This is beautiful music. [Feb 2013, p.91]

Taken as a whole, it's an arresting step towards the light. [Feb 2013, p.90]

[Hank Cochran's] proven an inspirational figure for honky tonk star Johnson, who's managed to rope in half of Nashville for this revamp of Cochran's songbook. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Kudos goes to the French Afrobeaters Fanga and Moroccan trance master Abdallah Guinea for finding a new spin on Fela Kuti's funk. [Feb 2013, p.89]

Even after three intervening decades of teknoid endeavour, these pioneers remained uniquely disturbing. [Feb 2013, p.88]

Fade feels like a definitive and hugely uplifting summary of a cult institution. [Feb 2013, p.88]

On Lysandre, his vision feels more expansive. [Feb 2013, p.88]

Motorik-like melodies now overwhelm the miasmic shoegazey tropes. [Feb 2013, p.91]

It's funny, touching, thoughtful, more than a little weird....and rather wonderful. [Feb 2013, p.89]

Teeming with deftly plucked and delicately pitched melody trails, Whispering Trees stands worthy of its forbears. [Feb 2013, p.88]

A picaresque journey through the cosmos. [Feb 2013, p.86]

Bad Religion see no reason to mess with the formula. [Feb 2013, p.98]

Each of the eight tracks fade into the distance, making for a hypnotic, haunting record, yet a highly individual and accomplished one too. [Oct 2012, p.95]

Arbouretum have reined in the Crazy Horse-gallop-on-for-hours excesses of earlier outings, for sharper impact. [Jan 2013, p.91]

On stand-out New Tracks, singer Joseph Arthur locates a pleasing interface that shades powerpop and balladry. [Jan 2013, p.102]

The opening tracks' motorik rhythms--all Juno-G keyboards and Roland bass--suggest an M1 retread of Autobahn undone by the spectre of sleep, but later tracks like the howling Pennine drones of A Non-Place imply a final destination far from the shoulder; somewhere overgrown, primitive and ancient. [Jan 2013, p.100]

The Weeknd starts here. Jan 2013, p.108]

A set of sad, beautiful, guileless, country-folk songs [Jan 2013, p.102]

The odd saccharine lyrics loses them a fourth star. [Jan 2013, p.102]

Ambitious, hypnotic but a little relentless. [Jan 2013, p.102]

This reissued debut reminds, they were a band better informed--and more thrilling--than most. [Jan 2013, p.106]

It makes for a spiritual and mind-stretching experience one minute, woozy and disorienting the next. [Jan 2013, p.100]

Moving from deliciously tense cop-show rhythms to echoing guitar feedback and pure-signal electronic buzz. [Jan 2013, p.98]

The Night Has a Thousand Screams dresses the oily synth ripples and murky bass lines of Hill's previous Umberto releases From The Grave... and Prophecy Of The Black Widow with glistening descant textures and rich analogue pulses, bringing a new shimmering elegance and profound foreboding to both his sound and, in the great tradition, the base source material. [Jan 2013, p.98]

This very playable record has a broad appeal at the same time as it reasserts modern electronica's vitality. [Jan 2013, p.98]

Each time they break free of their own locked groove, achieving mood-elevating uplift via genius structural shifts, or wig-flippin' solos spiritually comparable with Hendrix or Neil young. [Jan 2013, p.98]

The North feels like a shuffle back into soft focus. [Jan 2013, p.98]

[A] selection of sparingly produced wistfulness. [Jan 2013, p.95]

These love songs all sound pretty good. But the feeling remains that she has more, which the respectful hands around her haven't liberated. [Jan 2013, p.95]

From the Top is a mix of folk and rock and Americana, but James bends them all into new and daring shapes. [Jan 2013, p.95]

This is real person-to-person music. [Jan 2013, p.95]

A girl on fire? Now and then--and inbetween times, she smoulders as well as ever. [Jan 2013, p.95]

It's great to hear them back on home turf, stripped of their last two records' strained conceptualism, instead just spitting out random, bratty nuggets about uncomplicated things like feeling horny and outrageous women. [Jan 2013, p.94]

Although Overgrown Path is only 30 Minutes long, it nonetheless reveals Chris Cohen as a Man with an individual voice, and its brevity makes it particularly more-ish. [Jan 2013, p.94]

His music finally a match to his unswerving anti-capitalist manifesto. [Jan 2013, p.93]

The law school drop-pout is at his analytical best here. [Jan 2013, p.93]

Profound? Hardly. Fun? Indubitably. [Jan 2013, p.93]

Plenty of nightmare visions of Skid Row LA, but really no fun at all. [Jan 2013, p.93]

Surprises at every turn. [Jan 2013, p.93]

The naff raps and Auto-Tuned gloop can't spoil the addictive rush of the air-punching, get-pissed-destroy-a-bus-shelter anthems that abound here. [Jan 2012, p.93]

This succeeds chiefly because its remixers take such drastic liberties with the source material. [Jan 2013, p.92]

A major work. [Jan 2013, p.92]

This just might be their best work in 25 years. [Jan 2013, p.92]

If the initial listening experience challenges, long-term exposure unfurls Instrumental Tourist's full beauty. [Jan 2013, p.91]

The result is intelligent pop infested with tense, subterranean melodies. [Jan 2012, p.91]

Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! feels simultaneously enormous and tragic; the sound of victory, firmly set in the jaws of defeat. [Jan 2013, p.91]

[A] luscious layercake of flange and Echoplex. [Jan 2013, p.90]

The years haven't deadened Lucero's spirit: indeed, that experience only lends their ballads and brawlers a weightier punch. [Jan 2013, p.90]

