An improvement on 2020's lightweight Pt. 1. [Oct 2021, p.99]

He cameos his way through an album of star-studded but largely by-numbers major label rap/R&B without breaking sweat. Yet jewels lurk amid the imitation pearls. [Feb 2022, p.82]

This is less organic, more brittle, and electronic than before and begs to be opened out in a live setting. [Jul 2015, p.93]

It's cleaner, but still killer. [Oct 2011, p.101]

Sonically never less than knowingly enormous, but concise at eight tracks, Walk Between Worlds is sure and strong. [Mar 2018, p.91]

Lean and timeless sounding, it's also as truthful as Everett's sobering autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know. [Jun 2009, p.104]

[A] confusing, sprawling grab-bag. [Nov 2014, p.90]

From Out Of Nowhere is a stronger, better focused set than its predecessor. [Dec 2019, p.84]

At best the new songs are bright, '70s soulful confections but too much will give you toothache. [Apr 2013, p.98]

An unconventional beauty. [March 2003, p.114]

Their atmospheric twist'n'drone merits more acclaim than they've received so far. [Mar 2003, p.112]

There's an uncomfortable homogeneity about it all. [June 2002, p.100]

Tread lightly past the handclaps and keyboard quacks to find a collection of uncomfortably honest damaged-goods love songs set in the cold hours of the a.m. [Dec 2004, p.102]

Their continued presence is reassuring, confirming that there are enough people sufficiently interested in old-fashioned rap music to ensure the group's survival. And this album, logically, is made for those listeners, not to pander to a theoretical multitude. [Aug 2003, p.94]

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]

Air Museum sees the Brooklyn duo largely trade computer manipulation for the studio, processing instruments using analogue gear. [July 2011, p. 105]

Bold and absorbing set. [Sep 2020, p.82]

Michael Collins' garage rockers do Detroit techno. [March 2011, p. 97]

Once Upon A Time In The West treads a similar path [as "Stars Of CCTV"], though this time Richard Archer and co have packed in more guitar wallop and catch-all harmonies. [Oct 2007, p.90]

While the material heads nowhere new, there's a good feeling to all that's happening. [Mar 2015, p.99]

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]

Teeming with deftly plucked and delicately pitched melody trails, Whispering Trees stands worthy of its forbears. [Feb 2013, p.88]

There's a synergy and rapport in the set's dozen tracks that reveals how deeply the new band has gelled with Mayall. [Oct 2015, p.88]

Musselwhite's bittersweet harmonica offers plaintive asides to 10 Harper-penned tunes, the most potent of which is Nothing At All, a solemn waltz-time ballad. Elsewhere, the material ranges from rough-hewn country blues to swaggering Muddy Waters-esque message songs. [May 2018, p.95]

A pleasant appetiser until ZZ Top bring out another main course. [Nov 2018, p.86]

Spontaneity suits him; weaving jangly groove-grit with melody and just the odd overly-earnest lyric. [Sep 2019, p.96]

This second album build on the same template [as 2016's Cradle With Humanity]. [Jul 2020, p.82]

Laidback, dreamy third album. [Jul 2020, p.84]

As with all such improvised projects, Gong Splat is as much about the journey as the destination, but there's little meandering to Dwyer's questing. [Feb 2022, p.87]

[Producers Joe Goddard and Al Doyle] bring a fitting smoothness to the cheesy exotica groove of Wild Flowers, and a swinging clarity to Fatso's '80s P-Funk electro-grind. Elsewhere, At The Hotspot can be too hectic for wider recommendation. [May 2022, p.90]

A diverting curio, then, rather than essential. [Sep 2022, p.87]

Under The Midnight Sun invests those primal energies with the wisdom of age, creating something fresh and powerful. [Nov 2022, p.85]

Its peaks evoke Jack White's maximalist blues fusion. [Nov 2022, p.94]

