Nurses aren't the undead, but Dracula has staying power. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Songs of promise, resilience and the occasional unpredictable turn. [Jul 2018, p.98]

While reining in the triumphalism, Demonstration suffers from an overbearing sense of its own importance. [Jan 2014, p.97]

The Worlocks remain a superior alloy of Velvets cool and narcotic Spaceman 3/MBV tropes. [Feb 2014, p.98]

More often than not, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that recent Animal Collective albums have loomed large in The Luya's collective subconscious. [May 2011, p.109]

The songs remain sweet and sad, delicately picked folk foregrounding a serene voice. [Aug 2017, p.97]

Indigo Meadow is their first to perfectly balance melody with noise. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Sean Lennon continues to impress. [Nov 2006, p.104]

The hits may well keep rolling in for Years & Years, but next time a bit more adventure wouldn't go amiss. [Sep 2015, p.87]

In catharsis lies energy, and this, ultimately, is a very joyful, uplifting album. [Nov 2008, p.108]

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

Foster's extraordinary voice is suited to Dickinson's poignant rhymes, and tracks like They Called Me To the Window and I see Thee Better -- In The Dark, are concentrated, exquisite and oddly moving. [Feb 2010, p. 101]

Much of the airbrushed pop-metal nous that elevated 1983's Pyromania and 1987's Hysteria back in evidence. [Feb 2016, p.92]

Solo he's more ruminative. [Apr 2020, p.91]

A piece of music caught between the human and alien, the reassuring and the uncanny. [May 2020, p.91]

Out There, but inclusive too. [Jan 2022, p.89]

Times feels like a valedictory vista - across time, money, sex and space travel. [May 2025, p.91]

Mike Scott still has something worthwhile to say, but on Out Of All This Blue you wish there was a little less of it. [Out 2017, p.91]

Pearl Jam grungemeister reveals self to be shameless romantic. {July 2011, p. 106]

Pleasant but risk adverse. [Mar 2014, p.88]

This trio's future pop debut is almost synthetically pristine. [Feb 2015, p.96]

Recent world events demand some kind of visceral response, and sonically, musically and emotionally, Hidden City's primal, from-the-heart worldview represents just that, unwittingly or not. [Mar 2016, p.90]

Undeniably grandiose as the Black Angels may be, the unrelenting darkness becomes too claustrophobic; even the Velvets sometimes let the sunshine in. [Aug 2008, p.113]

Drawn to look within, you run into the smart opacity of Reitherman's lyrics. [Sep 2009, p.96]

Although perhaps too much arrangement is thrown at the producer-penned opener Among The Believers, second track Forbidden Nights, written in 2009 by Elvis Costello, has a stronger melody. [Nov 2015, p.92]

Theatrical swishes of piano, mellotron, guitars and percussion back her powerful, red velvet voice. [Feb 2016, p.98]

Seasick's latest is unshakeably him. [Sep 2020, p.91]

While the rip-roaring Love Of A Girl owes much to Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl, the straight-down-the-line 2020 Regret is ripe to be covered by a country megastar, and standout Same broken Bones builds from an a cappella opening into keyboards-led gorgeousness. [Jul 2024, p.94]