Flegel's ability to surprise and disturb rarely dims, the experimental held in exhilarating balance with their pop gifts. [Apr 2025, p.82]

As Ever, they're at their best when Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell trade vocal lines. [Aug 2022, p.92]

Mick Jones's production captures a vibrant, timeless analogue vibe, particularly on the sister's sassy numbers. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Few Pretenders albums have honoured the classic line-up's template so faithfully or successfully as Hate For Sale. [Aug 2020, p.86]

Blissed out, beautiful... and quite probably bonkers, with Dilate Bardo Pond seem intent on redrawing their personal cosmos's final frontiers yet again. [May 2001, p.100]

This is a different sounding Billy Childish. Not Radically different, but enough to notice that something's going on. At the root is personal tragedy: he had a nervous breakdown last year, and lyrics, written more like prose than punk missive, deal with mortality and the passing of time. [Sep 2019, p.88]

[Nelson] sounds in great shape. There are some upbeat moments (good ol' boy Made In Texas) but mostly it's on the slow side, a tempo in which Willie excels. [Jul 2024, p.84]

These radio sessions and TV appearances present an unique, accelerated Kinks history. [Sep 2012, p.103]

An 11-song set that's melodically insidious and swings like a noose. [Apr 2006, p.90]

This opens with rocking electric blues guitar, rolling piano and a singalong chorus. The warm, barroom feel continues in Alcohallelujah. [Aug 2023, p.80]

Caribou meets late-period Madonna, perhaps, but given DIA's depth of melody and nuance, Minus might be the Phoebe Bridgers of Techno-pop. [Feb 2025, p.82]

Unabashedly weird, surprising wise, A Turn In The Dream-Songs is Lewis at his most accessible and affecting. [Nov 2011, p.95]

The slightly muted beats across Record suggest the memory of good times, but the joyous flash of self-recognition on Dancefloor shows they are far from over. [Apr 2018, p.95]

Waiting in Vain mines a harmony-rich seam of sticky-fingered country rock and blue sky FM pop. [Oct 2008, p.109]

[Signs Under Test] satisfies the soul without losing its precision-tooled digital lustre. [Mar 2015, p.97]

Somewhere between the Moonlight Sonata-inspired title track and the desolate L'Enfer Et Le Paradis, Hardy will make you forget Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles was ever considered her finest song. [May 2013, p.84]

All-enveloping and omnivorous, it's hard to tell if this record wants to hug you or eat you, but it's blissful submitting to its embrace. [Jun 2011, p.93]

Baby I'm Bored's knotty guitars and ramshackle production values recall the Lemonheads' swansong, Car Button Cloth. [Mar 2003, p.94]

This edge, this acknowledgment of the stakes at play behind her messages of faith, pushes these songs past any risk of empty sentimentalism, and makes Sun Without The Heat truly uplifting. [May 2024, p.87]

The more you play it, the better it sounds. [Sep 2016, p.96]

This "new" RP Boo set feels like a deeper, warmer work. [Aug 2015, p.98]

On Blue Electric Light, he hasn't lost his touch. [Jul 2024, p.92]

Early Riser is a special album that pulls you deep into its alternative universe. [Aug 2014, p.92]

The 7th Hand embodies contemporary jazz at its most thrilling. [Feb 2022, p.91]

His bellowed cadences are as timeless and elemental as the blues. [Nov 2005, p.98]

The 23-year-old Ethiopian-Canadian's sonic evolution continues on Kiss Land. [Oct 2013, p.88]

These witches are still burning. [Jul 2023, p.88]

Here, he notes the dying of the light show with autumnal retreads of key songs from his annus mirabilis, including A Whiter Shade Of Pale, See Emily Play, A Day In The Life and – maybe toughest of all – Traffic’s No Face, No Name, No Number. [Oct 2024, p.82]