Gelb may be onto something and his chutzpah i laudable but, ultimately, only time decides which songs become standards. [Dec 2017, p.94]

At least 50 years out of date, and wonderfully so. [Jan 2017, p.98]

One of the year's best. Which year? Any year. [Mar 2017, p.92]

Hypnotic channels occasionally, degrade into ruts, but more often this is a fabulous freakout. [Mar 2017, p.98]

Shrieky-voiced, Jad fair-esque solo set of mid-70s Bowery oddball punk. [May 2017, p.98]

Mostly You Had Me At Goodbye is an artist stretching out and eagerly grasping a whole new world, one that she should easily conquer. [May 2017, p.94]

Their sixth album doesn't veer too wildly from it [their MO]--lashing Krautrock grooves to a broad cross-section of dance music tropes, and embellished with Best's labuorous, conversational vocal style. [May 2017, p.91]

The results are appropriately cinematic and evocative. [Jul 2017, p.91]

When the music gets quieter there is an irritating increase in tape hiss. [Jun 2017, p.89]

[A] powerful debut. [Nov 2017, p.103]

End Of The World could be Don't Fear The Reaper Mk II while a fad cover of NRBQ's I Want You Bad delivers Heart-racing teenage kicks. [Dec 2017, p.89]

There are diversions into pop and hardcore dancehall but overall it's a strongly enticing release. [Dec 2017, p.91]

Cloying, ultimately fascinating. [Feb 2018, p.99]

There's nothing here inviting enough to really convince floating voters, but Editors continue to thrive in their own dark universe. [Apr 2018, p.90]

Another Eels album--the 12th!--to treasure. [May 2018, p.94]

Find A Light breaks down the distance between dexterous Southern rock and country brilliantly on songs like Best Seat In The House and Run Away From It All. If they have a weakness this time around, it's occasional lapses in quality control. [May 2018, p.91]

Panic Blooms generates fond memories of a recent past. [Jun 2018, p.89]

HML offset the filthy turbo riffage with moody atmospherics and surprise left-turns. [Aug 2018, p.94]

A lively set that's way above par. [Jan 2019, p.92]

The result is another madcap sonic escapade. [Dec 2018, p.87]

An album rich in melancholia, softened with orchestral arrangements and enriched by female voices, at turns wistful, as others paranoid. [Feb 2019, p.89]

Sule Skerry is partly programme music, partly good old-fashioned concept album. His approach feel rather literal at times. [Jun 2019, p.95]

This is Black Star Riders' best work yet. [Oct 2019, p.88]

Tense, rewarding, avant-garde jousting abounds. [Nov 2019, p.96]

It is a hazy path through a dusty landscape of sadness and enlightenment that never arrives at answers or certainties, but shimmers with an eternal mystery. [Dec 2019, p.90]

A meditative, deliciously low-key collection produced by Lee Townsend. [Nov 2019, p.91]

At times Little Common Twist seems to misplace its destination, but it's also warm and embracing; not so much ambient as aural amniotic fluid. [Jan 2020, p.91]

A quintessential "pocket trip" record, then, sculpted and sequenced to perfection. [Jan 2020, p.87]

Lakeman is in his element. ... McGann's narration is disappointingly flat and some of the musical settings - like the shanty Sailing Time - are underplayed; but the songs are emotive. [Mar 2020, p.88]

Occasionally, you yearn for Disclosure to take a rasp to Energy and roughen its edges, but their knack for canny hooks guarantees they won't be retiring back to Surrey any time soon. [Oct 2020, p.84]

Campbell's lyrics might not match Petty's poetry, but the immediacy, energy and spirit are all there. [May 2020, p.95]

Lavish enough for fans of Amon Duul II's headshop tribal rituals. [Jun 2021, p.90]

VWETO III occasionally struggles to transcend its origins as a collection of essentially unfinished pieces. ... More often, however, her lop-sided rhythms, offbeat electronics and uncanny sense of mood are compelling in their own right. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Hardcore fans will be sold on the passion, others may struggle. [Jul 2021, p.86]

Convocations - conceived in lockdown and isolation - represents anguish and discombobulation, without having yet reached acceptance. [Aug 2021, p.84]

