Well-crafted third from the south London art pop duo with a playful spirit to match their impeccable post-punk influences. [Jul 2018, p.98]

While the nebulous quality of Mercy was very much feature-not-bug, a cloudiness indicating the limits of memory, here Cale seems to have sharpened the edges of his songs, any mist or drift purely down to old fashioned meandering. [Jul 2024, p.86]

One Beat is not an album you slip into. You pick it up, study it, twist it, put it down, pick it up again. [Sep 2002, p.108]

Sparely and intuitively performed, it's simply excellent. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

It's Bronxie's heart, soul and natural world-inspired epiphanies that charm most. [May 2015, p.96]

There's very little talking and the music is powerful and gentle, thoughtful and utterly riveting. [Sep 2015, p.101]

Chorus probes that the light from Lush's star still shines brighter and stronger than anyone might have suspected. [Jan 2016, p.105]

The sounds of surrounding life collaborating with art. [Jun 2017, p.86]

So rich is their vocabulary of subtly shifting textures ad discreet melodies that lazy ambient cliche or factory setting keyboard predictability are entirely eschewed. [Jul 2017, p.92]

The cast of Beautiful fits with unforeseen subtlety. [Nov 2017, p.103]

R.E.M. At The BBC is not definitive history, but as a corrective to the idea that the post-Monster years were just R.E.M.'s long sweep into elder statesmanhood, it presents a fine alternative one. [Dec 2018, p.101]

Flaming Pie saw Paul McCartney critically asserting his place in the Fabbed-up mid-90s landscape. [Sep 2020, p.102]

An epic ride. [Oct 2020, p.87]

The Sunday Valley songs survive the transition best, particularly All The Pretty Colours, but the psychonaut jiber-jabber from 2014's Metamodern Sounds In Country Music album comes a strong second. [Jan 2021, p.86]

I Don't Live Here Anymore is the most grounded War On Drugs record and the best: a calm space amid a world in collapse. [Nov 2021, p.82]

An exquisite collection of R&B message songs that have subtly been reframed with a jazz twist to reflect dystopian developments in contemporary American life. [May 2023, p.84]

A culturally rich and generally wonderful 72 minutes of little-heard revelry. [Oct 2024, p.94]

American indie cult heroes get a little noisier, a little more obscure [June 2010, p. 104]

Yanya's music calls to mind gritty jazz/rock griot King Krule, Sampha's contemplative street soul and her key teenage influences: Pixies, Winehouse and The Libertines. Her spiky guitar playing is confidently pushed to the front of the mix here. [Apr 2019, p.86]

So beautiful Or So What is a deeply spiritual record, its more reflective moments offset by playful fare. [may 2011, p.106]

Rich and radio-friendly pop. [Apr 2012, p.101]

It's this continued need to feed her multi-platinum beast that stops the album from being the post-modern wheeze it could have been. [Mar 2014, p.94]

A glorious melange of love, loss, regret, homesickness and romance. [Sep 2005, p.86]

These songs have an impressive vehemency, whether showcasing uncanny AI balladry on Soul With Me, industrial wall-of-sound on Speak To Me and People Are Good, electro-pop dissociation on My Favourite Stranger, or hydraulically pumped Brel-drama on Don't Say You Love Me. [May 2023, p.85]

An oddly seamless follow-up to its distant predecessor. [Nov 2005, p.110]

These songs have a sharp, glittery edge, like a neat tequila slammer. [Apr 2019, p.92]

Sol. Hz radiates a luxuriant warmth that's hinted in its title. [Jun 2026, p.93]

Though the production is by no means slick, the music emerges vividly from its hithero murky world. [Jul 2010, p.93]