New all-star trio featuring Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper, and George Harrison's son, Dhani. [Jan. 2011, p. 96]

Sov's downfall is the occasional repetitiveness on songs like 'Pennies,' where cyclical beats and lyrics begin to grate. [May 2009, p.96]

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

Over nine more filmic songs, a quaint magic unfolds. [Aug 2019, p.93]

The album is loaded with plenty of sonic winks and nods for record collector types. [Nov 2009, p.94]

A confidently tuneful if nostalgic set. [Aug 2020, p.87]

[The album has] the loose, zonked-out flangey FX/claivnet/Rhodes piano vibe of Goats Head Soup, with strong flavours of Flying Burritos country songcraft. [Jul 2012, p.82]

[The album] features twisty, full-produced beats, but sounds more like a set of disjointed songs than a cohesive album. [Aug 2014, p.96]

Genre-curious in its sparkle and allure, and most certainly not for everyone. [Feb 2022, p.102]

Their music palette may be limited but their style knows no bound. [Dec 2016, p.92]

Listeners who have enjoyed the prolific jazz pianist;s preoccupation with moody rock material will be delighted and unsurprised at his choices of vehicle here. [Oct 2012, p.82]

Truly devoted fans will certainly savour such standouts as the glistening, blissed-out "Ballad In Urgency" and feel-good bluegrass nugget "Downtown Money Waster," but less patient Crowe-watchers may find this a rather long, just occasionally indulgent goodbye. [Sep 2010, p.98]

New Puritans sound best when living up to that Fall-derived name. [Feb 2008, p.113]

Lovely music, no agendas. [Dec 2008, p.102]

Golds is rich with wry psych-pop nuggetry of a kindred humour to Robyn Hitchcock. [Jun 2015, p.92]

What started out as playful downtime in the studio soon blossomed into a set of poetic urban folk songs. [Jun 2012, p.86]

At times, its lumbering gait palls somewhat, but This World's rousing yacht rock twinkle proves that Kalevi has some aces hidden up his sleeve. [Nov 2018, p.91]

NxWorries spread their undoubted talents thinly across an offering several chillies shy of the full enchilada. [Dec 2016, p.93]

The album isn't defined by what is on the record but what's missing, and sometimes less is just, well, less. [Oct 2014, p.94]

There's much to be enjoyed here, but The Concretes, like a packet of Fruit Pastels, are best appreciated in fairly small doses. [Apr 2006, p.108]

The London singer's stark acoustic covers album works best when furthest removed from the original. [Mar 2021, p.91]

Tightly wound but eminently danceable songs with an earnestness that can seem a bit po-faced. [Apr 2020, p.96]

Glow's most enduring memory might just be the grand '80s synth-pop---think Pet Shop Boys or Alphaville--of things To Say. [Apr 2014, p.93]

Danger et al stamp their authority on the genre, with a collision of claustrophobic lyrics, charm and playful innocence. [Aug 2012, p.90]

Hooks and choruses still pour out of White Lies, but there's a lack of cohesion that stops Night Light blazing quite as it should. [Dec 2025, p.81]

She's got soul all right. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]

Zig Zaj corrals its celebrity cameos within a strictly ring-fenced aesthetic. [Oct 2011, p.98]

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]

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

A quirky, theatrical record that's full of pomp and self-importance, The Family Jewels is never less than exciting, but it does try a little too hate to be zany. [Mar 2010, p.100]

Not a thrill a minute, but a steady antidote to chaos. [Sep 2025, p.83]

A burbling concept piece with moments of poppy and demonic. [Oct 2016, p.100]

When it works, it's astonishing, but his hit rate is middling compared with erstwhile sparring partner El-P. [Aug 2012, p.90]

Bugbears is a rich and warming curio, and there's something quietly noble about Hayman dragging the thoughts of these long-dead writers back into the light. [Aug 2013, p.93]

