Lee is so commanding that guests Lucinda Williams and Willie Nelson are drawn into top-of-the-range duets and still don't take over. [Feb 2011, p.96]

This is passionate music, delivered with verve. [Mar 2011, p.104]

Blending machine rhythms and subterranean beats with ghostly atmospherics, world music chants and groaning analogue disquiet they create a rich, unnerving sound that feels both modern and ancient. [Mar 2011, p.114]

Few, if any of 2009's more high profile rock releases could match the adrenalin charge of Death's 34 year-old debut. [Mar 2011, p.114]

Secret Sisters ably court both the family market and those who haunt Past Times stores in search something new. [Mar 2011, p.108]

Incredible Machine, however, is mostly just Nettles having a bawl. [Mar 2011, p.108]

It's the skill of Tabor, the lyric interpreter, that is most telling and, predominately set around atmospheric piano and accordion arrangements, this deeply affecting collection of sea stories demonstrates the core of her art almost to perfection. [Mar 2011, p.108]

There's nothing staggeringly new happening here, but it's all deftly delivered and sure to find favour. [Mar 2011, p.106]

The 62-year-old Bradley, meanwhile, has all the marks of the soul greats who have gone before him; the testifying smart Syl Johnson, the grit and gusto of Otis Redding, the raw power of James Brown, the smoulder and shudder of James Carr. Together they make an intoxicating sound, one that would have fit in perfectly at Twilight in the late-'60s.

His newest group find hum as ever ricocheting between rusty rock'n'roll and perfect pop melodicism, the title track to their debut album adding string-adorned country-psych to his CV, while the rest of his contributions finding him on his strongest form. [Mar 2011, p.1010]

Topped off with lo-fi synths and Victor Truicard's taut riffology, PSY are fresh, fiery, top fun. [Mar 2011, p.101]

When they strip down everything down for the closing pair Fear and the onomatopoeic Organ Blues, the nape hairs rise even higher. [Mar 2011, p.100]

While brutally impressive, if it's subtlety you're seeking, look elsewhere. [Mar 2011, p.100]

Recorded in five days in 2008 with Frank Black in Salem, this album makes you realize where all the rage had gone from Back & Forth; it was here. [Mar 2011, p.99]

Hopscotching from arrhythmic electronica to brutal DJ Shadow-style sonic assault and back again, it's a final demonstration that at last Stateless have arrived somewhere they can happily call home. [Mar 2011, p.98]

The way a latent power blends with an occasionally slightly gauche drama suggests early Radiohead. And, as with Radiohead, it feels like the second album could be the key event, deciding whether these collegiate English sounds can enrapture the wider world. [Mar 2011, p.98]

Something Dirty is powerful and multi-textured, but there's less of the studio experimentation that marked 2009's C'est Com...Com...Complique, despite Peron being promisingly credited with flamethrower and goat hooves. [Mar 2011, p.98]

Their strong suits are Nathan Nicholson's forlorn warble and the pop hooks that pepper quiet melodramatic, minor-chord rock songs like Locked In The Basement. [Mar 2011, p.98]

We get strings, care-worn piano, and lots of subtle detail, the last deepening the listener's relationship with the excellent, lyrical mature songs over repeat plays. [Mar 2011, p.97]

It's a fine bookend for a man who defined one parochial corner of the music world. [Mar 2011, p.96]

Don't Look Surprised strays into Killers Territory but the doo-wop strut of Hunger and calypso jangle of Photograph more than make up for it. A life-affirming debut. [Mar 2011, p.95]

Here Tyler not so much steps out of the shadows as over to a slightly less darkened corner on nine delicately plucked acoustic daydreams that also showcase his talent for arrangements. [Mar 2011, p.94]

Just like her collaborator Bon Iver, Lia Ices seems to instinctively know that less is delectably more. [Mar 2011, p.p94]

This is a big album in every way, full of ambitious layers, heavy on piano, strings, brass and drums producing vast soundscapes and lavish arrangements which place strong emphasis on the atmospheric undercurrent of some unerringly dramatic material. [Apr 2011, p.99]

A low-key, highly engaging covers album. [Nov 2010, p.99]

This collection of rarities includes songs from their "mystery year" of 1998, an MOR cover oof Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart and on, Turn Up The Radio, a song written as a YouTube collaboration with fans, yet is still stronger than most albums in the current mainstream pop/punk realm. [Jan 2011, p.110]

His modified piano is used sparingly throughout, making its most telling contribution on Mount hood, a smouldering invocation of the misty Oregon peak--but the complex, emotional ensemble arrangement is what impresses most. [Jan 2011, p.105]

Faun Fables do gothic folk with admirable vigour and this is incontrovertible force of nature. [Jan 2011, p.104]

