Melds the LA band's sonic fuzz with mellifluous recent LPs, sombre dispatches, ambient and wistful pop. [May 2019, p.96]

It's certainly brave. Whoosh! is superior when guitarist Steve Morse and keyboard player Don Airey slip their leashes. [Sep 2020, p.85]

A delicate affair sometimes too wistful for its own good, even with the added colour of Dede Sampaio's bird sounds, Extended Vacation is a complex exercise in delicate melodies, field recordings and repetition. [Jan 2010, p. 100]

Teen Dream is a lovely album, but there's more to admire here than to actually love. Oddly, that may not be a problem. [Feb. 2010, p. 94]

In all, more a series of disconnected building blocks than a cohesive album. [Nov 20, p.89]

With many of Paisley's songs dealing with people struggling between places, timeframes or lovers, such unforced, reflective songwriting deftly grounds these unsteady experiences, an arrangement that simply works. [Apr 2023, p.85]

It's a more downbeat affair than their 2009 debut and best envinced by the stuttering tech soul of Gita. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Corgan's ear for pop-hooks is keen throughout, but save for Knights Of Malta, with its piano, strings and backwards lead guitars, the music on Shiny And Oh So Bright... seems a tad under-imagined for its portentous title. [Dec 2018, p.84]

Foster[s] a reflective, bonfire-on-the-beach spirit. [May 2021, p.88]

Elegant and haunting as the individual tracks may be, it's difficult to remain engaged throughout 75 minutes of music with such a uniform mood. [May 2020, p.89]

Allison's verge-of-tears delivery is another sign that Clean's grown-up vibe can't hide the vulnerable teen within. [Apr 2018, p.94]

It puts ZZ's impeccably-tuned engine room under the microscope, their "just us and the music" gambit paying off. [Aug 2022, p.90]

By shedding some of their rock'n'roll excess, though, it feels as if Primal Scream finally have some idea of what they want to be when they grow up. [Apr 2016, p.90]

Those Libertines comparisons are a distant memory on Emergency, an album that ditches any tentativeness felt on last year's "Wait For Me," the band and producer Stephen Street going for Yorkshire-patented, Kaiser Chief-sized choruses, and Arctic Monkeys' kitchen-sink philosophising in the verses. [June 2008, p.102]

The piano-led 'New Beginnings' is one of several sombre mood pieces on what is the most ambitious work of the band's 40-year career. But fear not, headbangers: 'Revelation,' all chugging rifferama and panto villany, prove that Priest are still mad for it. Metal, that is. [July 2008, p.100]

If he fits a lot into a brief span, it can also seem like a selection of raw sketches for works still to be fully realized. [Mar 2012, p.103]

The veteran's authoritive amber croon and psychedelicised, occassionally spectacular axework imbue this mid-tempo set with a grace and economy often lacking in the genre. [Apr 2009, p.107]

A genteel album, more for mellow reflection than dancing on ceilings. [May 2015, p.93]

She now finds plenty to lampoon in 2011 on this droll, provocative comeback. [Apr 2011, p.105]

On Trapped Animal they bring that approach to bear on a wider range of styles--dancehall, digi-dub, roots reggae, lover's rock - although the title track and Reject stand out as the most originally shaped punky pop songs. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

An intriguing return. [Jul 2024, p.86]

There are some sumptuous moments, but it's also arch and mannered, and rather awkward to embrace. [Dec 2017, p.93]

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

More stirring are te rougher dancehall textures of Smash Lies and Darkness Into Light's crunching guitars and soaring rock chorus. The latter produces the unsettling, but not unwelcome, result of resembling Soundgarden after a course of toasting lessons. [Jul 200, p.103]

Her piercing, angelic voice, redolent of Tori Amos, is given a sparkling canvas by Claes Bjorklund's synth battery. [Dec 2014, p.96]

In louder and busier sections it's easy to lose the text and there's no melody as consolation. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

A provocative, anti-establishment critique of the blind idolatry received by the British monarchy and finds each of the nine tracks paying homage to Hutchings' list of notable women that he believes are worthy alternative monarchs. [Apr 2018, p.87]

An audibly irked record.... Girl Talk has balls and tunes. [Apr 2013, p.88]

Zietsch's music upholds the sparse, haunted tone set by Lana Del Ray, the minimalism so acute that each chord change often lasts for just one stroke of the strings or ivories. [Jan 2024, p.88]

A Fool For Everyone treads a similarly disconsolate path [as "The Sky Behind The Sea"]. [Apr 2009, p.101]

