Psych instincts and gas-weight vibes avoid modern psych's retro slavishness, but its lightweight sound can feel insubstantial. [Nov 2018, p.96]

An intense journey from slow harmonic chants to minimal rave euphoria. [Nov 2018, p.91]

MacIntyre's creativity is clearly in full flower. [Nov 2018, p.90]

It could all be too cute for its own good but some inspired darker moments elevate the whole to the level of a Raymond Carver short story collection set to music by Joan Of Arc-era OMD. [Nov 2018, p.90]

This album is a beauty. [Nov 2018, p.93]

The trio's vocal harmonies have lost none of their warm-blooded magic. [Nov 2018, p.96]

With no grounding bass, the groove is understated on a 13-minute title track that imperceptibly limbers from low-end oscillations and primitive pitter-patter into a billowing, blazing free jazz-prog odyssey in its own distinct dimension. Szun Waves sweep you into it. [Nov 2018, p.95]

In Just Lie Down, grief gives way to wrath and post-hardcore freakery. While Soft Stud and Sam, A Dream have more blissful guitar codas that signify a resolution to her woes. [Nov 2018, p.94]

On their third album Beak> still feels like a wonky and productive hobby for Geoff Barrow of Portishead with his mates Will Young and Billy Fuller; it's serious but it also sounds like a lot of fun. [Nov 2018, p.94]

Willie makes a hell of a job reshaping an array of Sinatra classics. [Nov 2018, p.93]

Beneath the bells and whistles, there's gold as well schlock. [Nov 2018, p.93]

European Heartbreak feels wonderfully whole, bound together by De Graaf's sweetly inscrutable voice and the unshowy, languid complexity of her songs. [Nov 2018, p.92]

It will either intoxicate or weigh down on you, or both, simultaneously. [Nov 2018, p.91]

Gave In Rest is melancholy yet beautiful, slow spectral low-end devotional music: creating a complete world that calls for total immersion. [Nov 2018, p.91]

While there's a sense that Jungle lack the invention of Young Fathers, whose vocals they echo, or Thundercat, whose disaffection they share, For Ever's Sunset Strip soap opera is always compelling. [Nov 2018, p.91]

This delicate, intricate web of sounds asks you to lean in to appreciate it. [Nov 2018, p.84]

While perhaps not as momentous as Joni Mitchell's similarly intentioned Travelogue, the gentle, surprising pleasures throughout Simon's autumnal tinkering with his oeuvre make for a rich and nuanced listen. [Nov 2018, p.86]

A pleasant appetiser until ZZ Top bring out another main course. [Nov 2018, p.86]

C'est La Vie is as potent, visceral and concise a sonic expression of this act of courage [step up and be an adult] as you could hope to find. [Nov 2018, p.87]

Elephants On Acid finds Cypress Hill not only recapturing the dynamism and urgency of their early-90s heyday, but also taking that energy somewhere completely new. [Nov 2018, p.84]

Sensitively remixed and remastered--like cleaning stained glass for brighter colours--and in combinations of formats, here's a masterpiece that lives up to its legend. [Oct 2018, p.106]

The fact that some of the material was lifted from cassettes means that the production quality varies wildly, but nonetheless 001 is catnip for Strummer fans. [Oct 2018, p.107]

Alternative views of some other well-known songs affirm Petty's fundamental strengths as a composer and the Heartbreakers' interpretive flexibility. [Oct 2018, p.98]

There's no danger of Wanderer outstaying its welcome, but while it's a brilliant return, it wouldn't be quite right too claim it as a triumph. Not because of the quality of these songs but because Wanderer is a record that know the cost of living and the price of losing all too well. [Oct 2018, p.82]

This is as back to basics as it gets. ... Highlights: Baby Please Don't Go, Sundown Blues and a truly broken-sounding take on Heartbreak Hotel. [Oct 2018, p.93]

A venomous, scabrous, often hilarious protest record, full of ramshackle blues, stinging garage-rock and the occasional brawny hardcore pelt. [Oct 2018, p.93]

Nadler's cathartic inner journey isn't always as easy to empathise with as it is artfully expressed. [Oct 2018, p.88]

Blends Shimmery psych guitar, spacey grooves and indie-falsetto vocals. [Sep 2018, p.96]