[Album opener Civil Servant is] sonically inventive, with vocoder interludes and a rousing final call of "Refuse! Refuse!," but its on-the-nose swipes at "Bus-fulls of meat...staring at phone-screens" can't avoid the patronising tone of 95 per cent of all songs about "the workers," written by those otherwise employed. ... Far better are songs where Dawson locates the misery and mystery of life in smaller worlds and stranger vignettes. [Nov 2019, p.90]

It's sex music for oddballs. [Sep 2012, p.89]

From the spooked synth attack of hellish 12-minute opener A Natural Satellite inwards, they do little to dispel those fears, robust drums and dirty organs underscoring the swaggering menace of Grace Jones and The Murder of Maria Marten. [Jan 2017, p.98]

Typically eclectic, off-kilter and irreverent. [Feb 2019, p.90]

Escapology is frequently, characteristically unsettling. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Greater prominence to the duo's quavering vocals, though, isn't quite as satisfying. In the long term, more jam and less song might just be their best strategy. [May 2019, p.95]

With 15 tracks, there a good deal to like. [Oct 2008, p.112]

Slick but foxy music from under pop music's best-maintained fringe. [Nov. 2010, p. 109]

Lyrics are vital, and here they often clunk where they should pierce, deadening some of her undeniable power. [Jun 2020, p.86]

The truth is, her lion's mane voice is best suited to expressing thick-browed emotions like paranoia or picking at the carcass of a long dead relationship. [Apr 2014, p.94]

Knowingly nostalgic, it's an album with a very strong sense of itself. [Sep 2017, p.86]

There are just enough moments of shimmering, honeyed dexterity to keep us listening. [Jul 2012, p.82]

Only a dearth of melodic variations disappoints. [Sep 2014, p.93]

Small World suffers from sonic conservatism: The Tame Impala-lite of I Lost My Mind is undercooked, while It's Good To Be Back's tracly synths are a touch self-parodic. [Apr 2022, p.88]

The 2009 live comp shows how testing their sets can be, with long glitchy interludes between colourbursts of song. [Feb 2020, p.96]

This second outing is an exercise in documenting a much beefier, hot-blooded sound. [Nov 2015, p.87]

On "It's A Party" and on the album's title track they just about manage to nail the right combination of Black Crowes-ish bluesy swagger and no-brainer air-punching party anthems. The fact that such a combination has been done to death--and more memorably, and many years ago--loses Buckcherry points. [Sep 2010, p.106]

Thankfully it finds Richter exploring other directions. [Sep 2010, p.94]

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

Tatum adds to the mix tropical pop textures, shimmery synth-pop gloss and twangy guitar solos that could melt hearts. [Oct 2012, p.88]

Ambitious, hypnotic but a little relentless. [Jan 2013, p.102]

[Prey] and the sprawling jazz'n'world beats suite of Magpie Music prove that there's still life left in DJ Food. [Feb 2012, p.98]

Heroic, to a degree, but they'd need to hurdle the rainbow to warrant any pot of gold. [Apr 2014, p.95]

More judicious editing might have rendered this a classic return to form, but there are still enough high spots to keep nostalgic fans happy. [Sep 2001, p.92]

Moondust For My Diamond stays the right kind of precious. [Nov 2021, p.91

Feels out of reach, as if shrouded in gauze. ... This may coalesce in a live setting. [Mar 2021, p.85]

It's all expertly arranged to maximise the unbrushed bohemian intensity. [Aug 2022, p.86]

Peaks on Witchcraft, a perfect Bikini Kill-Pendle Witch coven induction song. [Apr 2018, p.96]

Unsurprisingly, Necessary Evil falls short of her prime's pop perfection, yet it provides a fair compendium of her career. [Oct 2007, p.90]

The odd saccharine lyrics loses them a fourth star. [Jan 2013, p.102]

Their sixth album doesn't veer too wildly from it [their MO]--lashing Krautrock grooves to a broad cross-section of dance music tropes, and embellished with Best's labuorous, conversational vocal style. [May 2017, p.91]

It's at once plush and anodyne, both insatiable and confined. [Dec 2008, p.100]

A single-minded, yet ultimately baffling experience. [Apr 2014, p.95]

