Isaak, whose singing voice is naturally full and resonant, is most at home with the Presley tunes... but the Lewis and Perkins homages don't quite add up. [Jan 2012, p.91]

The identity-crisis themed Camp trumps through whip-smart intelligence, comic brio and bristling malign intent. [Jan 2012, p.90]

As seasonal cheer goes it slaps seven sleigh bells out of dreary old Stille Nacht. [Jan 2012, p.90]

It's never just meat and potatoes. It's more like eating bone marrow in a fashionable restaurant - earthy, carnivorous but still beautifully designed and knowingly conceptualized. [Jan 2012, p.88]

A richer feast, from more humble ingredients, could scarcely be imagined. [May 2012, p.82]

The overall vibe is: It's a time for extremes, for ear damage, and KJ--ever exemplary in reactivation--deliver 'em in spades. [May 2012, p.83]

What they [Sun Araw & M Geddes Gengras with the Congos] produced is startling and unique. [May 2012, p.89]

While Harvieu's voice shows she's got potential, the material tends towards the bland and boring. [May 2012, p.84]

Much of Better Living recalls that time when the ugly end of post-Crass anarcho punk segued into the metallic sounds of grindcore... when melody seemed bourgeois and energy was the most valued commodity. [May 2012, p.92]

God times are promised--and delivered. [Feb 2012, p.99]

A poisoned chalice, indeed. [Apr 2012, p.89]

Heavyweight and sodden like the starry mills of Satan. [May 2012, p. 103]

Essential listening for serious-low-life connoisseurs. [May 2012, p.101]

There is much here to enjoy. [May 2012, p.93]

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

Assured and challenging. Unlikely to convert the uninitiated, it will thrill the Volta Nation. [May 2012, p.92]

Draws out the same intense emotional responses as that first album [Lazer Guided Melodies] but in a post 1997 Ladies and Gentleman... way. [May 2012, p.92]

HDBA embrace cyclic faux-Krautrock, robust electronic rhythms, looped vocal phrases and miscellaneous soundtrack atmospheres. [May 2012, p.92]

Two gorgeously restless, swarthy voices destined to be together. [May 2012, p.92]

Coldplay-style ascendance is entirely within reach. [May 2012, p.92]

This is terrific. [May 2012, p.89]

A skittering show-reel of outer-space advert indents that flit from dying hard-drive porn disco to sweetly-warped On-U dub lullabies. [May 2012, p.89]

[Evokes] sun-baked panoramas. [May 2012, p.89]

A striking stop-gap for Krug and Siinai. [May 2012, p.87]

Urstan find Roberts'signature whistling-kettle delivery ... framed with guitars, fiddles, drums and brass. A peaty, heathery authenticity pervades - to compelling effect. [May 2012, p.88]

Unstoppably ace. [May 2012, p.88]

Amid the thoughts of ultimate demise, the creative juices never cease to flow.[May 2012, p.88]

More thoughtful and restrained than the heavily tattooed band's raucous live (and already very well-attended) shows may have promised, Shallow Bed is full of passion, nonetheless. [May 2012, p.88]

It's a downbeat party, but one with real atmosphere. [May 2012, p.88]

Evoking the ramshackle psychedelia of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Cryk nonetheless shows Le Bon following her own path. [May 2012, p.88]

Even those wearied by Oldham's avalanche of releases should investigate. [May 2012, p.87]

Above all it rocks. A hooky, memorable album. [May 2012, p.87]

Raitt remains a master interpreter of song. [May 2012, p.87]

The best Orbital album since 1994's Snivilisation? Certainly. [May 2012, p.87]

A Wasteland Companion revels in the layers of experience overlaid on life, building up texture, building up meaning, building up songs. [May 2012, p.87]

His gospel-tinged solo debut withstands most Levon Helm comparisons you may care to throw its way. [May 2012, p.87]

This time out, the melodic knack is as assured and the tumbling songs recognisably hers, but she's found her own path. [May 2012, p.87]

An intriguing partnership that fails to entirely live up to expectations. [May 2012, p.86]

[Boy & Girls] casts Brittany as a soulful singer, but the album is more Xerox copy than feel and spirit based. [May 2012, p.86]

The highlights are among the closing duets, however, with both men warming to their task on a sinuous Um Canto de Afoxe Para O Bloco Do Ile and a delightfully rickety Heaven, Byrne screws up the chords, but they bring the house down nonetheless. [May 2012, p.87]

Ronson and Wainwright have dressed these songs to kill, not just to impress. [May 2012, p.84]

It's lots of fun, a whirlwind romp through grubby rock landmarks. [May 2012, p.84]

Pleasant and forgettable. [May 2012, p.84]

Listen, Whitey! is quite simply ace. [Feb 2012]

For diehards, these takes [on the second disc] have an attractive live-in-the-studio-run-through feel, complete with informal chat and occasional sloppy edges. [Feb 2012, p.108]

Disturbing. [Feb 2012, p.102]

Nothing here compares to opening track Heaven, Sande's ubiquitous 2011 hit, though Daddy attempts the same You Got The Love dynamic with less vital results. [Mar 2012, p.102]

Their ability to switch up styles at will can prove a little wearing, giving an uneven feel to an otherwise startling debut. [May 2012, p.83]

An album packed with thoughtful adventure and mischief. A true gem. [May 2012, p.83]

