Still totally themselves, Madness have made the album of their career. [Jun 2009, p.100]

Male Bonding brilliantly transpose their neighbourhood's scrufffy, rule-breaking fashion ethos into an exhilaratingly melodic breed of post-hardcore punk rock. [June 2010, p. 96]

Cantrell's voice exudes greater purity than Wells's and she has some tricks up her sleeve, one being an original that gives the album its title, a song that namechecks Wells and other country icons such as Maybelle Carter and Martha Carson. [Jun 2011, p.105]

His craftsman's melodiousness and honest voice add balm and balance. [Jun 2012, p.84]

This very playable record has a broad appeal at the same time as it reasserts modern electronica's vitality. [Jan 2013, p.98]

Though their sound seems delicate and ethereal, in a live setting the quartet's music yields plenty of compelling sonic drama. [May 2013, p.94]

It's gritty urban dramas never become too heavy-hearted, the breezy tunes blowing through like prime Jonathan Richman. [Jul 2013, p.84]

A two-hour 2-CD trip, hanging free in reflective well being. [Jul 2013, p.96]

Weiss weaves his way through a songbook that encompasses olde-tyme rock, jazz, R&B and Cajun sounds. [Jun 2014, p.90]

Whether melodic and mellow or blown out and busy, this exhilarating ride through rock's back pages offers irrefutable proof that these Nordic giants are currently operating at the peak of their powers. [Jun 2014, p.94]

A soothing balm in anxious times. [Nov 2014, p.93]

The Decemberists' seventh is unlikely to weaken their commercial pull. [Feb 2015, p.91]

The songs on All These Dreams luxuriate in their arrangements, swept along by gossamer strings, and silky backing vocals. [Apr 2015, p.92]

An exercise in soulful, somnambulant alt-R&B with a distinctively British sound. [Jul 2015, p.91]

This is restrained music-making; a slow-release capsule of languid grooves, haunting vocals and crafted songwriting. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Pulsing, hypnotic 13-minute opener Tardis Cymbals is a tough act to follow, with its primitive drum machines and rippling bassline, yet they trump it with voyages into scything death disco, bright Floydian vistas and even '60s vocal pop on Liquid Gate. [Mar 2016, p.95]

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

And the Anonymous Nobody is another stroke of inventive brilliance from ever-humble, non-showboating masters of the long-playing arts. [Sep 2016, p.92]

The Song Of Day And Night catches Jones aka Summertyme at his best. [Jun 2017, p.91]

The melancholy Tumbleweed sound become the sound of '70s country rock. [Jul 2017, p.100]

When he slows for a stroll through You Ain't Going Nowhere and offers up the obscure Abandoned Lover as a wonderfully interpreted finale, you're hit by the realisation that Willie has actually pulled off what is unquestionably a daunting challenge. [Sep 2017, p.94]

At times, it recalls the late-'60s acid blues experiments on Leigh Stephens' Red Weather and Peter Green's The End Of The Game but with a shimmering summer optimism and textural complexity all MacKay's own. [Oct 2017, p.92]

Their third album keeps an open mind. [Nov 2017, p.97]

Blau exercises an instrumental vision to rival his studio and vocal nous. [Jan 2018, p.90]

Closure, and then some. [Jan 2017, p.101]

Album four reverts to their initial template of hyper-melodic, lyrically skewed, synth-pop. ... Back on form. [Apr 2018, p.87]

This 18th LP is their finest since '90's Painkiller. [Apr 2018, p.96]

Keith's surreal wordplay has one leg planted firmly in the future, ensuring Dr. Octagon is still one of a kind. [Jun 2018, p.96]