Much of Hum has a brooding, measured Nick Drake-ish intensity, driven by fast, intricate folky picking. [Sep 2020, p.92]

Feels out of reach, as if shrouded in gauze. ... This may coalesce in a live setting. [Mar 2021, p.85]

Scintillating electronics that line-up nicely with the space pulsations of Terry Riley, Cluster, or 9coincidence?) Matthew Bower's Sunroof! [Jul 2021, p.90]

All told, an uproarious upgrade on the garage bashfest. [Dec 2022, p.86]

Warren's razor-sharp lyricism - and her ability to deliver hard truths and cold comforts s gracefully - ensure Lessons For Mutants is endlessly compelling. [Dec 2022, p.85]

Deer Tick impress with their pop nous and sheer verve. [Aug 2023, p.81]

Parr's front porch vocals and mesmerising guitar pickings mingle with mouth harp, backing vocals, piano, electric guitar and fiddle on an album full of wonder and love for the unloved. He really should invite friends round more often. [May 2024, p.91]

Viva Lone Justice reminds us of all that made the original line-up special. [Dec 2024, p.92]

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]

This album is brazenly in hock to the shoulder pad decade. Its telegraphed choruses will not be denied. [Jun 2015, p.88]

The effect is a bit like pleasantly nodding off to a Mazzy Star record and, like the smoke off the titular post-coital gaspers, the intoxicating atmosphere lingers long after the tracks have played out. [Sep 2017, p.88]

The interplay between Stephen McBean's laconic drawl and Amber Webber's gothic-tinged wail remains their secret weapon, lending a lean bite to this hefty psychedelic behemoth. [May 2016, p.93]

Smile finds them advancing that set melodic agenda and playful rearrangement of classic rock DNA. [June 2008, p.109]

In reconnecting with the guileless, tribal chaos of their roots, Animal Collective have made another delirious and ecstatic step forward. [Oct 2012, p.87]

Never one for youthful giddiness, her third album is strikingly authoritative, tending towards the imperious even when expressing vulnerability yet rarely coming over as soullessly efficient.

A queasy heat seeps into the Sonic Youth hiss and clang of My Little Tony, Jelsy's Bad Seeds metallic thrum and Shoo's slow, high plains drift. [Dec 2023, p.94]

They're still at their best on offbeat musings. [May 2009, p.101]

The group takes aim at the deadening effect of copywriting, the need for bands to "have so many things to sell you" and the conspicuous tastefulness of some online music fans. Unsubtle but often archly funny, this commentary goes down easier thanks to a melodically complex tunefulness that consistently serve up gems. [May 2024, p.82]

[The Inevitable End] overflows with regret and sorrow. [Dec 2014, p.96]

Beyond the dirty talk, this is a beautifully balanced record. [Sep 2009, p.94]

Still very much on the cerebral side of math-pop, Joan Of Arc have rarely sounded so open and welcoming. [Feb 2003, p.91]

Those all curious about CocoRosie should begin here. [Jun 2013, p.88]

The album is at its rawest and most dynamic on such garage tracks as I Gotta Get Shorty Out Of Jail and One-Eyed Jack. [Aug 2012, p.90]

Ultimately The Sea And Cake are just making timeless, faultless pop music.

A joyful, celebratory affair. [Apr 2014, p.92]

Elaborate motorik grooves, dense, post-rock complexity and intricate electronic experimentalism. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Her laconic, absurdist humour gently inflects each track, even when she is singing about intense paranoia and loss. [Dec 2018, p.90]

Wriggins remains his own elusive self, his songs forever moving between the prosaic and the ecstatic. [Sep 2022, p.89]

With smart synths and Young's wry lyricism ensuring a contemporary edge to their retro-leanings, Combat Sports is fizzy fun that won't rot your teeth. [May 2018, p.91]

Such a bad idea. Such a stunning result. [Mar 2008, p.114]

Immensely satisfying. [Jul 2013, p.92]

The result is an unusual and likeable mix of country rock, rockabilly and excellent ballads. [Nov 2007, p.102]

Although it's his longest, it's arguably his least ambitious. [Dec 2012, p.84]

If the original Assault on Precinct 13 soundtrack had been made by a time-shifted Let's Dance Bowie, you'd be most-way there. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