The tonal similarities of these tracks blend into one another, holding only half of your attention like the soundtrack of an imagined film. [Apr 2011, p.105]

The record increasingly drifts into hazy, slo-mo dream-pop, which inescapably pales besides the bolder tracks upfront. [Aug 2017, p.94]

Strong mastery of mood and era, but the overcast ennui palls before the album's close. [Aug 2020, p.94]

At its best, though, The Sea is not just honest and cathartic, but jaw-dropping - and a difficult call for any critic. [Feb 2010, p. 93]

This mini-LP ladles grooves on PDS's stripped post-punk. [Jul 2015, p.96]

Sounds surprisingly traditional. [Jul 2003, p.115]

It's Kuroda's interplay with singer/trombonist Corey King, sharp riffs and lithe, streetwise solos that hold sway. [Nov 2020, p.85]

Her candy floss-flavoured cough syrup vocals will be a little sweet for some tastes on first hearing, but when backed up with an acid lyrical kick, the overall effect is devastatingly insidious. [Sep 2013, p.95]

The unfamiliar are advised to check out his first three solo albums. [Dec 2017, p.92]

This album opts throughout for classy tristesse, perfect for Close To You and A House Is Not A Home, too steadily composed for Walk On By and Another Girl, both heartbroken songs behind the on-point style. [Nov 2016, p.87]

The combination of piano and the string ensemble Scoring Berlin has some overlap with sonic contemplations of Max Richter and Arvo Part. But Eno has a distinctive style and picks just the right chord change or string colouration. [May 2022, p.88]

While Rock Or Bust doesn't come close to that benchmark [1980's Back In Black], nor does it disgrace Young's legacy. [Jan 2015, p.95]

The album suffers whenever excess creeps in. [Apr 2018, p.88]

Through dry humour, love songs as tender as Tim Hardin's, tremolo guitars and intensely moving samples Powers reveals a psyche reborn. [Mar 2025, p.93]

It's not a great album but it is good, bar a slapdash feel to some songs and too much squealing, dated guitar. [Apr 2008, p.100]

Worden can be preposterously experimental - but she's always intriguing. [Dec. 2011 p.96]

[The Ridge] finds the Montrealer's signature esoteric bow-work allied to song structures that err, at least vaguely, toward the orthodox. [Apr 2016, p.93]

It's hard to love anyone as self-absorbed as Wainwright, but it's impossible not to admire his ability to craft enduringly engaging music. [Nov 2008, p.112]

At their indie-disco feyest they can elicit comparisons with Hot Chip, but Lightbulbs trips the dark fantastic in its own deadpan style. [Sep 2008, p.110]

The Way I See It is refreshingly different, eminently listenable. [Apr 2009, p.110]

Like island life itself, it's quietly focused and won't be rushed. [Apr 2011, p.104]

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

No Home record offers few tunes you could whistle, but at it's best Gordon's no-wave din and take-no-shit snarl offer unabashedly militant thrills. [Nov 2019, p.87]

While Anastasis is typified by lengthy songs and sometimes rather ponderous beats, Gerald is in her element on Kiko. [Sep 2012, p.95]

Although The Dew Lasts An Hour is a patchwork quilt of an album, it's so audaciously pulled off it's impossible not to grin and wonder why mainstream pop missed this trick 30 years ago. [Sep 2014, p.96]

The deadpan vocals of Camila De Laborde means that The Knife comparisons are difficult to shake, but they mirror the bold, ethereal quality of the music. [Jan 2019, p.89]

These old dogs have plenty new tricks left. [Dec 2014, p.92]

A music from within. [Mar 2017, p.93]

It's another absorbing, sonically rich record, albeit one lacking a chunk of the charm that marked out its predecessor. [Dec 2013, p.89]

While an absorbing listen in their original form these largely uncluttered canvasses also present an opportunity for further remodeling bounded only by the imaginations of those ready and willing to pick up the gauntlet. [Jan 2015, p.97]

Tiersen's lavish melodic gifts resonate loudest without the bangs and whistles. Glass-like repetitions of Templehof and Prad exerting a heartfelt tug.[Mar 2019, p.97]

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

Dance AM and Triangles carve a deep motorik opener; then rave euphoria and swoony breakdowns trail Lyubov Soloveva's vocals. [Jun 2018, p.97]

Nothing Special sometimes swims so far out of focus that it's difficult to share Sheff's vision, while at other times it surges and soars towards everything that was fascinating about Okkervil River. [Nov 2022, p.84]

Tempus is overwhelming serene. [Dec 2022, p.89]