Genre-curious in its sparkle and allure, and most certainly not for everyone. [Feb 2022, p.102]

Among wild wanderings, Trees Speak frequently snap back to a crisp, jazzy bassline groove, making their whole far-out adventure hard to resist. [Feb 2022, p.87]

A succession of haunting story songs. ... Closing track After The Rain, meanwhile, is a hymnal balm. Less happily, he's made a part return to his original calling as a spoken word poet. [Feb 2022, p.89]

This is a still-hungry group flexing their creative muscles. [May 2023, p.86]

Most of its layered, ornate creations and moody conjurings emerge from a deep shoegaze rabbit hole redolent of Slowdive and Lush. [Jun 2023, p.90]

The tension between philosophical lyrics and the invitingly cosmic fractals generated by the band can hit awkwardly, but this is a striking new shoot. [Jun 2023, p.95]

It's really hard not to feel the absence of David Crosby's harmonies. [Jun 2023, p.92]

Inevitably flawed yet fascinating, it's respectful without being reverent, less myth-making tribute, more robust embrace. [Aug 2023, p.81]

Although partially undone by some same filler, Crosses' opaque longing peaks on Girls Float + Boys Cry. [Dec 2023, p.88]

Pro-synth voluntaries like Znaniya (Falkor) can jar, but the highlights foreground Atwood-Ferguson as a widescreen visionary in the David Axelrod and Charles Stepney tradition, with a Rolodex of jazz hitters to call on. [Dec 2023, p.89]

Tapir!'s considerable world-building skills impress, even if seven-minute closer Mountain Song seems a little directionless. [Feb 2024, p.88]

Sometimes, as on Hold Me In The Fire, they unashamedly chase Chasing Cars’ modern-day-standard template. At others, like restive prisoners looking to try new ideas on the outside, they break out, hence the electro-percussive, choral title track. [Oct 2024, p.88]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Manuel Menuck and Mat Ball of Big Brave joined guitar forces to make music that stood up to the Montreal cold. The heat generated by the band (completed by Jonathan Downs and Patch One of Maine post-rockers Ada) isn’t entirely the kind you huddle around for comfort, though. [Nov 2024, p.87]

Tropicália, Third to Six Soft Machine, Santana, Dungen, Alice Coltrane and Kamasi Washington seem to be in there. The Nick van Bakel-led, Melbourne-based art-popsters subsume all of this and more into the whole; a seamless coagulation. [Jan 2025, p.85]

They range from the short and comic (Sweep Piece is the sound of producer Robin McGinley brushing a room for two minutes) to longer, studio-based ensemble performances that are often surprisingly beautiful. [May 2025, p.92]

At times the central theme, exploring our relationship to Earth and ancestral wisdom, veers into portentousness- but this is undercut by the rich musical mix. [Jul 2025, p.83]

It's all high drama, dark figures and wild impulses - hugely entertaining, but when Muphy sings "this is the meaning of my life", you don't doubt it for a second. [Jun 2025, p.86]

Frustratingly for JM solo-heads, as well as Neil Tennant hanging around for a superfluous Rebel Rebel, instead of The Messenger we get The Passenger. Top notch performances, though. [Nov 2025, p.87]

Rock solid debut from an exceptional singer. [Dec 2025, p.86]

There's so much controlled carnage to this double LP that it just flashes by. [Feb 2026, p.90]

Though overly familiar for boomers, perhaps, Wasted On Youth's sibling rivalry-fuelled irreverence will likely chime with Gen Z kids seeking their own Oasis, not mum and dad's. [Apr 2026, p.86]

The track I See Red radiates synth euphoria but the Pet Shop Boys-ish Death In London and single Kingdom Undersea are more about introspection than rapture. [May 2026, p.88]

Cathartic and beyond satisfying. [Jun 2013, p.102]

With too many pastel-shaded instrumentals, the album lacks the previous album's molten touch and her live show's surging spirit. [June 2008, p.114]

Like the rest of this moving album, it whispers in the dark instead of hitting you in the face. [Dec 2008, p.110]

King's voice, whether riding roughshod over her band's new found vravura arrangements or playing the smoky chanteuse, is still a decisive instrument of its own. [June 2010, p. 99]

