The intensity of MC Dalek's worldly-wise apocalyptic wordplay on Guaranteed Struggle and Masked Laughter (Nothing's Left) help reinvent their trademark sound without sacrificing its essence. [Aug 2016, p.95]

The only downside seem to be an audience with a dreadful sense of rhythm clapping along. ... But an excellent selection of songs, beautifully performed. [Nov 2021, p.103]

Deep-piling beautiful microorchestration and songs which in the fashion of mature-era Fanclub slowly yet unfailingly insinuate their charms. [June 2010, p. 95]

This is a big album in every way, full of ambitious layers, heavy on piano, strings, brass and drums producing vast soundscapes and lavish arrangements which place strong emphasis on the atmospheric undercurrent of some unerringly dramatic material. [Apr 2011, p.99]

Strong synth tunes and beats, bristling with vocal angst. [Oct 2017, p.98]

Songs and melody remain paramount in this irresistible Technicolor world. [Sep 2015, p.88]

Forged from 60 hours of improvisation, the excellent follow-up to 2019’s Laughing Matter is tightly crafted without being too stable, the band throwing their melodic rope bridges over wide dark spaces on JJ’s woozy exotica lullaby or Lifeboat’s ominous electro-folk. [Sep 2024, p.84]

Some of it is tough and unforgiving... and some is pure pop plastique. [Apr 2005, p.89]

McKeown adopts a sophisticated take on 4/4 grooves: with Calumet's stuttering organic rhythms offering a confident and captivating example. [Sep 2015, p.93]

Recasting love songs as ghost stories, and with no recycled early '80s moves, The Coral's self-created world seems reinvigorated. [Jun 2005, p.96]

Calla aren't only as unique as NYC new wave gets... but beautifully tense too. [Feb 2006, p.103]

The sparseness lends a quiet power and intimacy to proceedings. [May 2022, p.100]

This newly winged Barn Owl glide on through celestial panoramas, a tempestuous sonic asteroid belt and heady, intergalactic drift. [Oct 2011]

Widow City is the Furnaces' punchiest set to date. [Nov 2007, p.104]

Breathless, and breathtaking. [Jul 2025, p.86]

He sounds like a cross between Sonic Youth and Massive Attack, and the results are immediately convincing. [Apr 2003, p.100]

New Clouds is poised between towering psych-noise and ambient beauty, intermittently etched with quicksilver. [Nov 2009, p.101]

Draws out the same intense emotional responses as that first album [Lazer Guided Melodies] but in a post 1997 Ladies and Gentleman... way. [May 2012, p.92]

There's nothing here to shock or surprise, but that's a major part of the attraction and Erasure remain a guiltless pleasure. [Sep 2020, p.91]

While this ninth LP retains Plaid's signature style, it also offers far more range than dependable recent outings Reachy Prints or Scintilli. [Aug 2016, p.96]

Crowell's clear eye for detail is evident throughout, but what gives the album its kick is the lean, clean attack that allows both barroom ravers and haikus of Zen wisdom to linger in the imagination. [Oct 2025, p.89]

Time's Arrow is Ladytron's equivalent of Simple Minds' early-'80s heyday, where burnished synth-pop meets the hyperreality of travel. [Feb 2023, p.87]

It's a long time since Kelly drank at this well, and Life Is Fine is a deep, deep draft. [Sep 2017, p.90]

Molina's darkest, most achingly desolate work so far. [Apr 2004, p.102]

Follow Clementine's muse, and the pay-off is huge. [Oct 2017, p.91]

Inescapably, Losing My Edge is the best thing here, yet happily Murphy has more than one trick up his stylish sleeve. [Feb 2005, p.101]

This fierce debut [is] an essential purchase for anyone who has fallen for the jazzier end of the Ethiopiques spectrum. [Sep 2012, p.97]

The heritage soul signposts multiply with almost hallucinatory rapidity. [Aug 2005, p.104]