena of techno-hippy (admittedly a compliment on the siren-squall of Ring The Alarm), the duo provide enough incentives to keep you there quite happily for a while. [Jun 2026, p.90]

With producer Danger Mouse's nuanced psychedelic rock and soul backdrops, scintillating pop music with substance results. [May 2008, p.103]

It's a dream, this pop. [Nov 2011, p.100]

The ballads bewitch, reminding us that Tracey is one of the unique British voices, up there with Dusty. [Apr 2007, p.100]

The whole sprawl of tooting loops, sawing violins and Pallett's unlovely operatic warbling feels gruelling and indigestible - prog stodge in a dashing post millennial disguise. [Feb 2010, p. 93]

In all, a tad more mannered and staid than you'd expect from these former experimentalists. [Mar 2013, p.94]

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

All in all, the Monkeys' sixth long-player is a bold move. [Jun 2018, p.95]

There are times on Bunny when Dear doesn't stray far from the hypnotic, hedonistic mood that underpins his dancefloor moniker, Audion. ... But Bunny really shows its teeth on Can You Rush Them. A smouldering, malevolent breakbeat stomp, its exhortation to "take back the streets" hints at America's political turmoil. [Nov 2018, p.86]

An uncomfortable yet rewarding listen. [Dec 2006, p.110]

It features the Bright Eyes/Desaparecidos frontman alone with piano, harmonica and guitar, putting down songs never quite intended as an album. This sparseness means that the focus on Oberst is tight--maybe too tight. [Nov 2016, p.90]

[The] band's fine third album. [May 2018, p.92]

A musical sub-genre rebooted. [May 2009, p.104]

Hugely enjoyable, with nagging tunes too, but let's move forward next time. [Mar 2009, p.106]

Some career-catchiest tunes and a lively self-production make Sing an absolute triumph in repositioning. [Mar 2020, p.91]

There are featureless patches, bits of white-box real-estate that need a little more character, but there's always something intriguing around V's corners. [Apr 2023, p.89]

In a life of perpetual motion, Perils From The Sea provides a vital forward thrust. [Jul 2013, p.86]

Early Riser is a special album that pulls you deep into its alternative universe. [Aug 2014, p.92]

Neilson's own reedy but elemental voice is the perfect foil to this, and the myriad musical ideas are nailed down by classic, disciplined songwriting. [May 2009, p.108]

The album follows a North American folk linage from Jean Ritchie and Hedy West through to the present, via the chugging, churning electronic (folk) rock of The Velvet Underground, all the time infused with a joyous communal warmth. [Nov 2012, p.85]

In general the Heaton touchstones are all present here--shortage of definite articles, politics, wrinkles, a rockabilly number--with an energy and a sly melodic wit which puts Crooked Calypso up with his best work. [Sep 2017, p.90]

These are exotic lullabies which, superficial cosiness notwithstanding, lead only to nocturnal anxiety. [Apr 2018, p.91]

What's compelling is the precision and control of her voice, moving from a whisper to a scream on tracks like Broken Rib, or the industrial glam stomp rocker No Good For People. Lyrically, too, she has honed her songwriting skill. [Oct 2025, p.93]

Less chaotic and parochial, more serene and accessible, but no less magical. [May 2005, p.96]

At her new best, Peyroux sings as elegantly as Peggy Lee and writes lines bearing the downbeat clarity of Leonard Cohen. [Apr 2009, p.98]

Its 11 new originals that wouldn't sound out of place on country radio or in a roadhouse in the '50s and '60s. [Jul 2013, p.92]

It's something of a revelation. [Apr 2017, p.97]

With both McGovern's baritone soul-mining and Damien Tuit's mercurial six-string electrifying throughout, Blindness should rightly see these Irishmen advance to the Premier Division. [Apr 2025, p.83]

On In Circles, with its plangent, Yan Tiersen-style piano, something wonderful happens--a feeling of limitlessness opening up. [Jun 2015, p.89]

Listener as shrink? A bit, but you'll be happy to attend E's chaise longue. [Mar 2013, p.86]