Wilson's Raven can sound magpie-like--with jazz-rock joining the classical prog references--but tunes as lovely as Drive Home or the slow-burning title track remind you that he has a vision that's all his own. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Truly cinematic and imbued with humour and pathos, popcorn not included. [Apr 2013, p.94]

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

There are plenty of twisty turns, and more than a dollop of cynicism and cheek, to ensure that this latest comeback earns its rightful place in the CVB canon. [Apr 2013, p.90]

Whitley's is an unconventional neo-soul debut. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Piano and guitars soar vertiginously; lyrics are bittersweet or pleasingly surreal. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Agreeably retro psych-pop from New Zealand. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Folky, fragile songs and others built on washes of guitar effects. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Graffiti on the Train may be a conduit to pastures new, but it's two steps forward, one step back. [Apr 2013, p.96]

Love From London once again shows his ability to reconcile the sheer peculiar wonder of being alive. [Apr 2013, p.96]

The balming glow of the Sparhawks' sunray-through-clouds harmonies, their surfeit of haunting, enigmatic melodies, makes immersion in The Invisible Way's melancholia a sublime pleasure. [Apr 2013, p.96]

150 minutes of challenging, organic electronica. [Apr 2013, p.95]

Devotees of J Dilla and Flying Lotus in particular should investigate. [Apr 2013, p.95]

Les Revenants is more about establishing a complex, unsettling atmosphere than slashing Bernard Herrmann-esque quiet/loud dynamics. [Apr 2013, p.90]

It's one of those records where less is most definitely more. [Apr 2013, p.90]

They produced 11 perfect songs defined by sweet, honeyed vocals and spiritual uplift. [Apr 2013, p. 90]

Less a big splash, more fascinating ripples on a pond. [Apr 2013, p.89]

[Singer MJ's] reverb-drenched vocals keep his lyrics veiled, but the reckless energy of two-chord Spaceman-3 like rock-outs such as Preservation and Away/Towards suggests a most electrifying catharsis is in process. [Apr 2013, p.89]

A substantial and richly evocative work. [Apr 2013, p.89]

180 is filled with such a sense of unyielding joie de vivre and spirit that you can't help but be seduced by its unfettered feel. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Producer Hal Willner has dug deep to improve on [the original Rogue's Gallery] and reckons he has a happier collection as a result. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Chelsea Light Moving's sound and fury certainly thrill. [Apr 2013, p.88]

[The songs] are among the most immediate he's recorded. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Happy or sad, these are fine songs. [Apr 2013, p.88]

An audibly irked record.... Girl Talk has balls and tunes. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Pale Green Ghosts is both novel and familiar. [Apr 2013, p.86]

The Next Day [is] Bowie's most impassioned and convincing work in decades. [Apr 2013, p.84]

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

The odd over ethereal moment notwithstanding, the remainder of the album proves equally alluring. [Jan 2013, p.90]

Writing in a different meter results in parts of Sudden Elevation becoming more linear, less abstract than predecessor Innundir Skinni. [Mar 2013, p.89]

There's a peculiar tension in the way the stripped down electronic and acoustic percussion and Shemie's reverby incantations work together. [Mar 2013, p.89]

Foxx reaches pensionable age in 2013, but the creative fires still burn white hot. [Mar 2013, p.90]

An eclectic gem that namechecks Malcolm Gladwell's social psychological musing as an influence. [Feb 2013, p.91]

Lucinda Williams has labelled Regan "his generation's answer to Bob Dylan," and on this evidence, that doesn't feel like hyperbole. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Overall Anthems is a gutsy carer swerve from Carter who proves himself capable of crooning with swagger. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Long Island is alive and involving, creating a world of its own. [Mar 2013, p.87]

The music could overwhelm lesser singers but Lidell's astonishing vocals carry it off with remarkable elan. [Mar 2013, p.90]

A logical next step then, which stays the right side of MOR. [Mar 2013, p.96]

If you're the kind of listener who has come to associate outtakes from classic albums with meagre, dryly forensic spoils, prepare to be very pleasantly surprised by Disc 3.... Rumours reminds us why we should continue to indulge them. [Mar 2013, p.100]

There's no question that it's his most appealing work for ages, but still one wishes that the chilly spark on title track and Hey Little Bruiser could have been sustained throughout. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Be Your Own King is somewhat hobbled, though, by a flat, dense production from The Do's Dan Levy. [Mar 2013, p.89]

A blurred landscape of muffled beats warped tape and corroded ambiance that suggests club land euphoria. [Feb 2013, p.93]

The 13 numbers they've chosen are sung with respect and restraint. And beautifully. [Mar 2013, p.96]

The music's one-dimensional emotional range is the Achilles heels of an otherwise gracefully dextrous affair. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Although this change of surroundings gives the album an uneven feel, the charm of Gideon's Art Brut-like spoken-word missives is ever present, as is their sense of Dadist fun. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Inc. have taken pop-R'n'B out of the cynical genre tourism and into somewhere far more interesting. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Anaïs Mitchell with guitarist/singer Jefferson Hamer unexpectedly proves that her precious storytelling art is equally mesmerizing on the great traditional ballads collated in the 19th century by Francis James Child. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Comprising mostly new material, the performances are frequently breathtaking. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Some are great. Some are thinner--but James's new groove has big promise. [Feb 2013, p.97]

