Finn is still writing wordy story songs, but the breathing space elevates those words. [Apr 2017, p.97]

Can't deny his range (hip-hop, disco, acoustic picking) or songwriting, but voice and lyrics lack depth. [May 2018, p.98]

Folds' leaps from satire to farce to domestic drama are part brilliant, part alarming, yet he still seems to wear wit and the manic energy of his voice as a carapace to conceal his soul. [Dec 2008, p.102]

They range from the short and comic (Sweep Piece is the sound of producer Robin McGinley brushing a room for two minutes) to longer, studio-based ensemble performances that are often surprisingly beautiful. [May 2025, p.92]

There's no high concept, just 12 pop songs that sound as if the pair decided to down tools the moment working ion them felt like work. [May 2018, p.90]

Though Old Sock ultimately feels somewhat stop-gap, it genre-hops beautifully, Clapton and friends reliably able. [Apr 2013, p.86]

Eldritch psych-folk that recalls Meg Baird's work in Espers. [Jul 2018, p.98]

The honesty of these performances infinitely more important than any finessing. [Oc 2009, p.108]

Collapse Into now finds Stipe, Peter Buck and mike Mills pleading relevance and vitality. [Apr 2011, p.96]

Wildewoman is more of a patchwork quilt. [May 2014, p.94]

The album pays in cleft between Darnielle's left and right brains and strikes the perfect balance between wild imagery and plaintive sentiment. [May 2011, p.112]

The Stockholm-based composer edges into metallic wave-like dissonance, using organ and guitar to explore points at which sonic clarity starts to mess with our spatial awareness. [Sep 2019, p.91]

A few tracks sound blunt and under-realised, but mostly this is the sound of a champion artist getting good again. [Mar 2002, p.116]

If inherent heaviness is the ultimate aim for any metal band, then Mastodon only partly succeed. Fortunately, they hit the right combination between brutal, epic, progressive and endless wild soloing. [Aug 2014, p.92]

Souleyman's high velocity dabke-techno hybrid keeps the BPM and bleep count high on his third LP. [Dec 2017, p.96]

Its instrumental first disc a foreboding seas of sputtering synths, dislocated drums and disorienting ideas. Yet rare moments of beauty peak through. ... A similar wilful primitivism pervades disc two. [Dec 2019, p.95]

Coming of age delayed for guile-free pop star. [May 2010, p. 95]

The Messthetics is a short set, long on detail. [Jun 2018, p.94]

Panic Blooms generates fond memories of a recent past. [Jun 2018, p.89]

The results are less out-there, but mostly play to Allison's strengths. [Oct 2025, p.91]

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

If this is a less turbulent FWF manifestation, they're still powerful, churning perilously. [Feb 2026, p.80]

The confrontational quintet dare to seek out melody and explore a new-found subtlety on an otherwise exhaustingly visceral ride. [May 2010, p. 95]

Too many superfluous guest vocalists distract but the result are bright and bold. [Jan 2015, p.96]

Barry also produces with an ear to the sonics of yesteryear. ... But some of the vocal sections aren't as strong. [Jun 2021, p.87]

The bass-fuzz stomp and chain-gang holler of 'Grounds for Divorce' couldn't be more immediate, Guy Garvey refusing to let emotional intelligence blackball a decnt tune. [Apr 2008, p.106]

Best tracks are the most acid. [May 2020, p.96]

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]

Its sprawling, ambient techno is a sensory overload of submerged beats, like windscreen wipers during drizzle, over which drift icy phrases and fragments. [Jul 2018, p.95]

An achingly sharp comedy album then, but at 19 tracks it's to be admired rather than loved. [Jul 2009, p.92]

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

So really, Let The Record Show is a game of two halves, a little jumbled up perhaps, but one in which Rowland ultimately triumphs. [Jun 2016, p.90]

Ultimately, The Llamas seem like a Heston Blumenthal of sound, stimulating through a kind of weird science. [May 2011, p.112]

[It results] in bubblegum thrash paeans to laziness and forgetfulness, multiple blasts of fiery milquetoast defiance stuffed with beguiling observations on the minor tragedies of everyday life. [Jun 20111, p.104]