For once, such a retrogressive and deconstructive approach is strangely thrilling. [May 2009, p.104]

After nearly two decades, this man and this woman still turn heads. [Apr 2009, p.100]

2 is the sound of war, famine and pestilence wiith a spoonful of sexual frustration; often silly but always fun. [Jul 2011, p.106]

They've created a splendidly polite fusion of Fleetwood Mac and the Cocteau Twins. [Sep 2013, p.86]

It's dense and intense digital compositions enter your headspace with stealth or, at other times, occupy it with an assault of breathless beats. [Feb 2017, p.95]

Legendary US photographer employs Korg synths, piano on Home-recorded improvs and covers. [Dec 2017, p.96]

The pick of the Lou-less numbers are Dear Heartbreaker, a marching homage to Tom Petty, and the shuffling, Springsteen-lite Pretty Soon. But the Reed/Lofgren songs muscle their way to the top of the pile. [Jul 2019, p.94]

Gene is not restful, but it displays impressive commitment to following the whorls and helixes of its inner logic. [May 2020, p.86]

Refining rather than redefining. [Jun 2020, p.91]

The arrangements sound less finessed, less "performed" and more file-shared this time out, and you sense Patient Number 9 has known corrective surgery. The great man's ongoing rage against the dying of the light still as its triumphs, though. [Oct 2022, p.85]

While the odd misstep lurks, longueurs are few and far between, the skippy guitar figure of Nightcrawler and creeping tension of Wide I's scaling harmonic heights against the odds, recalling early millennial triumphs Double Figure and Spokes. [Jan 2023, p.86]

Pedal steel still colours Safe To Run but so do fuzzier guitars; synthesizers are involved, and tributaries are equally pop, folk and rock. [Jun 2023, p.86]

The Kills sound and feel like no other band--nocturnal, wayout, untouchable. [Apr 2008, p.100]

On its own perhaps a little on the skinny side for a new Oneida full-length, but as an appetiser ffor the triptych's next instalment--due early next year--this'll work just fine for now. [Sep 2008, p.102]

A venomous, scabrous, often hilarious protest record, full of ramshackle blues, stinging garage-rock and the occasional brawny hardcore pelt. [Oct 2018, p.93]

Though lacking the infernal dynamics of 2009's Farm, there remains sufficient compensation to delight Dino devotees. [Oct 2012, p.88]

It's song-setting, rather than scene-stealing. [Dec 2014, p.86]

Their mellowest ever high. [Oct 2015, p.92]

Beginners is less rip-it-up statement than subtle realignment; less countrified and polished, more folky and sparse. [Jul 2020, p.80]

Resonant and bittersweet, dreamily electronic. [Jun 2019, p.96]

This, then, is A-grade rock'n'roll--profound, damaged, brimming with wondrous dreams. [Jun 2009, p.104]

Intriguing ninth album from Sam Prekop's Chicagoan pop exoticists. [July 2011, p. 103]

Brakes give the likeable impression of being a jokey jamming session at a party that got out of hand. [Aug 2005, p.98]

His arch whimsy is solidly underpinned by simpatico, full-band arrangements and his keen nose for an idiosyncratic tune. [Dec 2013, p.86]

A compelling, if sometimes unsettling, time capsule. [Apr 2013, p.106]

The other peak performance is Longest Day Of The Year Blues, a deceptively languid doo wop ballad where the delicate tools that are Slade, Young and drummer Olly Joyce continue to punch well above their weight. [Feb 2014, p.94]

Blood Moon seems like Craft's real start, and one of the most exquisite soul-searching odysseys of this or any year. [Jul 2016, p.93]

A poised and expansive record. [Aug 2019, p.90]

The future and past collide throughout. [Aug 2013, p.91]

Multi-Love's frequently tremendous follow-up. [May 2018, p.92]

Though his nervy, nasal singing style can occasionally grate, the songs are redeemed by his breathtaking lyrical precision and eye for detail. [Oct 2006, p.103]

Forever Turned Around tows the if-it-ain't broke line, a choice justified by nuggets such as My Life Alone and Before I Know It. [Oct 2019, p.89]

Blk Jks's own voicee is utterly compelling. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Finally, a grown-up album from the oldest kid at the party. [Apr 2015, p.92]

