Lanegan's own journey may be ongoing, but this is a vivid snapshot of where he's been. [Feb 2014, p.102]

While the line-up expands for Candace Of Meroe's infectious drunk-funk and CIYA's breezy romanticism, it's the original trio that smash the joint on throttling finale LDN's Burning--a short, sharp distillation of the fierce talent lighting up the capital. [Mar 2019, p.93]

The title track, inspired by the band's current motto, is a powerful evocation of The Strokes going electro, while Path Of Most Resistance taps a kooky, Devo-ish guitar hook. If Your gym playlist needs refreshing, look no further. [Sep 2025, p.82]

The horny Dry Spell is typically smart storytelling, cheekily contemporary and as wittily candid as her hero John Prine, while Back On The Wagon is a credulous assertion of faith in an erring lover from an unreliable narrator. [Jul 2026, p.87]

An unexpected beauty. [Nov 2024, p.84]

As The Moon Rests is thrillingly bleak, but not so bleak there isn't a crack of light visible at all times. [Nov 2022, p.93]

Don't be deceived: these songs have the substance to become - unlike those eBay purchases - an obsession that sticks. [Apr 2024, p.83]

An album truly fit to do battle with the rock classics of any age. [Jul 2013, p.80]

Sepalcure finds its feet firmly in Chicago - past and present - blending early house melodies with the insistent, skittish, deep bass rhythms of the footwork genre in an emotional electronic mash. [Jan 2012, p.99]

The result is the right step forwards at the right momement. [Aug 2019, p.96]

It's a mark of Shauf's talent that songs this deft could ever have been left to gather dust. [Dec 2021, p.92]

The six lengthy meditations here refine the formula. [Jan 2023, p.84]

A little loosening up might help those serotonin levels. [Jul 2014, p.96]

There's some blurring over 17 tracks, but as a whole piece, Freetown Sound is a record with unusually sharp focus. [Aug 2016, p.90]

At times, the tracks seem almost overburdened with poignancy - typically, the tectonic major to minor chordal shifts of Gold push Birgisson’s ululations into ever more heartrending melodic shapes – and everywhere a kind of voluptuous awestruck sublimity pervades. [Sep 2023, p.84]

In taming their wilder side, Future Islands' ecstatic melancholy has never sounded quite so free. [Apr 2014, p.96]

In these crop-to-fit times, omnivorous, visionary pop is at a premium, and there's all the more reason to prize an omnivorous visionary pop record like the Week That Was. [Sep 2008, p.96]

Overlong, but provocative and engaging. [Dec 2002, p.116]

She's one of a handful of people who could sing the telephone directory. [Dec 2002, p.115]

Babelsberg is, without doubt, one of the finest expressions so far of Rhys's talent. [Jul 2018, p.90]

It's really a nightmare world Oldham describes, but he cloaks it in tender beauty, slight-of-hand that remodels human failure into heartening endurance, a consoling story against the cold. [Dec 2019, p.88]

Arthur's delicious art is a potent, concentrated thing. [Oct 2004, p.96]

It's one of the most thrilling rocksteady albums to have been made since the genre emerged in the late '60s. [Nov 2016, p.89]

Gregg's vocal technique was remarkably intact despite his illness, as was his trademark ability to convey love, honesty, anguish. [Nov 2017, p.97]

Across the ensuing 85 minutes there are sufficient six-string pyrotechnics, pop hooks and lyrical urgencies to shame an artist a third his age. [Jan 2019, p.88]

The LP's title might suggest the randomised poetry of google translate, but Low Probability Of A Hug speaks a language everyone can understand. [Oct 2019, p.85]

White's rage and fear drives the album's songs across any number of stylistic lanes. ... Which is good news for us, because their timeless fury is just what we need more of right now. [Dec 2020, p.82]

Matt Sweeney's commitment to supply Bonnie "Prince" Billy with "guitar parts that hold his voice like a chalice holds wine" is fully delivered upon here. [May 2021, p.76]