The Space Between is a delicate, dignified joy. [Nov 2022, p.86]

Sometimes co-written with The The’s guitarist Barrie Cadogan or keyboardist DC Collard, these 12 songs cement Johnson’s ‘cherishable agitator’ status. And – whisper it – there’s hope here, too. [Oct 2024, p.86]

Naturally, every song is a fully formed gem underscoring Saint Etienne's unique way with setting reflective pop upon a dance floor chassis. [Jul 2017, p.86]

Throughout, Earthling toys with classic radio-rock clichés, only to cleanse them of jadedness via Vedder's trademark wholehearted investment, a trick which still charms. [Apr 2022, p.88]

Smith's usual meditative, ambient-leaning approach is dialled back in favour of soaring wonky pop, ornate neoclasical and even quasi dancefloor movements. It gives rise to her most joyous music yet. [Oct 2022, p.87]

The best moments find Deerhoof unadulterated, like the angular tropicalia of Begin Countdown, or drummer Greg Saunier's Prefab Sprout-like Ay That's Me. [Oct 2017, p.94]

True, [Merritt] still sings in a voice that's subject to fairly strict demarcations of range and malleability, but his deft spadework in the trench of song-craft more than compensates. [May 2004, p.93]

Too wholesome for some, perhaps, but the melodies are reassuringly strong. [Oct 2002, p.96]

Clinic just aren't as sinister as they first seem. They're damaged, but friendly and worth visiting. [Mar 2002, p.105]

The Brewis brothers opt for distinctive texture of sampled acoustic guitar. Measure--a sprawling gem of album-- is full of such inspired decisions. [Mar 2010, p.98]

Each track on Under The Sun has its own unique, haunting spirit, lingering long after the final note decays. [Jun 2016, p.95]

A taut, fraught dalliance with '90s trip-hop melancholy vivified by spidery Sisters Of Mercy-esque guitar figures and a gruff cameo from Massive Attack's Daddy G. [Sep 2017, p.91]

Bowie's live vocal is excellent on a cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam, and the sound is seriously beefed up by the addition of Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson partway through the set, but massively new or consistently brilliant it is not. [Aug 2021, p.98]

Through dry humour, love songs as tender as Tim Hardin's, tremolo guitars and intensely moving samples Powers reveals a psyche reborn. [Mar 2025, p.93]

It is an enormously beautiful. [Sep 2025, p.86]

Pop songs at warp speed in the vein of say, All or early Lemonheads. [May 2014, p.96]

2006's album of the year may have arrived early. [Mar 2006, p.104]

The Dodos switchback moods and rhythms never settle and that's the prime joy of No Color. [Jun 2011, p.105]

Hard to avoid thinking of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the peak of their '70s powers. [Feb 2005, p.95]

Adroit instrumentation and elegant melodies from the NY quartet. [May 2014, p.96]

Wistful alt pop gets an ample glug of electro groove and distinct hints of '80s cheese comfortably reinforce Austin William's hazy vocals. [Oct 2015, p.98]

Cerulean Salt's added electricity, rhythm section, variety and production clarity still retains the intimacy, the skeletal arrangements and the plaintive urgency in here delivery, from a yelp to a croon. [Aug 2013, p.93]

At its best, Factory Floor powerfully blurs the lines between human and machine and back again, and is very hard to argue with. [Oct 2013, p.91]

Both slow-burning, early Zeppelin-style blues, its understandable they would front-load the album with its trump card, but both seem slightly at odds with the Dickinsons' mission statement. [Jan 2014, p.101]

The Mudcrutch reunion is a refreshing tweak to the comfy old Petty band chemistry. [July 2008, p.108]

Ghostpoet serves up his bruised, tender heart with the steely precision of a master sushi chef. [Jun 2013, p.89]

A rich seam of molten psychedelic heaviness pitched between Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer. [Jan 2016, p.96]

Heaps more respect's due for the full-bloodedness of rippers like Frenzy, Modern Day Rip Iff and Neo Punk. ... Four-letter lyricism and dumb-ass riffing, however, leave you craving the substance of '16's Homme-guided Post Pop Depression. [Feb 2023, p.85]