The Id simply turns up the levels on what made her debut so big, in the process overshadowing the background detail that made that album so special. [Oct 2001, p.128]

Their signature tension between black blues gestures adn white boy harmonies has never been more vividly exploited than here. It'll keep you busy for months. [Jun 2003, p.95]

Beautifully skewed gospel-folk songs. [Aug 2004, p.101]

The street-wise intellect certainly lets his slightly off-pitched voice do most of the heavy-lifting over the stuttering spacey synthetics, phased keys and warped Rhodes of B-Roc's atmospheric production. [Apr 2017, p.95]

The first half rifles through their familiar bag of production tricks. .. The weirder and more diverse second side is where stuff gets interesting. [May 2021, p.81]

Shrugging off the stones, flower girl persona of 2024's AM pop-heavy Chaos Angel, Miatreya Corso is a more modern proposal. [Jul 2026, p.83]

Given her almost unremittingly bleak subject matter, it helps enormously that she's blessed with a unique voice. [Oct 2005, p.108]

Peggy Sue have jettisoned some of their quirkier traits (past gigs saw them play a tambourine nailed to an old school desk) to deliver a debut with a great deal more grit and fire in its belly than their earlier EPs would suggest. [June 2010, p. 93]

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

This absorbing new venture is essentially a set of unaccompanied musical dialogues between the two veterans. [Jul 2012, p.94]

Each of the eight tracks fade into the distance, making for a hypnotic, haunting record, yet a highly individual and accomplished one too. [Oct 2012, p.95]

There's a playful quality to the chunky adrenalin-soaked fuzz the duo create. [Jul 2015, p.86]

Moddi's own arrangements, translations and distinctive Donovan-esque tones ensures Unsongs coheres as a n album as well as an eye-opening lesson in the importance of music. [Nov 2016, p.88]

Her lovely nuanced voice is fully spotlit amid the passions of both Stay and Better Off, showcasing a remarkable new talent. [Jun 2017, p.90]

It's an all-instrumental, but through eight focused tracks bringing to mind the non-vocal aspects of Eno's Another Green World, Vini Reilly at his most hard-edged, and mid-period Popul Vuh. [Jun 2018, p.91]

She walks us through iconic and barely known songs from her repertoire, inspired by the city. [Jun 2020, p.93]

The whole thing is deeply marketable--but there's an authenticity in Rogers that needs more space to breathe. [Feb 2019, p.92]

A veritable treasure trove of electro-bubblegum, irresistible punk-funk, and hypnotic noise experiments. [Mar 2005, p.116]

A pretty disappointing work of rock ordinaire. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Lovely music, no agendas. [Dec 2008, p.102]

A solid collection of angst anthems. [Oct 2015, p.98]

The increasingly frequent transitions between the finger picking subtlety of old to such newfound rockage are, however, simply too jarring for satisfactory listening. [Nov 2012, p.84]

The musical density doesn't quite complement the elegiac lyrical flow, and a change of pace might have meant another way forward, but there's tenderness to spare. [Feb 2022, p.90]

The Aftermath is wild and explorative, its appeal lying in the sprawling ideas and yearning vocals. [Nov 2012, p.103]

The feel is antique and wearily repetitive. Only the sexed up Wicked Way and the deft and tender Little Pixie, about her baby daughter, offer any light and shade. [Jul 2014, p.92]

The soundtrack to an imaginary sci-fi flick about a robot astronaut... Smart, rather moving, proggy, psych-electronica. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

Overall the feel is sparse and desolate. [Jun 2015, p.89]

Unlimited Love's sprawling 17 tracks almost inevitably include a few free-spirited missteps, with Aquatic Mouth dance and poster Child getting stuck in a groove. Nevertheless, an impressive consolidation of their strengths. [May 2022, p.89]

A certain rock'n'roll energy is lacking. .... Think: transitional. [Jun 2024, p.86]

[The album] effortlessly skips across sounds and styles like a human Wurlitzer. [Aug 2013, p.98]

A selection of his own trademark cliches. [Oct 2014, p.90]

The sheer relentlessness dilutes that thrill factor, but there are shades, notably on the stately opener 2022 and the closing Sleep Cult. [Feb 2023, p.91]

Theirs is a refreshing opaque, charmingly fumbling sound world. [Aug 2012, p.92]

A welcome return to the comfort zone of their first two releases after the dreary mid-tempo rock of 2013's Stories Don't End. [Aug 2015, p.93]

It's a fantastic collection, there's still nothing else remotely like it. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Pure class. [Jun 2012, p.92]

Melodic snap and guileless sentiments. [Nov 2020, p.90]

Matthew Sweet returns with a tenth tune-fest that's equal parts sunny delight and cathartic, Posiesesque bluster. [Oct 2008, p.106]

This sensational follow-up finds Glasper adhering to the same basic blueprint [as the first Black Radio], though this time he's tweaked it to perfection. [Dec 2013, p.86]

There can't have been a better 1968 record in all of 2015. [Dec 2015, p.90]

For all his sour wit, however, Zevon remians a musical craftsman who's happy to leave the lyrics to others. [July 2002, p.102]

A languorous, mid-paced affair that eschews visceral assault and pop nous for a raw, prowling, feline angularity. [June 2002, p.108]

It can't shake off the usual curse of live albums: an underlying sense, in the context of Reed's studio catalogue, of inescapable superfluity. [Apr 2004, p.114]

Armstrong takes the Massive [Attack] approach to celebrity guests, utilising them in imaginative ways to avoid the pitfalls of self-parody. [May 2002, p.97]

A darker set altogether, through more direct than its predecessor, Forget The Night Ahead manages to marry both crushing noise and sparse elegance. [Nov 2009, p.100]

