Field recordings of Alphine birds are used for restraint. ... Yet each of the hour-long album's eight interlinked pieces is a distinct entity, and still a song as such. [Aug 2019, p.92]

A playful digital makeover for some vintage noir vibes. [Oct 2020, p.94]

de Graaf is repositioning herself in a mightily crowded market, but the sometime human rights lawyer triumphs via intense lyrics about coming-of-age awareness, loneliness in the big city, life's unpredictability and, on Water Stains, the old chestnut of time's passing. [Mar 2023, p.87]

Confirm Mumford & Sons are back in business. [Apr 2026, p.85]

Though arriving with less of cacophonous attack, their crush of distortion and Elena Tonra's swooning vocals is rooted in the same psychedelic heartland. [Feb 2016, p.91]

Forensically constructed, sad-eye pop with bright melodies of a Shins-like stripe. [Dec 2012, p.96]

An antidote to pop bands masquerading as punk, this is the real deal--ugly, and utterly English. [Jun 2009, p.98]

Highly polished, rootsy but gentle rocking with some big hooks, even if the quality wavers a little over 15 tracks. [Sep 2021, p.88]

Knowingly nostalgic, it's an album with a very strong sense of itself. [Sep 2017, p.86]

'Lifelong Passion' and 'Don't Stop Running' suggest that there's something inspirational, even cathartic, about making an album under an assumed name (even if the world know it's you). McCartney should do it more often. [Dec 2008, p.111]

The Messthetics is a short set, long on detail. [Jun 2018, p.94]

Echo mostly plays safe, but signs of where Sparke can stands alone include Dog Bark Echo's red-desert heat, Everything Everything's jabbered vocal and dissonant piano, and a particularly devastated Bad Dreams. [Apr 2021, p.81]

You kind of know what to expect from a Kristin Hersh solo album, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. [Mar 2007, p.102]

Throughout, Ranaldo and Nels Cline build up layers of eloquent, electrifying guitar.... Satisfying. [Apr 2012, p.95]

Like all of Numan's greatest work, Savage sounds timeless. [Nov 2017, p.100]

It's not perfect--you want it to shift up a gear occasionally, or to try different approaches, but the songs are all stuffed with daffy musicality and charm. [Apr 2007, p.102]

Snoop is in surprisingly tender form. [Feb 2014, p.88]

It's been a long journey, but Spiral Stairs has finally found his voice. [Apr 2017, p.90]

An endearingly dog-eared weirdness to their idiosyncratic country rock, a charm to their off-kilter harmonies and a mystery within Curt's songwriting that ensures Dusty Notes is craftmanlike, rather than workmanlike. [Apr 2019, p.91]

The LP does feel monotonous after a while, the tunnel vision metaphor ultimately extending to the listener's experience. Keep the great frames, Agnes, but next time, try the varifocals. [Mar 2020, p.88]

Unsurprisingly, these aren't in the same league as the Sun stdio classics, but these alternate and usually starker versions do allow us intimate seats at the creation of standards. [Jun 2011, p.114]

There are a few other naff moments, but Gallagher's voice carries everything, sounding fantastic, high and bright in the mix. [Oct 2019, p.82]

As a snapshot of Friday night through Monday morning in 36 minutes flat, this is a joy. [Mar 2008, p.106]

On the second listen it sounds like a future classic. [Nov 2008, p.109]

There is less of the soundscaping and eerie atmospherics that made last year's X EP so entertainingly varied. [Jun 2012, p.85]

Plays like an xx-lite confined to analogue. [Sep 2013, p.96]

In all, a fiery triumph. [Nov 2014, p.100]

The fourth LP is blisteringly confident as the band evolves toward maturity. [May 2015, p.94]