Anaïs Mitchell with guitarist/singer Jefferson Hamer unexpectedly proves that her precious storytelling art is equally mesmerizing on the great traditional ballads collated in the 19th century by Francis James Child. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Comprising mostly new material, the performances are frequently breathtaking. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Some are great. Some are thinner--but James's new groove has big promise. [Feb 2013, p.97]

This baker's dozen mostly adheres to the Hardin principal: shorn arrangements, nuanced vocals, emotions on a short leash. [Feb 2013, p.96]

What you may lose in rock'n'roll kicks you gain in poignancy and poetry. [Mar 2013, p.86]

Metheny conjures up a dense sonic tapestry comprising kaleidoscopic tone colours. [Mar 2013, p.94]

The Messenger duly wipes the slate clean and bursts with the same efflorescent skills that made Johnny Marr a guitar hero for the generation which had supposedly repudiated such a concept. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Amok Achieves a seductive unity of purpose which is all the more impressive for stemming from the advent of additional personnel. [Mar 2013, p.84]

Its 10 fuzzy, through-the-bottom-of-a-whiskey-glass intimacy, with Anthony's acoustic guitar and rich baritone voice conveying songs of existential wonder and lament. [Feb 2013, p.93]

File under deserving of proper attention. [Feb 2013, p.92]

Although California-based, her echoey swamp sound encompassing bottleneck guitars and cellos recalls the friendly/eerie seductions of Bobbie Gentry or Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Sounds like one long mobile phone ad. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Playfully eccentric, it pushes the boundaries of the psych-pop revival in a way that's thankfully more redolent of MGMT's Congratulations than Ariel Pink's more self-conscious "mature" themes. [Mar 2013, p.88]

Centralia's seven lengthy essays proffer the duo's boldest, most immersive statements to date. [Mar 2013, p.88]

The crystalline vocals hint at either uplifting profundity or overblown pomposity--it's hard to say which. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Polished arrangements in a mix of menacing, reverb-drenched grooves and languid shimmer. [Mar 2013, p.98]

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]

A bit shambolic, then, but Thao has enough charisma to sustain hearing it all in one sitting. [Mar 2013, p.98]

[The album] is suitably haunted and becalmed. [Mar 2013, p.98]

It sounds like the soundtrack to an odd dream about a Western film. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Miller and Lauderdale's duets has both the easy familiarity of old friends and the musicianship of old pros. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Think more of pastoral My Morning Jacket or Irish superstar-in-waiting James Vincent McMorrow and their keening, introspective-yet-expansive songs. [Mar 2013, p.96]

A debut album of psychedelic gospel-tinged gems. [Mar 2013, p.94]

It's just a shame his parochial worldview is often at odds with his music's overreaching grandstanding. [Mar 2013, p.94]

In all, a tad more mannered and staid than you'd expect from these former experimentalists. [Mar 2013, p.94]

Plenty of young pups are revising the pop-smart bludgeon of, say, pre-goldrush Nirvana, but only Pissed Jeans deliver with such panache. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Considered restraint is a virtue, but Somewhere Else is hazardously polite. [Mar 2013, p.91]

Crisp drum figures add punctuation, and a noodling sax help evoke a mood of traveling the city at night. [Mar 2013, p.91]