The most fun comes, unsurprisingly, on the funkier first side. [Jul 2018, p.93]

The result is the Foos' finest since There Is Nothing Left To Lose. [Aug 2023, p.82]

While Linkous’s tendencies to smudge and collapse his songs are apparent – not least the atmospheric disturbance of antique hymn O Child – so too is his generosity of songwriting spirit, positioning the bleakest sentiments in dynamic, questioning music.

Emotionally speaking, however, Merritt has recreated an inner life that sound agonisingly real. [Apr 2017, p.94]

It's a subtly sophisticated piece, but it also creates space for Sanders to showcase his tender, measured, lyrical phrasing, abstracted scatting and, 34 minutes into this 46-minute marvel a brief sputtering blast of free saxophone energy that proves, at 80, his fire remains potent. [May 2021, p.87]

It sets the same intense listening pace as XTC, Jim O'Rourke or second-act Black Country, New Road. Amid the coiled violence (In The Blink Of An Eye) and brutalist romance (One Night) lie moments of pastoral loveliness. [May 2026, p.86]

A series of near-overwhelming musical epiphanies. [Jul 2018, p.94]

With Halycon Digest, Deerhunter are dealing in an altogether different kind of tension. [Oct. 2010, p. 90]

Witty, touching, adored by everyone from Bjork to to Jon Snow; the wait is over. [Oct 2011, p.100]

There are some beauties here. [Aug 2015, p.91]

Up close and uncompromising, Exodus Of Venus elevates Cook into the top echelon of Nashville's new breed, an all-too-rare female voice among a a largely make elite. [Oct 2016, p.95]

Laveaux may have set out to rediscover Caribbean roots, but she also underlines how much the islands influenced the early rock'n'roll and soul that emanated from New Orleans ... but with the modernist sheen of France's A.L.B.E.R.T production team. [Apr 2018, p.94]

The result is brooding, often humorous musing on life, joy, occasionally death. ... But it's tender love song Mary, with its meandering sax, that stops you. [Feb 2023, p.92]

The stylistic shifts and sheer quality of the songwriting make Fever Longing Still almost the perfect Paul Kelly album. [Dec 2024, p.93]

Tuneful ’60s folk-rockers Lucky #8 and Mary Miracle raise the tempo while closer Fractal Canyon is a joyful epiphany of redemption. [Feb 2025, p.84]

Futire-proof and intense, this is art-jazz-rock at its most cathartic. [Nov 2025, p.86]

Celebrates the little people with full powerpop majesty. [Jul 2003, p.108]

It's remarkable how organic and right (as opposed to gimmicky) the church voices sound on these 14 melodic folk, spare soul and various-tempo blues songs. [Apr 2006, p.98]

Only on the title track's cavernous '80s-era bass synths does Jaar come close to being conventional. [Apr 2011, p.105]

The inventiveness on display is undeniably impressive, but the process sometimes hides a little too much of the artist behind it. [Nov 2022, p.86]

It's all propelled by an energy exclusive to debut albums, the five-piece pulsing with post-punk fervour. [May 2019, p.89]

Inescapably, Losing My Edge is the best thing here, yet happily Murphy has more than one trick up his stylish sleeve. [Feb 2005, p.101]

An album that ranks among his finest work, not just for its strident messages of hope, but also for simply possessing such a high quotient of unimpeachable songs. [Jun 2017, p.84]

This is groundling rock at its finest. [Dec 2017, p.103]

If nothing else, this yearning, realpolitik-infused road movie of an album is one to point to the next time somebody pronounces there are no decent protest songs any more. [Mar 2017, p.92]

Some of the vocal processing, though pushed to the extreme, will be a little familiar to Bon Iver fans/sceptics. Persevere, though, and yet more classic Low songs emerge from the post-apocalyptic murk. [Oct 2018, p.87]

Diverse yet cohesive. [Jan 2016, p.96]

William Bell has forgotten nothing, it seems, least of all how to make wonderful, eternal soul music. [Aug 2016, p.88]

This is affectingly intimate. [May 2021, p.83]

Without making concessions, she's delivered her most accessible album yet, perhaps even her best. [Jun 2022, p.84]

In all, another most welcome Delivery from the Antipodes. [Feb 2025, p.84]

A deeply satisfying tribute to a great lost talent. [Oct 2025, p.90]

As closing track Assagasswar fades out, we are left with a synthetic breeze, the sound of the 21st century Sahara. [Feb 2026, p.89]

No Name is a much more nuanced record, more of a piece with White’s entire varied discography, than it might have first appeared.

