By doing exactly the same thing for all that time, and by avoiding building up a public image that would come before the music, Cale has come full circle and now sounds fresh and relevant once more. [May 2009, p.110]

Although Duffy sounds like a pissed Year 9 teacher on 'Live And Let Die' and The Hold Steady confirm suspicions that their greatest strength is being an E Street Band covers act on Bruce Springsteen's 'Atlantic City,' Hot Chip, Peaches, TV On The Radio and Elbow all go that extra mile to create something new, unique and often quite wonderful. [Apr 2009, p.101]

Copeland herself is always gloriously centre-stage. [Jun 2009, p.108]

On this solid business-as-usual set, his band kicks requisite ass on Isaak's decent country-rock tearjerkers. [Jul 2009, p.106]

Out on its own, Here We Go Magic demands attention. [Aug 2009, p.108]

The ensuing synthetic pop suite can't disguise a crucial lack of memorable songs. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Bringing out the too-often buried pop nuances of his stylish songs and new inventions from his under-rated guitar work, it's a stylistic cloth that Ward seems very comfortable wearring. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Years Of Refusal isn't a great album, but it's no disaster. [Mar 2009, p.104]

Hanna's sub-Kevin Shields guitars and Chikudate's sparkling keyboards eddy across the Blondie-esque layers. [Feb 2009, p.113]

The results are as scattershot as the guest list. [Mar 2009, p.106]

Tight Knit is a beautiful, lazy album of befogged West Coast dreams. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Goodnight Oslo could be a ghost story, a slice of stoner paranoia or a song about steam trains, but shows something sleek and ominous still looming in the fog of Hitchcock's imagination. [Mar 2009, p.107]

This cleaner-sounding set finds the quartet's elemental power now yielding to poise, thier speaker-bleeding blues and jagged riffs leavened by folk shimmer and country jangle. [Mar 2009, p.110]

A spectacular step forward. [Mar 2009, p.111]

If Solomon Burke and Will Oldham had a baby. [Mar 2009, p.105]

While there is no quibbling with the noble sentiment behind this set, a more judicial selection policy might have established a unified aesthetic to eclipse some of the B-side material here. [Mar 2009, p.114]

Their 14th release enschews improv for structure, its hulking grooves boosted by Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne and the distinctive noir wail of new label boss Mike Patton. [Apr 2009, p.107]

While It's Not Me, It's You isn't quite the voice of wisdom, the Mockney chatter has been dialed right down. [Mar 2009, p.108]

From the lurking threat of 'Street Walkin'' to the pretty sadness of closer 'Goin' Home,' this is outsider's music. Therein lie its real strength. [Mar 2009, p.110]

If anything, she's dreamer, the tempo's a little more down, the mood more twilit. [May 2009, p.101]

She's neither a soft seducer nor a lapel-grabber, but her eye for detail combined with that degree of vocal detachment quietly commands attention. [Mar 2009, p.109]

The band make each piece their own on this, their most satisfying set for years. [Dec 2008, p.102]

This has more than enough beauty and character to stand on its own. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Stollsteimer, it seems, is still in search of his own musical identity. [ Jun 2009, p.96]

Unfortunately, Sea Sew too often clunks along like its awkwardly punning title. [Jun 2009, p.1010]

This may sound wilfully eclectic but actually hangs together, bound by May's showman-like vocals. [Mar 2009, p.109]

Hugely enjoyable, with nagging tunes too, but let's move forward next time. [Mar 2009, p.106]

Less like leftovers from a previous album than another move forward, creating out of his prepared piano and mini string section something fresh, subtle and beguiling. [Apr 2009, p.106]