The guitarist has made the best and most honest of his outside raids, freshening his classicism with a hard stare at payback and mortality. [Oct 2015, p.91]

Double Life, a thoughtful country-blues, is actually deeply touching, and Night At Lake Unknown is a soft, sweet Hank Williams Lament. the rest can be broadly summerised as Eeyore on Quaaludes. [Jun 2014, p.94]

Brit rapper Rodney Smith takes a big step towards national treasure status on sobering fifth album. [Oct 2011, p.99]

By the album's close, however, his vulnerability risks tipping over into maudlin self-pity. [Sep 2010, p.103]

His fifth album finds him digging into the C-60 funk box, and sometimes misplacing his wonderful strangeness in the process. [May 2011, p.104]

There's a formlessness to the greater endeavour that ensures it's somehow less than its constituent parts. Still, the likes of subterranean Latin shuffle American Reference possess an invention and mystery that makes this an endlessly fascinating place to get lost. [Apr 2025, p.84]

Whether it's the Damon Albarn-embellished Afro-pop of Pure Love or Buschtaxi's wonky take on reggaeton, delightful weirdness seeps from every pore. [May 2025, p.91]

EXPO's bleak outlook is explored inventively, live and electronic elements expertly collaged from an unpredictable sonic palette. [Mar 2026, p.81]

A better advert for time-share life it's hard to imagine. [Feb 2004, p.102]

There's a narcotic quality to these drifting ballads, one that perfectly suits these shell shocked, terrorised times. As the world gears up for the Apocalypse, I shall take comfort in Bavarian Fruit Bread -- a very haunting, beautiful record. [Nov 2001]

Deliriously provocative, Amnesiac is as splendidly other and awkward as its sister album. [Jul 2001, p.104]

For a rapper who has excelled in redefining the artform, The Life Of Pablo is a sprawling, uneven and curiously unfinished sounding affair with a dearth of recognisable bangers. Much less than the sum of its parts when stacked against the grandiloquent orchestral sweep of 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or pared-back abrasive aural sculpture of predecessor Yeezus, it suggests West is merely human after all.

Its music whose provenance is the dance floor, but steeped in emotional warmth. [Jul 2016, p.95]

An intimate, thematic country-blues-rock set. [Nov 2021, p.93]

Indigo Park finds Hornsby in a curiously reflective mood, singing about his past while touching upon many of his signature jazz-inflected idiosyncrasies. [May 2026, p.84]

There are some beautiful moments. [Apr 2006, p.94]

Cohen's sometimes overly mannered, Brett Anderson-echoing vocals won't be for everyone, but nevertheless this is a brave and absorbing statement. [Jun 2016, p.91]

Cupid Deluxe is wildly eclectic and nostalgic. [Jan 2014, p.97]

Cohen joined by bass, pedal steel, brushed drums, recorder, flute and violin. This, if anything, has made her songs stranger still, breathing life into the ghostly riddles of cold watchmen and voices from the forest and releasing them out into the corporal world. [Nov 2016, p.91]

The answers Wallumrod seeks may be out of reach but in the process of searching she has produced an album of disquieting power. [May 2016, p.90]

Not every number here reaches its perfection, but 'twas ever thus with the works of Raymond Douglas Davies; warts and all, and even the warts are interesting. [Dec 2007, p.109]

This imaginative collaboration reveals itself as a ghostly and brooding collection with a healthy dappling of rainbow-bright harmonies. [Apr 2018, p.89]

Less has become more for Richard Thompson. [Sep 2005, p.96]

McBean remains a fascinating prospect. [Apr 2006, p.100]

10 wistful, tender songs. [Feb 2014, p.98]

Blood and religion, sin and redemption are as key to Biram's music as country, punk, blues, spirituals and good-ol'-boy rock.... There's great examples here. [Mar 2014, p.91]

Dissolution doesn't break character, but there's a sharper focus to the writing--and more sweeping melodies. [Sep 2018, p.88]

Listen to Frances The Mute without any prog-induced prejudice... and it emerges as the triumphant sound of a band bound only by their imagination. [Apr 2005, p.86]

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

Their sun-baked, lyrically feverish chooglin' is more textured and melodic on these addictive new jams, ripe with Hammond-flavoured funkadelia and visionary gospel-prog. [May 2008, p.111]