An immersive, deeply satisfying work that doubles down on the experimentalism he brought to The Frames. [May 2019, p.93]

Songs are wispy but melodies strong. [May 2019, p.96]

Even at moderate volume, parts of Life Metal may loosen your neighbours' guttering. [May 2019, p.95]

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

Jade Bird's compelling voice is the deliberately uncontested focus of her no nonsense debut. [May 2019, p. 93]

Forsyth's own voice is used sparingly ... Mostly, though, he lets the fervid lyricism of his guitar be the focus. [May 2019, p.88]

Musically, it's a radical rethink. [May 2019, p.89]

Yet more caustic politico cold-funk disco grooves. [May 2019, p.96]

A "modular synthesis" of indefinable plonking building to bursts of static joy. [Apr 2019, p.96]

Believe it or not, there's room in the desert for yet another serious contender. [May 2019, p.91]

The album is saturated with heartbreak and bad decisions, perfectly decked in country-politan arrangements. [May 2019, p.87]

As always, S&R stress character studies, from the envious and deluded guy in Mississippi Nuthin' to the broke-down elder in Hammer. [May 2019, p.94]

In essence a tonic, The Medicine Show is a little bit more of what the world need now. [May 2019, p.93]

No Geography bears testimony to superior crate-digging chops, cut-up skills and disco. [May 2019, p.86]

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

It's all propelled by an energy exclusive to debut albums, the five-piece pulsing with post-punk fervour. [May 2019, p.89]

Good use of pot-banging percussion and swanee whistle electronics. [Mar 2019, p.99]

Hearing the acoustic demo for In The Heat Of The Morning, you have to feel for Bowie. Without the fussy grooviness of the studio version, it finds him in revelatory, limbering-up-for-Ziggy mode. ... The most significant discovery is Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe ... soft-voiced and 12-stringy, it's a tail-between-the-legs yarn with choruses sung with a hard-boiled intimacy worthy of John Lennon. [May 2019, p.103]

Within the framework of 10 solid soul arrangements, the benefits of constancy in love brings a hearty restorative to the downtrodden spirit. [May 2019, p.92]

A similar debt to motorik beats turn this debut album from a potential Baggy cul-de-sac into an electro-gliding beauty. [May 2019, p.93]

It took the reformation of Three Hypnotics, his first band, to get his groove back. It's fully maintained on this second RM album, in gale force determination, resolution and incision. [Apr 2019, p.95]

She's better shifting gears beyond her stylistic bounds. [May 2019, p.89]

Most of these 11 new songs begin with Tutlle's solo finger-picking guitar, and it's lovely. So's her voice. [May 2019, p.90]

While the line-up expands for Candace Of Meroe's infectious drunk-funk and CIYA's breezy romanticism, it's the original trio that smash the joint on throttling finale LDN's Burning--a short, sharp distillation of the fierce talent lighting up the capital. [Mar 2019, p.93]

They push forward by recasting the music around them and assimilate it into who they already are. [Apr 2019, p.88]

Titanic Rising is a revelation. These opulent, sculptural songs have sacrificed none of Mering's idiosyncrasy, or ability to unnerve. [May 2019, p.87]

A profoundly sad and affecting collage of memory and longing, ghostly torch songs half-buried in the claustrophobic electronic clatter of the modern world. [May 2019, p.95]

There's a great live feel, especially on the more uptempo cuts. [Apr 2019, p.90]