Finely etched narratives telltales of aging wunderkinds and tragic figures, the deeds of those famed and flawed, while the music moves in manifold directions, from powerpop to scuzz rock to alt country. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Coffey's new solo album is split 50/50 between space-funk rock guitar features and more grounded tracks as he becomes the servant of singers on five of the 11 tracks here. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Civilian [is] coming on like an odd, but most welcome hybrid. [Jun 2011, p.106]

Occasionally, as on the stuttering, beats-at-war-with-the-tune One And Lonely, it's not so successful, but in the main it's easy to feel both the width and the quality. [Jun 2011, p.106]

While The Gate is not as persuasive as 2007's Nightmoves, the good stuff more than makes up for comparatively effortful takes on Stevie Wonder and EW&F material. [Jun 2011, p.105

Though the bleak, froideur-laden Going Wrong and Milky Blau also impress, here are moments when W reneges on Doorway's great promise. [Jun 2011, p.105]

The Dodos switchback moods and rhythms never settle and that's the prime joy of No Color. [Jun 2011, p.105]

It isn't as urgent as Crazy rhythms, but follows from 1986's The Good Earth with a sparkling, rolling and guitar strum-driven understatement between third and fourth LP Velvets, a minimalist Neil Young and their cheerleaders R.E.M. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Cantrell's voice exudes greater purity than Wells's and she has some tricks up her sleeve, one being an original that gives the album its title, a song that namechecks Wells and other country icons such as Maybelle Carter and Martha Carson. [Jun 2011, p.105]

A festival friendly selection of gossamer reggae-lite that even jacks a riff from U2's Bad On I'll Be Waiting, although the mood is more a love up, unplugged Boomtown Rats, with Franti carefully to ensure his unflinching positivity doesn't become too wearing. [Jun 2011, p.104]

[It results] in bubblegum thrash paeans to laziness and forgetfulness, multiple blasts of fiery milquetoast defiance stuffed with beguiling observations on the minor tragedies of everyday life. [Jun 20111, p.104]

Laurie is best on standards such as St James Infirmary and Buddy Bolden's Blues, playing piano on them with strength and sensitivity. [Jun 2011, p.104]

She's simply not being fed the right material, or getting to work with a sympathetic producer. Hudson is a soul singer not a modern R'n'B one. [Jun 2011, p.104]

Originally intended as a YouTube offering, The Palace Guards teeters between alt country and folk rock in a diverse and totally appealing manner. [Jun 2011, p.103]

Harvey's softly purring voice hardly leaps from the speakers, but his identity is stamped strikingly on Rhymeless, with its malevolent appropriation of "all the songs you never sang to your little ones." [Jun 2011, p.103]

Lollipop finds songwriter Curt Kirkwood, as ever, rearranging rock history into new shapes that fit his wonderfully warped vision, delivering some of the Pups' most compelling tuneage yet. [Jun 2011, p.102]

Booker responds with young and evergreen playing, a typically euphonious mixture of economy, precision, warmth, color and melody on tight groovin' instrumentals. [Jun 2011, p.101]

The remainder unfurls in similar fashion: laudably spirited, often astoundingly catchy and entirely indebted to the past. [Jun 2011, p.101]

Good album, clever guy. [Jun 2011, p.100]

The simpler numbers--sun-dappled Dust On The Dancefloor, sweet love ballad Our Hearts Burn Like Damp Matches--are much better. [Jun 2011, p.100]

More symphonic in structure than Herren's previous work and richer in melody and theme, it eschews loops in favor of fuzzy interference and acoustic vibrations. [Jun 2011, p.97]

Darkly neurotic, it captures the on-the-road loneliness and sense of dislocation perfectly. [Jun 2011, p.97]

The Magic Place is her most fully involved album, suffused with the warmth of fond memories and a deep, dream-like resonance. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Their orchestral meditations on aging are convincing and beautiful. [Jun 2011, p.96]

So, was Tony Bennett exaggerating when he called lang, "the best singer of her generation"? Yes, but on this form only a little. [May 2011, p.114]

By the end, you are left wanting more extreme flourishes. [May 2011, p.114]

His score for this Murakami adaptation is just as striking, referencing Vaughan Williams and Shostakovich in a manner similar to such 20th century Japanese magpie composers as Hayasaka and Hashimoto. [May 2011, p.112]