Far from being a doomfest, the music is quite beautiful. [Oct 2005, p.114]

A free-floating space jazz run at Joni & Mingus's Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is typical of his approachable fusion. [May 2020, p.96]

There's no arguing with craftsmanship like this. [Jul 2017, p.88]

Alternative views of some other well-known songs affirm Petty's fundamental strengths as a composer and the Heartbreakers' interpretive flexibility. [Oct 2018, p.98]

This brilliant, complex and surprising piece proves to be no exercise in getting to know them better. [Oct 2012, p.82]

Today it sounds quintessentially McCartney. [Jun 2012, p.100]

An attractive ad hoc vibe pervades these seven longish songs, partially recorded live: a DIY futurism, all tinfoil and stick-backed plastic, that harks back to Pulp's early '90s. [Jun 2020, p.92]

Old and new, sweet and sharp, Welcome strangers holds you in an ambiguous, but utterly enchanting, embrace. [Jun 2018, p.90]

Ford still has a country rasp to her voice, but doesn't over-sing, and her method of expressing emotion is deft rather than melodramatic. she can build up power, too. [Mar 2020, p.87]

The overall message is of gentle positivity. [Nov 2020, p.80]

It’s this ease and connection that gives When I’m Called its cumulative power. [Aug 2024, p.86]

LP1 is a hugely self-possessed debut, the work of an artist whose vision--not only her visual sense--is strong. [Sep 2014, p.89]

Nourishing batch of beat collages. [May 2021, p.88]

Seductive, stirring songs about crushed hope and the corruption of beauty and some of their most ambitious arrangements make this their most fully-realised and accomplished album yet. [Mar 2003, p.98]

Good album, clever guy. [Jun 2011, p.100]

Matt Maltese's second album persists with velveteen schmaltzy AOR; like yacht rock on a budget. His graceful croon, though, is more jaded this time, combining with the hollowed-out production for a deluxe dose of remorse. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Occasionally, they favour the billowy and formless- Waving A Whit Flag goes nowhere, albeit moodily - but their best tracks showcase Yorke's song most transparently; Panavision and Free In the Knowledge are two of his loveliest in years. [Jul 2022, p.90]

The Shaggs couldn't play, they could barely sing and their songs are rudimentary, but you won't hear many records with such heartfelt authenticity of feeling. [Oct 2016, p.107]

It's a miracle that anyone can sustain such quality songwriting over such a prolific output. [Apr 2025, p.83]

We should've seen this one coming. And still it's a gut punch. [Sep 2018, p.89]

10 of the funkiest tracks Dr. John's been involved in since the '70s. [May 2012, p.93]

The ballads confirm that she was singing better than ever. [Dec 2017, p.88]

Earle has let the spook out of the closet, so he can bare his spiritual chest (as it were) with a Lennonesque honesty and a vocal delivery that increasingly resembles Tom Petty's sub-Dylan sneer.

Conjunto, corrido and jazz emerge from and mingle with R&B and pop as the band follow the story from innocent beginnings to the tragic, bitter end. [Jul 2005, p.98]

His delievry now possesses a wry, self-deprecating warmth which, along with Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker's unobtrusive production, suggests a man coming to terms with it all and who realises he's as much a part of this mess as anyone. [Sep 2008, p.110]

A relentless, unstoppable beast of screeching, pounding ascendancy. [Mar 2012, p.97]

The Beta Band made some dazzling music throughout their seven-year lifespan. [Nov 2013, p.101]

This intimate, intelligent album boasts that rarest quality in 21st century rock music: inimitability. [Mar 2014, p.89]

#7885 is an ideal primer for the curious previously cowed by their considerable legacy. [Aug 2014, p.102]

With these selections long-time Arkestra saxophonist Marshall Allen proves himself an excellent guide. [Oct 2014, p.105]

Completists will enjoy having the single edits of many tracks and the sound is sparklingly good. [Jan 2015, p.112]

Moran builds on the foundation of the stride of king's eclectic, joint-jumping oeuvre. [Jan 2015, p.94]

Fish is Chapman still pushing out the boat and long may he sail. [Nov 2015, p.86]

The result is an album that goes far beyond emulation or pastiche to capture the emotional heart of a strange and elusive film, soaring from rapturous highs to quiet, introspective lows, vital romantic life undercut by a melancholy twilight sadness. [Apr 2018, p.89]

Daytona stands loud and proud among Pusha T's best work. [Aug 2018, p.91]