The results are sometimes sublime, like the numinous drones and electronic eddies of Do, at other times unsettling and vaguely dystopian. [Nov 2025, p.89]

An ecclectic addendum. [Jun 2003, p.113]

Blue-eyed soul with a gritty bite. [Jul 2014, p.96]

There are a few weak links... but there's a melodic buoyancy here. [Mar 2005, p.106]

Too much of this sounds like recycled plastic pop. [Dec 2024 p.84]

The familiarity of The Best day might suggest some treading of water, but for fans of Moore's unmistakeable skronk, there's plenty to devour here. [Dec 2014, p.96]

Everybody ultimately suffers from a dearth of catchy melodies. [Jun 2007, p.112]

After a corkingly good start with 'Don't You Wish It was True?,' the album dips into Creedence by the numbers for several cuts with only the gospelly 'River IS Waiting sounding fresh. [Nov 2007, p.92]

The mangled, jangled garage-pop of Rushing The Acid Frat or Ocean Of revenge's dexterous fable-spinning remain at one with his cosmic professor MO, though, proof that Malkmus can vibrate beyond his usual frequency without losing himself or his listeners. [Apr 2019, p.89]

Lange hasn't changed Nickelback wholesale: mostly, they still rock like a post-grunge Metallica. [Jan 2008, p.104]

Editors have hatched a perturbed and maximalist affair whose thundering algorithms target the darkest, least inhibited corners of the dancefloor. [Oct 2022, p.90]

She repeatedly refers to her inability to express her emotions fully--which is exactly how Dirty Computer leaves you feeling. [Jul 2018, p.88]

Chillwave premier goes in search of the funk. [March 2011, p. 95]

At points they're both elegant and, dare we say it, beautiful, so if this is the emperor's new clothes then they're wonderfully cut. [Jul 2009, p.97]

It really shouldn't work, but like much of It Leads To This, it does. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Bonfires is an honourable epitaph. [Feb 2010, p. 100]

Her songs are full of girl group feistiness. But not all of them. [Jul 2015, p.94]

As seasonal cheer goes it slaps seven sleigh bells out of dreary old Stille Nacht. [Jan 2012, p.90]

Some wildly uneven wordplay, on a needlessly bloated set, suggests the Brooklyn king's crown is slipping. [Sep 2013, p.94]

Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser's third album again fails to provide a soft pop landing. [Oct 2013, p.96]

Full Moon thunders on near-relentless sub-bass (Mntanami, about her absentee father) and post-dancehall Amapiano beats, with interludes of wishy-washy synthy vulnerability - a serviceable backdrop upon which this irresistibly raunchy personality reliably shines. [Feb 2025, p.88]

Occasionally, the joke is pushed too far (the feigned English accents and campy synth-pop of Muscles). Mostly, however, McBean's native gift for riff and songcraft transcend any conceptual archness. [Aug 2022, p.92]

Overall, The Chills' seventh album is about Phillipps drawing a line between now and what was seen on screen, gathering strength and moving forward. [Jun 2021, p.82]

A mixed bag then, but a welcome return that promises much. [Jul 2021, p.80]

It's funnier than the Crue. And that's no mean feat. [Jul 2009, p.106]

It is a slow-growing treasure that reveals a little more of itself with each listen. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Nutini has grown up, and his music has grown with him: in a world littered with handsome young singer-songwriters who become obsolete some time between their first hit and first album, it's an admirable achievement. [May 2014, p.88]

Pretty road ruminations. [Jul 2015, p.96]

Their needling attack punctures fevered egos on There's No One Like You, and cooks up some pleasingly wonky acid-rock, but best of the bunch is the closing flourish When Do I Get To Sing "My Way." [Sep 2019, p.88]

While they're hardly cutting-edge these days, The Orb's gently pleasing grooves... still work as aural enhancers for the cannabinoidally-incliined. [Jun 2004, p.114]

Elaborate, sometimes sneakily poignant tunes. [Aug 2018, p.93]

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]

Sure, Spend The Night's pile-up of head-nod riffs and fist-pumping chants gets a little repetitive, but the groove suits The Donnas so well, you can forgive them. [May 2003, p.106]

Her melodies are stirring but the headstrong album only works to a limited degree. [Dec 2003, p.122]