The Youth split their sound into four clear component parts: piano, drums, percussion and guitar-screes that separate out beautifully and merge grimily--just like the kids in the film itself. [May 2011, p.112]

Collected together the fear might have been that the sound would be found wanting. yet from 1996's Nenette Et Boni to 2009's White Material here is a sound always pulsing with the same intimate warmth of Denis' films. [May 2011, p.112]

This is an album that stands up to the touchstone indie classics it references. [May 2011, p.112]

An impressive debut that crackles with vitality. [May 2011, p.112]

Robertson sings each with a parched intimacy that seems unaffected by the passing of time. [May 2011, p.111]

For the most part it works,Moody, Standard And Poor is a fine exercise in pre-punk '60s garage energy given added zest from the dynamic interplay between his and former Edsel man Sohrab Habibion's dueling guitars. [May 2011, p.110]

Though the Vivs pride themselves on DIY charm, they're becoming scarily cogent. [May 2011, p.110]

Their music is an improbably addictive miasma of chopped-up spoken-word fragments and spectral electronica. [May 2011, p.110]

Fleshed out by two drummers, strings and brass, it's as infectious and disarming as it is genre-defying. [May 2011, p.109]

This still requires a certain kind of listener: namely, people who find Michael Cera's movies charming. [May 2011, p.109]

More often than not, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that recent Animal Collective albums have loomed large in The Luya's collective subconscious. [May 2011, p.109]

He transforms the bi-hearted bop of randy Weston's Little Niles into a plaintive musical love letter that, like much of what surrounds it, demands repeated listens. [May 2011, p.108]

A beguiling marriage of tradition and modernism. [May 2011, p.107]

This stuff is not only good, it's (mostly) weirdly good. [May 2011, p.106]

A craftsman-tough album about decision times. [May 2011, p.106]

The record is starting to sound worn. [May 2011, p.105]

Her's a downhome collection that's low on dBs but as impactful as anything he's done. [May 2011, p.105]

With its onus on hooks, the result is an enjoyable, lightweight pop album. [May 2011, p.104]

Longtime fans might be appeased. Others may find themselves a trifle bored. [May 2011, p.104]

There was mmuch to anticipate, but it falls short of the promise. [May 2011, p.114]

The very subtlety of Hon Hoopkins' production may be why it sounds so unique. [May 2011, p.114]

From captivatingly woozy opener State Of new York to the languid euphoria of Everything, this challenging but addictive record cocoons the listener in chloroformed candy floss. [May 2011, p.109]

There's much that's familiar about Demolished Thoughts, but Beck's arrangements draw fresh new pleasures from those elements. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Kane, like his Puppets partner, is fast becoming one of Britain;s landmark composers. [Jun 2011, p.102]

The possibilities of "first ideas" is fatally undermined by a lack of ideas. [May 2011, p.110]

Metronomy have tapped into a rich seam of eccentric pop for their third studio release. [may 2011, p.114]

Ultimately, The Llamas seem like a Heston Blumenthal of sound, stimulating through a kind of weird science. [May 2011, p.112]

The album pays in cleft between Darnielle's left and right brains and strikes the perfect balance between wild imagery and plaintive sentiment. [May 2011, p.112]

Mostly, she seems so (understandably) lost inside herself you don't know where to find her. [May 2011, p.111]

Far from the title's implied despair, Wit's End sounds more like home, sweet home. [May 2011, p.111]

Where the remainder deviates, though, is in its lyricism, a good thing, because the beer-boys-in-the-band stance is replaced by only-to-be-encouraged attempts at social comment and a more enlightened approach to gender politics. [May 2011, p.110]

The rest, it must be said, is extremely dull. [May 2011, p.108]

C'mon suggests their state of grace deserves a wider congregation. [May 2011, p.108]

A romp through Bootsy's former glories, subtly retooling them to sound comfortingly familiar yet not anachronistic. [May 2011, p.106]

So beautiful Or So What is a deeply spiritual record, its more reflective moments offset by playful fare. [may 2011, p.106]

Walk The River is far more direct and carries a mood of singer-songwriter writ (very) large. [May 2011, p.105]

This collection does little to enhance their hard-won reputation as one of modern rock's most compelling live draws. [May 2011, p.105]

Blood pressures doesn't quite take charge of their joint destiny as decisively as it needs to, the cohesive chain smoking cool do their earlier albums diluted by sudden shifts in tempo and mood. [May 2011, p.104]

