It seems that self-examination has taken them to bold, new places. [Apr 2021, p.80]

The hair-raising honesty of their younger incarnation might have softened, but their new confidence and control ensure theses songs let a lot of life in. [Apr 2021, p.78]

Indie-pop sung in French and English; Interrailing-inspired The Foreigner is full of Greek, Finnish and Italian. [Apr 2021, p.88]

A many-moods piece for complicated times. [Mar 2021, p.85]

Echo mostly plays safe, but signs of where Sparke can stands alone include Dog Bark Echo's red-desert heat, Everything Everything's jabbered vocal and dissonant piano, and a particularly devastated Bad Dreams. [Apr 2021, p.81]

Invisible Cities feels three dimensional with some animated movement beneath the surface. [Mar 2021, p.89]

In sterling voice throughout. [Apr 2021, p.84]

The album levitates with light and serenity. [Mar 2021, p.88]

This album works best when it gives its ideas and sounds space. [Feb 2021, p.86]

It can be vague on the details, but Baker's songwriting is smart and serious enough to keep Little Oblivions from burning out entirely. [Apr 2021, p.86]

It's Numbers that punches hardest, it's compassionate message about the futility of measuring ourselves against others deftly handled. [Apr 2021, p.86]

Overflowing with ideas. [Apr 2021, p.83]

Confirms her 2019 Rising Star Brit and BBC's Sound Of 2020 awards were no fluke. [Apr 2021, p.83]

These are wonderfully built earworms here, but callow writing sometimes morphs them into mere infections. [Apr 2021, p.82]

Lasting only an economic 33 minutes; on this form, she could pull off a double album. [Apr 2021, p.84]

Recorded remotely, Distractions is febrile and modern but cries out for a through-line. [Mar 2021, p.88]

Wholly drums-free, it takes time to reveal its charms. [Mar 2021, p.85]

Each song is perfectly realised.[Mar 2021, p.90]

Their clearest vocal to date, not from a guest, but from guitarist/mouthpiece Stuart Braithwaite. ... Yet another high water mark in Mogwai's irresistible ride. [Mar 2021, p.83]

Both halves of Legacy + prove the Kuti continuum to be in rude health. [Mar 2021, p.86]

All in all, with its pervading doubts and joyful release, Glowing In The Dark is very much for these times. [Mar 2021, p.86]

Has a first-person directness and grunge-schooled contrasting of melody with clamour. [Feb 2021, p.90]

Tyron unpacks its creator's complex character, flaws bravely to the fore. [Mar 2021, p.88]

The sister have turned that pain and drama into this elegantly nuanced third album. [Mar 2021, p.86]

He's never met a supernatural entity he can't pair with thumping darktronica and stalking rock guitar - weeping Ghost, Vampire's Touch, Skeleton - but it's done with a fabulously cold touch. [Mar 2021, p.89]

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

Linderman's triumph is more sophisticated than a simple contrast. The Ravishing music is studded with jazz details - the impressionistic gusts of saxophone and flute; Linderman's own clangorous guitar overdubs - that add a neurotic edge to the proceedings. The words, meanwhile, luxuriate in the prettiness of our world. [Mar 2021, p.80]

Collection of angular electro, cavernous soundscapes and delightfully off-kilter rhythms from Depeche Mode's creative hub. [Mar 2021, p.89]