James Jackson Toth aka Wooden Wand is at home on Michael Gira's label. [Jan. 2011, p. 94]

Caracal is nothing less than one of the best pop albums of the year. [Oct 2015, p.90]

Not yet a strength, lyrics probe the border between naive and trite. [Feb 2012, p.94]

180 is filled with such a sense of unyielding joie de vivre and spirit that you can't help but be seduced by its unfettered feel. [Apr 2013, p.88]

A swaggering, intoxicating tight-but-loose debut. [Jun 2004, p.107]

JRW's third has enough honky-tonk brio to merit comparison with Kings Of Leon. [Apr 2014, p.98]

Cameron Neal earths this plangent guitar-rock with his anxious cris de coeur and admits to a teen Smiths crush, which helps explain the metropolitan jitters and Marr-like cadences that feed into Fear In Bliss. [May 2014, p.91]

The result is adventurous and totally mesmerising. [Jun 2012, p.84]

Another electrifying statement of unrest from the underground. [Nov 2006, p.118]

This record easily beats its predecessor. [Feb 2007, p.105]

Vol. 1 here is mellow, introspective and rootsy. [Nov 2017, p.103]

TKO raps over vignettes with sonic left turns. His style sneaks in social comment. [Oct 2022, p.92]

A tad less confrontational than previous Pita releases but no less powerful. [Aug 2016, p.97]

Amid all these tribulations, Toro Y Moi still quarries a few gems. [Aug 2017, p.89]

There's a succinctness to Some Like It Hot. .... But pleasingly, they've not junked their angsty edge amid this pop-oriented realignment. [Nov 2025, p.88]

As ever, easy melodies pour from him. [Oct 2006, p.104]

Get past the geriatric sniggering of It's All Going To Pot, here's a beautiful album of covers and new material. [Jul 2015, p.89]

Their second with this new line up comes up trumps again. [Jun 2009, p.104]

There are certainly treasures here if you sift through Guv's prolific unburdening. [Dec 2019, p. 94]

It's confusing, with flaky endings and mood swings, and an utterly compelling mix of not caring at all and desperately caring. [Apr 2016, p.87]

Acquaint yourself with this successor to 2009's Notes From The Treehouse and it doesn't take long to see what Bella Union honcho Simon Raymonde saw Laurent-Marke. [May 2011, p.112]

It wanders and drifts moodily now and then, but there also some strong songs. [Feb 2012, p.99]

A mightily approachable and sometimes even fun album. [Nov 2015, p.88]

Only two original members remain--David Thomas, also of Pere Ubu, and bass guitarist Craig Bell--and their approach feels oddly inconsistent. [Dec 2015, p.90]

The album lags in some of its quieter moments, but still stands as a fine successor in the righteous roots line that includes The Band and The Staples Singers. [Oct 2018, p.93]

Allways showcase a band reconfigured as a kind of hippy Meters. It's an unlikely transformation, but an appealing one. [Dec 2018, p.93]

This is a slick, polished, self-penned set. ... Sometimes it's hard to tell the frenzied guitar stranglers apart. [Mar 2019, p.96]

Hard Rain's warm, overriding lo-fi aesthetic is a neat contrast to the no-nonsense virtuosity of his group outings. [Jul 2019, p.89]