There are startling moments: the title track’s D&D blues-rock, for example, The Groundhogs doing The Tempest in a nasty basement; or Juvenile’s ice-rink keyboards, McCombs ennobling and mocking adolescence (“You suck/I suck/Primus sucks”). Other songs, though, creep up more subtly, such as Miss Mabee’s Elliott Smith hush, or Peace’s heartbreaking Go-Betweens valediction. [Sep 2025, p.80]

Captures Radiohead during their majestic 2000s, delivering muscular, meticulously detailed material to an audience eager for rousing, off killer anthems (There, There) and piano-led laments (We Suck Young Blood) alike. [Nov 2025, p.101]

Another strong set. [Oct 2018, p.94]

If the likes of 154-era Wire, early Cure and New Order appeal, this is for you. [Oct 2004, p.101]

Further enriched by the palate of Fratti’s cello and Tosta’s brass, Sentir… is an extraordinarily possessed, uncanny world of its own. [Aug 2024, p.83]

Fox spins electro-acoustic polyrhythmic patterns and grooves of a deep-space spirituality. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Here, the 36 unreleased tracks (albeit including alternate or instrumental versions of the LP cuts) highlight the outside influences that each brought to the table. [Sep 2024, p.96]

Thirty-five albums in, incredibly, GBV are still scaling new heights. [Apr 2022, p.80]

Ron Mael's lyrics are elegiac, witty and forensically detailed; Russel Mael delivers them exquisitely and they specialise in ear worms. [Jul 2023, p.82]

Like Eddi Reader's Sings the Songs Of Robert Burns, this is bard bigging-up of note. [Oct 2011, p.97]

[They] stand apart, wedding guitar-free sounds to refreshingly vulnerable sentiment. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Free Nationals' blissed-out, woozy slow-jams make for a low-key triumph. [Feb 2020, p.90]

Across the ensuing 85 minutes there are sufficient six-string pyrotechnics, pop hooks and lyrical urgencies to shame an artist a third his age. [Jan 2019, p.88]

Eternal Hand, Dream Of Mine and the love-up, XTC-flavoured relish The Possibility honour the band's history and mystery. [Apr 2026, p.86]

As with Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, we're dealing with an invigorating, many-faceted work of diverse instrumentation and durability. [Jul 2006, p.106]

Despite the classical milieu, this is very much Metheny music. [Apr 2021, p.87]

Tuneful ’60s folk-rockers Lucky #8 and Mary Miracle raise the tempo while closer Fractal Canyon is a joyful epiphany of redemption. [Feb 2025, p.84]

Let's Stay Friends is a triumphant fusion of graft and glimmer. [Nov 2007, p.96]

From Clapton to cosmic rock, Afro-pop and experimenting with dizzying ease. [Oct 2012, p.96]

Profound? Hardly. Fun? Indubitably. [Jan 2013, p.93]

Baxter Dury blossomed on 2017's Prince Of Tears. ... This sixth solo outing explores further that album's blend of mechanical funk and luxuriant orchestration of female-sung choruses and character monologues. [Apr 2020, p.86]

In short, genial, infectious guitar pop like they used to make. [Feb 2008, p.102]

Bares no audible strains of road weariness. ... Retain[s] all their live urgency. [Sep 2022, p.91]

Forsyth's own voice is used sparingly ... Mostly, though, he lets the fervid lyricism of his guitar be the focus. [May 2019, p.88]

A mesmerising return. [Mar 2024, p.90]

While six of these 19 tracks are intricately wrought miniatures, it's the supreme confidence of four-minute relative marathons Peel Free and horn-pricked parental paean Bloom Wither Bloom that shine. [Sep 2019, p.91]

7s feels like therapy for its creator but has the power and potential to rub off on us all. [Mar 2023, p.88]

The album's urgency and purpose is irresistible; there's a riot goin' on, and Algiers just lit the touchpaper. [Mar 2023, p.87]