Jared Artaud and Brian MacFadyen pack a pummeling version of cultural vacancy, though they're a tad predictable. [Sep 2014, p.93]

It's Shabason's sax that endures; pensive and humane, even when assailed by glitches. [Dec 2018, p.92]

Each track employs a different variation on a naïve, early Depeche Mode synth-pop beat, over which a keyboard melody bloops and Dury whispers forlornly about a missed romantic opportunity or existential let-down. [Nov 2014, p.92]

Weighty subtexts and a consistent mood of restrained portent haven't entirely banished the aforementioned arpeggiated banality here, however, which is a shame, because in places Heather gives rein to an otherwise repressed idiosyncrasy. [May 2022, p.94]

There are tender moments, too, such as Lianne La Havas’s guest-spot on sodium-lit ballad Body Shock, but this is largely a record of brash textures from a band relishing the margins. [Jan 2025, p.83]

This third outing developed a gnarly carpe diem edge. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Like families, it's appealingly chaotic. [Apr 2016, p.96]

Moon ultimately suffers from a surfeit of wistful syrup. [Feb 2014, p.95]

The Stills still aren't sure of their true identity, but at least those Interpol comparisons are way behind them. [Jan 2008, p.101

These 11 songs brim with images of armed men, noxious air and entitled egotists, intermingled with notions of self-liberation and community solidarity. But the sonics too often seem stuck in Garbus's past. [Jul 2025, p.83]

While Foreign Light trades some of his past eclecticism for a super-soulful hook-up with singer-songwriter Andrea martin, his acute ear for sasquatch basslines and simpatico collaborators remains undimmed. [Sep 2017, p.91]

It's difficult to judge on one listen. [May 2006, p.104]

Beck-assisted psychedelic electronica from Black Moth Super Rainbowman. [July 2010, p. 98]

Many longtime listeners... are sure to be disappointed with the radio-friendly production and sheer innocuousness of [the] lyrics. [Jun 2007, p.104]

Beginners is less rip-it-up statement than subtle realignment; less countrified and polished, more folky and sparse. [Jul 2020, p.80]

Muezzin duels with fellow tenorist Shabaka Hutchings hit the spot. [Jun 2016, p.97]

The Detroit budget-punks follow last year's eponymous art-scuzz by zinging through 12 anthemic amp-melters in 26 minutes. [Feb 2011, p.989]

Occasionally it's dull - but the mood's upbeat where it once was ominous. [Apr 2023, p.83]

There are featureless patches, bits of white-box real-estate that need a little more character, but there's always something intriguing around V's corners. [Apr 2023, p.89]

Rosenberg's gently-rendered songs too often rely on stock images. [Oct 2016, p.96]

It's a more than worthy companion piece, with an unfinished, scrapbook feel that's far from unbecoming. [Sep 2014, p.94]

A playful digital makeover for some vintage noir vibes. [Oct 2020, p.94]

The gap between theoretical mind-blowing freakout and actual indie underpinnings remains acute, however, as Venusia and Valley Of The Calm Trees suggest Klaxons may just be Mansun with a faster processor. [Sep 2010, p.103]

Empire State Bastard make you feel like you've been in a cage fight with Mike Tyson. [Oct 2023, p.82]

Regularly transcend mere pastiche. [Apr 2020, p.86]

Just a quick read of the titles on this 12th album shows Chuck has lost none of his sloganeering, rebal-rousing wit. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Rather than sounding like an '80s soft-rock rehash, they have worked with up-to-the-minute beat merchants Timbaland and Nate 'Danja' Hills to create a dramtic, contemporary pop concoction. [Dec 2007, p.98]

At it's best, it's a picaresque, altered-states voyage through old school hip-hop, black-leather electro and techno menace; elsewhere it's as invigorating as trying to get served at a bar. [Apr 2008, p.101]

Even when further adrift from the lost funk sampledelia that made his name, Shadow's production brilliance shines through. [Dec 2023, p.90]

A few tracks disappoint; but there's lusty Fever Forever and graceful Beating On The Outside, which could be Roseanne cash. [Oct 2022, p.90]

It takes awhile to get some traction on these unassuming songs. But once inside it is a strange and enticing world. [Jul 2018, p.95]

At its best, Pole's new sound is winning. [May 2003, p.98]

While good stuff (with good sound) in the main, its sheer length and predictability mark this as one for the fanatics. [Jan 2010, p.114]

They explore the tricksy time signatures and artful insouciance of Deerhoof or Tortoise with aplomb. [Sep 2016, p.99]

