The songs are often slow (Boise, Idaho and One Of These Days (I'm Gonna Spend The Night with You) are lovely), sometimes more upbeat (smile-inducing Tonight With The Dogs I'm Sleeping; waltz-time Guns Are For Cowards) occasionally Doomy (Is My Living In Vain?). and all backed by a rich ensemble of Nashville "cats". [Mar 2025, p.90]

Sometimes it's more about a blues feeling, encompassing high-lonesome, electric country-blues rock, two-chord garage rock and at its most beautiful on the opening track Promise The World. [Apr 2017, p.94]

The whole record's buzzy, hat-wearingly trendy; but also irresistible, and almost boundlessly exciting. [July 2008, p.104]

Gibbons rises to the occasion. [May 2019, p.89]

Exactly the sort of angry rebel rock you want from a band with their backs it the walls and foes on all sides. [Apr 2017, p.96]

This fifth and self-produced eponymous LP restates their collective intent with the hip-hop groove and soaring chorus of Gold Rush, the breezy drivetime rock of Old Tape (tackling persistent self-criticism) and the Judee Sill verses of Mad Love. [Jun 2025, p.80]

With producer Owen Morris at the controls, Which Bitch? always promised to be a riotous affair. [Mar 2009, p.107]

This cleaner-sounding set finds the quartet's elemental power now yielding to poise, thier speaker-bleeding blues and jagged riffs leavened by folk shimmer and country jangle. [Mar 2009, p.110]

Less like leftovers from a previous album than another move forward, creating out of his prepared piano and mini string section something fresh, subtle and beguiling. [Apr 2009, p.106]

Together, Holden & Zimpel deliver something restorative and transcendental. [Aug 2025, p.80]

It's his skill as a bruised, intimate narrator that makes this album such an alluring addition to Doe's swelling canon. [Feb 2003, p.90]

There are simple messages, delivered earnestly, but the magic of this group has always been their ability to translate the elemental into the transcendental. It is a miracle they pull off frequently on My Morning Jacket, with confidence and inspiration, every moment a fresh beginning. [Nov 2021, p.85]

As striking as her career-defining 2010 album, The Brothel. [Sep 2017, p.92]

With percussionist Sam Clayton growling the vocals here,they bathe in the blues, immersed in classics by masters Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Little Walter. [Jul 2024, p.89]

The nonpareil group's best record in exactly a decade. [Apr 2023, p.82]

It could all be so much MOR easy-on-the-earwash but Gardot's silken voice, musicality and knack for a telling lyric exude class. [Jun 2012, p.92]

While Riddick doesn't boast the vocal chops of his heroes, telling interventions from Q-Tip, Leon Sylvers III and The Doggfather himself flesh out his questing intergalactic creations with charm to spare. [Oct 2015, p.89]

Zajac's gnomic lyrics make the direct bits hit that bit harder, and if there are swamp-fuzz debts to J.J. Harvey, it is still a powerful piece of personal witness-bearing. [Jan 2026, p.85]

Highlights: I Know's breathless vocals and pummeled drums; Invisible Man's irradiated energy, railing against Alzheimer's. [Nov 2016, p.96]

The melodies are so lush and the arrangements so stylish that you can't deny them. [Jun 2005, p.105]

No retro trip, this, greasy grooves and hollered pulpit soundbytes remain Blue Explosion's prime business--and business is good. {Oct 2012, p.90]

Labyrinthitis is another tantalising Destroyer album, one that resists being clutched too tight or loved too hard as it roams its peculiar world. [Apr 2022, p.86]

Harmonious stuff, in every sense. [Jul 2023, p.86]

Daunting? Yes. Fun and engaging? That too. [Apr 2026, p.86]

Rekindle the guileless spirit of mid-'90s alt rock in The Alarmist's twilit wistfulness; or Moment's surge of power-chord melancholy. [Feb 2020, p.96]

Icelandic duo reflect their homeland's long winter nights. [Jan 2016, p.98]

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

The majority of Not Too Late hums with a placid darkness and neurosis which is as delicious as it is unexpected. [Feb 2007, p.104]