There's no joker in this kind of casual big top tourism, and the album flatly perches in the middle like some neutered, latter-day Green Day. [Jan 2011, p.100]

The One's meditation on the price of fame is especially good value, but the Ace of Base-style of What Do They Know is hard to forgive. [Jan 2011, p.99]

San Franciscan psych moodists here to reclaim independent music. [Jan. 2011, p. 98]

New all-star trio featuring Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper, and George Harrison's son, Dhani. [Jan. 2011, p. 96]

James Jackson Toth aka Wooden Wand is at home on Michael Gira's label. [Jan. 2011, p. 94]

She was born on Christmas Day, but has an unsentimental take on the holiday. [Jan. 2011, p. 94]

This compilation is a reminder of the stillness and quiet power at the heart of his frank, softly sung confessional, of Smith's talent as an arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and of his able, Paul Simon-like finger-picking style. [Dec 2010, p.114]

Ultimately, the official album remains the crucible of the artist who flourishes to this day. [Dec 2010, p.112]

The best tracks see the pair sparring over hymnal slow-burners that feature contributions from Neil Young, Brian Wilson, and Booker T. [Dec 2010, p.108]

Listeners outside their target teen demographic will find all this painfully sincere emoting pretty joyless. [Dec 2010, p.106]

For a man with a suspect hipster mustache and a vast lick of asymmetrical hair, Lewis' music has serious depth. [Dec 2010, p.106]

From One Day's po-sweet surprise to DsharpG's shivery vocal/harmonium drones, each gear shift is proof of a compelling new voice. [Dec 2010, p.100]

Still winging it, still wearing it well. [Dec 2010, p.99]

Mapping the winding path of Chrissie and Jp's relationship as it came unstuck, Fidelity! is brave and tender, tingling and troubling the nerve-endings. [Dec 2010, p.98]

I'm Having Fun Now is a musical meeting of minds, sure, but more significantly it's continuing evidence of Lewis's rapid artistic evolution. [Dec 2010, p.98]

Dense of riff and melody but not crassly anthemic, their sledgehammer euphoria is Kyuss gone monster trucking. [Dec 2010, p.97]

Ancestral Star finds Barn Owl alchemising those touchstones into new sonic vistas evoking either nocturnal desert chill or fathomless cosmic expanse. [Dec 2010, p.97]

Marnie Stern is a strong statement from a musician whose confidence is soaring. [Dec 2010, p.97]

Not Music can feel a little like trying to solve a series of Sudoko puzzles, the brain fully engaged but the heart untaxed. [Dec 2010, p.97]

Small Black are more convincing when they move into sharper focus. [Dec 2010, p.96]

Although this is never less than excellent fun, the originals are still the best. [Dec 2010,. p.96]

For a band feeling they had painted themselves into a corner, this is them sodding the consequences and stomping their way out. [Dec 2010, p.96]

There is no nostalgia about Living Proof. [Dec 2010, p.96]

His tried and trusted writing formula sometimes irritate--about being mistaken for Willie Nelson, about an amateur-sung cover version of Heaven that scored 16 million YouTube hits--are winningly self-effacing and chucklesome. [Dec 2010, p.96

An exciting, evocative album. [Dec 2010, p.94]

It's searingly sincere, earnestly aching stuff, but when The Thermals hit the melodic bullseye, yours will be the next heart that breaks. [Dec 2010, p.94]

Despite some uneven quality control, here's proof that this veteran MC still has things to say. [Dec 2010, p.94]

Lyrically, the pair stitch together vaguely gothic turns of phrase, yet devoid of any emotional insight or narrative point. [Dec 2010, p.95]

Blurry Blue Mountain is as idiosyncratic and left-handed as ever, pregnant with moments of mercurial magic. [Dec 2010, p.104]

The resulting album is an impressive country-soul-meets pop hybrid, with Pritchard's powerful honey-toned vocals framed by some deft and sometimes dramatic production touches from White. [Nov 2010, p.108]

Ghostly lullabies from the Birmingham, Alabama two. [Jan. 2011, p. 105]

It's when Duffy and co stop trying so hard that the album fairs best. [Jan. 2011, p. 100]

This 18-song miscellany reminds us that talent loves the company of talent, one-off duets with Ray Charles and Dolly Parton underlining Jones's seemingly effortless ascent to premier league status. [Jan. 2011, p. 97]

A third Rick Rubin-produced album -- cover versions but the comeback continues. [Jan. 2011, p. 97]

It's Green's pitch-perfect delivery, his ability to switch from sublimely giddy pop joy to earnest moments of heartache and convince utterly in both instances, that make The Lady Killer a treasure. [Jan. 2011, p. 96]

Overall Tron: Legacy is but faint clanging, drowned out by rent-a-string-section romanticism; like sad robots banging on a sound-stage door. [Jan. 2011, p. 95]

