With contributions from one third of Grizzly Bear, lilting vocals and arpeggiated guitar chords are gracefully manifest. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Caramel consists of weightless, non-danceable funk, drifting in from the edge of consciousness like a vaporised, enervated Scritti Politti. [Dec 2013, p.89]

The material is uneven. [Jun 2014, p.95]

The FB's ragged, slip-sliding DNA is too irreverent to make them true inheritors of The Band's mantle, and that hasn't changed. Neither has the way they're one minute bursting with exuberance and the next resembling a burst tyre. [Jul 2014, p.93]

He may not be a born singer, or particularly vocally charismatic, but he sounds like he means it, and that's more than enough. [Nov 2014, p.94]

Sonic Soul Surfer mostly trades in toe-tapping slide-guitar riffage. [Apr 2015, p.88]

Knopfler retains his latter-years Celty-folk musical tone, with that measured guitar flicking in a sun-through-misty-woods way. This doesn't make for memorably distinctive songs, but his storytelling sharpens almost every track. [Apr 2015, p.91]

It's all muted lust and seductive Scandi sophistication. [Sep 2015, p.92]

The Cardiff-LA pairing might be creatively equal, but the sound they make is beautifully out of balance. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Hauff gives you the feeling that there's something very wrong, and leaves you to make up your own nasty stories. [Oct 2015, p.96]

It's only when Lennon takes over that the collaboration really works. [Jul 2016, p.94]

[Vanishing Life] exceed the sum of their hardcore parts by adding loose, QOTSA-style hips to their riffs and even the odd synth. [Jan 2017, p.104]

Mayall and his ace band revive songs by Bettye Crutcher, Jimmy Rogers and Jerry Lynn Williams alongside Piquant original material. [Mar 2017, p.96]

Occasionally overwrought but never dull. [Sep 2017, p.96]

The fractured electronics of his homespun-sounding dispatches give way to freewheeling keys that smack lightly of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans. [Sep 2018, p.91]

A potent psychedelic wash blurs the edges of these 10 tracks from trippy chimes to crackling static experimentation. [Feb 2019, p.93]

Lennox has created a record that mixes the hum of his adopted city [Lisbon] with the serenity of its oceanside setting. [Mar 2019, p.97]

His vocals reverberate with the passion of Bobby Womack, the sensuality of Al Green and the sincerity of Curtis Mayfield. The music, an interlocking web of bass and drums, fanfaring horns and wah wah, carry his romantic ballads and socially engaged protest. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Kicks is an up-and-down affair but Rickie Lee Jones remains pleasingly unpredictable. [Jul 2019, p.88]

There's social critique and black humour in spades, though the blanket-warm harmonies often smother The Rails' tougher messages. But if you want comfort in trying times, wrap up here. [Sep 2019, p.90]

His macabre tendency has evolved further into a kind of disaster romanticism on his 21st album. [Mar 2020, p.89]

It is the older material that comes out on top. A Euphoric, feel-good collection, nonetheless. [Apr 2020, p.87]

An immersive trip, if not one to take that often. Smith, though, is in her element. [Oct 2020, p.89]

Deep into side two You Hear Georgia starts to drag a little as they ditch the choogle and attempt to foray into the cosmic Americana territory of My Morning Jacket. [Jul 2021, p.82]

Candlepower isn't the full picture yet, and it only lasts seven tracks and 19 minutes, but it's a fine start. [Jul 2021, p.81]

Great that they are back on their own label, on their own terms, but some of these "democratically produced" recordings want for a more ruthless arbitrator. [Apr 2022, p.80]

Moonshine occupies that rich space between hope and melancholy, smooth, maybe, but not without its hooks and catches. [Aug 2022, p.90]

It's the tracks that mix it up a bit that appeal most. [Apr 2024, p.90]