It's something of a revelation. [Apr 2017, p.97]

The results are a triumph. Scott interprets everything in a manner that touches heart-strings. [Mar 2017, p.98]

The joyous next single, 'Let Me know,' along with dark gems such as 'Primitive' and 'Movie Star,' make this close to a modern synth-pop classic. [Nov 2007, p.90]

Stay Positive has consistently stronger material than its preecessors and, perhaps more importantly, is sequenced to maximum efficacy. [Aug 2008, p.100]

A mutant sound equal parts soft-pop, hard-fusion and psychedelic prog. [Jul 2020, p.80]

Very sweet debut, a mostly acoustic affair. [Sep 2020, p.93]

The difference on this album is that their amps and tempos are turned up and their sound is pared down. [Jan 2003, p.102]

A joyously spiky yet danceable debut. [Aug 2019, p.90]

Callahan's cast on Gold Record are notable for their kindness, and for the dignity of their discretion. [Oct 2020, p.85]

An arresting cocktail of post-punk angularity and instinctive pop savy. [Feb 2004, p.102]

A third LP of warm, retro pop jangle. [Oct 2016, p.100]

It's a beauty, intimate songs and poetic lyrics, overdubbed with the Seattle-based Texan's own harmonies. [Jun 2012, p.93]

His first, full-tilt protest record... he comes out swinging, in every respect. [Oct 2004, p.110]

There are effortless covers of Bo Diddley (Dearest Darling) and Slim Harpo (Got Love If You Want It), but mostly it's Childish's own back-catalogue that is mined and re-imagined here. [Jan 2026, p.82]

It's a bona fide Lee Hazlewood classic: Mournful and orchestrated, imbued with a heart-rendering yearning. [Oct 2012, p.102]

The Twilight Sad’s first album since reducing to founding duo James Graham and Andy MacFarlane yields the most powerful version of the band’s cathartic soundworld. [May 2026, p.92]

An unexpected sound-palette of smouldering beauty, often lit up by sumptuous orchestral arrangements from one Sebastian Hoffmann. [Jan 2017, p.101]

Sampha's solo debut sits somewhere between the ghostly avant-soul if Frank Ocean and James Blake's emotionally wrought electronica. [Mar 2017, p.90]

An unusual yet utterly coherent balance of tenderness and euphoria, vulnerability and invention. [Mar 2018, p.96]

Only Pleasant Valley jars--the irony in Elling's voice is ladled on too heavily--but elsewhere marvel at a master at work. [Nov 2012, p.86]

Digi Snacks is pleasingly lean on fillers , and finds RZA again at his peak as a producer, effortlessly balancing the slow burn bangers wirh tracks of soulful uplit. [Sep 2008, p.110]

This edition adds a 1999 concert. .... It's R.E.M. at their sweetest. [Jan 2023, p.99]

Rather than a showcase for their collaborators, however, MOM take the greatest of liberties with these sound sources, fragmenting and processing them into unrecognizable forms, and even occasionally playing them straight. [May 2018, p.

All credit to Knowles, though, whose vision is so cohesive that the 19 short tracks feel like one long, utterly immersive piece. [Jun 2019, p.86]

His slow-burning music ... has serious cross-over potential. [Apr 2012, p.91]

In taming their wilder side, Future Islands' ecstatic melancholy has never sounded quite so free. [Apr 2014, p.96]

Her voice and band discernibly crackle with confidence. [Aug 2020, p.86]

Highlights include an Afrobeat makeover of Curtis Mayfield's Billy Jack and a soul-jazz revamp of Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime. [Aug 2019, p.90]