Amid the jams and Vietnamese trim, neat ideas coalesce. [Dec 2018, p.94]

R.E.M. At The BBC is not definitive history, but as a corrective to the idea that the post-Monster years were just R.E.M.'s long sweep into elder statesmanhood, it presents a fine alternative one. [Dec 2018, p.101]

Allways showcase a band reconfigured as a kind of hippy Meters. It's an unlikely transformation, but an appealing one. [Dec 2018, p.93]

There's undoubted musicianship on display but killer tunes are rarer. [Dec 2018, p.87]

Raw and revealing though still rather opaque. [Dec 2018, p.94]

A reverberant, high-octane treatise on the transcendent power of love and loud music. [Dec 2018, p.94]

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

Production-wise it's the compressed, tidy sound du jour that flattens out dynamics; it would be interesting to hear them recorded on some funky old analogue gear, to add a bit more grit. [Dec 2018, p.92]

Her laconic, absurdist humour gently inflects each track, even when she is singing about intense paranoia and loss. [Dec 2018, p.90]

Rodgers' fealty to rhythm is still unquestionable from opener Till The World Falls through the emphatic beats that drive Boogie All Night and single Sober, which are clearly less subtle than "old" Chic. [Dec 2018, p.90]

The Hex expands brilliantly in a musical vision that had lain mostly dormant. [Dec 2018, p.90]

This second album builds on [2017's Feed The Rats'] sure foundation, the tracks now numbering six and dialling down the long-form indulgence in favour of more tightly focused song structures that sacrifice nothing in intensity. [Dec 2018, p.88]

It's rather an unsuccessful mish-mash, especially given the aggressive diversity of the guest stars. ... But the weakest link is Morello's hyperactive and ultimately distracting tic towards Skrillex-esque techno bursts, bleeps and squelches, which ensure The Atlas Underground will age worse than MAGA hats. [Dec 2018, p.84]

A Wonderful Beast occasionally revisits that street-walkin' vibe (When The Weekend Comes Around), but otherwise rises above genre to present this foghorn-voiced alt icon as quality songsmith, amid unprecedentedly high-spec playing and arrangements. [Nov 2018, p.94]

Ever constructed around our hero's robust tenor and rattling acoustic, then adorned with A-grade orchestration, it inescapably evokes Urban Hymns. [Nov 2018, p.93]

The rage and weight of 2014's Blank Project has lifted but the explorations of life at every level--refugees in Calais; exhausted living under patriarchy; missing your parents--continue. [Nov 2018, p.89]

Twelve of the songs here are vintage, unheeded warnings plucked from Ono's catalogue. The finale is Imagine--which now rightly bears a Yoko co-credit. All is transformed by the sparse new arrangements, mostly piano-led with strings, which bring the horrors--and occasionally the hope--closer to home. [Nov 2018, p.94]

It never feels as though her best work is behind her. [Nov 2018, p.96]

The box set's main selling point is the inclusion of a completely different version of Never Let Me Down, recorded posthumously. [Nov 2018, p.100]

The main attraction of this six-disc box set reissue is a new ground-up stereo mix of Imagine by Paul Hicks at Abbey Road. These new mixes are clearer and more controlled, though respectful (maybe overly so). [Nov 2018, p.103]

There are times on Bunny when Dear doesn't stray far from the hypnotic, hedonistic mood that underpins his dancefloor moniker, Audion. ... But Bunny really shows its teeth on Can You Rush Them. A smouldering, malevolent breakbeat stomp, its exhortation to "take back the streets" hints at America's political turmoil. [Nov 2018, p.86]

At times, its lumbering gait palls somewhat, but This World's rousing yacht rock twinkle proves that Kalevi has some aces hidden up his sleeve. [Nov 2018, p.91]

The wall-to-wall cyber-vox distract from his bountiful gifts. [Oct 2018, p.92]

Kurt Vile's slacker star continues to rise on Bottle It In. [Nov 2018, p.89]

Its breezy charm belies clever compositions and the odd jagged stylistic shift, but at 58 minutes feels overlong. [Nov 2018, p.96]

Love Is Magic is Grant entertainingly magnified, but the emotional returns comes slightly diminished. [Nov 2018, p.93]

When he's good (Con Conn Was Impatient, B'n'D) he's sublime. [Nov 2018, p.96]

Look Now bounces with unforced, uncluttered and cleverly fleshed vivacity, every song a cherishable gem. [Nov 2018, p.86]