On Blessed she finds the perfect balance between the sweet and the sour. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Soft-focus memories echo through all 88 minutes. [Dec 2012, p.89]

Hayden's delicate little songs are potent, precious things indeed. [Oct 2004, p.110]

Faced with the Kings of Leon's musical savvy, however, it's easy to believe the hype. [Sep 2003, p.104]

A classic Fannies record with scant regard for prescribed notions of cool. [Jun 2005, p.104]

As with previous album "Songs III," this us an enchanting record. [Apr 2009, p.109]

Makes for a cheeky, unerringly upbeat celebration of [London's] party scene. [Feb 2012, p. 94]

Even those wearied by Oldham's avalanche of releases should investigate. [May 2012, p.87]

Some are great. Some are thinner--but James's new groove has big promise. [Feb 2013, p.97]

Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr displays the kind of tidy time and delirious brushwork you might have thought went out with Ed Thigpen, while McBride drives the whole with a mighty, old-school righteousness. [Dec 2013, p.87]

These are epic soundtracks for the lost adventurer within us all. [Jun 2014, p.91]

It ain't light listening but its emotions run deep. [Sep 2014, p.95]

While containing only new songs, feels like a greatest hits and as such is a perfect entry point for Giant Sand neophytes. [Jun 2015, p.90]

The most rounded and effervescent of the three [albums]. [May 2015, p.97]

The French singer renders smoky blues. [Oct 2016, p.100]

He's at his best, however, when he takes it all very seriously indeed. [Feb 2017, p.96]

Rueful, ruminative and ultimately hypnotic, Garden Of Ashes sings a welcome blues for the coming apocalypse. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Deep immersive dream landscapes of calm and uncertainty that seem to push at the boundaries of space and time. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Greene here pulls together abstract R&B, twisted 2-step and crunching house, skillfully adopting vocal techniques employed by his heroes, Masters At Work. [May 2017, p.91]

Jo Bevan declaims like Siouxsie leading The Smiths, on fevered melodies worthy of a band named after a Cure rarity. [May 2017, p.98]

The sound they conjure is often heavenly. [May 2017, p.95]

The Psalms comes with plenty of mainstream country--in the supple, drawling warmth of Colter's voice--and spiritual certainty. But it is easy to recognise the broader, ecumenical grace and relief of Joni Mitchell's early records and Laura Nyro's salvation songs in Colter's passionate focus and rolling, intuitive aplomb at the piano. [Apr 2017, p.91]

All told: a mighty uplifting wheeze. [Feb 2018, p.97]

The vignettes pack enough detail and emotion to work as well in short fiction form. [Jun 2018, p.97]

Their voices have contrasting timbres and they produce some gorgeous harmonies throughout. [Feb 2019, p.87]

A set weighted towards her 2007-to-present day material, mainly modern freedom songs performed with energy and joy. At 79, Mavis's vocal retains its gutsy passion and vitality. [Mar 2019, p.95]

Fine follow-up [to 2016's Lovers & Leavers] ... has a wider range of emotions and some new classics. [Apr 2019, p.91]

Sitting down with this album is like listening to a friend who assumes you know all the same people they do. [May 2019, p.90]