This baker's dozen mostly adheres to the Hardin principal: shorn arrangements, nuanced vocals, emotions on a short leash. [Feb 2013, p.96]

What you may lose in rock'n'roll kicks you gain in poignancy and poetry. [Mar 2013, p.86]

Metheny conjures up a dense sonic tapestry comprising kaleidoscopic tone colours. [Mar 2013, p.94]

The Messenger duly wipes the slate clean and bursts with the same efflorescent skills that made Johnny Marr a guitar hero for the generation which had supposedly repudiated such a concept. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Amok Achieves a seductive unity of purpose which is all the more impressive for stemming from the advent of additional personnel. [Mar 2013, p.84]

Its 10 fuzzy, through-the-bottom-of-a-whiskey-glass intimacy, with Anthony's acoustic guitar and rich baritone voice conveying songs of existential wonder and lament. [Feb 2013, p.93]

File under deserving of proper attention. [Feb 2013, p.92]

Although California-based, her echoey swamp sound encompassing bottleneck guitars and cellos recalls the friendly/eerie seductions of Bobbie Gentry or Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Sounds like one long mobile phone ad. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Playfully eccentric, it pushes the boundaries of the psych-pop revival in a way that's thankfully more redolent of MGMT's Congratulations than Ariel Pink's more self-conscious "mature" themes. [Mar 2013, p.88]

Centralia's seven lengthy essays proffer the duo's boldest, most immersive statements to date. [Mar 2013, p.88]

The crystalline vocals hint at either uplifting profundity or overblown pomposity--it's hard to say which. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Polished arrangements in a mix of menacing, reverb-drenched grooves and languid shimmer. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Skittery clicks and manipulated samples add heat and light to plucked guitar and breathy voice on songs that evolve in space-time. [Mar 2013, p.98]

A bit shambolic, then, but Thao has enough charisma to sustain hearing it all in one sitting. [Mar 2013, p.98]

[The album] is suitably haunted and becalmed. [Mar 2013, p.98]

It sounds like the soundtrack to an odd dream about a Western film. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Miller and Lauderdale's duets has both the easy familiarity of old friends and the musicianship of old pros. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Think more of pastoral My Morning Jacket or Irish superstar-in-waiting James Vincent McMorrow and their keening, introspective-yet-expansive songs. [Mar 2013, p.96]

A debut album of psychedelic gospel-tinged gems. [Mar 2013, p.94]

It's just a shame his parochial worldview is often at odds with his music's overreaching grandstanding. [Mar 2013, p.94]

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

Plenty of young pups are revising the pop-smart bludgeon of, say, pre-goldrush Nirvana, but only Pissed Jeans deliver with such panache. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Considered restraint is a virtue, but Somewhere Else is hazardously polite. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Crisp drum figures add punctuation, and a noodling sax help evoke a mood of traveling the city at night. [Mar 2013, p.91]

News From Nowhere boosts the levels of electronic warmth, Buttery's unassuming presence adding an extra level of lushness rather than dominating events. [Mar 2013, p.90]

It's as commercial as it gets but works purely because the Quin girls have fashioned with good tunes that come replete with more than enough hooks to keep everyone happy. [Mar 2013, p.88]

Producers Mike Elizondo and Rob Cavallo smooth away many of the rough edges, and it's the tracks that escape the industry sander that are great. [Mar 2013, p.87]

This is mature, tuneful and utterly approachable album. [Mar 2013, p.87]

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]

Even for Ron it makes for downbeat listening, but when it really comes together, such as Lost In Thought, his rock-bottom emotions truly reach for the stars. [Mar 2013, p.87]

A sounding board for confessionals too heroically wonky to be dull. [Mar 2013, p.86]

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

Though succinct segues Housing (In) and Housing (Out) have something of the filler about them, State Hospital and December's Traditions are bleakly beautiful portraits of Broken Britain, Hutchinson's fervent vocal letting it all hang out. [Mar 2013, p.86]

He's written better collections of songs, but for fun, warmth, vigour and power, it' sup there with his best. [Mar 2013, p.86]

A 2am album of sheer, devastating beauty. [Jun 2012, p.86]

Challenging it may be at points, but absorbing and complex too. [Dec 2013, p.94]

It benefits substantially from the synergy that the potent presence of Charlie Musselwhite helps to create. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Extra bass and echo enhance it reality-subverting agenda. [Feb 2013, p.98]

A little of these Lee & Nancy-style duets foes a long way. [Feb 2013, p.98]

Heartfelt and brilliantly executed, it's a creative peak. [Feb 2013, p.89]

[An] engaging, likable, thoroughly listenable, and indeed, sing-along album. [Feb 2013, p.96]

Dreamy and cacophonous. [Feb 2013, p.98]

[James Jackson Toth] fleshes out more whiskey-warmed, heart-sore folk with flashes of humour. [Feb 2013, p.98]

Atmospheric, reverbed beats that suggest indie boys who dance. [Feb 2013, p.98]

It's Bramwell's knack for a kind of "surely this one must be a cover-version" classicism that impresses most. [Feb 2013, p.96]

A convincing and often quite brilliant restatement of Ubu's early noir-meets-B-movie-sci-fi inclinations. [Feb 2013, p.93]

Hands Of Glory is a flamboyant country cousin [to 2012's Break it Yourself]. [Feb 2013, p.92]

Fractured but never broken, Arc takes chaos and crunches it into a satisfying and surprising whole. [Feb 2013, p.92]