By focusing on the temporal, he reduces himself to simple protest music rather than timeless folk. [Aug 2005, p.104]

The revivified Bush Tetras prove No Wave's not dead. [Sep 2023, p.86]

It leaves a prescribed set of more or less familiar songs, sequenced randomly with in some broad chronological parameters. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Emotions unemoted can work, but Good Advice feels too disciplined/stylised. [Mar 2016, p.98]

At odds with the folk-pop quirk of her 2012 debut Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose and the angular, raw and rocky approach of albums two and three. [Jun 2021, p.85]

The Ottawan's new record abounds with moments most arresting for the crazy chutzpah with which she'll shoehorn a line of verse into a line of music whose rhythm puts the stresses on all the wrong words. [July 2008, p.104]

Nude With Boots alternates between their trademark, skin-crawling sludge rock, and more accessible, almost anthemic moments. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Edmunds has always delivered, whatever the age and circumstances. And this batch of originals and covers, recorded in full do-it-himself mode, doesn't change that. [Feb 2014, p.91]

You could muse on the dignity of 40 year olds having a rave revival but when the 303 synth squelch kicks in on soulful closer 'Stand Up,' it's all more pukka than moody. [Mar 2009, p.105]

Tracks recorded with Cyndi Lauper and Primal Scream suggest some pruning might have made for a more impactful listening experience. [Jun 2016, p.88]

An album that falls between traditional and progressive country stools. [May 2014, p.89]

OFWGKTA are talented, if not as ground-breaking as they think. [Jun 2012, p.85]

Like most homage platters, the affair is only as strong as its weakest moments. [Nov 2002, p.113]

While there are enough inspiring moments on here to suggest Beck hasn't yet run out of ideas, it demonstrates that the best way for him to revisit former triumphs would be to travel somewhere new. [Apr 2005, p.92]

This is cerebral yet genial fare. [Oct 2012, p.91]

A beautiful waste of time. [Sep 2005, p.88]

No Tourists may be an open-topped bus ride around a familiar sonic landscape, but it's also a lot of fun. [Dec 2018, p.84]

Too much of My Soft Machine is too smooth by half. [Jun 2023, p.95]

The best tracks on Panic of Girls have some edge and bite... though the all-points-of-the-compass eclecticism makes [it] sound somewhat disjointed and schizophrenic. [Aug. 2011, pg. 99]

Pearlies has more the feel of a wistful autumnal folk record than any kind of'90s throwback. [Dec 2023, p.92]

This young, Reading rock foursome offer hyperventilated hooks and heart-soaring breakdowns. [Jul 2017, p.96]

What's lacking is the shock factor.... At its best, amid the oceanic dream-wave of melody and surreal verbiage that these reanimated Pixies still essay with style, Indie Cindy is worthy of full participation. [May 2014, p.90]

Aside from a handful of instrumental snatches... Democrazy's main events are six or seven tantalising sketches. [Jan 2004, p.96]

Heat haze indie pop with Brit post-punk lyrical realism in place of slacker zaniness. [Oct 2016, p.109]

On record it’s more the spoken-word sections that grab the listener. [Jul 2024, p.93]

It features the Bright Eyes/Desaparecidos frontman alone with piano, harmonica and guitar, putting down songs never quite intended as an album. This sparseness means that the focus on Oberst is tight--maybe too tight. [Nov 2016, p.90]

Devoid of da funk it may be, but the scale and scope here are impressive. [May 2023, p.86]

The emphasis more on fractured, abstract improv rater than frenetic carousing. Interesting stuff, for sure. [May 2023, p.89]

It's where Elbow and Springsteen intersect. [Mar 2020, p.96]

The first seven tracks are wonderfully lush and mellow, but loses its way on the closing two-song suite, War/Peace. [Feb 2016, p.96]

There's precious little subtlety, but plenty of brutish hooks. [Jun 2021, p.88]

You certainly feel stimulated, but as with those frenzied, uber-detailed set pieces on modern-day CGI animation movies, there's almost too much to process. [Mar 2019, p.91]