There's a layer of gloss and artfulness here that makes Carry On more appealing than whiskery ideas of authenticity. [Jan 2013, p.88]

The dozen songs, recorded in one take, make for an uncomfortable but absorbing trip. [Jan 2013, p.92]

Wrongtom's enthusiasm for collaboration is everywhere apparent on In East London's salute to the capital. [Nov 2012, p.94]

Born To Sing is a return to classic form. [Nov 2012, p.86]

Tatum adds to the mix tropical pop textures, shimmery synth-pop gloss and twangy guitar solos that could melt hearts. [Oct 2012, p.88]

A lush, shimmering and fully immersive experience. [Nov 2012, p.90]

Life Is People is superb. [Sep 2012, p.84]

The four songs drawn from eco-themed album The Crying Light gain particular vitality.... The other major beneficiaries of Muhly and co.'s top notch orchestral work art Antony's earliest songs. [Aug 2012, p.82]

The hazy white noise loops of 2008's Black Sea stripped out in favour of choral drones and soothing gamelan chimes, perfectly suited to the film's meditative, valedictory tone. [Sep 2012, p.95]

If pulverizing female vocals and pop-rock guitar licks were your thing in 1995, you certainly won't be disappointed now. [Oct 2012, p.96]

[The album] is diverse in the songs' styles and themes. [Oct 2012, p.96]

From Clapton to cosmic rock, Afro-pop and experimenting with dizzying ease. [Oct 2012, p.96]

[ORO: Opus Alter] is more startling than the first [Oro: Opus Primum]. [Nov 2012, p.96]

Rambling, stoner guitar and drifting synths elevated by radiant percussion. [Dec 2012, p.96]

This enjoyable act of historical revisionism highlights the still definitive source material. [Nov 2012, p.100]

Omega Male doesn't stray too far from the day job(s) [of David Best of Fujiya & Miyagi and Sammy Rubin of Project Jenny, Project Jan]. [Dec 2012, p.94]

Only Pleasant Valley jars--the irony in Elling's voice is ladled on too heavily--but elsewhere marvel at a master at work. [Nov 2012, p.86]

[The lyrics] carry every once of experience and writerly imagination he's learned and earned in 76 years. [Dec 2012, p.86]

This set is sharper and fatter [than its debut].

Ocean Roar exists deep in extreme nature, a journey's end of madness, memory and Euphoria. [Nov 2012, p.95]

This is a unified album. [Oct 2012, p.91]

The growling menace of his [Jake Smith's] delivery is enough to command your attention and keep you believing. [Oct 2012, p.83]

The result is as good as anything Cale's delivered in years. [Nov 2012, p.91]

Their peppy, sensual synth-pop has merit. [Oct 2012, p.95]

Introspective, electic brain-groove of the month. [Dec 2012, p.86]

She sings the bejesus out of these big, open-hearted tunes, and despite some lyrics having a slightly gauche quality, you soon warm to the melodramatic hooks of Agony and the cleverly constructed pop-soul nugget Beauty Of The End. [Jun 2012, p.82]

Only Johann Johansson's airy decanting of Protest and two movements from chamber music Glassworks really tap Glass's sublime essence. [Dec 2012, p.88]

Their comeback is an even more demanding listen. [Dec 2012, p.87]

He's strong instrumentally, but maudlin content like Separate Ways and One Thought holds him back. [Dec 2012, p.90]

Dark, edgy, yet full of light and hope, Brother Sinner... is dazzling, moving too, and bordering on perfection. [Dec 2012, p.89]

It rarely rises above a sloth-like pace. [Dec 2012, p.86]

It's good to hear that force-of-nature voice again. [Dec 2012, p.96]

Forensically constructed, sad-eye pop with bright melodies of a Shins-like stripe. [Dec 2012, p.96]

[Moon Duo] channels Velvets fuzz-rock through Spacemen 3 drone on a psychedelic trip, with wah-wah and lethargic vocal drawl. [Dec 2012, p.96]

Alights a little too close to Gaga on saccharine opener Strawberry Shake. Persistence pays off, though. [Dec 2012, p.96]

A backstory so real you'll swear you've seen the flick. [Dec 2012, p.96]

The glossy, high-shine finish songs come with an air of post-club languor. [Dec 2012, p.96]

[The album] lacks anything distinctively their own. [Dec 2012, p.96]

The orchestral setting tempers the mannered vocal tics of some originals and proves transformative. [Dec 2012, p.96]

These guileless, well-hemmed songs could use a few more frayed edges. [Dec 2012, p.96]

The album certainly sounds fresh and is hallmarked by Spigel's knack of shaping memorable pop melodies out of a few notes or chords. [Dec 2012, p.85]

Blue Lines still goes above and beyond. [Dec 2012, p.102]

This is a formidable leap forward. [Dec 2012, p.90]

Winterval has glimpses of Walls' hypnotic, frostbitten, ambient beauty, but equal airtime is given to funkier, tech-leaning tropes. [Dec 2012, p.86]

Rossiter's tremulous, torchy delivery plays to the gallery, but beautifully, touchingly and sometimes exhaustedly. [Dec 2012, p.86]

It's still one giant leap into the unknown, with all the notions of genre once again gleefully sidestepped. [Dec 2012, p.82]

Take The Crown plays it safe. [Dec 2012, p.85]

Signs & Signifiers is an utterly irresistible, slicked-back triumph. [Jun 2012, p.82]

When Hucknall pulls a performance only the most blinkered would argue he brings nothing to the party. [Dec 2012, p.86]

Vocals are stretched and warped, beats submerged into icy baths. [Dec 2012, p.94]