Regular producer Dan Austin teases atmosphere, buries mysterious sampled speech and navigates the piano-led title track bank into Hacienda territory. What kept them? [Oct 2020, p.90]

Here's a quiet rhapsody of twining acoustic guitars, cherry-sad reeds and songs that feel solid for a bit then slip away into dying-fall bluenotes and the kind of lines that provoke romantic poetic recollection. [Jul 2014, p.88]

Segall's not reinventing the wheel--he's just here to keep the amps humming, as loud and as often as humanly possible. [Apr 2019, p.90]

At a couple of number shorter than its predecessor, Lazaretto packs a hell of a punch. [Jul 2014, p.84]

It take a rare confidence and skill to throw a million (roughly) ideas into an album and make it sound not just coherent but as good as this one. [Apr 2012, p.91]

A much more emotionally spooked record than either of its MOR predecessors. [Sep 2016, p.97]

As striking as her career-defining 2010 album, The Brothel. [Sep 2017, p.92]

Though other instruments emerge from their corners their sparing deployments against Amidon's fragile voice lends them a far greater power, like vivid flourishes of colour in a starkly monochrome film. [Jun 2013, p.92]

If this is about cities, it's cities glimpsed in poetic, fragmentary dreams. [Jul 2017, p.90]

The band's primary strength is their ability to harness cold electronica and synth sounds to deftly create earthy-sounding atmospherics... Stirring. [Dec. 2011 p.97]

Mysterious and enfolding, Ascent seduces. [Oct 2012, p.90]

High On Fire's fourth album sees them once again on thunderous form. [Nov 2007, p.95]

Mostly these provoke wows and crikeys of crooked pleasure. [Jan 2010, p.93]

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]

For reggae fans of a certain vintage, This Generation will rule the nation. [Apr 2013, p.94]

[An] expansive advance on their Indian classical-inspired sound. [Aug 2013, p.98]

Greta Morgan's expressive range goes creamy and detached on hazy pop-psych. [Dec 2014, p.102]

Powerplant sees Girlpool's naif-pop mature into a brittle, unpredictable, subterranean pop that recalls Pod-era Breeders. [Aug 2017, p.92]

Countless bands can switch from quiet to loud effectively; few do it with such overwhelming power as Jambinai. [Jul 2019, p.91]

This intimate 2013 show at Los Angeles' storied Wiltern Theatre--beautifully shot for Blu-ray--is proof, revisiting tracks from throughout their catalogue, opening with a searing, gloriously sludgy grind through Incessant Mace. From there, they showcase their many facets. [Sep 2019, p.107]

This solo instrumental album feels lighter in gates-of-doom atmosphere than previous work, but even so, whispers and echoes start to bounce off this record's walls, promising revelations at every turn. [Nov 2020, p.86]

While autumnal gems like Rabbit chime with recent months' universal experience of isolation and inertia, Earth Trip also mirrors the salvation many have found in nature, its gentle, J.J. Cale-esque country-rock tempos evocative of restorative rustic rambling. [Jun 2021, p.82]

Hex isn’t really about individual tracks, though: it’s about mood and feel. Overwhelmingly, the feel is good. [Aug 2024, p.86]

Splitting the difference between the digital and the hand-cranked, Geologist has opened up his own haunting little universe. [Mar 2026, p.81]

What makes this combined reckoning of Brian's last, fully-engaged studio albums for The Beach Boys, with all of their peaks and flaws, such an enlightening, unexpected pleasure is the chance to hear the earnest dedication and breadth of inspiration in this brief window of renewal, long obscured by false promo and Brian's ongoing trials. [Apr 2026, p.96]

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin may well be the second best cabin-in-winter indie album ever made. [Jul 2009, p.96]

A lyrically strong album. [Jan 2022, p.82]

The trio's shared vocals are a unifying factor, finessing the outre music into gently hypnotic melodies. [Sep 2006, p.94]