An intense, trip-hoppy and orchestral examination of love in all its forms. [Dec 2020, p.88]

La Havas sets herself apart from the coffee shop set with a rough-hewn edge. [Aug 2012, p.92]

It's a free-wheeling surge of glitchy beats and fizzing, ravey energy, with the wobbly UK garage underpinnings of Echo Party a notable standout. [Oct 2022, p.86]

An album that values discreet whimsy over Wicker Man portent, it succeeds on its own puckish terms. [Sep 2007, p.109]

Intriguer may be more route one than 1993's mighty, loose-limbed "Together Alone," but it is classic Crowded House, and greater for it. [Jul 2010, p.97]

The definitive elements of this bijou gem are the author's own. [Dec 2015, p.86]

[A] blissful orchestral new age soundscapes, to suggest lapping waves on late summer beaches with just the occasional cloud of gloomy dissonance to add to that authentic 2016 holiday experience. [Nov 2016, p.91]

Dense of riff and melody but not crassly anthemic, their sledgehammer euphoria is Kyuss gone monster trucking. [Dec 2010, p.97]

There is a slight trophy cupboard quality to Ronson's accumulation of contributors but the conception, if not the feeling, is impeccable as ever. [Jul 2019, p.93]

Suggests a majestic, exquisitely desolate mix of Isis and My Bloody Valentine.[Aug. 2011, p. 106]

When the jokes stop... the relentless cantering pace and slightly predictable pedal steel accoutrements that characterise the bulk of the material here can struggle to hold your attention. [Mar 2006, p.92]

Mellencamp croaks a sequence of raw, all but nihilistic yet far from self-pitying first-person tales about, well, death mainly, leavened by the odd rather forlorn reference to the life, love and freedom elements of the title. [Nov 2008, p.111]

As lush, escapist pop, Waiting On A Song is a triumph. [Jul 2017, p.90]

Disillusion and disappointment have become fuel for creation, not self-immolation; second-guessing has been replaced by first-hand emotion. ... For the first time in a while -- that The Strokes shouldn't be gearing up for goodbye. [May 2020, p.86]

This is one heck of a wild and beautiful ride. [Apr 2015, p.89]

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

Greater prominence to the duo's quavering vocals, though, isn't quite as satisfying. In the long term, more jam and less song might just be their best strategy. [May 2019, p.95]

It's pleasant enough, it hardly transcendent, and feels--whisper it--ever so slightly old fashioned. [Feb 2017, p.95]

A stopgap isn't quite what The Hold Steady need right now, but as a holding exercise it's hard to fault. [Sep 2019, p.89]

Kaleidoscopic yet reassuringly familiar to '80s indie fans. [Apr 2015, p.98]

It's Numbers that punches hardest, it's compassionate message about the futility of measuring ourselves against others deftly handled. [Apr 2021, p.86]

This extended family Sunn))))/Boris supergroup opt for cross-referenced influences. [Apr 2013, p.98]

There's a wit, charisma and individuality at play that lends teeth to Rilo Kiley's tasteful alt country/indie-rock sound. [Mar 2005, p.104]

It is his most facinating, and bewildering, record to date. [Jan 2008, p.104]

Not Pet Shop Boys in highest definition, Hotspot still provides a vivid panorama of their world. [Mar 2020, p.86]

He's got the lovesick blues, but his offering are not of the Hank Williams kind rather they are pages ripped from a personal diary. This could all add up to something of a drag were it not for Stamey's ability to tug at the heart-strings. [Mar 2013, p.87]

While Rock Or Bust doesn't come close to that benchmark [1980's Back In Black], nor does it disgrace Young's legacy. [Jan 2015, p.95]

The thrilling sound of these enthused new voyagers is equal parts sweetness and butchery. [Aug 2014, p.94]

Another album big on willful naivete and arrangements so pretty they make Belle & Sebastian sound like Finnish black metal. [Jun 2013, p.86]

It's all 13 minutes of Bobletekno on which the full glory of Thomas's talent is unfurled, a cosmic-disco blueprint of bubbling counter-melodies, whoosing handclaps and trippy, dippy synths. [Dec 2012, p.94]

Often you wonder exactly what you're hearing; you just know you haven't heard it before. [Aug 2020, p.87]

It's like watching people chuck matches into a box of fireworks: sparks everywhere, but - excitingly, frustratingly - you're never sure where they're going to land. [Aug 2021, p.80]