Brought To Book starts off as a classic Hammill Piano ballad, but like many songs here it goes through metric convolutions while still keeping its melodic coherence, crashing through the hedges of its own maze to get from A and B. [Oct 2016, p.97]

Introspective, often forlorn and frequently mysterious, it's not an easy listen, but the delicate potency of Clarke's exceptional voice is a formidable saving grace. [Nov 2016, p.91]

Great that they are back on their own label, on their own terms, but some of these "democratically produced" recordings want for a more ruthless arbitrator. [Apr 2022, p.80]

There's no arguing with the brilliance if New Partner or I See A Darkness, though the sweetness of Oldham's mature voice and the impressionistic arrangements tend to detract from their ominous gravity. [Jan 2019, p.84]

This would be a strong set if they culled three tracks, shortened a few others and rearranged the sequencing. As it is, this record suffers from a distinct mid-album crisis. [Dec 2006, p.103]

The 12 songs here are mostly wild, loud, anarchic and irreverent but hardly ever subdued. [Feb 2017, p.96]

A stopgap while The Gossip work on new material, this album is nonetheless worth the price of a hand-stamp. [May 2008, p.102]

The arrangemnts are smartly constructed, Campbell's guitar is economical and crisp, and his interpretibve skills and singing are as sharp as during his commercial peak. [Sep 2008, p.112]

There's little original in the likes of 'Psychosocial' 'Snuff' or "All Hope is Gone,' but the bludgeoning guitars are crisp, the overload of percussion suitably crunchy and a sense of bravura and commitment that's lacking in many of today's metal bands runs throughout. [Nov 2008, p.118]

All through this listenable, though frankly inconsequential album, PSB are stuck on a sound: it's that booming release of early '90s dance, filtered through a bit of early-noughties terpsichorean quiet-loud sonic sexiness. [May 2016, p.86]

An intense, slightly avant chum. [Aug 2021, p.86]

Some of the lyrics, translated from the Dutch, are a touch clunky, but all in all a lively set and not, I suspect, Bishop Burke's final memorial. [Feb 2011, p.100]

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

There's some really good songs here - Creature From The Wild is classic Fruit Bats, Moon's Too Bright is a beauty, and so is his moving cover of the Incredibke String Band song First Girl I loved - but the overall feeling is of an abandoned demo album [Nov 2025, p.93]

10 well-crafted, progressive rock tracks that transcend schlock-rock trappings. [Oct 2015, p.98]

There are points of similarity here with Kraftwerk, particularly on Clockwork, the electro and house styles of '8-s Cabaret Voltaire, the pumping bears if Front 242, and also the percolating sequencers of Favtory Floor. [Oct 2016, p.99]

A frontier bliss-out. [Dec 2019, p.96]

While showcasing a further surfeit of talents - Zongo Brigade's K.O.G., Ghanaian singer Pat Thomas, a rap-happy Soweto Kinch - could make Freedom Fables feel like a compilation, a wide streak of jazz connects the dots. [Mar 2021, p.90]

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

There's a pleasing, Bowie-ish swagger to Elfman's vocals and a steam-punk thrust to Big Mess's heavy, junkyard percussion, the album's caustic, chaotic arrangements utterly fearless throughout 18 rather exhausting songs. [Aug 2021, p.86]

They remain a magical band still searching for a commensurate album, arriving at a record whose thrills are real but fleeting. [Nov 2022, p.92]

The album has its moments, but you really couldn't call it the main event. [Jun 2009, p.99]

This is a richly textured debut that creates a very agreeable collision between the organic and the electronic. [Feb 2011, p.100]

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]

More attention seems to have been paid to assembling the cast than finding something for them to record. [Dec 2004, p.98]

Baobab Tree's bossa nova sway, the title track's lounge vibes and Lo Mas Dulce's electro-Tropicalia weirdness impress. [Jul 2017, p.96]

Imposter, if not essential, always ring true. [Jan 2022, p.83]

[Body/Erase's] opening six minutes resemble an accidental recording made inside an overcoat pocket before mediated snatches of feedback further hint towards this maverick tape manipulator's dark art. [Jan 2022, p.82]

Fade-outs on six of the songs suggest a studio-jam approach that works well, but some of the best tracks are the ones that shirk blues idioms. [Aug 2014, p.90]

The Lillywhite Sessions doesn't just open another window into Walker's mind, it points out a door to a place beyond. Not everyone will want to go too far through it, but it's an alluring gateway. [Jan 2019, p.86]