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

The one-nature of the wracked, robotic torch songs does wear thin by closer Smoke Rings, however. [Jun 2016, p.95]

Spencer build this world of thrift-store influences and acid wit, and he sounds happy there. [Dec 2018, p.88]

A music-box intricacy keeps these anxious, wondering songs on a room-sized scale even as they worry at the big issues over strings and keyboards. [Dec 2021, p.90]

One or two numbers have too many twiddles; but then there's the waltz-like Are You In Love?, no longer a teen crush but adult, gently humorous and intoxicating. [Mar 2022, p.85]

With its Magic Fly synthetic hustle, single Fever pulses with the same reductive pop genius, but doubtless deterred by the laws of diminishing returns the Keys have eschewed ab blanket reiteration--with mixed results. [Jun 2014, p.91]

The album's stand-outs come when they soften their stance. [May 2014, p.93]

The makeover has done him proud. [Aug 2009, p.108]

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]

A few numbers tread too similar a beat; but then there's the gumshoe monologue of Brexit At Tiffany's and The Sergio Leone mash-up of Saint Michael - which is windswept, stately and might, just might be hopeful. [Jun 2022, p.91]

Although some of his lyrical tricks might sound a little familiar this time round, he remains one of Britain's great storytellers. [Jun 2006, p.104]

First new solo album for four years from the young jazz maverick.

What Realism does best is preserve Merritt at his most real, a blend of Cole Porter, Morrissey and Eeyore, a master of what he labels as "cosy, charming, subtle" gestures, which on several occasions (especially You Must Be Out Of Your Mind and I Don't Know What To Say) reach a level of miserablist perfection. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

Despite such flamboyant touches, the songs here are more caustic than camp. [Oct 2003, p.120]

Most of which 'works', all of which comes thick with a sense of joy and love for the denim and leather. [Mar 2004, p.106]

Wiggs and Trimble do a fantastic job recreating the feel of classic soundtracks of the '60s and '70s... The only shame is that it runs out of steam a little towards the end.

Anarchic Breezes is a fully-fledged new direction, and as coherent and powerful a record as McBean has made in his 10-year career. [Aug 2013, p.88]

Nothing remotely insipid here; rather anger as an energy and top tunes. [Dec 2021, p.84]

Like [Brian Wilson's] Smile, it extends the language of pop, setting a fearsome standard for anyone equal to the challenge of matching his limitless invention. [Jun 2007, p.98]

Mantaray, however, displays a passion and conviction that shows an artist unhappy to rest on her numerous laurels. [Sep 2007, p.102]

In conception and execution, Concrete And Gold stands as Foo Fighters' most beguiling record to date. [Oct 2017, p.88]

Brooklyn duo deliver shock psychedelic masterpiece. [May 2010, p. 96]

An intriguing return. [Jul 2024, p.86]

Based on what's here, it's impossible to guess which could follow next. [Jul 2023, p.84]

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

It's both far-out and potentially pack-leading. [Jan 2017, p.99]

[A] perfect symbiosis of mournful brass and life-giving rock. [Dec 2015, p.92]

As accomplished as anything in his storied catalogue. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Unstoppably ace. [May 2012, p.88]

A meditative record that flutters elegantly and throbs with delicious menace. [Nov 2019, p.95]

Wolf People can play and on NRR have just enough Sabbath-styled hard riffing to appeal to the basest rock fan. [Jun 2013, p.92]

McVie brings the sing-song pop; Buckingham, the whispered vocals and fingernail-splitting guitar solos. [Jun 2017, p.86]

Model 500 fans, prepare for increased static. [Jul 2019, p.96]

The result is a collage of several kinds of classic U2 album, one that has the beauty of their panoramic '80s Eno/Lanois recordings plus the synthetic experimentation andd dalliances with pop merriment which revolutionized the band's modus operandi from "Achtung Baby" onwards. [Apr 2009, p.96]

An album of melancholy and heartbreak that's at its best when the songs fall between all-out country rock ballads and bare bones ballads. [Apr 2012, p.84]

Tke heart and enjoy The Boss's galvanising newie--Mr. Motivator is back. [Mar 2009, p.102]

Slick but foxy music from under pop music's best-maintained fringe. [Nov. 2010, p. 109]