Remarkably, the performances by current artists from Ralph Stanley down the generations to Angel Snow are all superb. [Feb 2014, p.91]

Vega's spirit still blazed with righteous passion even when his body was giving out. Now it glowers like a ghostly light sculpture from beyond the grave, predicting current atrocities and still bang on for modern times. [Sep 2017, p.89]

The Curious Hand is that rare thing in folk: original, self-contained and unencumbered by the genre. [Dec 2017, p.88]

It's a unique kind of unhappy listening, too toxic on the universal scale to be bled out. But it leaves you galvanised, purged and recharged for the unending war against mediocrity. [Mar 2019, p.90]

She sounds like a full band as vamping pianos, rubbery double basses, freeform vibes and skittering beats collide. [Sep 2020, p.85]

It's a compulsive listen. [Feb 2021, p.85]

Rare, Forever's prevailing mood is sensuous and luxurious. [May 2021, p.88]

The free-est, fun-est, most psychedelic Villagers record so far. [Sep 2021, p.76]

This is not only Horace Andy's best album in 40 years, but it is also a work of lasting power. [May 2022, p.84]

With its own low-key sparkle Archangel Hill stands testament to a musical third act every bit as engaging as anything that went before. [Jun 2023, p.91]

Discs 2 and 3 are essential if familiar, given they document sessions taped for the BBC, from an unreleased January 1972 Peel session to the version of Starman taped for Top Of The Pops in July. .... By contrast, everything on Disc 5 is fresh to this box. [Jul 2024, p.96]

Reflective, yet joyful, it's an absolute triumph. [Apr 2025, p.79]

Familiar elements (Nancy Wang's cheerleading vocals, sparse instrumentation colliding, lyrical misanthropy) are present and correct, but everything is bolder and deeper. [June 2010, p. 93]

Dan Bejar's surprising mix of slinky '80s soft rock and sophisticated disco. [July 2011, p. 106]

Snares feels more like No Age's greatest hits than their fifth album. [Feb 2018, p.95]

It's Beach House's grandest vision yet. [Mar 2022, p.83]

A poignant tribute. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Their most ruthlessly focused. [Nov 2020, p.88]

The source isn't always apparent, as Loscil and English's manipulations drift closer to the ambient techno of Gas. [Mar 2023, p.91]

In Waves partly mimics the jostle and heave of a crowded dancefloor. All You Children presses The Avalanches into euphoric service, matched for dynamism by Baddy On The Floor, a bend-and-snap collaboration with DJ Honey Dijon. [Nov 2024, p.85]

Linderman owes what happened to her with this superbly honed musical novella. [Feb 2025, p.80]

The Hex expands brilliantly in a musical vision that had lain mostly dormant. [Dec 2018, p.90]

With its 10 tracks and 24-minute running time, this unexpected sequel--its sleeve nodding playfully to Dr Dre's 2001-might look like a small-scale musical property, but once inside, it's a mansion. [Sep 2021, p.84]

Decidedly bolder than 2016's Ellipsis, it is an album that revels in subverting expectations. [Jun 2020, p.88]

This is an album that seduces as readily as it challenges. [Sep 2015, p.88]

Boone's rich, Rickie Lee Jones-meets-Chrissie Hynde voice is the careworn bedrock upon which these bruised, dynamics-rich songs depend. [Feb 2019, p.92]

Elbow reflect an unruly world here, but if they sometimes lose faith, they never lose heart. [Nov 2019, p.87]

Rhys’s melodies stay with you, and his wordplay is as pleasingly idiosyncratic as ever. [Feb 2024, p.89]