There is a strange and gripping transport to be had in these imaginative flights concerning climbing Mount Everest, the Luftwaffe-bashing Spitfire, and in the Kraftwerk-in-a-garden-shed bango clap-along ROYGIV.[May 2013, p.85]

Doherty's songwriting rises to the occasion. [Apr 2024, p.88]

Ex-Wallflower's second solo reveals a chilly, magnetic power growing songer. [June 2010, p. 104]

But once you settle into its desolate vista – and, believe me, it’ll take a few plays – 10,000 Hz Legend becomes just as addictive as its ancestor.

Plangent retro charm. [Jul 2015, p.89]

This suprise follow-up to May's A Bit Of Previous smacks of pressure-off invention, the sense that they know how to do this by now - and have fun doing it - cemented by Late Developers' title. [Mar 2023, p.84]

Springtime has two approaches, one more methodical, like the intense needling Will To Power. ... The other is rooted in improv. [Jan 2022, p.84]

[Godrich's original tracklisting] play to what Malkmus saw as the album's "psychedelic, trippy" strengths. .... A deep dive of the box set's bonuses turns up further treasures. [May 2022, p.98]

Fogerty remains a force of nature who matches Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney in his commitment to energising nostalgia, his shows less living jukebox than soul-stirring communion. [Feb 2020, p.86]

Vital and vibrant. [Jan 2025, p.88]

It is a little heavier on the electric-piano than the louche post-punkers' previous outings, with Diaphanous, Map Of The Night Sky and Out Sweet Sould reaching out toward the baroque, Coral-style musical theatre that defined Bid's records as Scarlet's Well. [May 2026, p.89]

This lively Welshman isn't rolling over just yet. [May 2021, p.78]

Rhys excels at holding anxiety and unease up to the light without becoming harsh; Seeking New Gods keeps that balance beautifully. [Jun 2021, p.83]

The story arc LeBlanc has stitched into the songs never get in the way of sheer enjoyment of the tunes he's created. Grand concepts are a tricky move for any artist, but LaBlanc pulls it off with plomb. [Dec 2023, p.91]

This one's a real keeper. [Apr 2025, p.87]

Rather than being derivative, this album is a perfect pop balance of cliche and rawness, with mythic ambition and songs that make you a three-minute hero. [Feb 2014, p.95]

Dacus finds the pages of her diary she just can't shake, turning them into songs that are destined to stay with you, too. [Jul 2021, p.78]

The skill that always made him singular--his ability to shape perfect pop melodies--still shines. [Mar 2016, p.92]

Josh's melodic intelligence and structural wit keeps things neat. [Apr 2009, p.110]

It finds the Seattle quintet making a convincing case for being The Last Rock Band To Believe In. [Feb 2011, p.96]

It's astonishing how lyrical just two guitars can be. [May 2014, p.94]

Singer-songwriter Ala.ni's debut story of doomed love is a hazy mix of innocence and experience. ... A pearl. [Jul 2016, p.97]

Anderson's playing is simultaneously muscular and relaxed, defiant and heartfelt, a new nomadic American music for her own troubled times. [Jul 2018, p.91]

Bon Iver's musical palette is a far broader, full blown band affair. [Jul 2011, p.98]

Here's a quiet rhapsody of twining acoustic guitars, cherry-sad reeds and songs that feel solid for a bit then slip away into dying-fall bluenotes and the kind of lines that provoke romantic poetic recollection. [Jul 2014, p.88]

If not every experiment works, Brown's twinkling hook-up with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt on Really Doe totally surpasses its billing. [Nov 2016, p.89]

His wunderkind status is underlined by an obvious passion for Brian Wilson: stacked harmonies, deft chordal shifts. In Butterflies From Monaco, that Wilson influence comes laced with sturdier fragments of rock and funk a la Prince. [Dec 2019, p.93]

You emerge rooting for Nicholson on every count. [Sep 2024, p.91]