What Did You Expect is a breathlessly exciting debut, it's giddy raunch'n'revisionism hard to resist. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Dark, minatory rhythms underpin stark lyrics telling of hard times in the north of Mali. [May 2015, p.95]

One of the most inventive, exploratory albums of the year. [Jan 2023, p.90]

As with Daptone's soul projects, the emphasis is on authenticity and integrity and the result is spot-on. [Jun 2018, p.94]

Formed around Orcadian singer/guitarist Erland Cooper, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and drummer David Nock, best known for his work with Paul McCartney's The Fireman, Erland and co meld influences to create a psych-folk mosaic. [Feb 2010, p. 101]

Good album, clever guy. [Jun 2011, p.100]

These non-linear creations are vehicles for an incredible contralto that echoes Anohni, Diamanda Galas, Jarboe, even late-era Scott Walker. [Jun 2024, p.84]

These are stories about patterns of behaviour, like dreams that keep returning, or won't end. The way out, these songs counsel, lies in relinquishing. [Oct 2019, p.85]

Ishibashi’s latest score is again subtle, delicate, but robust enough to blossom away from the film itself. It’s her balancing of disparate elements that’s so impressive. [Aug 2024, p.87]

A glorious snapshot of Silver in his prime. [Dec 2025, p.99]

The tunes are still naggingly memorable, but often less convivial, more melancholy. [Feb 2022, p.86]

Closer listens reveal small universes of movement, tension and suspense pulsing just beneath the surface. [Dec 2019, p.88]

The Beloved Scouse songsmith's virtues are writ large: heart swelling hymns to the common man, irrepressible shanties, imaginatively deployed strings and brass, affectionate songs of booze-love, as unhinged a school-days memoir as you'll ever hear, and, at the closing Adios Amigo, the fondest of farewells. [Dec 2017, p.92]

Often startlingly brilliant. [Mar 2026, p.85]

Linderman's triumph is more sophisticated than a simple contrast. The Ravishing music is studded with jazz details - the impressionistic gusts of saxophone and flute; Linderman's own clangorous guitar overdubs - that add a neurotic edge to the proceedings. The words, meanwhile, luxuriate in the prettiness of our world. [Mar 2021, p.80]

While the album's nine, wordless pieces for mournfully beautiful cello and shifting ambient atmospheres may not always conjure seismic volatility, there is certainly an underlying tension close to the surface of swooning opener Hellebore. [Jan 2016, p.96]

One of the best rock'n'roll albums of 2014. [Dec 2014, p.96]

Molina devotes will yearn to bask in this full bloom of Magnolia. [Oct 2007, p.91]

The Complete Budokan 1978 is a richer picture of this restless nerve at work. [Jan 2024, p.101]

An altogether more positive attempt to commune with nature. [Jun 2017, p.88]

The former High Llama may be low, but this is no menopausal weepy. [Apr 2016, p.96]

There's no arguing with craftsmanship like this. [Jul 2017, p.88]

The Horrors are operating at a way more advanced level, dragging rock, feedback-drenched, electronic and electrifying, into a new decade. [Jun 2009, p.101]

The vocals of core dynamic duo Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers instantly proffer more light and shade, while the punchy garage of Kraut Of All Of This, distorted, gliding My Bloody Valentine-lite of Frayed And Spank, or thundering Chemical Brothers detonations at the heart of A Wolf In Geek's Clothing all point to far more than just obscure psych records in their collection. [Apr 2011, p.100]

[Moyet] sounds notably energised throughout this second electronic pop outing. [Aug 2017, p.94]

So beautiful Or So What is a deeply spiritual record, its more reflective moments offset by playful fare. [may 2011, p.106]

The dreamy riffs swirl amid powerful songwriting smarts, and melodic hooks abound. [Jul 2015, p.96]

A few sag under the weight of brooding brass and strings - Lookout For Hope, Doom - but others soar - Beautiful Dreamer, Electricity, We Shall Overcome. Ultimately it's a winner. [Jun 2024, p.91]