By the time the closing spiritual Requiem rolls around it's self-evident Russell is very much in a genre of one. [Nov 2023, p.86]

Coleman is the revelation, a muscular, soulful conscience in the modal frenzy, raw and swinging like a barroom Coltrane. Shorter is already headed for tomorrow, spiralling through So What and Walkin’ with acrobatic modernism. But Coleman paved the way. This is his party. [Jan 2025, p.94]

All this may seem so exhaustive as to verge on the absurd, but fear not. It is the most fascinating document imaginable. [Dec 2016, p.100]

It's the exclusives that made this a cornerstone of any grunge collection. [May 2017, p.106]

The songs, six previously unreleased, range from good to outstanding, the sound quality as clear and natural as if he were singing in the next room. [Oct 2009, p.115]

It's as if the quintet has not yet achieved lift-off velocity. As such, the most fascinating tracks here are the older standards. [Sep 2023, p.94]

Great songs and renewed relevance aside, Woody at 100's greatest bounty may still be Guthrie's own sketches and illustrations, beautifully reproduced in the book. [Oct 2012, p.101]

It's a vivid glimpse of a phenomenon on the cusp of mega-fame. [Jan 2022, p.100]

Ambitious, complex, raging and poetic. a testament to the possibilities of thrash. [Dec 2018, p.103]

Restored to Johnson;s original running order, it closes with the dissociative dance of Giant, a final defiant gesture on a record that squares up to tomorrow and--against the odds--wins. [Aug 2014, p.102]

The sound of a band untethered, revelling in their resurrection. [Jan 2020, p.98]

[Teenage Kicks is] arguablt not even the best song on this compilation. Wednesday Week's gorgeous melody, You've Got My Number's killer riff and the haunting, fragile Julie Ocean are superb, while we can even forgive them for their Human League-baiting My Perfect Cousin. [Mar 2020, p.101]

Blur 21's extraordinary warts'n'all scope makes its subject's odyssey momentous and tangible. [Aug 2012, p.98]

The demos here colour in the blanks and the alternative mixes are like watching a favourite movie from a different camera angle. But Against The Odds reminds the listener that there were always two Blondies. [Sep 2022, p.98]

With its wealth of sonic adventure, its thoughtful merger of the personal and the political, and its four choice guest spots (Jack White; Kendrick Lamar; James Blake; Abel Makkonen Tesfaye AKA The Weeknd), Lemonade is a dazzling example of pooled talent coalescing around an iconic doyenne. There can be little doubt on whose head Prince’s crown should now sit.

What's really mind-blowing is the audio quality of that initial 60-year-old performance (and indeed, the box set in general), which is so lucid that it sounds as if Miles is in the room playing right next to you. [Aug 2015, p.106]

Ants... represents a substantial step forward for them. [Mar 2022, p.84]

All its [The Gouster] tracks have been released before, though it's interesting to hear them in their original sequence. And the most obscure songs certainly merit more exposure. [Nov 2016, p.104]

From the title's Depression-era jokes onwards, Cooder protests like it's 1939. [Oct 2011, p.96]

Bouquets from a Cloudy Sky is a fitting celebration of a band that, 50 years after the release of their debut, remain utterly unrepentant. [Mar 2015, p.107]

Astounding... More even than his Exile On Main St., this is Tom Waits' Basement Tapes. [Dec 2006, p.104]

At Carnegie Hall, doesn't so much add to the legend as confirm the original was no studio-contrived fluke. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Brilliantly original. [Aug 2003, p.106]

This is one of his most intense albums. It feels personal too. [Nov 2016, p.90]

The sound is excellent, especially considering the age and the state of technology of some of the recordings. The songs, too, are invariably excellent. [Jul 2009, p.111]

Most of us missed the party 42 years ago, but now it's boxed for our infinite pleasure. [Nov 2013, p.99]

The music's suboptimal sound quality is only a minor drawback to a sonic experience whose raw intensity is both disquieting and uplifting. [Nov 2021, p.102]

Where Elephant does differ from what has gone before is in terms of quality. It's just better all round. [Apr 2003, p.88]