At root, it's a heart-warming little curio. [Jul 2014, p.86]

There’s quite a variety of country musicians here. Most tend to play their selection pretty straight, though Rhiannon Giddens has an interesting take on Don’t Come Around Here No More. ... It’s the old school who provide this collection’s highlights. [Aug 2024, p.89]

Gigantic of sound and vision, grandly poetic of pronouncement, the Millennium Stadium surely beckons. [Sep 2012, p.97]

Here he achieves immediate take-off with a version of Nilsson's The Flying Saucer Song that could fit neatly on The Dark Side Of The Moon without too many people noticing. [Aug 2013, p.92]

Very focused and quietly anthemic. [Feb 2006, p.92]

Redolent of soundtrack ace Danny Elfman, if Kubrick is a pitch for work in cinema it's a sound move. [Jan 2016, p.94]

Long gone from Creation is the balancing act between country roots and pop ambition of their earlier albums, leaving a dense, darkly alluring pop where, if you listen closely, you might just hear a kitchen sink or two rattling in the background. [Jul 2014, p.93]

The inventiveness on display is undeniably impressive, but the process sometimes hides a little too much of the artist behind it. [Nov 2022, p.86]

Eight songs that drift and haunt with layered voice and moody strings. [Jun 2018, p.97]

The sound Of Your Laughter and The Guessing Game are Get It On-style glitter boogies; by contrast Stay Now and All That Glitters reveal a more fragile side. [May 2015, p.92]

It's the LP's sparer, outward-looking, more spontaneous-sounding songs which house the best melodies. [May 2024, p.85]

Their ninth record proves their distinctive spirit is still unbroken. The mood is knowingly mordant. [Jul 2024, p.84]

They return with an album that tries hard to please, its brace of ultra-catchy, bubblegum dance-pop tracks constructed from teh same building blocks as Tom Tom Club's playground. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]

Seems largely unable to go far beyond generic musical stylings and rather lifeless, matt[e]-finish reportage. [Nov 2005, p.97]

Discs two and three mostly consist of unedited or alternate takes of material on the main disc. A full-length Transylvania Boogie, previously released in edited form, turns out to have been mostly a long, meandering shuffle with a drum solo. Hitherto undocumented titles Halos And Arrows and Moldred turn out to be, respectively, an exploratory guitar overdub piece (all that’s missing is Joni Mitchell at the mike) and a brief Tommy/Vincent composite with added bass. [Aug 2023, p.90]

A soothing balm in anxious times. [Nov 2014, p.93]

It all slides down nicely--great bachelorette party music that sounds good on headphones. [Sep 2010, p.104]

Part II sprawls across paranoid Massive Attack-style locked grooves (Nothing To Give), ethereal folk-prog (Sun), gushing, orchestral breakbeat (Only You) and narco rock/electronica hybrid (Crucifixion/A Prophet). [May 2019, p.87]

Alongside The Miracle 3's rich, roughneck guitar grind, Wynn's odd perspective gathers strength on two songs that involve gatecrashing private homes or events. [Feb 2011, p.107]

German electro poppers making a play for the festival crowds. [July 2011, p. 102]

Clever, unflinching, experimental and catchy. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Folk roots meet soundtrack clips and contemporary perspective. [Aug 2013, p.98]

This will thrill those who believe Pavement's best album was their first. [Jul 2014, p.86]

Love Is Magic is Grant entertainingly magnified, but the emotional returns comes slightly diminished. [Nov 2018, p.93]

The glossy, high-shine finish songs come with an air of post-club languor. [Dec 2012, p.96]

This new box set offers a ton of unreleased tracks (47 in total). Ranging from the ropey – Schoolyard sees him at the age of 32 singing about losing his virginity at 16 to, erk, a 14-year-old girl; Horny Pony features a toe-curling rap – to the bafflingly binned, they nonetheless provide real insight into Prince’s creative mind. Highlights include ghetto chronicle The Voice, jazz instrumental tribute Letter 4 Miles (recorded two days after his friend Davis’s death) and, best of all, the gently trippy Alice Through The Looking Glass. [Dec 2023, p.105]

The trio blow out the cobwebs with their relentless blasts of heavy metal sax/bass/drums power. [Feb 2014, p.98]

She's better shifting gears beyond her stylistic bounds. [May 2019, p.89]

Good use of pot-banging percussion and swanee whistle electronics. [Mar 2019, p.99]

