All combine to make this the year's first old school soul triumph. [Jun 2020, p.87]

If you've been waiting 11 years for this, you'll be relieved to know it won't disappoint. [Jun 2022, p.87]

An often challenging, always thrilling triumph that rewards deep listening and re-listening. [May 2023, p.92]

Meek may wander but he can't help but drift back to idiosyncratic introspection which gives the album an entrancing sense of dream logic. [Apr 2026, p.85]

For an artist who is often too much, however, it is just enough. [Jul 2018, p.89]

The young seven-piece have since progressed at warp-speed, here passing the full-length test with confidence. [Mar 2021, p.90]

Hip-hop originator meets Mercury-winning button-pusher du jour. [MArch 2011, p. 108]

The most energised performance Costello has committed to record in a long time and - despite his protestations that The Imposters are an entirely different band - his most classic Attractions-like album since 1994's Brutal Youth. [Feb 2022, p.83]

Not exactly a comfortable listen, but Darnielle's candour can't be faulted. [Jun 2005, p.109]

Forever Howlong is a remarkably unified - and gloriously intriguing - piece of work. [May 2025, p.84]

A more contemplative tUnE-yArDs? No bad thing when the goose-bumping post-punk gloaming of Time Of Dark is among the unexpected bonus. [Jun 2014, p.88]

Burke's prodigious talent and larger-than-life presence ensures the big name cameos don't steal his thunder. [Nov 2006, p.102]

Harmonious stuff, in every sense. [Jul 2023, p.86]

There's no escaping Steen's brutal vision, guitarists Eddie Green and Sean Coyle-Smith and Edge-like chimes to Concrete's verses, before the terrace chorus tilts the mood back to belligerent. No Brit band is better equipped to set 2018 alight. [Feb 2018, p.91]

All in all, less immediate and traditionally melodic than A Light…, Wall Of Eyes is one for the heads, revealing its many charms and details only upon repeated listens. [Mar 2024, p.83]

A powerful mix of dramatic, slow-moving sound and Walker melodies and narratives. [Nov 2014, p.99]

As one MOJO staffer commented, "This sounds like I'm trapped inside a damaged mechanical brain." Yes, it's that good. [May 2001, p.116]

Songs decay, disappear, swell, mutate, Dalt's seductive, lonesome voice investing them with a sinuous, alien romanticism. [Feb 2023, p.87]

Martin’s sounds are of a grain so abrasive as to draw blood, but while much of Machine’s considerable power to thrill derives from Martin’s sonic extremism, there’s an impish creativity also at play. [Dec 2024, p.85]

Frequently overwhelming yet unconventionally comforting, there's a bebop-style envelope-pushing at work. [Jul 2018, p.95]

It's not tidy, but fittingly for such unabashed pop maximalists, there's a lot to love here. [Jan 2019, p.84]

Strange's earnestness is artful, and Farm To Table an uplifting triumph. [Jul 2022, p.88]

Their 14th release enschews improv for structure, its hulking grooves boosted by Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne and the distinctive noir wail of new label boss Mike Patton. [Apr 2009, p.107]

The songs about hurt, hardship but also hope are sung in raspy voices with sparse guitar and farming tools used as percussion. [Dec 2019, p.88]

While all but a handful of the songs from the 13 track Angels & Queens have already been drip-fed via a series of singles, EPs and last year's seven-track mini-album, Gabriels' desire to take their time with the making of their long-awaited debut album has certainly paid off. [Jun 2023, p.84]

Flow Critical Lucidity – the best record Moore has been involved in since Sonic Youth’s The Eternal, 15 years ago now – feels as close as he’s come to something new. [Nov 2024, p.86]

Unlike the four prior archival editions, Joni’s Jazz gives listeners very little that’s new. .... It is tempting to see it, then, as a chaotic but mostly coherent and sometimes very compelling streaming playlist, given deluxe physical form. [Oct 2025, p.46]

With no grounding bass, the groove is understated on a 13-minute title track that imperceptibly limbers from low-end oscillations and primitive pitter-patter into a billowing, blazing free jazz-prog odyssey in its own distinct dimension. Szun Waves sweep you into it. [Nov 2018, p.95]