To Believe doesn't rush along the cutting edge, but after 12 years absent, it hits this particular spot in time and space: sombre, tense, watchful, looking for calm, but gathering storms. [Apr 2019, 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]

A bold redrawing of creative frontiers, Lux Prima is a gamble that pays off, handsomely. [Apr 2019, p.88]

This is one of Bowness's most vivid collections. The sound is rich and full of depth. [Apr 2019, p.86]

Predictably, there's a big hello-hurray for bold re-imaginings of The Jam's Private Hell and Boy About Town, but it's the big-orch performance of his solo jazz-psych-folk highlights that transport and intrigue. [Apr 2019, p.86]

As expected, it's perfectly executed. [Apr 2019, p.89]

There's no leap forwards here but Still On My mind is the sound of a woman playing to her strengths and the good ship Dido remains reassuringly unsinkable. [Apr 2019, p.92]

Basic themes remain unchanged. [Apr 2019, p.89]

An endearingly dog-eared weirdness to their idiosyncratic country rock, a charm to their off-kilter harmonies and a mystery within Curt's songwriting that ensures Dusty Notes is craftmanlike, rather than workmanlike. [Apr 2019, p.91]

If Palmer sometimes gets it wrong, when she gets its it right, nearly all is forgiven. [Apr 2019, p.89]

Though McLennan's poetry, hurt and melodic gift is lost, his partner's crafted vignettes are the closest we have to the timeless albums they make together. Inferno stands among them, a few stops down the line, and for Forster, like the rest of us, life turns another page. [Apr 2019, p.84]

Part 1 veers from the abrasive, Stooges-style rock that characterised much of 2015's What Went Down. [Apr 2019, p.86]

Far from punching predictable button, these reconstructed mischief-makers excel when locking electro horns with primal motorik grooves. [Apr 2019, p.94]

A thought-provoking, welcome addition to the cosmic jazz uprising. [Apr 2019, p.94]

This is a slick, polished, self-penned set. ... Sometimes it's hard to tell the frenzied guitar stranglers apart. [Mar 2019, p.96]

Songs fall into two categories: those tracking matters of the heart--Don't You Know could be a forgotten Delfonics single with drummer Aaron Frazer's sweet falsetto taking the lead--and those scolding their home country. These are jolting, especially opener Morning In America, with its Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron touches. [Mar 2019, p.96]

Songs feel untethered, then crystallise in Sharon Von Etten-levels of devastation. [Apr 2019, p.96]

At risk of self-indulgence, but arrangements reward patient listening. [Apr 2019, p.96]

The Unthank sisters admirably translate the atmospheric melancholia of the themes, though it's Adrian McNally's piano arrangements that really carry the day. [Apr 2019, p.95]

Victoria's wracked, whispery, smoky rasp exudes her inner suffering. [Apr 2019, p.91]

A precision, Sleater-Kinney-ish rewiring of new wave guitar with cool, no wave delivery. [Apr 2019, p.96]

This successor is strings-free, but goes further still [than 2014's This Is My Hand]. [Apr 2019, p.94]

White Stuff once again feels like the work of avant-garde self-mythologisers inveigling themselves into the Stones' Nellcote basement. But the riffs, cutting a swathe through dense electronic meltdown, are the strongest they've engineered, together or apart, since 1997's Accelerator. and there's a neww, mature pathos to the likes of Suburban Junkie Lady. [Apr 2019, p.96]

Wraith finds those heterogeneous elements [post-punk, industrial Krautrock and Angelo Badalamenti-like soundtrack atmosphere] fusing even more satisfyingly than [2015's Highly Deadly Black Tarantula]. [Mar 2019, p.97]

On This Land, Clark and his guitar stay true to the mission. [Apr 2019, p.92]

Defiance, anger and desire fire his second set, a soul-dancefloor hybrid that soars past debut Brave Confusions' meld of influences. [Apr 2019, p.93]

Warmer layers are added to sparse, insistent electronics, culminating in Unificado, a nine-minute high-point of fuzz pedal density. [Apr 2019, p.96]

The sound is '80s indie, air and water. [Apr 2019, p.96]