Loose feels less like an album than a clutch of singles plus accompanying extras. [Jul 2006, p.100]

FM! initially feels slighter, not least because of a brisk 22-minute duration. The breeziness is deceptive, though, as Staples and producer Kenny Beats construct a minimalist update of G-funk where the jams are always freighted with an awareness of potential violence. [Feb 2019, p;.84]

It's on those songs that strike a chord with Elliot personally that he's most convincing. [May 2009, p.103]

Cantrell's voice exudes greater purity than Wells's and she has some tricks up her sleeve, one being an original that gives the album its title, a song that namechecks Wells and other country icons such as Maybelle Carter and Martha Carson. [Jun 2011, p.105]

This guileless, wistfully romantic harmony pop suits them much better. [Jul 2015, p.96]

Although there are many acts occupying similar territory, the quality of Grey's songwriting and delivery elevates much of the material here. [Jul 2013, p.94]

While the rest of Sigur Ros make babies, their singer creates too. [May 2010, p. 96]

The resulting record never splashes too far out of the gene pool... but it creates a pleasing coherence along with a slightly sentimental glow. [Dec 2014, p.100]

Although Gibbs's lyrics rarely veer beyond their survivalist comfort zones, his innate ability to switch up styles allows him to scale the gaping chasm between Forever And A Day's moody confessions and the unreconstructed boasts of Cold Ass Nigga with ease. [Feb 2016, p.94]

In Another World cleaves to the telegraphed, lighter-aloft choruses that make Cleveland and other places rock, a palpable Beatles influence pervading Quit Waking Me Up and So It Goes. [May 2021, p.81]

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]

Immersive, but not entirely absorbing. [Aug 2017, p.91]

It isn't as urgent as Crazy rhythms, but follows from 1986's The Good Earth with a sparkling, rolling and guitar strum-driven understatement between third and fourth LP Velvets, a minimalist Neil Young and their cheerleaders R.E.M. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Terms Of Surrender presents a man sinking on the edges but bullishly so, not countenancing change. The effect is disquieting, uncomfortable, especially with Aaron Dessner's sumptuous production giving these songs a contrastingly romantic sheen. [Oct 2019, p.83]

Aqueous groove Up tackles mid-romance feelings of inadequacy, while coldwave-y Begging You Now infers a darker supplication. Ever-infectious, however, and rarely short of good fun, this one should substantially further the threesome's upward trajectory. [Sep 2023, p.91]

Palindrome Hunches is a record full of songs that whisper their entreaties. [Dec 2012, p.88]

A tentative return at best. [Dec 2014, p.89]

Sessions and collaborations abound, finally collected here. [Feb 2016, p. 104]

Their comeback is an even more demanding listen. [Dec 2012, p.87]

Chinese Democracy reveals itself to be an ambitious, brave and expansive offering. [Feb 2009, p.108]

Most of the songs are observations from an emotional distance. [Jun 2018, p.96]

Eight brief fragments in which the ghostly vocal harmonies and echoing piano seem to exist just out of comprehension, as if playing in a distant hall, or half-remembered from a dream. [Jul 2018, p.95]

Isn't shy about where it's coming from, and it is assured. But ... It lacks their previous warmth. [Nov 2022, p.93]

They've never been subtle, but they're still highly effective. [Mar 2010, p.93]

It doesn't work when she wails and chants her way through the closing Sun, but she's absolutely fearless, as rigorous as The Moody Blues circa Days Of Future Passed and as adventurous as Can circa Future Days. [Jul 2020, p.82]

He is so clearly in his element that you can just hand over the controls. [Oct 2019, p.97]

Some of the vocal processing, though pushed to the extreme, will be a little familiar to Bon Iver fans/sceptics. Persevere, though, and yet more classic Low songs emerge from the post-apocalyptic murk. [Oct 2018, p.87]

The focus remains upon Lightbody's gauche romantic vignettes; nirvana for those who believe the world could usefully sustain a second Lou Barlow, but over an album's duration akin to persistent immersion in lukewarm herbal tea. [Sep 2002, p.104]

A good listen. that slightly misses the debut's exuberant cohesion. [Aug 2014, p.86]

A sound that lies somewhere in between early Beach House and breezy, ambient techno. [Sep 2013, p.96]