It's colourful and imaginative while exerting a familiar pull. [May 2021, p.84]

A lofty ambition [songs to heal some souls], perhaps, but one this resonant and deeply pleasurable album achieves with grace and groove. [Aug 2021, p.78]

It's not all folkie freak-out - on Djinn Pulse or Cupa Cupa they decelerate to conjure hypnotic beauty. [Nov 2021, p.87]

Trentemøller deftness in balancing light and shade and a multi-layered approach are key to its allure. [Mar 2022, p.87]

Mahal and Cooder are giving back here like so often before. [May 2022, p.92]

You do wonder what, exactly, fires his pistons and to what end, but quality control remains excellent. [Aug 2022, p.91]

Combs's developmental arc as a songwriter continues to soar, and this deep, deep reflection suits him to a tee. [Sep 2022, p.93]

Vieux is on fine form, but it's yet more evidence that the Texans are one of the sharpest groups around. [Oct 2022, p.84]

Beguiling from the outset. [Jun 2023, p.90]

“People say people my age shouldn’t be making records,” Hunter has said. With his mind still agile, his piano playing still on top form and his voice still strong, Defiance Part 1 makes a nonsense of that. At 83, Hunter also sounds much more starry-eyed about rock’n’roll than he did in Diary Of A Rock’N’Roll Star. [May 2023, p.90

Where the stage show had the intimacy of Young's between-song chats, the intimacy here comes from the sensation that you're listening in on his thoughts as one song drifts, like memories do, from one tome to another. [Jan 2024, p.90]

The veteran 4AD band bring a depth and worldliness to these songs that sets them apart. [Apr 1024, p.92]

In this filmic offering, all commentators observe our crumbling landscape. .... On the dark, drum-lead chant Baby Roe, DiFranco sounds like Billie Holiday as she upbraids the overturners of Roe v Wade (“We’re so wigged out/Yeah, we’re so devout”), before pleading for “the path of least suffering”. [Aug 2024, p.89]

Whatever ‘flow’ is, she has it, Koalas and Charlie Potato shimmering like hot tarmac mirages, and trippy closer Surround coming on like Parks and key collaborator Ruari Meehan’s nod to The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds. Repeat listens focus the kaleidoscope. [Dec 2024, p.87]

More a shiny recalibration of TVOTR's high-density art rock than a radical restart, especially of their more electronic, funky and pop-facing side. [May 2025, p.90]

Zajac's gnomic lyrics make the direct bits hit that bit harder, and if there are swamp-fuzz debts to J.J. Harvey, it is still a powerful piece of personal witness-bearing. [Jan 2026, p.85]

The clarity of Eçevit's tenor, the quality production values maintained throughout and the contrasting styles make for a thoroughly enjoyable ride. [Apr 2026, p.85]

One of their best, with most tracks written by various band members. [May 2026, p.89]

The high point is a take on Diane Warren's Sunlight To My soul featuring The Soweto Gospel Choir. [Jul 2026, p.91]

Silver Age is the most consistently exciting record he's made since Sugar's Copper Blue. [Nov 2012, p.86]

The likes of Beck and Stevie Nicks play supportive rather than starring roles, and the sonic flavours here recall the noir clubby pop of Humanz (2017). The woofer-pumping reggaeton of Tormenta however sees Albarn step aside to let Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny shine. [Mar 2023, p.85]

Another excellent installment. [Jun 2021, p.87]

Fans of the early records of Margo Price and Courtney Marie Andrews will find much to love here, while the diversion into groovesome country soul on Rows Of Clover keeps the head nodding. [Feb 2023, p.84]

It's not a giant leap but Elbow haven't been embraced to be wreckers of civilization. [Apr 2014, p.88]

While the drum-less duo reach a wonderfully womb-like stasis amid Moth To The Flame's nine drawn-out minutes - Weber's whispers all at sea in a deep duvet of guitars - they're also unafraid to explore darker territory. [Jun 2020, p.91]

Sturdy, rousing, crank-it-up Rock'n'roll that's sometimes more punk, sometimes more country. [Feb 2016, p.93]

This is the message of Barnett’s fourth: that a blind leap of faith is better than wearing a further groove into your rut; that actually, if it is broke, you should fix it. Because perhaps songs as rewarding as those on Creature Of Habit are waiting on the other side of such a change. [May 2026, p.85]

It's Plain's elusive ruminations and off-balance poetics that resonate in ever more artful, affecting ways. [Feb 2023, p.88]