Double Life, a thoughtful country-blues, is actually deeply touching, and Night At Lake Unknown is a soft, sweet Hank Williams Lament. the rest can be broadly summerised as Eeyore on Quaaludes. [Jun 2014, p.94]

Swing Lo works best at arm's length, admired like a diamond rather than held like a carbon-based life-form. [Aug 2012, p.91]

Hypnotic Eye mostly returns to their earliest days of razor-edged guitars and garage rock.... The listless You Get Me High and Burnt Out Town's clunky blues may let the side down, but it feels good to finally have the real Heartbreakers back. [Aug 2014, p.94]

If your perfect musical Venn diagram contains Oneohtrix Point Never, Machinedrum and Terry Riley, Suicideyear will satisfy your equation. [Oct 2014, p.93]

A rare beacon of quality amid the shoddy posthumous rap parade. [Feb 2020, p.91]

Certainly the most accessible [album] of their career. [Jun 2006, p.99]

Chromatics fans will fine much to love, but the eeriness that made Carpenter's reputation is mostly lacking because he doesn't need to soundtrack a shock or its aftermath. [May 2016, p.89]

There is a grab-bag of variety. [May 2020, p.93]

An ongoing reconnection with the experimental dandy in the mirror lends his latest work's stylistic pinballing a fun quotient that compensates for it's unevenness. [Apr 2012, p.84]

An off-the-mark stab at Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen vocals casting a grim shadow over what was a slow burning lament. Thankfully, Wildness's remaining portfolio is stuffed with hooky but soul-bruised cuts. [Jul 2018, p.96]

But, for all the technical proficiency, there's a sense of nobody ushing themselves too hard. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Much of Hum has a brooding, measured Nick Drake-ish intensity, driven by fast, intricate folky picking. [Sep 2020, p.92]

Slightly fey at the start, this album gets better as it goes on. [Aug 2016, p.96]

ACR Loco lives up to its title. [Nov 2020, p.83]

With his chosen genre being synonymous with timeless, classic pop, these songs need to be unforgettable to really stand out. Instead they're merely good. [Jul 2013, p.88]

Quietly turn[s] into a rather good record as it goes along. [Jun 2004, p.116]

A meld of punk brio and grunge licks. [Oct 2014, p.96]

She sings of global suffering, emotional loss and female power in a way that's occasionally overwrought--but always packs a punch. [Oct 2007, p.92]

Sometimes there's a danger that comes with being too damn clever, namely that the melodies at the heart of songs can suffer or a feeling of too much fiddling around. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Gene is not restful, but it displays impressive commitment to following the whorls and helixes of its inner logic. [May 2020, p.86]

There is a slight trophy cupboard quality to Ronson's accumulation of contributors but the conception, if not the feeling, is impeccable as ever. [Jul 2019, p.93]

The LA portion of the album is a noticeably better recording - the drum sound has improved for a start - and it's a high energy show featuring William Bell and Carla Thomas. [Oct 2025, p.94]

This is a still-hungry group flexing their creative muscles. [May 2023, p.86]

Given such a line-up and a high degree of cohesion not always apparent in similarly stellar offerings, good things should happen. And they do. [Sep 2013, p.90]

Its music holds a refreshingly naive (if ridiculous) charm. [Jun 2006, p.110]

The new, not-so-great English translations hurt more than help. [Jun 2006, p.102]

A "rumination on life and death," which suitably chimed with earth's current 'end times' vibe, from sorrow to rage, elevated by post-rock's most luminescent guitars. [Oct 2023, p.88]

Their obsession remains with sounds rather than songs, with every digitised boom, click, and ping picked out in arresting detail. [Dec 2013, p.103]

Production is dense, grainy and atmospheric, with Corby's layered vocals to the fore. [Apr 2016, p.94]

You know how it sounds: the same as ever. [Oct 2008, p.110]

Here Tyler not so much steps out of the shadows as over to a slightly less darkened corner on nine delicately plucked acoustic daydreams that also showcase his talent for arrangements. [Mar 2011, p.94]