For the most part his tribute to Duke Ellington works in the way that should keep purist onside. [Aug 2012, p.96]

It's all so sad, and surrounded by 80-plus minutes of restless, questing uncertainty. [Nov 2018, p.90]

Indigo Park finds Hornsby in a curiously reflective mood, singing about his past while touching upon many of his signature jazz-inflected idiosyncrasies. [May 2026, p.84]

Their music has a heavier gait, like a cross between a crazed Triffids and a stroppier Bad Seeds. [Oct 2006, p.102]

A touch of feyness lingers. Not much, though. [Feb 2016, p.95]

Occasionally they stumble, as on the clunky 'Warboys.' But with Rogers imperious, Queen's second coming is vindicated. [Oct 2008, p.100]

Hard Islands is evolution. But some will hanker for Fake's fluffier vintage. [Jun 2009, p.102]

What follows is a quietly substantive if still somewhat pallid, meditation on faith and death. [Mar 2023, p.92]

His commitment is palpable, the sequencing deft, and whole wilfully hit-free bombast-fest commendable, if scarcely palatable to anyone apart fro card-carrying Suede-heads. [Oct 2018, p.93]

In its dreamy, fluttering loops and Sian Ahem's brittle, deliberately understated vocals it possesses a brace of powerful tools. [Aug 2014, p.91]

All six track here confidently align The Cairo Gang alongside kindred neo-psychedelicists like The Lilys, it's brevity never wearing out their charms. [Aug 2013, p.90]

Hearts is meta-shoegazing, a melody-driven dive into mist, where focus is difficult. [Sept. 2011, p. 97]

If the near Herculean task of sustaining enchantment through 12 instrumentals just occasionally tests Los Bitchos, it's easily forgivable. [Sep 2024, p.92]

Side by side in this unfamiliar setting, well-known songs become unsettling. [Oct 2017, p.104]

Gelb may be onto something and his chutzpah i laudable but, ultimately, only time decides which songs become standards. [Dec 2017, p.94]

It's the very essence of being "unplugged" as Chilton--laughing, joking, fluffing lines, forgetting verses and whistling choruses--breaks down all barriers between musician and fan. [Nov 2013, p.102]

With its portentous pulse and skirls of feedback BN9Drone, sounds like nothing less than a call to mobilise. [May 2021, p.87]

What it lacks in vocal grit it makes up for in abundant hooks. [May 2019, p.96]

Blues Of Depression picks up from where that album [2014's Different Shades Of Blue] left off, allowing the fretboard wizard to demonstrate that he can write good tunes as well as produce a seemingly endless supply of molten solos. [May 2016, p.92]

There are moments of a chamber ensemble compactness and clarity, but at times it all gets suspended in and blurred b clouds of ambience. [Jun 2016, p.95]

There are moments when things don't quite work as they should. But the Blind Boys, left to their own devices on the funky Jesus, Hold My Hand, do what they do best. [Jun 2011, p.104]

Paley's voice is a little frail but it's true, and his picking skills are as finely honed as when he gave lesson to the young Ry Cooder and Jerry Garcia. [Oct 2012, p.90]

Jones sounds like he's in his element. [Nov 2015, p.94]

These are wonderfully built earworms here, but callow writing sometimes morphs them into mere infections. [Apr 2021, p.82]

Despite the recruitment drive, it's another curious case of history repeating itself: N.E.R.D setting their phasers to stun, but only intermittently finding the target. [Feb 2018, p.91]

Gallipoli, recorded in Berlin and Puglia, is oddly unmoving, lacking range for all its seductive picturesque roaming. [Mar 2019, p.96]

The amount of recording distortion on some pieces, like on the sparse, meandering piano instrumental Last Of The Lantern Oil, can tip the balance over into ear-buzzing discomfort. [Apr 2020, p.87]

They wear their ideas on their sleeves, certainly, but under all the layers, a heartbeat is sometimes hard to find. [Feb 2008, p.104]