Sometimes, it fits and sounds glorious. ... But on other tracks it sounds like an Aphex B-side is bleeding in from the next room. Beneath the white noise, however, Moreland is in rich form. [May 2020, p.88]

With a shrewd selection of material by the likes of Tom Waits, Josh Ritter, Eliza Gilkyson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Anohni and Zoe Milford, some effectively subtle, engagingly tasteful arrangements and an immaculate production by Joe Henry, it all sounds of the day for the day. [Apr 2018, p.95]

As a snapshot of Friday night through Monday morning in 36 minutes flat, this is a joy. [Mar 2008, p.106]

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]

Starts with elegant Congolese rumba then transforms into something angrier and more powerful... What lets it down, however, is an unfocused mid-section. [Jan 2012, p.101]

The material and performances here are uniformly strong, affirming that Wright is now a recording artist of significant stature. [Nov 2017, p.98]

Tricky may not be reinventing the wheel, but his focus is sharper than ever. [Oct 2014, p.93]

For the closing three tracks, the revolving door’s finally still and Marshall himself (AKA Madman Butterfly) keens proceedings to a satisfying, if still unsettling calm. [Sep 2024, p.88]

Off With Their Heads deftest creations may fall just short of the Kasier Chief debut's ruddy-faced string of exhuberant big hitters, 'Never Beat A Beat,' 'Addicted To Drugs' and the huge 'Like You Too Much' are still sizeable cut above some of "Yours Truely's" tepid misfires. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Expectations are defied by a series of grand, eccentric chamber essays, and only a paucity of Tiersen's killer melodies disappoints. [Nov 2011, p.99]

Hot Chip's impressive musical facility remains, it's merely a little out of focus. [Apr 2010, p.102]

Ekki Mukk is a gossamer-light, if strangely riveting voice in the wilderness, while Varoelder drifts agreeably off into softly chiming waves of yearning desolation. Less stirring are the ambience-flecked, tympani-tickled meanderings that fill out much of the rest of the hour. [Jul 2012, p.90]

While other Clansmen excel are building intricate metaphors and vivid storytelling, Method Man is all about swaggering confidence and masterflow flows. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Though the album's polished backdrops are a far cry from the raw Delta blues records that inspired Keb' Mo' at the dawn of his career, there's no doubting the authenticity of the deep feeling he [ours into his vocal performances. [Feb 2022, p.89]

Inner Day's voyage around the edges of the avant universe might be challenging, but it can also be mesmerising. [Dec 2025, p.83]

Fierce, minimalistic but defiantly pop-sensible hard rock. [Apr 2005, p.88]

Martey is a definite improvement. [Jun 2005, p.106]

Her singing, often overwhelmed in the mix, lyrics inaudible, adds David Lynch eeriness. [Nov 32012, p.94]

A deluxe synth odyssey. [Feb 2020, p.96]

Lennox has created a record that mixes the hum of his adopted city [Lisbon] with the serenity of its oceanside setting. [Mar 2019, p.97]

An alternative greatest hits compilation, it proves that the old sound of tomorrow can still make the grade today. [Dec 2007, p.100]

There are good songs here, but it sometimes sounds like Sheryl is trying too hard to turn back the clock. [Jun 2017, p.87]

While Perhacs' lyrics sometimes lapse into "I want to be free" hippy anachronism, only a churl would begrudge the still angelically-voiced 70-yeear-old her fealty to the Aquarian spirit. [Apr 2014, p.90]

While Bo Ningen often sound like they're flailing with chaotic abandon, the might of tracks like DaDaDa proves they also respect tension and restraint. [Jun 2014, p.88]

That Joe's naturally high-pitched vocals bring urgency and drama is good, but the record's two tail-enders are weak. [Jul 2012, p.90]

A ton of fun, just like the old days. [Oct 2016, p.92]

Everybody scream is both a re-statement of what made her so beguiling and a gentle step forwards. [Jan 2026, p.85]

Where her self-titled debut was intense and socially conscious, things are groovier now. [May 2011, p.107]

Frisell is travelling a unique, but to old admirers, rather familiar path here. [Apr 2026, p.91]

Simplicity rules throughout and the material doesn't stray far from folk roots, yet always sounds contemporary. [Dec 2015, p.92]

