GBV's only LP of 2013 and it's a good'un. [Jun 2013, p.95]

Cloaked in fuzzy melancholy, Fandango is one for dreamers. [Jun 2013, p.94]

This restless, marauding and cacophonous set captures these most musicianly of b-boys firmly on top of their game. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Though other instruments emerge from their corners their sparing deployments against Amidon's fragile voice lends them a far greater power, like vivid flourishes of colour in a starkly monochrome film. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Dogged by sub-standard productions and uneasy alliances, it's left to the RZA and Madlib's younger brother Oh No to partially save his bacon. [Jun 2013, p.89]

Silence Yourself demands you shut up and listen. Compliance is advised. [Jun 2013, p.87]

In its own way, Time is as pleasingly surprising as Bowie's re-emergence. [Jun 2013, p.86]

The ersatz '80s production, lyrical platitudes and soft focus atmospherics stray uncomfortably close to parody. [Jun 2013, p.85]

No one sounds like they are having much fun on this follow-up and his rearrangements of the classics on piano add nothing new to the songs. [Jun 2013, p.84]

Here comes irascible, unhousetrained indie-rock, laced with discord and lo-fi gnarl, yet thoroughly fresh and weirdly magnetic from start to finish. [Jun 2013, p.84]

The results are slightly uneven. [Jun 2013, p.89]

Nobody expected him, at 65, to be the street-walking cheetah of '73, rather just to raise his game, to try and bring that corrosive voice forward, commensurate with his age, the 2010s and, dammit, The Stooges. In short: he hasn't. [Jun 2013, p.87]

They might shake, they might tremble, but The National remain a safe pair of hands. [Jun 2013, p.86]

Cronin delvers timeless, classic pop that evades cliches. [Jun 2013, p.86]

If you crave that ineffable something Abba achieved, then it's only glimpsed here. [Jun 2013, p.84]

Both men have made better albums and Black Pudding sounds like a couple of guys too deferential to each other to actually raise a challenge and push a boundary or two. [Jun 2013, p.85]

Here and elsewhere, Vampire Weekend's growing self-assurance serves the needs of the song without playing to their perceived strengths. [Jun 2013, p.84]

It all amounts to Primal Scream's most satisfying album since Screamadelica, with something akin to maturity joining the still-vital urge to make transcendent noise. [Jun 2013, p.82]

There is a strange and gripping transport to be had in these imaginative flights concerning climbing Mount Everest, the Luftwaffe-bashing Spitfire, and in the Kraftwerk-in-a-garden-shed bango clap-along ROYGIV.[May 2013, p.85]

With electronic ace Ben frost's eerily beautiful final chapter is the perfect soundtrack for a dinner party to which only Ed Gein, Jack London and Catherine The Great are invited. [May 2013, p.94]

For reggae fans of a certain vintage, This Generation will rule the nation. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Something of a disappointment after 2008's Pot Of Gold. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Praxis achieves the tricky balancing act between playful and poignant. [May 2013, p.90]

Akron/Family's seventh album proffers 10 diversely arranged slabs of leftfield clamour, all of them shot through with a contrasting pop-classicist melodic sensibility. [May 2013, p.90]

Even if you take a rain check on that multimedia trip [interactive comic book], there's still much to enjoy. [May 2013, p.94]

The electronic undercurrent that's hummed throughout Hyde's musical life to date is there on Edgeland, but only in the gentlest of forms. [May 2013, p.85]

Though their sound seems delicate and ethereal, in a live setting the quartet's music yields plenty of compelling sonic drama. [May 2013, p.94]

Mind Control [is] as entertaining as the schlock horror flicks which informed it. [May 2013, p.86]

Laurent-Marke's facility for pleasant minor-key ruminations remain her strong suit, but the "stillness" of which she speaks all too often sounds like a stifling lack of urgency. [May 2013, p.85]

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]

Somewhere between the Moonlight Sonata-inspired title track and the desolate L'Enfer Et Le Paradis, Hardy will make you forget Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles was ever considered her finest song. [May 2013, p.84]