This lavish 36-track celebration doesn't settle for just reheating the best bits, cheerily omitting anything from Kamasi Washington's jazz clarion call The Epic, while proffering 22 new tracks that flaunt its roster's strength in depth. [Jan 2019, p.105]

His most complete artistic statement to date. [Dec 2019, p.93]

Profligate, self-indulgent and, against all oddly, hugely satisfying. ... [The single-disc] Sampler Edition is a handy 58-minute entry point to the mad endeavour. [Dec 2019, p.90]

Shah's voice throughout is fantastic, carrying and castigating her listeners along with her, while her brilliant band nails radio-friendly rock, swirling 4AD-style gothic atmospheres, and perfect post-punk attack. [Jul 2020, p.82]

Richly textured, panoramic celebration of the natural world. [Oct 2020, p.87]

This is an inspired set that reveals new ways of hearing pop classics. [Mar 2023, p.84]

It's the small, tragic details you notice on TLROE. [Jun 2023, p.84]

Further enriched by the palate of Fratti’s cello and Tosta’s brass, Sentir… is an extraordinarily possessed, uncanny world of its own. [Aug 2024, p.83]

Recorded in a single night, this light-touch meld of jazz, ambient, post-rock and hip-hop sensibilities find its players intertwined like tangled wires. [Jan 2025, p.82]

Colossal. [Apr 2025, p.85]

Fourteen tracks long, The Road... is almost overwhelming, like overdosing on chocolate truffles, but even after all this time, Philippe's compositions are only getting stronger. [Jun 2025, p.89]

Her voice is as earnestly soulful as Tracy Chapman, as deep and characterful as Nina Simone - and, like Simone, when the emotion engulfs her, the results are electrifying. [Sep 2025, p.87]

The shadowy melodies of New Case and Forgotten Token, a pulverising meditation on displacement, display a depth and sophistication suggesting greatness in Upchuck's future, if the dystopia doesn't get them first. [Jan 2026, p.84]

Van's back, lending vocals to Ain't That A trip, a joyous R&B number that provides one of many highpoints on Hunter's eleventh album. [Jan 2026, p.86]

What matters is that Harding remains a fascinating songwriting provocateur, preternaturally discipline, but able to trip emotional wires you might not even know you had. [Jun 2026, p.82]

After a few spins its beautifully arranged songs get scratched into your soul. [Jun 2007, p.100]

By combining the searing intimacy of a boombox-constructed mixtape with progressive and delirious bars, Earl's third album offers a rare kind of insight, sagacious from a 24-year-old. [Mar 2019, p.80]

The result is Gorillaz's most ambitious (and moving) record to date. [Apr 2026, p.84]

It cannot have been a paucity of good songs, strong playing or contemporary production values that was the problem, the 13 hitherto unheard tracks on Wings of Love stunningly illustrate. [May 2013, p.102]

From experimental to twisted pop, drill to R&B, techno to Ambient, James draws a precise and brilliant musical Venn diagram. [Jul 2021, p.87]

The Twilight Sad’s first album since reducing to founding duo James Graham and Andy MacFarlane yields the most powerful version of the band’s cathartic soundworld. [May 2026, p.92]

The past might be intoxicating, but The Candle And The Flame - lucid, conversational, immediate - is beautifully present in its moment. [Mar 2023, p.84]

The tunes are still naggingly memorable, but often less convivial, more melancholy. [Feb 2022, p.86]

The Detroit duo spin sordid tales and lovelorn drama with just the right amount of restrained percussion, blooze picking and screaming confessionals. [Sep 2001, p.93]

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

Very sad and very beautiful. [Apr 2011, p.100]

It’s the surprisingly light touch of the booming bass that gets you on 100% Samba; Rio De Janeiro A Janeiro, meanwhile, reminds you that Verocai grew up on the progressive rock that percolated through Brazil in the late 1960s. Long may they keep collaborating. [Jan 2025, p.87]

American Dream feels like a strong re-statement of what they do, and what they can mean, a record that, despite its fear of death, feels very much alive. [Oct 2017, p.86]

There are startling moments: the title track’s D&D blues-rock, for example, The Groundhogs doing The Tempest in a nasty basement; or Juvenile’s ice-rink keyboards, McCombs ennobling and mocking adolescence (“You suck/I suck/Primus sucks”). Other songs, though, creep up more subtly, such as Miss Mabee’s Elliott Smith hush, or Peace’s heartbreaking Go-Betweens valediction. [Sep 2025, p.80]