If it has little earth under its nails, with any background maid or shepherd perfectly cast and choreographed, there are still plenty of lovely, curious tableaux - among them David Byrne's dreamy appearance on Moondog's High On A Rocky Ledge, or Nina Simone-inspired Cotten Eyed Joe, featuring Chaka Khan. [Jul 2023, p.89]

Writing in a different meter results in parts of Sudden Elevation becoming more linear, less abstract than predecessor Innundir Skinni. [Mar 2013, p.89]

Boys Don't Cry is an unashamed stopgap. [Jun 2012, p.86]

Even six listens in, this record offers few easy hand-holds. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Muse and David Campbell's melodramatic arrangements occasionally raise a smile, but if you like your rock symphonic and your vocals histrionic, The 2nd Law delivers. [Nov 2012, p.87]

The Coopers are adept with lyrics, big on attitude, but often lack that X-factor. [Nov 2003, p.131]

Memory Man comes at you with a hesitant rush, portraying bespectacled, nice Mr. Hales as an improbably suburban Jeff Buckley--no glamour, all passion. [Oct 2007, p.94]

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]

Though Fry's take on affairs of the heart is more sedate, less conflicted than 1982's fraught quest for something authentic in a jungle of cheap representations, there are enough A1 tunes and ambitious lyrical conceits to satisfy fans of the original. [Jul 2016, p.95]

While the soundscapes offer subtle rewards, lyrics' emotional perseverance takes a toll. [Jul 2018, p.92]

A strong melodic streak can reach those Husker Du pleasure-pain receptors, but equally often they're quirky to the point of throwaway. [Jan 2019, p.93]

The strengths of Loved Ones remain. ... But [Under The Skin's] relentless musical invention takes it beyond self-indulgence. [May 2021, p.86]

Easy to be cynical about Miracle Focus's natural-high alternative to Showalter's lysergic past, perhaps, but spacey, transcendent opener More You finds him in a wonderous, enviably alive place. [Jul 2024, p.91]

While [it] lacks the glitterball dazzle of Emerge, its many-coloured moods result in bankable Moroder moments, baroque ballads, and an ECG-blowing cover of Boredoms' O.

Bouncy production keep things light; Pharrell-ish Feel It Still, soulful So Young; but perhaps too light. [Jul 2017, p.96]

The dreamy riffs swirl amid powerful songwriting smarts, and melodic hooks abound. [Jul 2015, p.96]

It's harmless, head-spinning fun. [Jul 2010, p.92]

Flux lacks a little of the old uncanny razzle dazzle, but there's no doubting the elegance of its execution or the expertise of its creator. [Sep 2025, p.79]

The same drifting mood is maintained from start to finish, all nine songs being gently eclectic acoustic musings with occasional electronic decorations. [Apr 2002, p.101]

If it weren't all so damn happy this would be the most terrifying music in existence. [Aug 2004, p.98]

Repeated plays reveal a frustrating lack of memorable songs. [Nov 2004, p.102]

Ranaldo and Refree are content to leave holes throughout, letting sounds do the most interesting work, nestling or scraping together. [Apr 2020, p.94]

The atmosphere is generally furtive, and yet the songs are at their best when they tap you on the shoulder with a familiar rough-neck charm. [Feb 2012, p.102]

Yacht are a band that know how to party; they just need to lock it down. [Oct 2009, p.108]

At its best, as on 'Heartbreaker,' the singing has the deadpan charm of Talking Heads or Kraftwerk, adding to the likeability of men who know its better to be a robot than a hippy. [Oct 2008, p.108]

Their contrasting flows clip together surprisingly well. [Jan 2021, p.88]

World Peace is unquestionably the most subtle and decorous Morrissey album for many years, possibly since the hallowed Vauxhall And I. [Aug 2014, p.84]

The highlights are among the closing duets, however, with both men warming to their task on a sinuous Um Canto de Afoxe Para O Bloco Do Ile and a delightfully rickety Heaven, Byrne screws up the chords, but they bring the house down nonetheless. [May 2012, p.87]

A mixed bag, then, but rarely short of mood-elevating. [Jan 2017, p.100]

