If lyrics about mushrooms, unicorns and frogs are your jam, Coyne & Co. of course have you covered. The Naked Slaves and Amazon strippers do feel tiredly exploitative. [Feb 2017, p.93]

There's something romantic about this quiet, thoughtful music, but there's a sad quality to it too. [Feb 2017, p.94]

It's pleasant enough, it hardly transcendent, and feels--whisper it--ever so slightly old fashioned. [Feb 2017, p.95]

The results are equal parts beautiful and unsettling. [Feb 2017, p.95]

This is a pure genre exercise but done well. [Feb 2017, p.92]

This radiantly executed effort is also, curiously, Childish Gambino's most anonymous. [Feb 2017, p.92]]

A bold and celebratory affair. [Feb 2017, p.90]

Rich, understated and resonant. [Feb 2017, p.97]

There are tidings aplenty, but little comfort and even less joy. [Feb 2017, p.97]

As with previous Immersion material, analogue synthesizers provide the musical focus here, sporadically infused with electric guitars, often played in the oblique, angular style that Wire Fans will instantly cleave to. [Feb 2017, p.98]

A weave of sublimely lysergic folk-pop. [Feb 2017, p.99]

[John Renbourn & Wizz Jones] playing with such joy, skill and passion that unequivocally shows they were both still on to of their game, successfully marrying two contrasting guitar styles. They both sound good vocally, too. [Oct 2016, p.95]

Stand Up blueprinted the sound that would carry Tull ringmaster Ian Anderson and his troupe through the next decade, [Dec 2016, p.105]

Aloe Blacc swaggers with a charming insouciance on C'est Bon, which is an accurate description of Red Lips itself. [Jan 2017, p.94]

All this may seem so exhaustive as to verge on the absurd, but fear not. It is the most fascinating document imaginable. [Dec 2016, p.100]

Heart Song dips deeper into drama, with additional electric guitar and heavier drums adding chiaroscuro to her patented slowburn. [Dec 2016, p.89]

At least 50 years out of date, and wonderfully so. [Jan 2017, p.98]

One listen, maybe two, will be enough for most. [Sep 2016, p.93]

The true centerpiece is Tiny Wood's autobiographical 20-minute suite, Blue Remembered Hills. With pastoral inserts and thematic crescendos, it's evocative and emotionally raw. [Jan 2017, p.98]

From the moment she opens her mouth here: her gargley vocal, set to fortissimo, summons dusty trails, rattling trains and late-night boozing. [Jan 2017, p.99]

If it doesn't reach the sustained invention of John Coltrane's odyssey in E, Africa/Brass, Youngs' talent for wringing emotion from base materials remain undimmed. [Jan 2017, p.102]

Rousing, otherworldly, outlandish. [Jan 2017, p.104]

Definitely one of 2016's better achievements. [Jan 2017, p.99]

Regardless of how they're captured, these songs still have the capacity to enthrall. [Jan 2017, p.113]

Once inside, you discover fresh wonders. [Dec 2016, p.104]

It's hard to imagine a more comprehensive collection from such an important group. [Dec 2016, p.98]

A bruised, heartsore set. [Jan 2017, p.104]

The trio's most accessible. song-based effort to date. Thankfully, it's not at the expense of the rattling rhythms and freeform stylings of previous work. [Dec 2016, p.93]