Blom's buoyant indie-rock - a perfect vehicle for the everyday anxieties that power her songs - quickly proves hard to resist. [Nov 2021, p.84]

Overall this record is a heady, expansive treat. [May 2024, p.90]

If inherent heaviness is the ultimate aim for any metal band, then Mastodon only partly succeed. Fortunately, they hit the right combination between brutal, epic, progressive and endless wild soloing. [Aug 2014, p.92]

Ambivalence Avenue presents a livlier Bibio, tastefully absorbing hip hop and disco beats. [Aug 2009, p.104]

If the band have upped the musical chaos, there's still an unashamedly romantic feel. [Feb 2018, p.98]

The wait has been worth it. [Mar 2014, p.88]

Low have made one of the most impressive albums of their career and it still feels like their best work is ahead of them rather than stuck back in the past. [Oct 2015, p.92]

There's plenty of soul and swagger again here. [Apr 2006, p.94]

The results are as rich and organic as electronica gets. [Jun 2011, p.97]

A polished and enjoyable pop-soul confection that transcends its myriad influences. [Jul 2012, p.83]

Earle's most satisfying album in a while--and one that should please right across his fanbase. [May 2013, p.89]

Baobab fans will love this, though the Massako tracks have audible distortion. [Sep 2015, p.101]

This is Mastodon rediscovering both their edge and their emotional resonance. [May 2017, p.96]

There's peace and a wild purity to it. [May 2017, p.92]

On their best pastiches, the jokes land often enough, but you can't help yearning for something as perfectly-turned as Benny Hill's Ernie, or as ardently silly as John Shuttleworth's I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now. [Apr 2019, p.88]

This is Smoke Fairies' strongest, most urgent album to date. [Apr 2020, p.93]

The album's 12 intimate essays, described as "elegies as much as songs," feel like ghostly, poignant testaments to our times. [Mar 2022, p.86]

The second half - "a saucy, synth-heavy cabaret" - will undoubtedly lose a few fans, yet Rowland still manages to pull a gem out of the fire with the touching My Submission. [Aug 2023, p.78]

If there are times when their adherence to that sound suggest a country-rock Status Quo the fact they now fit like a pair of well-worn gloves is actually rather comforting. [Apr 2014, p.91]

Ritual Union feels like the point at which Little Dragon's lyrical stride finally gets in step with their musical ambition. [Aug. 2011, p. 93]

Richly textured percussion, thrumming nylon-string guitars, discreet electronics and sundry guest vocalists. [Jul 2005, p.105]

With an occasional propensity for mindless wigouts slightly curbed, it's windswept anthems a-go-go on their best album for years. [May 2017, p.96]

Special Moves/Burning might just serve as a fittingly monolithic monument to their work to date. [Sep 2010, p.98]

This is a powerful collection of contemporary battle hymns that rings out lie a well-needed musical call to arms for the 99 per cent. [Feb 2014, p.88]

Her beautifully compassionate songs are cradled in gentle, melodic arrangements from ever-inventive producer John Vanderslice. [Aug 2015, p.94]

The overall effect is usually on the right side of too much, the listener lifted up by Castle's wings. [Jan 2021, p.87]

The hit rate is high, and Mike Scott is clearly having fun cutting himself free from The Waterboys' past, and playing fast and loose - much like the mercurial subject of this album. [May 2025, p.88]

Comparatively standard tunes such as To And Fro prevent Strong Feelings from being an unconditional classic, but that's tantamount to dismissing Toronto's CN Tower as a bit pointy. [Feb 2014, p.91]