A modestly sized, nine-track snapshot of the singer in a more appealingly inward phase.

Wolf People can play and on NRR have just enough Sabbath-styled hard riffing to appeal to the basest rock fan. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Delicate yet powerful, and utterly compelling. [Feb 2023, p.92]

The songs are charged with love for both the music and Molina. [Oct 2025, p.80]

It is a lot like Teen dream, but novelty is hardly the point: if Beach House are your type, then Bloom is unlikely to see the attraction wither. [Jun 2012, p.93]

This is the album to prove that great Afrobeat doesn't have to be a Kuti family affair. [Sep 2012, p.97]

It's a thematically and musically complex record that encourages wonderment. [Jun 2023, p.92]

There are 10 songs here, most of them slow; with a smoky nightclub intimacy that makes it a great late-night album. [Jun 2023, p.88]

It's a giddy, breathless swirl of different sounds and styles. [Dec 2016, p.91]

It's a punishing listen certain to prove divisive among his fan base. [Oct 2012, p.95]

This is music for smarter dancefloors. [Mar 2021, p.89]

Here and there you can hear a touch of JJ Cale breeziness and, on Ballad Of An Unknown, urban cowboy noir with socio-political lyrics. [Apr 2022, p.85]

In line with the album title, Richard reins it in, as if she’s singing torch songs, but the emotion is palpable, her lyrics freighted with trauma. [Nov 2024, p.87]

There are 14 songs here, without chaff. [Jan 2017, p.94]

Professionally recorded with a slightly altered song order (no Down By The River). There is a definite air of victory lap. [Jun 2022, p.96]

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

Sprawling and dense as it may be, but amid its deranged lyricism and brutal soundscapes, 8 Diagrams vindicates The RZA's devotion to the collective ethic. [Feb 2008, p.100]

Vocal melodies take a back seat to the overall 'vibe', but it's a groovy corner of the musical universe to spend time in. [Apr 2025, p.87]

Shine justifies John Legend's signing of her to his Homeschool label and finding producers she could inspire. [Mar 2008, p.112]

The frankness of yore remains intact, but his focus has shifted, and the intimacy that once sometimes made Barlow's solo work a white knuckle ride now amplifies the tranquility of these strums. [Jul 2021, p.81]

Skittery clicks and manipulated samples add heat and light to plucked guitar and breathy voice on songs that evolve in space-time. [Mar 2013, p.98]

An exquisite, sometimes spectacular achievement rich with emotive resonance. [Jun 2025, p.80]

A slushfest it isn't....Melodically sussed, wryly observed post-60s pop nuggets are humorous, trenchant and reflective. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Kaleidoscopic yet reassuringly familiar to '80s indie fans. [Apr 2015, p.98]

Worth the wait. Her voice is on excellent form and her band has its understated arrangements down to an art. [Sep 2025, p.82]

There isn't quite as much gleeful taboo-baiting on this second set, as they dig further and harder into the absurdity of being a young woman in America, and still make it catchy and fun as well as angry and melancholy. [Jun 2015, p.93]

It's the first time in the history of the Missy-Timbaland team-up where, having delivered the goods early on and earned the space to do whatever theheck they like, they tread water instead of pushing things forward. [Album of the Month, Jan 2003, p.90]

Their thrilling music rooted in old country with touches of blues and gospel can't help but remind you of Jack and Meg and Johnny and June. [Jun 2013, p.93]