Auguste Arthur's third, and best, set of lonesome-pine Americana. [Jun 2012, p.100]

The Detroit duo spin sordid tales and lovelorn drama with just the right amount of restrained percussion, blooze picking and screaming confessionals. [Sep 2001, p.93]

With his bijou gift for melody, over 75 minutes Hart delivers abundantly. [Aug 2013, p.86]

Almost flawless record. ... It alights on an entirely new air of depth and fascination, in keeping with its author's age and experience. [Oct 2018, p.85]

This is memorable music for exceptional times. [Nov 2020, p.89]

From the title track onwards, he slaps down 25 minutes of spring-heeled and rump-shakin' bumpin' Bootsy funk, which will pick up again after ballad Heaven Yes, gentler Ladies Nite, and the poppy Candy Coated Lover and Snow Bunny. [Dec 2017, p.93]

Note Eaglehurst/The Palace, an ecstatic workout that mythologises a shared house of Brit jazz tyros as an inspiringly sacred space. [Dec 2018, p.92]

These enigmatic narratives work well--the themes can be unearthed at one's leisure, immersed in music that's both poignant and delightful. [Feb 2020, p.88]

This feels like Hermansen's most charming and wide-ranging collection yet. [Jan 2018, p.96]

Dreamy, psych-folk beauty. [Jun 2026, p.91]

There's real creative confidence on display here. [Jul 2022, p.92]

With his trademark gothic drawl, Patterson Hood limns close highway calls with perspicacity, then mourns the compatriots he's lost to foibles and vices alike. Perennially underrated Mike Cooley, meanwhile, hands in some of his sharpest-ever writing. [Jul 2022, p.86]

Mirrored explodes with twisting grooves and obtuse angles. [Jun 2007, p.102]

High On Fire's fourth album sees them once again on thunderous form. [Nov 2007, p.95]

Their relentless attack is deadly serious. [Jan 2014, p.104]

The other peak performance is Longest Day Of The Year Blues, a deceptively languid doo wop ballad where the delicate tools that are Slade, Young and drummer Olly Joyce continue to punch well above their weight. [Feb 2014, p.94]

This is very much an album to shout "Hey!" at regular rhythmic intervals. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Ten is a classic of the grunge era, its super-sized anthems and introspective pieces powered by Eddie Vedder, a Jim Morrision for the plaid shirt brigade. [Apr 2009, p.116]

Little Rope carves space for the well-worn mind, offering sharp perspective on moments when everything seems blunted. [Feb 2024, p.84]

From rowdy juke-joint jams to sunblushed cornfield ballads, these songs born of tough times. The latter provides the album's stand-out moments. [Jul 2009, p.100]

Country-soul with luminous warmth. [Jun 2017, p.95]

Effortlessly inventive and still full of invective. [Apr 2012, p.88]

Lee is so commanding that guests Lucinda Williams and Willie Nelson are drawn into top-of-the-range duets and still don't take over. [Feb 2011, p.96]

Mike Ness and his men still have those rock 'n roll blues. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

With electronic ace Ben frost's eerily beautiful final chapter is the perfect soundtrack for a dinner party to which only Ed Gein, Jack London and Catherine The Great are invited. [May 2013, p.94]

Cohen’s sound checks, as lengthy as the shows, where he’d experiment with old songs and try out new ones, were celebrated by insiders, and the three examples here are among the highlights: a remarkable Field Commander Cohen, like a four-and-a-half-minute operetta; a cover of George Jones’ Choices (gorgeous fiddle); and a new Cohen original, up-tempo blues Got A Little Secret.

Baenziger takes nothing for granted when it comes to arrangements. where the song demands it, electronic textures are favoured--instincts which bear rich fruit on Willis and Skinnybone. [Apr 2011, p.95]

It recollects emotion with a raging tranquillity, artistic objectivity overruling self-pity. [Jul 2003, p.110]