It is a relief to see Wainwright honouring his formidable songwriting talents with songs as luscious as those on Poses or Want One. [Jun 2020, p.94]

Up-tempo and poppy, Simple Minds' energy remains undiminished on Direction Of The Heart. [Nov 2022, p.90]

The Consuming Flame is rich, intense and deftly woven into three hour-long suites. [Oct 2020, p.91]

Locally focused yet state-of-the-nation, in their inventiveness and force such songs as Working Poor, Lost In A Crowd and The Worst defy pessimism, good art in bad times. [Aug 2016, p.92]

Any notions that this [name change]--and additions of brass and strings--is a major label ploy to smooth their edges and distance them from the spiky traditional elements that chracterised "The Bairns" is soon decimated by this new album's equally moody, uncompromising nature. [Nov 2009, p.102]

Hippopotamus is never anything less than wildly entertaining. [Oct 2017, p.88]

A deeply human record, the shepherd stepping away from his sermons to look for wonder and rapture. [Oct 2024, p.86]

A proper fire-starter. [Mar 2022, p.88]

Black Star Riders have delivered a record befitting their pedigree. [Mar 2017, p.94]

Avoiding the experimentation of their earlier work, No Age's second album-proper delivers winningly subterranean pop, bruised and vulnerable tuneage haunting their feedback racket reveries. [Oct. 2010, p. 97]

Musically, it's a radical rethink. [May 2019, p.89]

A bold sequel whose charms unravel further with each listen. [Oct 2022, p.84]

The "low tide" hinted at on side one submerges the second half, but delivers some of Brown's deepest, most affecting work. [Feb 2024, p.88]

Gutter Tactics is their most approachable set to date. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Communion clearly packs a unique set of quirks, diversions and comedowns. [Sep 2009, p.102]

Enduring, reliable but far from set in their ways. [Jun 2017, p.92]

The free-est, fun-est, most psychedelic Villagers record so far. [Sep 2021, p.76]

A series of near-overwhelming musical epiphanies. [Jul 2018, p.94]

A challenging listen. But such is Blake's sonic invention and flair for extricating beauty from the murk, it's well worth sticking with. [Aug 2016, p.92]

Returning to their electro roots might seem a surprising direction to take...but it works. [July 2010, p. 96]

With unerring melodies, Eleanor F hits the sweet spot time after time. [Jul 2013, p.84]

Random Access Memories manages to maintain a core of sense and sobriety. [Jul 2013, p.83]

Shadowy, masterful set. [Dec 2021, p.91]

Big, brave and laudably odd it is, then. [Oct 2017, p.93]

There's a succinctness to Some Like It Hot. .... But pleasingly, they've not junked their angsty edge amid this pop-oriented realignment. [Nov 2025, p.88]

With aid of latter-day Grace Jones producer Ivor Guest, his upbeat tendencies manifest in talk box-voiced electronic funk (think Roger Troutman/Zapp) that is more flattering, particularly when matched to the singer's biting wit on All That School and the MAGA-bashing Meek AF. [Jul 2024, p.86]

Gripping and energetic record. [Nov 2019, p.91]

Heal's molten flow of grandiloquent '70s rock and '80s electronica is unstoppable. [Jul 2014, p.88]