With everyone now doing '80s-dance-pop, these Parisians seem more veteran than hipster on this set of Italo-disco and sophisticated pop. [Jul 2017, p.96]

Never one to be soul-bearing or crass, Corgan pulls off his "Songer" task with enigmatic, starlit aplomb. [Dec 2017, p.86]

The mood is authentically heavy but the impact is strangely light. [June 2010, p. 104]

Their 21st studio album. Not so dissimilar to the other 20. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

A masterpiece of controlled electronic violence. [Nov 2004, p.102]

A mighty result. [Dec 2012, p.84]

Their performance here has an audible sizzle. [Apr 2012, p.95]

While perhaps not as momentous as Joni Mitchell's similarly intentioned Travelogue, the gentle, surprising pleasures throughout Simon's autumnal tinkering with his oeuvre make for a rich and nuanced listen. [Nov 2018, p.86]

Estoile Naiant is a work of excessive indirection and wonder that becomes terrifying only if you try to define its boundaries. [May 2014, p.90]

With no weak link, you can drop the needle anywhere. [Jul 2006, p.106]

They've come within a hairclip's breadth of producing the rock'n'roll riot they always promised. [Dec 2004, p.114]

Armstrong's anti-establishment shtick has lost some of its impact. [Jun 2009, p.102]

This is her best to date, but she'll be better yet. [Sep 2002, p.102]

A record of substance, one that stands head and shoulders above today's garage bashers. [May 2003, p.89]

An ambient set of quite stunning beauty. [Sep 2004, p.95]

The strongest Chili's album since 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

A work of uncommon beauty and torment. [Mar 2004, p.95]

An album of supreme control, Solaris proves that not all Zeitgeist tickling beats are necessarily bound for the coffee table.

His most lyrically sharp and melodically inspired material in years. [Jul 2005, p.99]

'Dancing On Our Graves' pumps out a footstomping rhythm but there's no happiness here, just bleakness, and all the more convincing for it. [Mar 2008, p.112]

Opener, the self-referncing 'Better Get to Livin'' is cheesy and disposable even by Nashville standards. The title track, also autobiographical, is better, but like several songs suffers from '80s-style over-production. [June 2008, p.115]

It's all tenderly delivered and definatly indie--both sonically and spiritually. [Oct 2008, p.113]

First Aid Kit's debut sounds like a signifier of greater things to come. [Mar 2010, p.90]

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]

A collection that will have both fans and floating voters scratching their heads. [Nov 2011, p.101]

Fortunately, it manages to hang together in a way that suggest steamy nights out in the city with Massive Attack. [Aug 2012, p.90]

The growling menace of his [Jake Smith's] delivery is enough to command your attention and keep you believing. [Oct 2012, p.83]

With contributions from one third of Grizzly Bear, lilting vocals and arpeggiated guitar chords are gracefully manifest. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Caramel consists of weightless, non-danceable funk, drifting in from the edge of consciousness like a vaporised, enervated Scritti Politti. [Dec 2013, p.89]

The material is uneven. [Jun 2014, p.95]

The FB's ragged, slip-sliding DNA is too irreverent to make them true inheritors of The Band's mantle, and that hasn't changed. Neither has the way they're one minute bursting with exuberance and the next resembling a burst tyre. [Jul 2014, p.93]

He may not be a born singer, or particularly vocally charismatic, but he sounds like he means it, and that's more than enough. [Nov 2014, p.94]

Sonic Soul Surfer mostly trades in toe-tapping slide-guitar riffage. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Knopfler retains his latter-years Celty-folk musical tone, with that measured guitar flicking in a sun-through-misty-woods way. This doesn't make for memorably distinctive songs, but his storytelling sharpens almost every track. [Apr 2015, p.91]

It's all muted lust and seductive Scandi sophistication. [Sep 2015, p.92]

The Cardiff-LA pairing might be creatively equal, but the sound they make is beautifully out of balance. [Sep 2015, p.93]