Audiobooks' adoption of absurdity continues to confound in the most delightful ways. [Nov 2021, p.91]

Octopoidal, Milford Graves-style fee jazz, miraculously achieving a sort of zen clarity. [Jun 2024, p.92]

It's testament to his long-time dedication to the drone dirge and dark pop sweetness of the VU, JAMC ect. that it all fits seamlessly. [Oct 2016, p.100]

Sheer vastness occasionally swamps the pained intimacy of Young's vocals and open-heart songs of regret, nostalgia and reflection. [Dec 2014, p.88]

It's time for Cut Copy to free its own mind too. [Dec 2013, p.89]

The band's primary strength is their ability to harness cold electronica and synth sounds to deftly create earthy-sounding atmospherics... Stirring. [Dec. 2011 p.97]

Motorik-like melodies now overwhelm the miasmic shoegazey tropes. [Feb 2013, p.91]

If previous Body Count efforts wobbled close to self-parody, Bloodlust nail-guns the impending doom of post-truth Trump America with incision. [May 2017, p.92]

It's a record where everything escalates quickly - proof Snapped Ankles know exactly how to read the room. [May 2025, p.91]

File under 'brilliantly out-there.' [Oct 2008, p.110]

A pleasant way to pass time in transit, but not a destination itself. [Oct 2022, p.82]

A band featuring such like-minded oddballs as Sufjan Stevens lend nice textures to the psychedelic swirls of Olympic Portions and Hovering Above That Hill, but simpler fare is more memorable. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Song titles like Soothe My Soul and The Child Inside suggest phoned-in conventionality, but there are edgy moments here. [May 2013, p.85]

The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again - the sequel to his 1973 solo debut - repeats the formula, its 12 covers of country standards and downhome favourites creating a warm, hearthside companion to its predecessor. [Dec 2009, p. 91]

So You Wannabe An Outlaw may be one of his very good, rather than great albums, but it's truly wonderful to hear him having such fun making it. [Aug 2017, p.93]

As ever, though, their sheer weight in numbers often becomes overbearing. ... Yet, while their palpable urgency is frequently dissipated in the splurge, Hug Of Thunder's peaks are sky-scraping, indeed. [Aug 2017, p.88]

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

In replacing the stark natural timbre of recent albums with layers of reverb and oblique orchestration, the pure heart of the songs has been obscured, if not lost. [Oct 2002, p.96]

If not quite a match for Gainsbourg's ticklish masterpiece, it's a partial return to the stringy artistry of 2003's Friends Of Mine. [Oct 2019, p.83]

The latest outing from the Icelandic quartet may not possess quite such drama [as John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts], but there's plenty to admire here. [Aug 2014, p.91]

Fringe entertainment, for sure, but top fun. [Dec 2017, p.87]

bare-knuckled rhymes and eerie sing-song hooks deliver the trademark thrills, though Muggs' lysergic touch is often missed. [Apr 2022, p.89]

Amor's main reference point is arguably Arthur Russell, though there's little of his joie de vivre--unless you count the cowbell on Heaven Among The Days--and more the cold fire of Martin Hannett-era A Certain Ratio. [Jan 2019, p.89]

Despite the presence of a few additional collaborators, much in Half Japanese-world is as anticipated. [Feb 2017, p.94]

The Endless River is big on atmosphere, just a little light on songs. [Dec 2014, p.88]

Not exactly a collection of lullabies, this is still some of the most achingly beautiful music released yet under the Jesu name. [Dec 2013, p.89]

It's hard to shake the sense that these songs ape Corgan's past but too often lack the spark of inspiration that fuelled his previous masterpieces. [Jan 2015, p.100]

It's a promising - if a little lackadaisical - debut. [Dec. 2011 p. 97]

Variously evoking a gnarlier early R.E.M., The Hold Steady, and, yes, Springsteen, other songs here occasionally suffer from over-telegraphed choruses, but Fallon's fervour and gift for an apposite metaphor - "I'm a weatherman watching the skies, trying to read you" - are evident. [Nov 2023, p.86]

The limits of comfort zones are not breached. [May 2017, p.89]

As always, with such projects, Goddess flies or falls on what these collaborators bring to the table, but the material here is as strong as it is varied. [Jul 2025, p.84]

Nothing here feels contrived. Instead we witness a rare thing: an inherently youthful band gracefully making good into their thirties. [Apr 2011, p.106]

The gift of such unadorned recordings--no attempt to conceal the hoarseness in closer Sky Blue Sky, for instance--is the proximity to the singer and his songs. [Aug 2017, p.93]