The 13 eco-friendly songs from across his career are augmented to varying degrees by nature sounds: rain, thunder, frogs, horses, ducks, crickets, chickens and several critters I can't identify. Sometimes intrusive but they're often atmospheric. [Aug 2016, p.90]

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

Never quite hits that million-streaming sweet spot. [Sep 2018, p.86]

Thoughtful, tuneful, exquisitely melancholy, ever slightly off centre-- [Silencio] is, indeed, a welcome haven. [Sep 2012, p.86]

An imposing, sometimes melodramatic affair. [Mar 2006, p.94]

For all its ambitious and admirable wilfulness, the sound of Casablancas playing in his sandpit is still an acquired taste. [Nov 2014, p.94]

A backstory so real you'll swear you've seen the flick. [Dec 2012, p.96]

The best of these songs are easily a match for Broken Social Scene. [Nov 2007, p.106]

Thankfully, frequent shards of light lift the gloom and raise the spirits. [Mar 2014, p.95]

The acoustic neo-folk ditties that made his name are deployed in the form of 'Faithfully Remain' and 'Skin Thin,' but the heavy side of Harper makes for a welcome detour. [Jun 2009, p.102]

While there's an invigorating charm to Blue Songs, you're left concluding that it lacks its predecessor's USP. [Feb 2011, p.108]

Just when it seems it's an invitation to drift away, Kazuashita sags the attention, demands vigilance; a record of the world, rather than out of it. [Jul 2018, p.95]

While outstanding musicianship is guaranteed, it doesn't always go hand in hand with great songwriting, but by its judicious mixing of the avant-garde and smart pop, alt rock and low-slung funk, Patience is always engaging. [Aug 2016, p.90]

Scum is a joyous mash-up of cheap beats, precinct-loitering aggro punk and youthful vim; it's by no means a classic, but you suspect Cardy may well have one in him soon. [Oct 2017, p.94]

It's pleasant but ultimately inessential stuff. Way better are the tunes where the tape echo effects kick in. [Oct 2019, p.82]

Out There, but inclusive too. [Jan 2022, p.89]

A wry, gently nostalgic affair recalling lives lived. [Jun 2013, p.95]

The glitchy electronics hard shield his soulful voice, but on tracks like Corner the digital pulse yields more human warmth. [Sep 2015, p.95]

[Alice Moki Jayne's] one-hour length is rather testing. The 29-minute 8 Spring Streeet is more structured and achieves a thrilling momentum. ... 35 minutes in [Galaxies (Sky)], the 12-strong, 12-string "guitar army," directed by Moore hit a breathtaking peak. It feels like a spectacular end, but then there are still over 20 minutes to go. [Oct 2019, p.86]

Soundtrack to Mona Fastvold's story of love amid tough rural landscapes has similar mood contrasts. [Feb 2022, p.92]

Vocally and melodically, Durant aims for nursery-rhyme simplicity, sometimes to her detriment. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Images both earthy and heavenly make repeated showings, but case's vexing concern is troubled humans. [Jul 2018, p.88]

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

The results are patchy. [Sep 2017, p.92]

There's a cosmic/romantic wisdom to highlight One Way Or Another and Two Dreamers' sunshine classicism. [Sep 2019, p.96]

No nonsense also means no frills and Stereophonics still follow the white line straight down the middle, doggedly relying on songs rather than production dazzle or image to see them through. [Oct 2015, p.96]

Minimalist production values prevail and succeed in highlighting the beautiful--and often haunting melancholic--sonorities of Wilson's pipes. [Sep 2012, p.90]

The results are melodic, gently atmospheric indie rock that often fits the neo-shoegaze paradigm. [Sept. 2011, p. 101]

[Bridges] convincingly inhabits a batch of mostly self-penned story songs that radiate a weary gravitas and wry existentialism. [Oct 2011, p.96]

Like a Gibby Haynes-fronted Bongwater. [May 2016, p.96]

It's not the easiest to digest in one sitting, but its languorous, tripy/hippy cocktail is refreshingly unique. [Jul 2017, p.91]

These songs aren't quite the blast of fresh air needed after months of dreaming about new horizons, but as you'd expect from Damon And Naomi, they're a beautifully curated analogue. [Oct 2021, p.96]

It's tasteful and meticulous throughout, but the longer, more adventurously songs exert a greater grip on the imagination. [Oct 2019, p.91]

[The album includes] a stomping version of Elmore James's Rollin' And Tumblin' and a long and not wholly convincing reading of Stevie Wonder's Uptight. [Sep 2012, p.90]