Despite including some familiarly-styled acoustic reflections, 101 is very different to 2007's New York-influenced Keren Ann. [May 2011, p.104]

Cat's Eyes are the sound of something beautiful in a state of slow decay. [May 2011, p.104]

Rather than gaining urgency Tomboy instead feels rhythmically constrained and sonically muted. [May 2011, p.100]

His fifth album finds him digging into the C-60 funk box, and sometimes misplacing his wonderful strangeness in the process. [May 2011, p.104]

It's a shame Eisold has lost some of individuality, but you can't fault him for hook-fueled momentum. [May 2011, p.110]

Not one of his career's frequent great leap forward, but still a thrilling delivery system for his formidable gifts. [May 2011, p.100]

Do you like reading poetry while folded into a big armchair in some sunny corner? You'll love False Beats And True Hearts. [Jun 2011, p.102]

Students of the 19080s Brit synth-pop and Gallic cold wave will find Austra a contemporary champion. [Jun 2011, p.97]

This crisply produced second LP sticks rigidly to the same mandate--big beats and bigger tunes--and feels a little dated as a result. [Jun 2011, p.97]

Brilliant! Tragic! soars on the crumbling wings of an Adverts-brand art-punk and Argos's much-improved bellow. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Anderson never sounds too like any of those people for comfort, she just projects a similarly high level of sinewy individuality. [Jun 2011, p.94]

From Mason Dixon's struttin' Southern boogie and the title track's exhilarating echo of the Stones' Soul Survivor, through to the adorably vulnerable Quiet Person--what a hoot. [Jun 2011, p.92]

Smother sees this singular and intriguing group still on the ascendant--limiting notions of normal music notwithstanding. [Jun 2011, p.92]

All-enveloping and omnivorous, it's hard to tell if this record wants to hug you or eat you, but it's blissful submitting to its embrace. [Jun 2011, p.93]

Wasted Light finds Foo Fighters at their boldest, their most vivid. [May 2011, p.101]

The blue-collar earnestness is still served in large dollops, but there;s a sense of over-reach about the whole thing. [May 2011, p.100]

Glasvegas retain their open-throated passion, anthemicism and the very distinctive Caledonian character of James Allan's voice, but these qualities are now sometimes a little lost in widescreen--like tears in rain, like synths in multi-track. [May 2011, p.105]

They've delivered their biggest surprise to date. A record that falls short for its constituent parts. [May 2011, p.100]

Deez is revealed as a one-trick pony in the nine variants that follow. [Jun 2010, p.102]

The result is an unexpected throwback to the pop noir of Foxx's 1980 debut Metamatic. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Withering, witty and clever. [Apr 2011, p.94]

Baenziger takes nothing for granted when it comes to arrangements. where the song demands it, electronic textures are favoured--instincts which bear rich fruit on Willis and Skinnybone. [Apr 2011, p.95]

If Kate Bush backed by MGMT appeals, Maguire's your woman. [Apr 2011, p.105]

If Diana Krall's Goodby and Norah Jones's Ill Wind are strikingly vulnerable, intimate performances of classics, it's perhaps the obscurer selections that stand out. [Feb 2011, p.107]

Certainly, Live On I-5 proves Soundgarden weren't covered by grand stadium stages. [May 2011, p.125]

Fourth album from the Kensington-born, Georgia-based garage rock queen's latest incarnation. [Jun 2011, p.100]

Out of retirement -- and on to the hard shoulder. [June 2011, p. 93]

Follow-up to 2008's widely acclaimed Dear Science recorded at guitarist David Sitek's home. [June 2011, p. 92]

The resulting platter is overflowing with dense slabs of aromatic unrefined funk, peppered with scattershot stupid-dope old school rhymes. [June 2011, p. 92]

This album is destined to redraw the parameters, thanks to its sheer scale and detail, its recurring themes and imagery, and its creators' refusal to settle for less than they could achieve. [June 2011, p. 90]

The vocals are mostly too downmix, the lyrics too inaudible or too banal. [Apr 2011, p.101]

A further refinement of their liquid improv vibe, the Thrill Jockey debut finds the quintet sitting on a mountain looking at the sun, high on Popol Vuh and who knows what else. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Vile's no relic-treasuring throwback, finding a unique, laconic voice of his own among the tangle. [Apr 2011, p.95]