Junip's second album is enchanting enough to sell cluster bombs. [May 2013, p.88]

[A] moving tribute, gently awash with autumnal colour. [May 2013, p.96]

This is a rarity--an album designed to be listened to as a piece. [May 2013, p.84]

Nelson has impeccable taste in cover versions. [May 2013, p.87]

This fourth record in six years is another gem, a touch rockier than 2011's saccharine Lollipop, but no less sublime. [May 2013, p.95]

Partly dependent on the oft-derided production tics of '80s pop and soul, and partly a lagging stab at a (fairly) contemporary dance album, it may even disquiet the Toddheads. [May 2013, p.84]

Earle's most satisfying album in a while--and one that should please right across his fanbase. [May 2013, p.89]

V comes as a spellbinding corrective. [May 2013, p.95]

While impressive in their cinematic scope they can feel a touch superfluous. .[May 2013, p.96]

Rowe's gravelly baritone is as suited to the shimmering surf plucks of Downwind, or the percussive pummel of Horses as it is to his sombre ballads. [May 2013, p.96]

[A] ragged rock 'n' roll debut with vigorous grit, while Robbie Crowell's drawled, anecdotal lyrics add dive-bar sleaze. [May 2013, p.96]

Tracks like Half Angel Half Light suggest the passion remains fully intact. [May 2013, p.96]

More akin to their second LP. [May 2013, p.96]

Occasionally remarkable, American Twilight is a timely reminder of the instinctive songwriting that a certain other, more feted southern gothic Melbournian has sometimes mislaid. [May 2013, p.95]

It's a bloodless, disembodied album, rarely flushed with human warmth. [May 2013, p.94]

Any of these versions would brighten Radio 2's day, but eventually the massed violins and mid-paced tempos begin to pall. [May 2013, p.88]

Gardner's sincerity, dexterity and lightness of touch raises this above a simple genre exercise. [May 2013, p.87]

Pierce's lyrics remain largely opaque, and the atypically lumpen Warm Hand In Narnia sounds unsettlingly like Snow Patrol, but to cavil feels churlish when elsewhere such vivacious invention pervades. [May 2013, p.86]

Impossible Truth is an unusually articulate trip. [May 2013, p.85]

Seb Rochford's drumming gives songs such as Kouma an unavoidably non-traditional kick, and the guitars (primarily by the singer herself) have a crunch missing from her early recordings. [May 2013, p.85]

Surprises include End Of Night, nicely brutish electro-pop where Dido's automaton vocal really works; funked-up raga/calypso Love To Blame; and Sitting On The Roof Of The World.... Otherwise, Musak coming soon to a changing room near you. [May 2013, p.88]

He's boosted by a heart-and-soul R&B ensemble, but every hard-earned wrinkle on that still fierce visage remains in working order. [May 2013, p.90]

This colourful fruit ain't rotting yet. [May 2013, p.90]

Song titles like Soothe My Soul and The Child Inside suggest phoned-in conventionality, but there are edgy moments here. [May 2013, p.85]

Vanishing Point might be the best of this bunch, the group's B-movie R&B leaner and lairier than ever. [May 2013, p.86]

His quiet, reasoning delivery works beautifully, and reminds one of the singer's instinctive ability to transform a song. [May 2013, p.91]

Ignoring the meek opener Looking For A Fight and any rote lyrics, the instantly likable Outta My Mind and Dead in Your Head are a master class in girl group jangle pop. [May 2013, p.95]

A tremendous (and timely) distraction from the bad news from the desert this year. [May 2013, p.85]

While synth stomp Full Of Fire circles the (twisted) dancefloor, the bias is for brave, immersive, and high-risk music. [May 2013, p.88]

Even when he's so amiably out-of-focus, Vile's melodies remain vivid, his wanders never self-indulgent. [May 2013, p.86]

It captures their two sides--songs are either rousing with crashing guitars, swirling atmospheres and arresting climaxes or empyrean, indie introspective ballads. [May 2013, p.88]

