It's never morbid, but mortality is a running theme. [Jun 2018, p.91]

Highlights include Richard Youngs' wistful Summer's Edge, with Sugden deadpan amid a splashing keyboard fountain. [May 2018, p.97]

This is continuing proof that the 42-year-old Gaz Coombes's best work is happening in the here and now. [May 2018, p.90]

The 11-song tracklist forgoes perennials such as Touch Me I'm Sick for lesser-spotted nuggets like Fuzzgun '91, a splenetic thrash through Roxy Music's Editions Of You and the Heart-sore epic Broken Hands. [Feb 2018, p.90]

A stylish, stoned variant of leftfield R&B in quick-fire bursts, exhibiting pop smarts, sojourns into shimmering, skewed house. [Apr 2018, p.91]

There's no high concept, just 12 pop songs that sound as if the pair decided to down tools the moment working ion them felt like work. [May 2018, p.90]

His latest sounds like the product of a much-needed rethink, bracketed by two cosmically speculating slowies: the opening, sparkling title track documents its author's self-fulfilling quest to mine a deeper instinctual creativity, while closer No Man's Land has a wide-eyed romanticism, evoking Mercury Rev. [May 2018, p.93]

While these tales may have been found in far-flung places, they all ultimately belong to the same deep tradition--and one where unvarnished simplicity enhances the material's uncanny potential. [May 2018, p.94]

Find A Light breaks down the distance between dexterous Southern rock and country brilliantly on songs like Best Seat In The House and Run Away From It All. If they have a weakness this time around, it's occasional lapses in quality control. [May 2018, p.91]

The Straight Hits! is front-loaded with positivist rockers, but these are ramshackle. ... The second half mercifully reverts to Pearson's true calling as a funereal balladeer; even then, the transition's too jarring to cohere to the conceptual/titular framework. [May 2018, p.90]

Rather than a showcase for their collaborators, however, MOM take the greatest of liberties with these sound sources, fragmenting and processing them into unrecognizable forms, and even occasionally playing them straight. [May 2018, p.

This album has been well worth the wait. [May 2018, p.91]

Joy Division, Suicide and JAMC collide for a post-punk racket: ear-splitting and sublimely desolate. [May 2018, p.98]

On the third Uni long-player--a series designed, unlike his starker glitch compositions, to work in dance clubs--the 52-yar-old's signature techno pulses and liminal keyboard clouds enmesh with comparative generosity. [May 2018, p.93]

It's a warm and heartfelt album. [May 2018, p.97]

It's a mixed bag. ... Until Hot Chip's mothership heaves back into view, Taylor's emotive, immersive solo output will tide things over nicely. [May 2018, p.93]

The results are terrific, harking back to The Black Album and Strawberries, with lots of Phantasmagoria-like gothic pop and '60s-via'80s garage a la Naz Nomad. [May 2018, p.96]

It all shines a light on Cash's enduring artistry. [May 2018, p.94]

Can't deny his range (hip-hop, disco, acoustic picking) or songwriting, but voice and lyrics lack depth. [May 2018, p.98]

TLICTFIR finds Wye Oak reaching new heights of sophistication. [May 2018, p.96]

This is LaVette's album, start to finish: heterodox song choices, rearranged verses, tweaked lyrics--none of it gratuitous. [May 2018, p.90]

Amid all the bleakness and despair, Goulden emerges as a true shining light. [May 2018, p.92]

Multi-Love's frequently tremendous follow-up. [May 2018, p.92]

Beneath the surface sheen, Resistance Is Futile is a complex, multi-layer work. [May 2018, p.88]

Another Eels album--the 12th!--to treasure. [May 2018, p.94]

Dracula simmers like The War On Drugs, and Calling Paul The Suffering has Latino touches, while Blue Rose dresses Greenwich Village rock in Fleetwood Mac silk. [May 2018, p.96]

Brion's 3/4 step-step micro-cues--for Greta Gerwig's perfect comedy drama--come with the necessary sprinkling of inexplicable sadness. [Apr 2018, p.89]

A provocative, anti-establishment critique of the blind idolatry received by the British monarchy and finds each of the nine tracks paying homage to Hutchings' list of notable women that he believes are worthy alternative monarchs. [Apr 2018, p.87]