It's reassuring that Beck Hansen can still pull an original record as substantive and absorbing as this one out of the hat. [Mar 2014, p.86]

Midway, things meander, after Adrianne Lenker's pellucid vocals twists and turns. [Jul 2017, p.96]

[A] stunning musical response to Lord of the Flies author William Golding's daring novelistic excursion into prehistoric anthropology. [Jul 2013, p.85]

Booker's unique sound is a taste worth acquiring. [Sep 2014, p.91]

The Talkies is a scarifying, perverse noise-rock treat. [Oct 2019, p.85]

Diviner came out of post-band convalescence and a spell of recalibration, yet for all the intense, cocooning introspection in these songs, Thorpe is obviously more than ready to face the world alone. [Jun 2019, p.93]

One of the most inventive, exploratory albums of the year. [Jan 2023, p.90]

Fan The Flames and French African Queen end the CD with real vigour. Confirmed fans will lap it up. [Jun 2016, p.93]

Produced with Dave Fridmann and Joe Chiccarelli, the album benefits from the former's spacey soundscapes and the latter's commercial sensibility. [Sep 2014, p.96]

Never willfully ramshackle or unfocused, Women tread the line between discord and delight with deceptive style. [Sep 2010, p.96]

Ritter has taken his time delivering album number five after stepping back from a period of writer's block. So Runs The World Away suggests every artist should have such problems, Ritter's most freewheeling album flitting between waltzes with Egyptian pharaohs to the tongue-in-cheek murder ballad Folk Bloodbath. [Sep 2010, p.92]

This is potent, frequently explosive stuff. [Sep 2017, p.87]

The Art Of Forgetting swings between joy and darkness with a boldness and coherence that is a marvel. [May 2023, p.84]

Holiday Destination needs to be uncomfortable and it is, a beautifully realised disturbance of any remaining peace. [Sep 2017, p.92]

It feels both strangely timeless and oddly new. [May 2020, p.93]

A left-field jazz date transversing elation and sadness, and electronic weirdness peaking on off-radar standout Gecko Sound. [Aug 2023, p.88]

They conjure contemplative moods (A Cowboy Without Cows; Night Library) without rogue textures, no instrument or showy motif photo-bombing the arrangements. [Jan 2026, p.90]

Its [an eccentric take on the Stones' Wild Horses] unlikely beauty is typical of Taylor's bold approach here. [May 2026, p.85]

Inventive, reactive, but hauntingly untethered, there's no doubt UK Grim comes from a very bad place. [Apr 2023, p.85]

Immersive and entrancing. [Jan 2022, p.90]

There’s little that disappoints here, even after Jack’s parting of ways with Meg to plot a solo course.

Konoyo is subtly emotive, its soundscapes cool and tranquil then swallowed up by blossoms of cryptic drama. [Dec 2018, p.93]

It's on those songs that strike a chord with Elliot personally that he's most convincing. [May 2009, p.103]

The tenth album from the fabulous Sadies is up there with the best. [Mar 2017, p.93]

The resulting sound is high-contrast, with graceful melodic resolutions, slippery pitch-bends and experiments with form. Curios that hit at once, but can also withstand lengthy unravelling. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Live, the band’s urgency and spaciousness transform their fondness for cavernous arena rhythms and antiquated synths from clever re-appropriations into something that teases transcendence. [Dec 2024, p.85]

These are precarious songs, Oberst's voice as fragile as an egg, yet when it comes to songwriting, Bright Eyes remain a safe pair of hands. [Oct 2020, p.84]

Heady, bodily, beautiful stuff. [Jan 2006, p.126]