Edgy, operatic, driving and frenetic. .. Restful listening, this is not. [Feb 2020, p.89]

This lavish song cycle, embarcing intricate choral, chamber and post-rock passages, is the feted US/Australian ensemble's first non-instrumental album. [Jul 2010, p.95]

Spiky-sounding pop dominates with abrupt or obtuse song titles the rule not the exception. [Apr 2008, p.110]

Her fourth album has a gently-assured, incantatory feel. [Jul 2020, p.78]

Yildirim's group put the focus on melody, instrumental prowess and the melancholy in her voice. [Aug 2025, p.83]

Never sounds less than game. [Nov 2021, p.87]

Though songs including the shimmering So Now You Know and the Manuel Gottsching-like In And Out Of Sight maintain a stirring balance of shimmying pop appeal and experimentation, elsewhere the momentum is compromised and peaks are obscured. [Jun 2014, p.88]

It's foundations are suitably raw, emotional and, more often than not rhythmically muscular. And yet, by skillfully offsetting this by weaving in strands of Afro-jazz, the pervading mood is one of calming, introspective reverie. [Sep 2016, p.93]

There's social critique and black humour in spades, though the blanket-warm harmonies often smother The Rails' tougher messages. But if you want comfort in trying times, wrap up here. [Sep 2019, p.90]

Don't take Tellier too seriously and you have a seductive, gently amusing pop album. [Jul 2012, p.90]

Lewis hasn't topped 2010's masterful Forget, but he has proved it was no fluke. [Aug 2012, p.87]

What was initially a singular vision varies intriguingly. ... although ultimately the pick of albums 19 and 20 could have offered something without any filler. [Mar 2023, p.92]

It's a pity Parton has retreated into much safer and predictable territory. [May 2022, p.86]

He's at his best when making compulsive, synthetic house anthems. [Mar 2006, p.106]

[Vanishing Life] exceed the sum of their hardcore parts by adding loose, QOTSA-style hips to their riffs and even the odd synth. [Jan 2017, p.104]

Plays like a budget price homage to ELO and early '70s Beach Boys, full of pocket symphonies and childlike wonder. [Jan 2006, p.132]

The music is almost secondary, his production' often leaden beats a mere sideshow to mind-bending internal rhyme pyrotechnics that jab hard at the surreal dial. [Jan 2014, p.92]

The end result is dark and desolate, but also profound and provocative. [May 2019, p.86]

These 10 duets/duels can be pretty gnarly, but there are beautiful epiphanies, too. [Jul 2020, p.82]

She's still drawn to the edges like a death's-head moth to an inferno, but once you are in Wolfe's distinctive headspace, it's easy to believe they are her comfort zone, and maybe even yours. [Mar 2025, p.85]

This soaring album defines emotional shoegazing. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

Hitchcock's attempt to create a "Basement Tapes" vibe churns up a clutch of affable songs but he looks to have saved his best material for the near contempoary "Ole! Tarantula." [Apr 2010, p.103]

Love Is Here is juvenalia -- persuasive, and suggesting greatness should the band have the courage (or the license) to cut loose. [Nov 2001]

There is less of the soundscaping and eerie atmospherics that made last year's X EP so entertainingly varied. [Jun 2012, p.85]

He hops from one musical lilypad to the next--arguably a few too many for comfort. [Aug 2012, p.87]

Mostly it's sparse, as a lonesome album should be. [Jan 2026, p.86]

Beneath the bells and whistles, there's gold as well schlock. [Nov 2018, p.93]

The London trio founded by drummer Yussef Dayes and Keyboardist Kamaal Williams give it an urban twist , factoring grime and broken beat influences into their unpredictable improvised jams. [Jan 2017, p.99]

Revisits some of his most famous tunes. [May 2020, p.90]

Makes for a cheeky, unerringly upbeat celebration of [London's] party scene. [Feb 2012, p. 94]

Slime & Reason practically revels in its juicy sense of freedom. [Sep 2008, p.112]

If there are times when their adherence to that sound suggest a country-rock Status Quo the fact they now fit like a pair of well-worn gloves is actually rather comforting. [Apr 2014, p.91]

Like the second series of their HBO sitcom, from which most of the tracks here are culled,...Freaky feels a little rushed, but there's still plenty to love. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

Eerily pretty if a little ponderous. [Jun 2014, p.98]