Wonky beats and shimmering twisted tech melodies. [Nov. 2010, p. 109]

His throaty, gnarled vocals--best showcased on the meandering, Dilla-esque Cloudlight--lend his music a gothic mood. [Nov 2010, p.109]

The "sonically exploratory" nature of Hurley occasionally serves Weezer's boredom threshold better than it does the songs. [Nov 2010, p.103]

Much of the album's charm lies in its simplicity, often paring back the instrumentation to focus upon the group's strongest elements. [Nov 2010, p.96]

On tracks such as The Day That The Earth Stalled and The Resist Stance, frontman and sometimes professor palaeontology Greg Graffin's folkish lilt and incisive anti-capitalist lyrics ensure Bad Religion never become cartoonish, while guitarist and label owner Brett Gureqitz's frenzied soloing reminds that after 30 years Bad Religion still strive to show those bands who are half their age--and twice as wealthy--how it is really done. [Nov 2010, p.110]

From the title track's monolithic defiance down, this one's an out-of-the-blue, anti-establishment classic. [Nov. 2010, p. 106]

It might be another album indebted to the '80s, but the sound of discovery has seldom been such fun as is. [Nov 2010, p.107]

Wyatt has a knack of making happy song sound melancholic, but conversely brings some wry levity to the lovelorn ennui of jazz standard. [Nov 2001, p.103]

Remorselessly absorbing debut from stars in waiting on dub-step's Def Jam. [Dec. 2010, p. 107]

The New Yorkers' debut is retro but refreshing. [Dec. 2010, p. 106]

This band's charms are elusive, indeed, but uniquely compelling. [Dec. 2010, p. 99]

Musically, the influence of dubstep is readily apparent. [Dec. 2010, p. 99]

The Stockholm group return; their cement veneer hiding a riptide of emotions. [Dec. 2010, p. 100]

Maryland pop-punks are shamelessly commercial and ruthlessly effective. [Dec. 2010, p. 96]

Aficionados will hear a master ambient craftsman in his element. [Dec. 2010, p. 95]

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

If Elvis Costello's an all-timer it's because he knows what high seriousness is about. [Nov. 2010, p. 103]

A teeming sonic bricolage of absurd/disturbing found vocals, bizarre musical fragments and their own art-funk chops, it suggests kinship with Robert Ashley, Aphex Twin and Eno & Byrne. [Sep 2010, p.97]

Jones's fans with long memories will certainly want to hear the first four tracks, but the robustness, of sound, modernity of arrangement and cool, hard, clarity of distinctive delivery that once suggested her style would always sound fresh just fades away. [Nov 2008, p.110]

Ex-Orange Juicer bounces back, against cruel and unbelievable odds. [Oct. 2010, p. 96]

A missed opportunity, but there's still plenty of time to get back on track. [Sep 2010, p.92]

Lights does have its moments: the strident "Uner The Sheets" and the odd sounds of the Frankmusik-produced "Wish I stayed" stand Out. But when they're placed next to the overwrought, cliched ballad "The Writer" or the dodgy Europop of "I'll Hold My Breath" it adds up to a rather bland listen. [Apr 2010, p.92]

It's still a safe record, however, neither spasm of petulant experimentation hell-bent on commercial suicide, nor return to the good old days beloved by original fans but viewed warily by the new. [Nov. 2010, p. 94]

The Age Of Adz, by contrast, is problematic for its mind-boggling ambitions, as Stevens harnesses his folkier songcraft and complex orchestration to electronica. [Nov. 2010, p. 100]

Death, love, the ghosts they leave behind: these are grand themes, and Hegarty channels their spirit with magical grace. [Nov. 2010, p. 100]

With Halycon Digest, Deerhunter are dealing in an altogether different kind of tension. [Oct. 2010, p. 90]

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

Avoiding the experimentation of their earlier work, No Age's second album-proper delivers winningly subterranean pop, bruised and vulnerable tuneage haunting their feedback racket reveries. [Oct. 2010, p. 97]

Crush is a thrilling, giddy conflagration of hot and cold currents. [Oct. 2010, p. 97]

After all this time, Eric Clapton finally sounds at peace with himself; secure even. [Oct. 2010, p. 88]

Never willfully ramshackle or unfocused, Women tread the line between discord and delight with deceptive style. [Sep 2010, p.96]

There's no desperation here, just the sound of a fortunate man having a huge amount of fun. [Oct 2010, p.95]

Blacc's wise-beyond-his-years tenor, sounding eerily alike a young Bill Withers, perfectly fits I Need A Dollar's dignified mourn. Elsewhere, he skillfully evades mawkishness or trite sentiment on the moving Momma Hold My Hand. [Sep 2010, p.106]

The worst thing you can say about this record is it's low on surprises. [Sep 2010, p.103]