It works remarkably well. [May 2012, p.83]

Full of understated elegance, Ode reminds us that Mehldau's is an increasingly significant body of work. [May 2012, p.82]

Although influences aren't hidden ... it's [Pundt's] own voice here. [May 2012, p.82]

The undoubted highlight is a completely reconstructed version of Ring of Fire that's guaranteed to stay in your heart forever. [May 2012, p.82]

However distinguished the guests, though, there's no doubt who the commanding presence is. [May 2012, p.82]

A more tasteful affair [than Leave Home], tapping into the 1980s underground's collegiate, powerpop end... plus straight-ahead rock-n-roll holler. [May 2012, p.82]

While Blunderbuss appears to be definite off-loading of emotional baggage, it also feels like a move toward rebirth. [May 2012, p.80]

Expectations are defied by a series of grand, eccentric chamber essays, and only a paucity of Tiersen's killer melodies disappoints. [Nov 2011, p.99]

The bad times have never sounded better. [Mar 2012, p.98]

This is undeniably beautiful in its minimalist repetitions but could do with a little more dirt in the weave. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Her voice is pure enough and boasts the necessary dash of grit for her to rise above mere MOR blandness. [Apr 2012, p.84]

She gets into her stride with French electronic maestro Martin Solveig. [May 2012, p.84]

Stunning... a highly-textured, invigorating adventure in sound. [Mar 2012, p.94]

This eclectic offering confirms that the trio's music is an unclassifiable meld of idioms that includes strong rock and pop influences. [Mar 2012, p.92]

It's as complete as any Floyd completist could hope for. [Apr 2012, p.101]

Rich and radio-friendly pop. [Apr 2012, p.101]

A beautiful, eerie thing. [Apr 2012, p.95]

With Audience of One he applies his mastery of both instruments [drums and guitar] to a surprisingly diverse four-part suite. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Although darkness suffuses Narrow, the rising peaks of its songs and the dramatic arrangements Plaschg frames them in, its intimacy affects. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Their performance here has an audible sizzle. [Apr 2012, p.95]

One of the most compelling [albums of his 15-year career]. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Throughout, Ranaldo and Nels Cline build up layers of eloquent, electrifying guitar.... Satisfying. [Apr 2012, p.95]

White's devastation lends poignancy to tracks ... that skip with country celebration even as he chokes on the words. [Apr 2012, p.95]

They sound more and more as if they've found a sound that they can all their own. [Apr 2012, p.94]

Three or four candidates for an updated greatest hits package is not a bad hit rate. [Apr 2012, p.94]

With a gift for creating memorable melodies allied with a strong storytelling narrative, he comes across like a sophisticated jazz version of Bill Withers. [Apr 2012, p.94]

There's no hallmark of originality or pushing envelopes, nor any sense of collaboration between two distinct talents creating more than a sum of their parts. [Apr 2012, p.94]

[An] equally engaged, energised follow-up [to 2010's Mshini Wam].[Apr 2012, p.94]

Downtempo it may be, but joyous rather than dark. [Apr 2012, p.91]

A snapshot of the music driving Europe's cooler clubs. [Apr 2012, p.91]

His slow-burning music ... has serious cross-over potential. [Apr 2012, p.91]

Soulful, moving music. [Apr 2012, p.91]

Here Kirby lets the sad beauty of his source - Schubert's Winterreise - bleed through, as if summoning up the solitary ghosts of the German composer's most desolate work. [Apr 2012, p.91]

It's that innate ability with a tune which separates Miike Snow from common or garden pop varieties. [Apr 2012, p.91]

It take a rare confidence and skill to throw a million (roughly) ideas into an album and make it sound not just coherent but as good as this one. [Apr 2012, p.91]

A work of transcendent pop beauty that finally explains the idea of "ekstasis" by leaving the listener beside themselves, in a state of rapturous joy. [Apr 2012, p.91]

Ambitious, soulful and joyous. [Apr 2012, p.90]

Pale and pensive indie-pop, cooled to a chill, with [lead singer] Nouvion floating over a similarly tranquil, dreamy wash, like an American Sundays. [Apr 2012, p. 90]

The [7-year] hiatus hasn't impaired the band's vivid country-gothic grandeur one iota. [Apr 2012, p. 90]

Spalding's improvised ensemble pieces put pay to the tittle-tattle about jazz being dead. It is very much alive. [Apr 2012, p.90]

With high-gloss production, shameless retro references and big-thumbed slap bass, Kindness's album is frequently preposterous. Great pop music often is. [Apr 2012, p.89]

Uninhibited, Wrecking Ball misses a star here only because two love-among-the economic-ruins, This Depression and You've Got It, don't quite fit the big-theme fierceness - deep feelings to draw together whoever may listen. [Apr 2012, p. 89]

Bowerbirds at their least bucolic, both expanding and focusing on a sound that is as timeless as The Band. [Apr 2012, p. 89]

A bustling, concise and sunny affair. [Apr 2012, p.88]

The greatest thing about this tribute album is that ... the biggest names on it ... all bring their A game. [Apr 2012, p. 88]

A disappointment. [Apr 2012, p.88]

The instrumental work is impressive throughout, but Gidden's vocals are the main attraction. [Apr 2012, p.88]

The fire is back in his belly. [Apr 2012, p.88]

[Apr 2012, p.88]