Sitting down with this album is like listening to a friend who assumes you know all the same people they do. [May 2019, p.90]

Best consumed in small doses. [Aug 2018, p.91]

Coup De Grace may not radically change skeptics' perception of Kane as Turner's lesser-half. ... But dig deeper and you'll find Kane's finest work so far. [Sep 2018, p.86]

The cumulative result begs a position beyond the band's canon, in an intriguing mini universe of its own. [Mar 2026, p.80]

More a set of unconnected pieces than a single, cohesive whole, while not short on individual charm it's hard not to see this as anything other than a warm-up for the main event to come. [Dec 2016, p.91]

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

Suggesting the sextet have now found their niche. [Jun 2021, p.89]

It's the slo-electro instrumental Grillwalker that steals the day. [Nov 2011, p.103]

Though succinct segues Housing (In) and Housing (Out) have something of the filler about them, State Hospital and December's Traditions are bleakly beautiful portraits of Broken Britain, Hutchinson's fervent vocal letting it all hang out. [Mar 2013, p.86]

Unpredictable and stylistically chameleonic, Deerhoof's clamorous noise and freak-out rifferama seems perfectly attuned to current world flux. Still there is joy here too. [Jun 2025, p.80]

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]

Folie A Deux recalls the high-impact pop oof "Private Eyes"-era Hall & Oates, and that's preferable to sounding like Blink 182. [Jan 2008, p.104]

It's a doleful piece, with many trad Moby elements present. [Jul 2009, p.94]

If there are few lyrical miracles in these scattershot songs obsessed with sex, drugs and shopping, in this intuitive stylist’s mouth the words themselves are often beside the point.

The message songs are delivered from the heart. [Aug 2016, p.95]

Legion of Boom is more like the soundtrack to a horror movie than a night of DJ breaks and body shakes. [Feb 2004, p.102]

Although there is much that's familiar to Jem, Carroll and Delap bring it all together with a self-confidence that swiftly envelopes. [Jun 2015, p.91]

Reaching a jubilant, freak-flag waving climax with the garage sloppiness of Where We Go, what's left is a quieter set of herbal spirituals that continue to link strands of country, folk and blues with the group's own beautifully wayward sense of direction. [Jul 2011, p.105]

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

This is SMD's deepest, moodiest record to date. [Jun 2012, p.85]

Girl Ray's metamorphosis is still ongoing, and that their true final form may resemble something darker and more substantial than Girl's neon reveries, diverting though they are. [Dec 2019, p.94]

These are superior soundtracks for sure, but just a little low on levity. [Dec 2016, p.93]

Barnett doesn't quite equal this deadpan reportage [as Avant Gardener on 2013's A Sea of Split Peas] but navigates similar terrain in charming style. [Apr 2015, p.88]

She takes memories and splashes them around in them, a style she's made her own. Hokey, lo-fi acoustics and a fluid off-key croon add a surreal edge. [Sep 2025, p.86]

This is his first tentative experimentation with some big band backing. [Jun 2015, p.96]

Bayley's lyrics--inspired by fly-on-the-wall over-hearings--add depth. [Oct 2016, p.109]

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]

As it swivels between rock hymns like the Boss-backed New York comeback and country laments like Jukebox, it becomes a primer for newcomers, not a unified statement on a par with 2020's raw Good Souls Better Angels or the landmark Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. Still, it is a triumph that this exists at all. [Aug 2023, p.80]

Highlights: Tropicalia-Afro-funk fusion Bobbie's Second World; 7th Dynamic Goo's silvery disco. [Apr 2020, p.96]

100% Publishing is brimming with energy and ideas. [Aug. 2011, p. 100]

A sounding board for confessionals too heroically wonky to be dull. [Mar 2013, p.86]

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

Scream has balls, Cornell vacating his comfort zone with admirable readiness. [Apr 2009, p.98]

The Wiltshire-raised, London-based trio respons with an album that feels utterly vital, but--show no desire to climb out of their own particular furrow. [Apr 2010, p.95]

