More than the sum of its parts, the whole is wonderfully fresh and quite lovely. [Apr 2015, p.89]

Tantalizing use of spare and mostly intelligible, always unsettling lyrics. [Apr 2015, p.98]

If anything, it's darker [than Fenster's debut album], like clotted blood. [Apr 2014, p.97]

Sunwise is anything but one note. [Sep 2025, p.85]

This is a sumptuous and personal record capturing universal human themes of hope, fortitude and loss. [Jul 2018, p.95]

songdreaming is by no means perfect; Lee’s version of Black Dog And Sheep Crook comes on a little too much like Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, and his Anglicisation of Robert Burns ballad Aye Walking Oh feels a bit unnecessary. However, Lee does unaffected loveliness very well (case in point: the closing Sweet Girl McRee), and his intense empathy – for the bees, the trees, the birdies and his fellow man – shines through. [Apr 2024, p.80]

All quite stunning. [Jul 2024, p.92]

Garvey's lyricism is elevated by the subtle complexity of the music, clarinets, choral voices and churchy keyboards whispering through the vents of these sons, causing a quiet stir. [Dec 2021, p.86]

There's something disarmingly joyous about it with only hints of the darker music that they also create. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Escape and new beginnings are constant themes in these eight mostly superb songs, but his old preoccupations keep yanking him back onto familiar turf. [Sep 2024, p.85]

The reference points suggest Cerebral Ballzy care little for innovation, but they've nevertheless created the best US punk debut for some time. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]

Booker's unique sound is a taste worth acquiring. [Sep 2014, p.91]

MacIntyre's creativity is clearly in full flower. [Nov 2018, p.90]

The box set's main selling point is the inclusion of a completely different version of Never Let Me Down, recorded posthumously. [Nov 2018, p.100]

It's easy to see why those indie luminaries were so deeply seduced by Acetone's languid and ever-so lovely drawing together of Doug Yule-era Velvets, Spiritualized and Low. [Oct 2017, p.106]

While relatively straitlaced on hooky earworms Good Mood and Hexagons, it vanishes into a netherworld of hypnotic minimalism amid Tol Circle's warped Mantovani exotica and the title-track's spaced-out disco frug. [Jan 2020, p.91]

The results are equal parts beautiful and unsettling. [Feb 2017, p.95]

With lyrics informed by loss and his current post-divorce relationship with a man, at the age of 64, Friday has clearly found himself and made a deeply heartfelt record, most of which is perhaps best heard at club-level volume. [Dec 2024, p.90]

Minor caveats notwithstanding, at its best One Breath is, indeed, breathtaking, and an undeniable upgrade on its much-vaunted predecessor. [Nov 2013, p.87]

The result is an album of eminently listenable sonic frontierism, and Butler's most accessible work in years. [Dec 2018, p.89]

The whole album is characterised by a subtle, all-pervading sense of menace that superbly offsets Campbell's snow-pure vocals and sparsely psychedelic orchestration. [Dec 2006, p.104]

Dark humour and combustive noise are proven fine bedfellows, and Flat Worms will soon have you slam-dancing as the planet burns. [May 2020, p.86]

Humanity's end sounds grim; but beautifully rendered. [Jul 2021, p.90]

A very fine album. [May 2019, p.94]

Oldham's typically weary, wavering larynx is rendered imperious as it rises Lazarus-like from the wind-tanned dronescapes and rasping harmonues of an epic 'Cursed Sleep,' while a mistily brooding 'Ain't You Wealthy? Ain't You Wise?' finds him deploying unlikely falsetto whoops a la springsteen. [Nov 2008, p.110]

More is that rarest of reunion records: one that transcends nostalgia to actually enhance a band’s legacy. [Jul 2025, p.74]

His third album, with its surprisingly upbeat title, makes good on the escalating promise of his previous releases. [May 2009, p.110]

Music that is dizzying beautiful, but never precious. [Oct 2021, p.88]