Night Cafe, The Future Will Be Silent and the earworm that is Dresden might just be some of their best ever pieces. [May 2013, p.90]

It feels like a reaction to the concise, clear-headed It's Blitz; wild-eyed hoopla, in that spontaneous, occasionally brilliant, occasionally patchy kind of way. [May 2013, p.90]

One of their most consistently impressive releases. [May 2013, p.90]

You can fully imagine The Leisure Society penning another hart-rendering minor classic sooner or later. But for the moment, the waiting must go on. [May 2013, p.88]

The resulting sings--beautifully built around guitar, piano, drums and strings--are as their psycho-geography would suggest, intimate autobiographies, about ruined relationships. [May 2013, p.88]

[Wayne Coyne's] prolix tendencies have been stripped down into sombre considerations of lust, mortality and universal chaos. [May 2013, p.87]

With one million sales, the French quartet can be forgiven for not messing with the formula here. [May 2013, p.86]

Sam Beam has made a commercial record by the simple expedient of making a beautiful one. [May 2013, p.84]

He understands the value of restraint, his meticulously assembled songs slowly giving up their secrets rather than tipping everything out at once. [May 2013, p.82]

Taylor's beseeching voice and invigorating take on gospel is sincere and moving. [May 2013, p.96]

As ever, McClure's everyman persona is the hook that draws you in. [Jul 2012, p.85]

Head Down sounds highly-charged and fresh. [Dec 2012, p.84]

A clear-voiced statement of pop intent. [Apr 2013, p.97]

They are a fuller-sounding group in 2013. [Apr 2013, p.91]

Lapalux has joined the ranks of contemporary electronica's finest, like Flo Lo himself. [Apr 2013, p.95]

[Brian Chippendale] returns for more overcharged neon-Morricone industrial pop onslaughts, drums and vocals hooked up to his evil super-oscillator. [Apr 2013, p.89]

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

Simon's songwriting ability is unquestionable, and the similarity with his father's voice is hard to ignore, but his quest to re-imagine Elliot Smith's XO too often gets in the way. [Apr 2013, p.86]

In short, a bafflingly sequenced and rather unlovable record. [Apr 2013, p.91]

An album for anybody who likes rock music to sound angry about something. [Mar 2013, p.89]

He still sings very much from the heart, though, and the result is altogether awesome. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Miami's best tracks remain (twisted) dancefloor friendly. [Apr 2013, p.95]

It feels hemmed in by its own musical limitations. [Apr 2013, p.94]

These fine-spun talents are too frequently suffocated by the album;s production, which ignores the songs' subtler details in favour of something more epic. [Apr 2013, p.89]

It's core is stop-start, angular digital transmissions entwined with acoustic piano and smokey analogue-synth interludes. [Apr 2013, p.95]

This is a galvanising return. [Apr 2013, p.96]

At best the new songs are bright, '70s soulful confections but too much will give you toothache. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Though Old Sock ultimately feels somewhat stop-gap, it genre-hops beautifully, Clapton and friends reliably able. [Apr 2013, p.86]

New stuff for him every bit, from pain to process, and consequently unprecedented in his previous work is the sweet melancholy measure of his voice. His songwriting, too, emerges liberated, lyrics forged, melodies flowing. [Apr 2013, p.86]

It's difficult to tell how much post-production has been done and how much the record truly reflects Marie's artistic vision. Even so, it's a good listen. [Apr 2013, p.90]

Unbalanced and unrelenting, it's a fascinating album, if difficult to enjoy. [Apr 2013, p.90]

Steve Mason's second album under his own name is more melancholy meander than Molotov Cocktail. [Apr 2013, p.95]

It's more showbiz than authentic, being knee-deep in the kind of epic balladry that wouldn't be out of place at Eurovision. [Apr 2013, p.91]

A hell of a production. [Apr 2013, p.87]

Possibly an album for Boz's benefit more than anyone else's. [Apr 2013, p.91]

The Electric Word now reveals the Reverend brothers Gean and Tommie West's vocal gospel-soul power utterly undiminished by time. [Apr 2013, p.96]