Two dark, roiling 22-minute tracks that conjure up a world of nature in turmoil. [Feb 2012, p.97]

Barman was keep that Keep You Close had a warmer sound than the "very loud, in your face" approach of its predecessor... while we can just about give him the benefit if the doubt, it's not quite that straightforward. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Part band memoir, part call for artistic renewal, delivered via chiming rock anthemics with pop appeal. [Oct 2011, p.105]

Song for song, this is their finest to date. [Oct 2011, p.95]

The next must-have pastoral American sensation, from Oklahoma.[Sep 2011, p.97]

[Prey] and the sprawling jazz'n'world beats suite of Magpie Music prove that there's still life left in DJ Food. [Feb 2012, p.98]

The basic Prinzhorn recipe - extra thick bass-lines and super-primitive stand-up drums, woven together with a lattice of spindly guitar and set off with livid bursts of call-and-response vocal -- remains largely unchanged. [Feb 2012, p.98]

[Their] constant supersize-me approach is a bit exhausting, but few albums this year will strive this hard to entertain. [Feb 2012, p.95]

Makes for a cheeky, unerringly upbeat celebration of [London's] party scene. [Feb 2012, p. 94]

[An] outstanding piece of work. [Feb 2012, p.92]

Even though it'll never be fully completed, Smile is a welcome time capsule from an unrepeatable moment in popular culture. [Dec 2011, p.106]

Django Django confound because they sound gloriously, unpredictably new, but also recall past bands and sounds gone. [Feb 2012, p.98]

Though her fellow Willies may not possess her audience-pulling ability, they lack nothing in the way of talent. [Feb 2012, p.94]

This is top-drawer pop, ambitious and thrillingly contemporary. [Feb 2012, p.94

Not yet a strength, lyrics probe the border between naive and trite. [Feb 2012, p.94]

They're still best when the basic Paco Pena influences surface. [Feb 2012, p.94]

A few clunky lyrics take the shine off. [Feb 2012, p.95]

It's hard not to wish for more. Or maybe less. [Feb 2012, p.95]

It's good to hear him outfront, vivid, quirky, and unconfined. [Feb 2012, p.95]

Some of the best covers here are of less overtly politicized Dylan songs. [Feb 2012, p.95]

Matt Sims turns out to be the perfect complement to Leila's post-Moroder production pyrotechnics. [Feb 2012, p.97]

A cache of hissy, vivid, occasionally creepy but mostly sweetly touching brain pop that stands proudly alongside GBV's ragged former glories. [Feb 2012, p.97]

The lyrics' heavy-hearted take on relationships is more evidence of an astonishing maturity at play. [Feb 2012, p.97]

It stretches out the crashed edits of 20120's Suburban Tours, to something more diffuse and soulful. [Feb 2012, p.97]

His best yet. [Feb 2012, p.98]

This is a powerful performance of empathy and passion. [Feb 2012, p.99]

Gradually swelling guitars, keyboards and massed backing-vocal "aaaahs" homogenise the sound while mostly confining Edwards' high voice to a rather inexpressive tone when her clear-cut words suggest snarl and sorrowing. [Feb 2012, p.99]

This curiously beautiful little album has retained the surreal, daydreamy quality and rustic chill of its predecessor, while adding a lot more warmth. [Feb 2012, p.99]

It wanders and drifts moodily now and then, but there also some strong songs. [Feb 2012, p.99]

Support from Howe Gelb, Patty Griffin and more, but things never really take off. [Feb 2012, p.99]

The atmosphere is generally furtive, and yet the songs are at their best when they tap you on the shoulder with a familiar rough-neck charm. [Feb 2012, p.102]

Hymns is worthy if never quite stratospheric heir. [Feb 2012, p.102]

James' final studio album is a sturdy effort that belies the catalog of increasingly serious health issues that have dogged her. [Feb 2012, p.102]

Coherent but properly crackers, this is easily the most delicious post-Trux gumbo so far. [Feb 2012, p.98]

It's been worth the wait. [Feb 2012, p.96]

Siamese Dream is full of bombastic romanticism and undiminished power. [Feb 2012, p.108]

It fits easily alongside Daptone's funky analogue repertoire. [Feb 2012, p.110]

Ortega's voice cuts like cheesewire, every word kicking the beat and the story both. [Oct 2011, p. 100]

An intimate, home-recorded piece that feels like a private performance.[Nov 2011, p. 95]

The shimmering finger-picking and angelic backing vocals of Old Pine build a cosy fireside vibe, but elsewhere the upbeat hoedowns are less impressive. [Nov 2011, p. 92]

A warm twangy sound, evocative of Southern, sun-paralysed afternoons. [Dec 2011, p. 100]

Ersatz G.B. offers no easy explanations, but instead twists and excites the listener's brain with unexpected phantom bewilderments. [Dec 2011, p.100]

An explicitly shambling and weedy breed of music rendered with slavish precision, even muscularity... Decent tunes. [Dec 2011, p.100]

A confounding and bewitching set of songs that feels gloriously out of time. [Dec 2011, p.100]

Simultaneously beautiful and unsettling, it moves from stuttering rhythms of ghost vocals and music loops to immersive multi-layered waves of digital polyphony. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