Love Chant might also be described as scrappy, vulnerable and heartfelt, but it is also loose, exuberant and animated in a manner that seems faithful to who Dando is today. [Nov 2025, p.84]

Sounds reassuringly expensive. ... Decent instrumental takes on Lao Schifrin's The Cat plus Fiona Apple's elegant Don't Worry 'Bout Me make this more than the stocking-filler that won't unnerve Aunt Norah. [Jan 2020, p.90]

There's no doubt Mackenzie Scott never stops moving here, switching between gothic sway, grungy stomp and electro-pop gyration, but it can make it hard to catch her eye in a meaningful way. [Mar 2024, p.86]

This set is more ambitious, sometimes bonkers [than his previous two albums]. [Jun 2016, p.91]

Overall, it's the sound of a band rejuvenated. [May 2024, p.84]

His own three songs blend in nicely. [Apr 2006, p.90]

A hypnotic and original treat, an utterly timeless futurist retro symphony. [Jan 2008, p.100]

Palme finds Arnalds in fresh, electronically enhanced surroundings. [Nov 2014, p.96]

That Cambodian rock band with a repertoire of the most obscure covers have grown up--and no snakes were harmed in the making of this album.

Charmingly wobbly Edwyn Collins-produced debut. [Dec 2017, p.96]

A career-builder, if not a game-changer. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Love Your Dum And Mad [is] a piercingly direct seduction of the senses. [Aug 2013, p.88]

Those inimitable Laibach humours look set to endure. [Apr 2014, p.92]

A brace of curiously tuneful, bluesy-psych pop songs. [Apr 2013, p.98]

This treads similar terrain [to 2016's Last Days Of Oakland], burrowing into Delta blues, weaving in elements of Leadbelly, Prince-style funk and hip-hop loops. [Jul 2018, p.96]

Gallipoli, recorded in Berlin and Puglia, is oddly unmoving, lacking range for all its seductive picturesque roaming. [Mar 2019, p.96]

Ultimately, it's the push and pull between Duncan Bellamy's mantric hang-drums and Jack Wyllie's floating sax lines that ensure these widescreen creations feel so vividly full of life. [Dec 2021, p.89]

There is a pinch of prog too, manifested in kaleidoscopic intricacy rather than anything unnecessarily tricksy - their sound remains muscular and funky. [Feb 2010]

Might well be their strongest, most brain-mulching statement to date. [Aug. 2011, p. 106]

Musically, it's a radical rethink. [May 2019, p.89]

The effect is memorable. [Oct 2012, p.91]

Mess's crepuscular predecessor felt both more innovative, and more likely to open up Liars' demographic. [Apr 2014, p.92]

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

A touch of feyness lingers. Not much, though. [Feb 2016, p.95]

Louris and company have created a soothing balm for overly neurotic and trying times. [Sep 2018, p.89]

There's more to the differences between the two versions, however, than a valve amp versus the original's solid state, with over 30 years of musicianship and experience bringing the songs up to modern speed. [Sep 2018, p.92]

More tension in the style of Fumbling Prayer's churchy organ and escalating coda might have widened Unfurl's visceral impact, but as music-for-bedroom goes, Ry X is king. [Mar 2018, p.91]

It's a challenging listen, but more exhilarating than pretentious. [Dec 2019, p.95]

The album is diverse: lovers rock meets gospel hymnals and Parisian waltz-dirges. [Feb 2020, p.94]

Their penchant for bold riffs and big climaxes comes with little individual grandstanding. [Nov 2022, p.91]

Margo's deep, stentorian tones have remained almost unchanged since 1986's Whites Off Earth Now!! and Hell Is Real could have graced that LP. Even so, there's real evolution. [Jul 2023, p.84]

Don't head here for untrammelled novelty, but Idlewild is a record worthy of the name. [Nov 2025, p.89]

It's the quality of the material--not just the three vocal takes each by Jack White and Norah Jones, but also the supple and atmospheric instrumental interludes-- that elevates Rome beyond Pastiche and into the realm of cinematic enchantment. [May 2011, p.105]

Rocky bests every beat thrown at him. [Apr 2013, p.94]

It's a little too long to sustain its fetid boudoir ambience; but that aside, this remains a deep red velvet swoon of an album. [Jan 2003, p.93]

Aural absinthe. [Jul 2003, p.115]

The surface mayhem actually masks an admirable craft. [Aug 2004, p.96]