Textured electronica and crafted melodies make for a dense and absorbing effort. [Aug 2014, p.96]

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

There is always the creamy centre of that angelic voice, making this a mightily impressive debut. [Oct 2015, p.93]

When the approach works, the results are bracingly exploratory; when it doesn't they're frustratingly half-formed. [Jul 2005, p.94]

Not that much has changed sound-wise. [Jul 2005, p.114]

If quality control on Sukierae sometimes sags amid the fecundity, all is forgotten when Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Brooklyn-based new lights Lucius help gild country-folk standouts Wait For Love and Nobody Dies Anymore with calm-yet-striking backing vocals. [Oct 2014, p.94]

An admirable attempt to try something genuinely different has compromised an otherwise fine album. [Oct 2011, p.94]

None of these tunes conveys a fraction of the emotional ardour of those on the first (self-penned) Sun Kil Moon album. [Feb 2006, p.103]

Margo's deep, stentorian tones have remained almost unchanged since 1986's Whites Off Earth Now!! and Hell Is Real could have graced that LP. Even so, there's real evolution. [Jul 2023, p.84]

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

More recognisably Air-like despite half its tracks being merely serviceable collaborations. [Feb 2020, p.89]

While initial listens don't suggest a classic like Kiko, one gets a feeling that this as a work that will reveal layers over time. [Sep 2010, p.104]

There's the unmistakable whiff of eternal under-achievement that pervades cute but forgettable ditties like 'Share Of Men' and 'Heartbroke.' [Oct 2007, p.98]

If the original Assault on Precinct 13 soundtrack had been made by a time-shifted Let's Dance Bowie, you'd be most-way there. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]

The album roams Laurel Canyon roots and Byrdsian bliss to Fleetwood Mac and Mink DeVille/Lou Reed affection. [Jan 2014, p.94]

Good-natured guitar pop from Brighton-via-California by a young all-male quartet with a flair or radio-ready melodies. [Apr 2018, p.96]

[Their] constant supersize-me approach is a bit exhausting, but few albums this year will strive this hard to entertain. [Feb 2012, p.95]

The four-piece line-up allows for some breathing space amid the existential shitstorm. [Dec 2008, p.101]

James Jackson Toth aka Wooden Wand is at home on Michael Gira's label. [Jan. 2011, p. 94]

His vocals reverberate with the passion of Bobby Womack, the sensuality of Al Green and the sincerity of Curtis Mayfield. The music, an interlocking web of bass and drums, fanfaring horns and wah wah, carry his romantic ballads and socially engaged protest. [Jun 2019, p.95]

A bleak and occasionally beautiful debut. [Oct 2009,p.102]

There's a freshness uncommon to fortysomething men two decades into their career. [Oct 2004, p.110]

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

Apocalypse rears its head in bare-bones instrumentation, reverberating synths and lyrics that hunt for a meaningful future. [Nov 2019, p.89]

On their third album Beak> still feels like a wonky and productive hobby for Geoff Barrow of Portishead with his mates Will Young and Billy Fuller; it's serious but it also sounds like a lot of fun. [Nov 2018, p.94]

A new buoyancy runs through the album from the sprightly, Eno-esque Italy to the waltz-time drama of Surrounded, and Heal, where the voice of her daughter features. Nonetheless, murk is not far below the surface--in Creep, blossoms are rotting. [Dec 2018, p.92]

The kind of space-occupying Krautrock klang that suddenly fills you with the urge to set up an underground magazine and get the brown rice ready for dinner. [Jan 2018, p.88]

There is improvement in the songwriting....But halfway through you might well weary at the album's unrelenting, full-bodied tone. [Nov 2012, p.91]

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]

Her expressive lyrics exude equal-parts watchful intelligence and first-person vulnerability. [Mar 2020, p.96]

A mixed bag all round. [Apr 2018, p.91]

A warm twangy sound, evocative of Southern, sun-paralysed afternoons. [Dec 2011, p. 100]

Central to Whatever The Westher II is an underlying hum and crackle that offsets its engrossing sound design. [Apr 2024, p.84]

Away from the atmosphere and visuals of live performance, over an hour of such dense and highly personal account of pain and beauty on the threshold of death is particularly demanding; a pity it's not available on DVD. [Aug 2008, p.103]