Everywhere, tremolo guitars twang, and slow, compressed drums beat out the rhythm of disquietude. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

It's a record best consumed in a semi-recumbent position, in order to match the loping, laidback pace of the music and Cox's stoned, oak-aged vocals. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

This set stays faithful to Lennon's melodies - like meeting old friends in unexpected but comfy clothes. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

A whirl of young Tina Turner energy and powerful, expressive vintage soul vocals. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Packs too many failed experiments. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Krautrock-tinged, distortion-clouded synthpop covered in soft blankets of breathy, post-Cocteau's vocals... Just breathe it in. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Gainsbourg's reedy vocals ... just don't stand up to the rigours of live documentation. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Relentless vocal shards create the sensation of being stabbed in the head with a whalebone comb, but when voices and concept coalesce... you begin to see the point. [Dec. 2011 p. 98]

Ghost... has most of the more straightforward roots songs... Guttertown mostly contains the weirder stuff. [Dec. 2011 p. 97]

It's a promising - if a little lackadaisical - debut. [Dec. 2011 p. 97]

The band's primary strength is their ability to harness cold electronica and synth sounds to deftly create earthy-sounding atmospherics... Stirring. [Dec. 2011 p.97]

A trip for questing bohemians of every persuasion. [Dec. 2011 p.96]

Worden can be preposterously experimental - but she's always intriguing. [Dec. 2011 p.96]

Hazy, heart-broken boy/girl indie-rock reveries.[Dec. 2011 pg. 96]

This assiduously produced package is a thrilling summary of Sigur Ros, the first 14 years. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

Precision tooled to keep Green chart and arena-bound for the foreseeable.[Dec. 2011 pg. 94]

He might still be too unashamedly oddball to conquer the charts, but this is another work of warped brilliance. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

Sometimes playful, sometimes starkly beautiful. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

If...'s successful melding of epic vision and intimate solemnity marks an exciting new beginning. [Dec. 2011 pg. 95]

Her voice [is] a soft, soulful instrument that draws the listener in with seemingly minimum effort, then delivers whatever message she wishes to impart to willing ears. [Dec. 2011 pg. 94]

Clever-innocent, it's a bit Cerys Matthews, a bit Bow Wow Wow... minus the tunes and larger-than-life character to get stuck into. [Dec. 2011 pg. 94]

Exudes warmth. [Dec. 2011 p.94]

For all the florid curlicues and crescendos, Welch's second album is light on true beauty, real idiosyncrasy. [Dec. 2011, p.94]

In 10 crisp, playful songs restores the exalted standards of the band's legend. [Dec. 2011, p.93]

The shock in this collaboration is that it sounds savagely natural. [Dec. 2011, p.93]

Wonky, wordy, connective - a Tapestry for the Williamsburg set.[Dec. 2011, p.93]

[An] engrossing paean to wrestling's heyday.[Dec. 2011, p.93]

Sounds miraculously unburdened by its conceptual weight.[Dec. 2011 p. 90]

There's enough to pique interest for newbies. The rest of us will head on back to the master. [Sep 2011, p.99]

A liminal, dreamlike music of eye-moistening poignancy. [Aug 2011, p.106]

Fans disappointed at the resolutely unexpanded LPs should be aware; the upgrade makes revisiting them a supreme enjoyment anyway. [Nov 2011, p.110]

Every inch of tape had emotional or melodic purpose. [Nov 2011, p.109]

12 fascinating electro-symphoic constructions informed by dubstep and Delia Darbyshire's BBC Radiophonic Workshop experiments. [Nov 2011, p.103]

An exhilarating brand of digital soul. [Nov 2001, p.103]

It's the slo-electro instrumental Grillwalker that steals the day. [Nov 2011, p.103]

An understated treat. [Nov 2011, p.103]

The cascading ping and pop of 35 Summers and arpeggiated digital melancholy of Unbank is evidence of Plaid's empathy with this most beguiling of music forms. [Nov 2011, p.103]

Together they've grafted that rare commodity: Grown man dance music with dignity intact. [Nov 2011, p.103]

This album is a punchy, lyrical and moving set. [Nov 2011, p. 103]

Make the most of dead Son Rising, as its diversity is its strength. [Nov 2011, p.103]

This 17-track colossus is eclectic, ambitious ad expertly executed. [Nov 2011, p.103]

The album's varying emotions and mutations are part of its unexpected strength. [Nov 2011, p.102]

An album of humming, depthless power. [Nov 2011, p.102]

An exquisitely recorded, enjoyably messy affair. [Nov 2011, p.102]

A slight addition to their catalog. [Nov 2011, p.102]

It gives all sorts of instrumentation the confidence to surprise us. [Nov 2011, p.102]

[An album that] makes you wonder where they will travel next. [Nov 2011, p.101]

A collection that will have both fans and floating voters scratching their heads. [Nov 2011, p.101]

Despite its lulls, Ashes & Fire sounds like a new beginning. [Nov 2011, p.101]

It's a dream, this pop. [Nov 2011, p.100]

This time Baird's own compositions dominate. [Nov 2011, p.100]

It's early Erasure fans who seen likely to enjoy the '80s electro sheen of the all-action rhythmo-melodic hooks and subplots. [Nov 2011, p.100]

[A] curious but very listenable LP. [Nov 2011, p.99]