This dispararte set is a promising indicator of what its debut album might hold: wistful, psychedelic musing, gentle folk and splashes of electric blues. [Mar 201, p.100]

Two gorgeously restless, swarthy voices destined to be together. [May 2012, p.92]

Describe takes time to coalesce, but even through the mists, Jadagu makes her presence felt. [Jan 2026, p.86]

In spite of its two-headed musical harmony, the personal disharmony in The Civil Wars is all too evident. [Sep 2013, p.94]

Not many bands who've been going since Kurt Cobain was alive are capable of improving on their work. [Apr 2010, p.94]

The pop-soul of Hawthorne's A Strange Arrabgement sounds and feels genuinely convincing. [Oct 2009, p.100]

Formula, for sure, but it's the Buzzcocks' own: the original and best. [Apr 2006, p.88]

Hubcap Music is a seasoned, mostly joyous affair rooted in Seasick's fully paid dues. [Jun 2013, p.85]

Miraculously, the whole thing is given a neat completness by John Congleton's slick, electro-rock production. [Jun 2017, p.92]

A lesson in ageless folk rock opulence. [Apr 2005, p.97]

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]

No amount of heavy-friend noodling can redeem One Night Stand and Driving Me Wild, and Ferry's Send In The Clowns would have Krusty renouncing his vocation. [Dec 2014, p.88]

A deft pop nous and palpable devotion to his influences ensures each experiment really works. [Aug 2013, p.96]

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

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

This is the work of an artist who, seemingly despite himself, has turned into a major contender. [May 2016, p.93]

A zippy half-hour's worth of inspired, unlikely juxtapositions and deftly perverse songcraft. [Oct 2016, p.96]

As with its predecessors, Compulsion Songs is jammed with feedback-laden throwback journeys that still worship respectfully at the altar of Spacemen 3, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Sonic Youth. [Nov 2016, p.93]

Not as humorous as 2Bears nor as wistful as Hot Chip, here Goddard further explores the potency of the danncefloor combined with intelligent, leftfield pop. [May 2017, p.92]

Throughout, it's the sheer quality of Nau's songwriting that truly impresses. [Jul 2017, p.89]

A moonstruck Frankenstein builds percussive layers, then juxtaposes classical, opera and jazz samples in shadowy odes to the night. [Mar 2020, p.96]

2015's Tape Hiss, Rats On Rafts were as unrelenting. Now they've added impenetrability to the armoury. [Mar 2021, p.86]

It's all expertly arranged to maximise the unbrushed bohemian intensity. [Aug 2022, p.86]

Perfect for Twin Peaks' Bang Bang bar, but at 90 minutes duration its lesser parts drag like an over-indulgent director's cut. [Oct 2022, p.87]

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

Like all tribute albums it's a mixed bag. [Jul 2025, p.92]

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

While this ninth LP retains Plaid's signature style, it also offers far more range than dependable recent outings Reachy Prints or Scintilli. [Aug 2016, p.96]

A trip for questing bohemians of every persuasion. [Dec. 2011 p.96]

16 lightly fried examples of his gift for surrealist pop/classic rock synthesis. [Jan 2014, p.104]

Stereolab fans will not be disappointed. [Nov 2014, p.95]

For all its neo-classical leanings, Frahm's music engages emotion as much as intellect, these sketches and fragments offering a meditative respite from a world far more chaotic than this music. [Jan 2022, p.83]

Fireworks teems with drama. [Oct 2007, p.102]

Life In The Dark constantly threatens to fall apart at the seams but the Felices miraculously hold their world together, the greatest campfire band imaginable. [Aug 2016, p.93]

These opaque, often uneasy sounding songs conjure nature's unpredictability and vulnerability as well as its beauty. [Jul 2022, p.89]

Angles homespun demeanour is key to its appeal. There are flaws. [Apr 2011, p.95]

Unmap transcends such mood geometrics thanks to Vernon's mostly wordless incantations. [Oct 2009, p.99]

Theirs is an ire that deserves to be heard. [Dec 2006, p.110]

Demos have emerged from 1965-66, 1968 and 1973, but these 13 are the best yet. [Jan 2017, p.110]

Maybe all originals next time? [Sep 2005, p.89]

In classic Brit-rock style it is this intrepid combo's assembly of these disparate echoes into something of their own that takes them ever closer to the pantheon of greats. Join the Dots is another exhilarating leap in that direction. [Jan 2014, p95]

They still sing some parts in unison, but here their voices are arranged more imaginatively. [May 2014, p.89]

Alone, the music feels like a too-long experiment, albeit punctuated by lovely songs. [Oct 2016, p.109]

More accessible than of old. [Mar 2003, p.108]

Evern more so than on Silence Is Sexy... a few telling elements are deployed to dramatic effect here. [Feb 2004, p.98]

Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier's prettiest songs since '95's Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center. [Oct 2001, p.116]

Another masterfully blended cocktail of restless electronic beats, analogue daubings and digitally blasted vocals. [Nov 2002, p.110]

An hour of heartful, artful singing enhanced by dense, yet fuss-free arrangements. [Jan 2004, p.106]

Classic OMD tropes are almost overdone on this, their 13th studio album. [Oct 2017, p.88]

Better still [than 'Stepp Off']. [Sep 2006, p.98]

Gardot's torch ballads smoulder intensely. [Apr 2009, p.103]

Premiership stuff! [Sep 2010, p.103]

With its beautifully balances smorgasbord of UK garage, drum 'n 'bass, this is the album the person on the night bus in records by Burial would really be digging. [Jun 2013, p.89]