12 self-penned kitchen-disco bangers, each one a gem. [Oct 2022, p.84]

While production high jinks threaten to override shapeshifting songs like Neon and Angst, the delicate balance between Ellery's lithe effectual voice and Skye's layered abstractions continues to confound expectations in singular skew-whiff fashion. [Oct 2022, p.89]

His whip-smart three-string guitar licks still take centre stage and his banter sizzles with the personality and charm that have won him so many new admirers. [Oct 2008, p.112]

Few, if any of 2009's more high profile rock releases could match the adrenalin charge of Death's 34 year-old debut. [Mar 2011, p.114]

It's a wilful shuffle through the space-time continuum, where powerful pearls of wisdom about memory, the future and black justice pierce the sonic murk. [Oct 2021, p.90]

A dozen simple, beautiful dirges. [May 2003, p.108]

Epic, lyrical, and as ultimately old-fashioned as those words suggest. [Oct 2003, p.106]

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

Cave has managed to move away from the stifling atmosphere and the false captive environment of No More Shall We Part and somehow create a Cave world where The Bad Seeds can indeed stretch, howl, riff, sniff, grind and bark with a freedom unheard on record since 1993's Live Seeds. [Album of the Month, Feb 2003, p.84]

There's country stoicism, sentimentality and sparkling sadness on the songs. [Aug 2012, p.96]

Foals consolidate their position here by continuing to do what they do best, namely expressing big emotions loudly through fizzing rock anger or unbridled, danceable joy.

A series of musical shocks driven by Marcal's powerful vocals. [Feb 2022, p.89]

This is a musically assured, soulful descent into life's messy middle. [Mar 2026, p.81]

A sensitive, sure-footed triumph. [Jan 2017, p.99]

While Oldham frames his Bonnie 'Prince' Billy alias as a group name this time out, it's a collaboration which enhances his long-running idiosyncrasies rather than blandifies them. [Apr 2026, p.92]

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]

Unreservedly recommended, but for the uninitiated and obsessives only. [Nov 2013, p.86]

The Beta Band made some dazzling music throughout their seven-year lifespan. [Nov 2013, p.101]

As a heady whole, Mother is a cousin of '60s American boundary pushers Kaleidoscope and, especially George Romanos, whose 1970s album Two Small Blue Horses defined a new Greek psychedelia. Mother is that good. [Feb 2018, p.95]

Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? is more exploratory than Fading Frontier, but there's a minimalism that helps its stark ideas and sad-eyes melodies shine through. [Feb 2019, p.88]

With piano and dulcimer adding unforeseen acoustic texture, Trees Speak’s soundworld is ever-changing, often terrifying, but rarely short of awe-inspiring. [Jan 2025, p.90]

It's the emotional, cathartic journey of the chief protagonist that captivates the most. [Oct 2023, p.86]

It's the melodic strength of its 15 "proper" songs that's the real mindblower. [May 2021, p.81]

It's a record best consumed in a semi-recumbent position, in order to match the loping, laidback pace of the music and Cox's stoned, oak-aged vocals. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]

The reinvention is thrilling to eavesdrop. [June 2008, p.106]

It's a winning formula that will maintain Lakeman as one of the country's biggest folk draws. [Mar 2025, p.89]

Within the framework of 10 solid soul arrangements, the benefits of constancy in love brings a hearty restorative to the downtrodden spirit. [May 2019, p.92]

There's an occasional clunkiness and Let England's Shake's visionary fever is lacking. Yet there's an authority in Harvey's voice, her brisk musical and lyrical stride demanding the listener keep up. [May 2016, p.84]