Slightly mannered vocals; odd but good. [Sep 2018, p.96]

Bare acoustic tracks with fuller band on upbeat tunes all sung in pleasing, husky tones. [Oct 2013, p.98]

Deeper investigations are recommended. [May 2022, p.94]

Black Lips conjure not only the riffs of the early garage squallers, but their very spirit. [Dec 2007, p.108]

Some of the best covers here are of less overtly politicized Dylan songs. [Feb 2012, p.95]

Even for Ron it makes for downbeat listening, but when it really comes together, such as Lost In Thought, his rock-bottom emotions truly reach for the stars. [Mar 2013, p.87]

There are a lot of moments when - sleeves rolled up, top button undone - it sounds as if they're pouring out their hearts to the same bartender as The National. When they get the detailing right, though, it flies. [Jul 2020, p.78]

Ragan's fifth album is rock as much as roots. [May 2014, p.91]

Cloaked in fuzzy melancholy, Fandango is one for dreamers. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Amnesty's dark, metallic electro-pop creates an overwhelming Strum Und Drang. [Oct 2016, p.99]

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

This is effectively one long, fuzzily fragile, ever-orbiting tone poem. [Aug 2013, p.91]

A succession of haunting story songs. ... Closing track After The Rain, meanwhile, is a hymnal balm. Less happily, he's made a part return to his original calling as a spoken word poet. [Feb 2022, p.89]

Plunges him back to the old soundworld of heavily Auto-Tuned ballads (of the 12 tracks here, only Bread Believer is pacey) and a voice that sounds like it’s on the verge of tears, even if the lyrics sound more disorientated than tragic. .... But Maine’s nagging melodies hold up, and Shirt still feels convincingly real. [Oct 2024, p.84]

[Lekman] delivers a buoyant, frankly heart-wrenching, autobiographical album. [Oct 2012, p.86]

The awkward early passages of Pyramid/When The Poor Can reach The Moon would surely struggle to gain airplay in any decade, including this one, yet it ultimately rises to the kind of triumphant chorus at which Phillipps excels. [Nov 2015, p.87]

Polished mid-paced throbbers, alive with feedback, thumping drums and troubled lyrics. [Oct 2013, p.98]

His tendency to overemote can prove distracting. [Feb 2017, p.99]

Storm Damage's jazz-trio-do-singer-songwriter-ish arrangements are meticulous in their musicality, but the "personal anguish and political anger" which fired this album make for an intense, if rewarding listen. [Mar 2020, p.92]

It's a reversal of the usual wild and weird direction of extra-curricular albums: it's more commercial than Room On Fire! [Nov 2006, p.112]

North Star Deserter is unrestrained and always affecting. [Nov 2007, p.106]

Every inch of tape had emotional or melodic purpose. [Nov 2011, p.109]

It's good to hear him outfront, vivid, quirky, and unconfined. [Feb 2012, p.95]

He's got the lovesick blues, but his offering are not of the Hank Williams kind rather they are pages ripped from a personal diary. This could all add up to something of a drag were it not for Stamey's ability to tug at the heart-strings. [Mar 2013, p.87]

Both the rabbit hole ride of Comanche Moon and reverb-laden panic attack Death March--two highlights--could have been released at any point in the last half century. [May 2017, p.89]

It's a warm and heartfelt album. [May 2018, p.97]

A solid 11-song set. [May 2017, p.92]

Too often their untethered jangle neglects the other side of the tight-but-loose equation. [Jun 2016, p.97]

Guest vocalists save giddy, sampling sextet from "more of the same old" charges. [Feb. 2011, p. 97]

When Robert Smith guests on the strident How Not to Drown it's a perfect retro storm. Yet the opening Asking For A Friend has a very 2021 clatter, while Violent Delights evokes a sugar-free Ellie Goulding. [Oct 2021, p.98]

The strongest parts of this record have a yearning, almost devotional quality which can unlock something in the patient listeners. [Aug 2009, p.96]

It's confirmation that the old boy's still got a few tricks in him. [May 2015, p.90]