The recorded-live-by-candlelight performances documented herein aren't short on the kind of clamorous foreboding and twisted pop nous a fan of Disintegration or The Head On The Door might hope for. [Aug 2004, p.87]

They sound great on it. [Aug 2003, p.90]

Sometimes their brutish irreverence works.... But Audio Bullys' vignettes of suburban lad-life can't quite equal Mike Skinner's deft way with a lyric. [Jul 2003, p.106]

They've got groove, feeling, and they regurgitate these moods and riffs with the same gleeful spirit as did the people they're nicking 'em from. [Aug 2003, p.99]

Ratchets up the accessibility quotient considerably. [Nov 2004, p.102]

These tracks feel more like intimate conversations, with Allen's boundless curiosity shining through. [Jun 2021, p.82]

A "rumination on life and death," which suitably chimed with earth's current 'end times' vibe, from sorrow to rage, elevated by post-rock's most luminescent guitars. [Oct 2023, p.88]

Any suggestion of sameness is speedily erased by Alexandra Eastburn's arsenal of skewed electronic embellishments and the breathless exuberance the group bring to the party. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Garbage haven't released an album this immediate, melodically strong and thematically interesting since their self-titled 1995 debut. [Jul 2016, p.91]

Listeners long-attuned to Gordon's avant excursions will find much here that satisfies. [Oct 2013, p.94]

While Bo Ningen often sound like they're flailing with chaotic abandon, the might of tracks like DaDaDa proves they also respect tension and restraint. [Jun 2014, p.88]

Their best album in 30 years. [Dec 2014, p.92]

There are a lot of moments when - sleeves rolled up, top button undone - it sounds as if they're pouring out their hearts to the same bartender as The National. When they get the detailing right, though, it flies. [Jul 2020, p.78]

This lavish song cycle, embarcing intricate choral, chamber and post-rock passages, is the feted US/Australian ensemble's first non-instrumental album. [Jul 2010, p.95]

On tracks such as The Day That The Earth Stalled and The Resist Stance, frontman and sometimes professor palaeontology Greg Graffin's folkish lilt and incisive anti-capitalist lyrics ensure Bad Religion never become cartoonish, while guitarist and label owner Brett Gureqitz's frenzied soloing reminds that after 30 years Bad Religion still strive to show those bands who are half their age--and twice as wealthy--how it is really done. [Nov 2010, p.110]

Nothing Special sometimes swims so far out of focus that it's difficult to share Sheff's vision, while at other times it surges and soars towards everything that was fascinating about Okkervil River. [Nov 2022, p.84]

The space disco of 'I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)' and Listen To Your Body Tonight' are destines for repeat plays on this summer's festival circuit. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Ambitious but muddled, throughout they veer from awful to the gently compelling. [Apr 2016, p.86]

He's never met a supernatural entity he can't pair with thumping darktronica and stalking rock guitar - weeping Ghost, Vampire's Touch, Skeleton - but it's done with a fabulously cold touch. [Mar 2021, p.89]

An album that sounds effortless, but at times almost dissyingly diverse--imagine The White Album, but made by happy people. [May 2006, p.96]

He's beautifully world-weary in songs such as 'Valley of the Low Sun' and 'Will it Grow.' [Sep 2008, p.102]

The project pushes him into new and different directions, with beat band ballast ('Ate It Twice'), horn-laded soul ('Ready To Pop'), orchestral gloom (the title tracks) and pleasingly weird mini-epics ('Still In Rome'). [Oct 2008]

Canadian power-poppers celebrate hyper-melodic 20th birthday. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]

If 2017's Hard Love overreached, Eraserland is a successful recalibration. [Apr 2019, p.91]

An admirably impassioned return. [Mar 2012, p.92]

He [Luke Younger] has blended ghost-echoes of dub, techno, and house to oddly sounding effect. [Aug 2015, p.95]

These are superior soundtracks for sure, but just a little low on levity. [Dec 2016, p.93]

His latest sounds like the product of a much-needed rethink, bracketed by two cosmically speculating slowies: the opening, sparkling title track documents its author's self-fulfilling quest to mine a deeper instinctual creativity, while closer No Man's Land has a wide-eyed romanticism, evoking Mercury Rev. [May 2018, p.93]

Matt Berninger walks a distinguished line between control and catharsis, with only occasional collapses (Graceless, for example), but when the music falls away during Bloodbuzz Ohio, you hear a band carried on by both the roar of the crowd and the structural might of their songwriting. [Jan 2025, p.83]