What is missing is that impish, dangerous side, the famous contorted grin and all that it suggests: humour and horror, surprise and confrontation. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Grant sets aside his personal dramas for more absurd theatrical antics. [Apr 2018, p.92]

On their best pastiches, the jokes land often enough, but you can't help yearning for something as perfectly-turned as Benny Hill's Ernie, or as ardently silly as John Shuttleworth's I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now. [Apr 2019, p.88]

Chiaroscuro is the contrast between light and dark in visual art, and I Break Horses' second album is similarly conflicted. [Feb 2014, p.97]

On the third Uni long-player--a series designed, unlike his starker glitch compositions, to work in dance clubs--the 52-yar-old's signature techno pulses and liminal keyboard clouds enmesh with comparative generosity. [May 2018, p.93]

Peace Or Love is sophisticated without being easy, a quiet storm all of its own. [Aug 2021, p.86]

Ambivalence Avenue presents a livlier Bibio, tastefully absorbing hip hop and disco beats. [Aug 2009, p.104]

Of the various sidelines spinning off Vancouver psych-rockers Black Mountains, this is the prettiest. [Sep 2009, 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]

Don't expect a companion to the "Life On Earth" soundtrack though, even the ballads here are highly strung, some made otherworldly by drones, controlled feedback and mallet percussion, other stung by Meiburg's vocals, gear-shifted from choirboy puriety to anguish. [Mar 2010, p.98]

While there's nothing here that immediately screams to be considered in the front rank of their input, the more you listen, the more it feels like being reunited with some long-lost, missing-presumed-dead relatives. ... Voyage is just as good as you expect. [Jan 2022, p.84]

There is little truly distinctive here. [Jun 2003, p.113]

Such is the breadth of ideas and chutzpah here that you can even forgive Godin for having the temerity to name one track Bach Off. [Oct 2015, p.89]

He brings an easy empathy to these songs. [Sep 2014, p.96]

Ought's sound is stamped with enough original invention for them to stand tall amongst the art-schooled crowd. [Nov 2015, p.90]

What's disappointing is how evenly-tempoed and sedate the pace is. [Jun 2005, p.95]

Sweet, but not quite satisfying. [Oct 2014, p.90]

This is a band who need to shrink back a little, switch off the emotional wind-machine, and work out how to make the personal less impersonal. [Jan 2019, p.86]

Strawbs are clearly not intent on coasting. [Apr 2021, p.81]

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

Face Tat is less free-form than Astrological Straits, 2008's exhilarating, exhausting debut, but it's still a full 15 rounds of aural boxing. [Feb 2011, p.100]

You might even give it a cuddle because it delivers the kind of ultra-friendly music that sits up and in a cutesy manner demands such attention. [Fall 2009, p.93]

Attention wanders as the album slips into a lazy mid-pace skunk groove and Robinson falls back on 'one love' lyrics, but when the duo are joined, on three tracks, by the spider-baby vocals of Kiki Hitomi the effect is unnerving, like modern urban folk tales whispered by a disembodied duo of night bus wraiths. [Jan 2010, p. 96]

Has a strangely nostalgic feel. [Mar 2004, p.104]

Despite the occasional maudlin drift, The Bad ends meet rapturous ends when they rally against impending darkness. [Feb 2023, p.85]

Tennessee roots rockers ease off the barroom brawl piano blues for a more reflective, more modern sound. [Sep 2018, p.96]

Iommi occasionally apes Slayer's squealing solos, but otherwise this is vintage Sabbathian, slow-grind all the way. [Jul 2013, p.82]

Things could have easily slipped into a kitsch pastiche by this stage, yet La Luz continue to find fresh avenues to explore. [Jan 2022, p.85]

Although perhaps too much arrangement is thrown at the producer-penned opener Among The Believers, second track Forbidden Nights, written in 2009 by Elvis Costello, has a stronger melody. [Nov 2015, p.92]

Only problem is, he also wants us to love him for his mind, so he has declared this a concept album. [Nov 2006, p.116]

Deep into side two You Hear Georgia starts to drag a little as they ditch the choogle and attempt to foray into the cosmic Americana territory of My Morning Jacket. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Like Sleater Kinney reimagined for synth-pop teens. [Feb 2014, p.98]

A few shuffling moments suggest Sunday pub lunch surrounding by Bugaboos, but when Gonzalez hits his meditative stride--Every Age's there-is-a-season stateliness, the post-rock smudges of What Will---he owns the room. [Mar 2014, p.98]

The grammatically doubtful One Less Heartless To Fear finds the quartet in more punishing mode. [Feb 2011, p.101]