Her naturalistic voice is a relaxed conduit to elegantly detailed songs about the psychogeography of er native Cardiff (Ghosts Of You), expectant motherhood (St Ives New School) and Jarvis Cocker dancing stylishly alone (kitchen sink pop jangling Dancing ON Volcanoes). [Aug 2025, p.79]

Moisturizer shows, decisively, that while the metal gauntlets might be very much on, creatively, Wet leg's gloves are off. [Aug 2025, p.74]

It's a steady, comforting blast of warmth, from the Jon Hopkins-Style soft techno pulse of Soft Gradient beckons to Nocturne's ambient swell. [Aug 2025, p.79]

This Material Moment is a reassuringly complicated fusion of Bjork and Richard Dawson with intense mid-'70s Virgin records vibes. [Aug 2025, p.80]

Catches the sense of wistful dislocation that comes with trying to go home again, the after-hours sidewalk cafe intimacy of Manejando Por Pando or Cancion Mama suggesting quiet reckonings and reorientations. [Aug 2025, p.83]

It's a more straightforward offering than their previously tangential records, though no less compelling for it. [Aug 2025, p.79]

Walk This Road glides between cheerful boogies and sunny R&N vamps, luxuriating in the relaxed chemistry of the four surviving members. [Jul 2025, p.86]

Ultimately, A Sober Conversation amounts to a brilliant and bold record that is all the more powerful for its deployment of life-affirming groves and melodies. [Aug 2025, p.78]

Asher steers The Secret Of Life toward familiar traditional-pop territory. The Placid setting brings out the politeness in Streisand's guests. [Aug 2025, p.76]

The Stylistics would've killed for a song like Paradise, and I'm not sure they'd have performed it better. [Aug 2025, p.82]

Gay's treacly voice and keening cornet pierce the static on another initially oblique musical jigsaw, whose pieces begin to fit after a few listens. [Aug 2025, p.85]

It sounds so authentically mid-to-late 1960s that Dear Patti - a song about missing an opportunity to play on the same festival bill as Smith - could almost be a lightly warped vinyl pressing from the era. [Aug 2025, p.76]

Singing with a sweet weariness, Kline can seem bemused by her melancholia, her resigned acceptance given an appealing warmth by a band whose gentle sway lends her pop miniatures depth. [Aug 2025, p.78]

This is college rock meant to be blasted over the radio, a record as vigorous as it is joyous. [Jul 2025, p.87]

Do It Afraid doesn't sound quite as home-made and fingerprint-smudged as Bey's lo-fi previous recordings, there's still no-one who sounds like her, no-one chronicling the agony and ecstasy with her unguarded and resonant vision. [Aug 2025, p.81]

[Inyo] As a standalone release, like SOPS [Streets Of Philadelphia Sessions] and LA Garage Sessions '83, this would rank among Springsteen's best. [Aug 2025, p.88]

They might be joyful adventures in the material world, but Matmos have a gift for hinting at something just beyond it. [Aug 2025, p.80]

In all, a gloriously imperfect storm. [Aug 2025, p.79]

Focusing in the songwriting, at its best the album recalls Gene Clark (Outsmarted), folksy Led Zeppelin (All God Did and Make You Happy) and even the very best of his father (the title track). [Aug 2025, p.77]

Impassioned, ambitious and accomplished. [Aug 2025, p.82]

Has a[n] unhurried Southern swing that pulls like an undertow against the emotional freight of confessional songs like Solitaire and Nature's Child. [Aug 2025, p.82]

Yildirim's group put the focus on melody, instrumental prowess and the melancholy in her voice. [Aug 2025, p.83]

A challenging yet rewarding listen. [Aug 2025, p.85]

Hymnal flows like diaphanous silk, the Berlin-based artist's otherworldly vocals stitching a sensuous golden thread throughout. [Aug 2025, p.85]

Together, Holden & Zimpel deliver something restorative and transcendental. [Aug 2025, p.80]

The songs often begin like standards then vanish beneath noise creeping in from the sides. .... Before the music returns to the foreground, triumphant. [Aug 2025, p.83]

Ripped + Torn attests to the sophistication of their songwriting with this brutalist form. [Aug 2025, p.80]

I Quit subtly pushes their boundaries. [Aug 2025, p.80]