Flegel's ability to surprise and disturb rarely dims, the experimental held in exhilarating balance with their pop gifts. [Apr 2025, p.82]

A heartily uplifting brew of scruffy street style, swear words and stammering pop tunes which sweat musical history. [Sep 2001, p.99]

It’s not all perfect. You could rightly question whether the Q-Tip/André 3000 duet Kids… has any place on a ATCQ album. Or whether a glut of guest spots including Elton John, Jack White and Kendrick Lamar are strictly necessary. Yet ultimately it’s the original, immersive Tribe vibes that conquer all.

The acoustic demos in this forensic reissue lay bare Tweedy's raw hurt and beguiling melodies; alternative takes of the title song and I'm Always In Love show the sturdy bones of Wilco's early alt-country ideals. [Dec 2020, p.97]

A tendency to indulgence... undermines the album's overall potency. [Aug 2005, p.96]

No-one’s going to show you everything, as she sings on Hejira, but this collection shows a woman out to see as much as she can.

Carrie & Lowell has an air of insecurity underlining the sophistication of the music. [Apr 2015, p.84]

Bright Phoebus turns out to thoroughly deserve its reputation as a milestone in British folk rock. [Sep 2017, p.104]

Stripped back and raw, his mesmerising guitar front and centre, this is gritty old-style blues with a laser-sharp modern focus. [Dec 2021. p.86]

No Cities To Love stares down its troubles, power and joy ultimately lying in the hands of the people who can write such songs. [Feb 2015, p.86]

So many ideas, so much beauty and a fitting memento of Trish Keenan's poetic songwriting and inimitable, unimpeachable voice. [May 2024, p.100]

The emphasis on experiment and process means there are fewer newly-excavated compositions - Like Veils Said Lorraine, a For The Roses orphan; the modal guitar reveries Sunshine Raga and Bonderia, the former with tabla and free-form trilling - but no less in the way of surprises. [Dec 2023, p.96]

It's artfully rumpled, but the ragged angry gasps that close the record confirm Bridgers' songwriting isn't the effortless dream it seems. [Jul 2020, p.78]

The righteousness is on full display in New York City. On Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bono howls, “We’re so sick of it!” If such declarations were beginning to sound sanctimonious at the time, 30 years of legit activism--including sitting down repeatedly with ideological adversaries such as Trump VP Mike Pence--casts Bono’s piety as the real deal. ... Thirty years later, U2 continue their pursuit of the righteous; looking back to be sure, but suited to this moment all the same. [Jul 2017, p.104]

A winningly downbeat brand of urban realism, set to minimal, pounding drums. [Apr 2002, p.115]

Mitski has long stared at happiness and wondered what comes next; here, she spies it, smiles and then shrugs, the smart band beneath glowing like some warmth hearth on a cold Los Angeles Night. [Oct 2023, p.85]

You get the Dylan stuff from those places in full, which allows a real sense of how each show worked. ... There are plenty of other breathtaking moments, many collected onto a final disc of "rare performances." [Jul 2019, p.103]

Manzanita mostly shimmers obliquely with light and spells. [Apr 2023, p.90]

Vaporous, layered, beautifully evocative, with moments of discordant madness. [Co-Album Of The Month [with 'Blood Money'], May 2002, p.94]

There's much to digest here but absolutely no filler--each song is a priceless gem. [Jan 2004, p.110]

Her reading of Anthem makes Leonard Cohen’s hymn to resilience and resistance feel like a bespoke gift from another writer who knew about life in the shadows. .... It’s as that distant flickering light, illuminating the path to better times, that Staples excels. [Dec 2025, p.76]

Sounds great and further reveals the era-oddness of Prince's blending of '80s drum machine funk with late-'60s heavy rock. [Jul 2022, p.100]

His stark solo work--with an amplified wood board for footstompin'--remains the stuff that'll Hook ya. [Jan 2018, p.102]

Over its 11 tracks, it draws the listener fully into its dreamworld. [May 2025, p.86]

All the components that make the Arcade Fire such a gripping live proposition remain intact on this full-length debut. [Apr 2005, p.96]

Don't worry so much about what it all means, lie back and let the tape hiss. [Jun 2024, p.89]

An album for anybody who likes rock music to sound angry about something. [Mar 2013, p.89]

WMPPRR is one of the most powerful psychedelic releases to have come out this year. [Nov 2016, p.86]