Dry The River's contradictions result in an almost too-unified second release. [Sep 2014, p.98]

Fans will wallow in the superficial nuttiness of it all--though profound issues underlie the wilful eccentricity. [Mar 2005, p.96]

[Disc 1] is grunge-punk-metal boiled down to mere energy -- and calories don't rock. [Jul 2005, p.102]

The County Durham punks' first in 36 years is suitably grown-up if a little underwhelming. [Nov 2015, p.96]

Shauf is as musically jaunty as Josh Rouse. [Mar 2020, p.92]

It's the record that regular Krall devotees demand. So is it churlish to suggest that she's capable of something more? [Oct 2006, p.111]

Nutty as Emotional Mugger is, it's a joyful trip. [Feb 2016, p.91]

A glossy finish leaves little to hang on to. [Dec 2013, p.92]

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

Lyrics with thematic substance are complemented by fine tunes. [Apr 2017, p.93]

It's great that the music is allowed to live in the moment, but the inevitable live albums are hardly essential purchases. [Dec 2008, p.112]

Williams' storytelling gift is palpable, but pleasant to alight on though it is, Front Porch perhaps lacks that one outstanding merger of lyrical acuity/melodic potency, a la Dolly Parton's Jolene. [Jun 2019, p.89]

It's the lesser-spotted Mike D and Chan Marshall aka cat Power who snag this troublesomely titled fourth album's crowning moment. [Jul 2016, p.92]

This pared back approach, which lends parts of the record a "dancier" vibe, may not suit all fans of his singular debut. [Jul 2013, p.85]

Minimal beat-logic and a new-age-ish ability to work below pop's usual emotional horizons sets them apart. [Sep 2018, p.96]

Hidden Fields finds Lawrie drifting back to his black-denim roots with five tracks of distortion heavy, song-based sedation.[Sep 2015, p.92]

This is a resolutely up record, for the most part. [Jul 2014, p.92]

There's a surfeit of hushed intros building to emotional crescendos, but the feeling is all real. [Nov 2019, p.96]

“Don’t mind me… I’m a lazy sod,” sings Ian Gillan. Other daft lyrics such as “Mother nature’s keeping her socks on” support his confession, but Deep Purple’s indomitable frontman remains in fine voice and, musically at least, they sound reborn here. [Aug 2024, p.81]

Welfare Jazz finds them dropping through the gears and settling on a sound that often resembles the frazzled nocturnal grooves magicked up during Josh Homme's Desert Sessions. [Mar 2021, p.90]

An uncomfortable yet rewarding listen. [Dec 2006, p.110]

Ducking and diving between ivories and six-string, his reedy-voice makes for a Syd Barrett attempting Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything? record, full of compulsive tunes, but ever off-centre. [Feb 2019, p.91]

Intelligent, funny, heartbreaking atl-rock, Hornby lyrics music and vocals by Folds. [Oct. 2010, p. 92]

Be Your Own King is somewhat hobbled, though, by a flat, dense production from The Do's Dan Levy. [Mar 2013, p.89]

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

Simple, repetitive, often unsettling, Sort Of Revolution refuses to succumb to the obvious. [Jul 2009, p.93]

With songs of fake rock 'n' roll, magical dogs, lost minds and love, this is pop with wobbly wheels and new found joy and optimism. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

An over proliferation of fluffy beats and soaring strings may have you hankering for something tougher. [Jul 2015, p.91]

Everything on Sinematic is huge, layered, expertly grooved and overladen with Robertson's parched voice hamming up lyrics which offset the standard portentousness of a rock great sermonising from the Mount with underspun True Crime yarns like I Hear You Paint House, Shanghai Blues and the Orson Wells tribute, The Shadow. [Oct 2019, p.84]

Familiar BJM territory perhaps, but they still inhabit a different, more enticing cosmos to their peers. [Jul 2014, p.87]

He achieves a delectable balance between affecting and creepy. [Nov 2012, p.85]

This hour-long excerpt inevitably loses that multimedia narrative heft, yet its marriage of dronescape synths and Chinese libretto - voices alternatively soaring, skittering and sorrowful - still casts an otherworldly spell. [Feb 2022, p.84]

One listen, maybe two, will be enough for most. [Sep 2016, p.93]

Alights a little too close to Gaga on saccharine opener Strawberry Shake. Persistence pays off, though. [Dec 2012, p.96]

The overriding feeling, though, is that you want to give them a good shake, maybe get them a it drunk, try to liven them up. [Apr 2016, p.91]