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]

Her uncompromising politics never come at the expense of the music. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Perfect for Twin Peaks' Bang Bang bar, but at 90 minutes duration its lesser parts drag like an over-indulgent director's cut. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Sim's painful journey also feels like catharsis, and packs a vivid statement of musical intent. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Seen from 2022, Stereolab's sheer breadth of endeavour here can justly be vaunted as heroic. [Oct 2022, p.100]

Pale Blue Eyes' debut album deftly executes a type of electro-inclined pop which initially surfaced as the edges of post-punk softened to embrace melody over angularity. [Sep 2022, p.94]

Forsyth knows exactly how far to let out the line before returning to the earth's atmosphere, leaping forward, bringing it home. [Sep 2022, p.95]

McKenzie is so focused on craft ahead of melody that an album this determined to be without jokes might have actually benefited from a couple. [Sep 2022, p.93]

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

King fulfils his promise. ... His honey-rich voice and whipsmart guitar playing are the standouts here. [Sep 2022, p.86]

Bares no audible strains of road weariness. ... Retain[s] all their live urgency. [Sep 2022, p.91]

Its overload of big-picture polemic, explosive virtuosity and tune-rich entertainment certainly takes some unpacking, yet is consistently thrilling. [Sep 2022, p.89]

Their ongoing Heavy Rocks series plays things relatively straight, however, restricting their palette to metallic tones. Even so, this third volume rewrites the rulebook. An opening brace of tunes gallop like vintage Motorhead, if they were being chased by wild banshee saxophones. [Oct 2022, p.90]

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]

Smith's usual meditative, ambient-leaning approach is dialled back in favour of soaring wonky pop, ornate neoclasical and even quasi dancefloor movements. It gives rise to her most joyous music yet. [Oct 2022, p.87]

Though musically more fulsome, lyrics are still key. [Sep 2022, p.96]

If All Of Us Flames feels more hopeful, rest assured there is o downscaling of tension or combat. [Sep 2022, p.89]

With every album, Jacklin is finding more of herself, strengthening her voice. It's complicated, but Pre Pleasure is a joy to hear. [Sep 2022, p.88]

Though the ingenuity of the project occasionally outguns the quality of the songwriting, Darnielle's spadework has resulted in a zesty, spontaneous-sounding record. [Sep 2022, p.95]

A trip that feel like it's over way too soon. [Sep 2022, p.89]

His voice remains strident as the album veers from pared-down solo to spritely contributions from the likes of Chaim Tannenbaum and David Mansfield, plus a less successful string arrangement. [Sep 2022, p.90]

A concept album set in the 1890s, revelling in simplicity. [Oct 2022, p.92]

What makes it great is something else - an energy and a vibe that give the strange sensation you're there with them. [Oct 2022, p.84]

It's a free-wheeling surge of glitchy beats and fizzing, ravey energy, with the wobbly UK garage underpinnings of Echo Party a notable standout. [Oct 2022, p.86]

TKO raps over vignettes with sonic left turns. His style sneaks in social comment. [Oct 2022, p.92]

A mix of pulsing, oven-ready bangers and darker reflections, Freakout/Release exudes the confidence of a band operating at its giddy peak. [Sep 2022, p.91]

Heartmind is unlikely to break him out of the smoked-glass shell of cultdom. ... Yet this album does display notable lushness. ... It proves McCombs doesn't need any dream machine to induce new visions: 10 albums in, he's more than capable of looking at the world differently all by himself. [Sep 2022, p.84]

Fluorescent keyboards crowd Kiwi Jr.'s once-open spaces on Chopper, making the surface of their first "produced" LP feel more like an oil slick than the band's past terrain of jagged delights. [Sep 2022, p.93]