The synths are generally leaner and the production darker, while guitars butt in for the grungy turmoil of Bitch and Mary Magdalene. [Jul 2019, p.86]

Oddly seductive, genre-refuting curio. [Jun 2019, p.91]

An enfolding, transcendent work of aural theatre tracking Artaud's journey. He would probably have approved. [Jun 2019, p.94]

In trying to make an album that pointed to where he wants to go as an artist, Hawley has taken the best parts of his past and uploaded them onto one sublime record. [Jul 2019, p.90]

Judicious use of pedal-steel, fiddle, Southern horns and strings brings subtle power, with McKagan just occasionally lending shades of Mott The Hoople to proceedings, and singing with an admirable new confidence and conviction. [Jun 2019, p.90]

If you dug them back then, you'll likely dig them now. [Jun 2019, p.93]

Transience is another reminder that Eric Goulden is arguably the only one of his Stuff-era peers to remain a scarily powerful and forward-moving musical threat. [Jun 2019, p.90]

Rainford is a late-career answer to 1978 Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread, and beyond all reasonable expectation, fully its equal. [Jun 2019, p.94]

Ishmael Ensemble cleverly, psychedelically blur the lines. [Jun 2019, p.91]

Resonant and bittersweet, dreamily electronic. [Jun 2019, p.96]

Scott continues to ring changes elsewhere, hence the gung-ho title track channels Robert Parker's '60s Mod classic Let's Go Baby (Where The Action Is), and Right Side of Heartbreak (Wrong Side Of Love) brings sweet soul hooks. [Jun 2019, p.91]

It doesn't equal their Back Stabbers/Ship Ahoy period but it comes close. [May 2019, p.90]

Sule Skerry is partly programme music, partly good old-fashioned concept album. His approach feel rather literal at times. [Jun 2019, p.95]

Act Surprised's high yield of killer songs hardly suffers for its absence of oddball filler. [Jun 2019, p.90]

10 songs that are the apotheosis of their spartan sound. [Jun 2019, p.95]

The third set sounds clean and efficient at the expense of real zest. [Jun 2019, p.96]

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]

A fine writer who is really finding her voice. [Jun 2019, p.94]

Amid the aggro, Taylor's intense stack-heeled charisma dominates: whether raging or romancing, she's the queen of this glorious chunder from Down Under. [Jun 2019, p.88]

Destroyer shifts up a couple of gears for a less cosmic,more hard rockin' thrust, complete with headlong NWOBHM riffs and even shredding. [Jun 2019, p.90]

The album feels confessional, courageous. ... Yes it can be bleak as hell but Flamagra's artistic artistic triumphs are sublimely uplifting. [Jul 2019, p.92]

Her third album is a small masterpiece of restrained quirks; a slowburner that rearranges retro signifiers in a genuinely creative way. [Jun 2019, p.91]

Creatively, Reward is on point. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Versions of Jon i Mitchell's Don't Interrupt The Sorrow and Bob Dylan's Only A Pawn In Their Game are surprisingly persuasive. Elsewhere, it's like being imprisoned in the teenage Moz bedroom/brain. [Jun 2019, p.89]

The restraint, especially from the horn section, is astonishing; the overall effect absorbing to the point of transcendence. [Apr 2019, p.93]

Mavis's voice is still strong and convincing. [Jun 2019, p.87]

The band interpret the album title as a play on Portuguese for "Shadow Or Doubt," as in the choice between comfort zone and uncertainty. It's a line they confidently tread throughout. [Jun 2019, p.93]

Original, but with traces of early Dizzee, Rodney P and The Streets in Slowthai's savvy grime-punk. [Jun 2019, p.96]