Too often his songwriting is so tasteful that it can tend toward the anonymous. [May 2014, p.88]

This is very much Goodwin's record, the work of a man revelling in his own company. [May 2014, p.88]

The Soul Of The Hour rumbles onward with fearsome nocturnal dread, if paced with sufficient patience this time to allow the odd shaft of illumination to seep in. [May 2014, p.87]

The trio's gifts mesh to deliver a truly idiosyncratic attack, as refreshing and labyrinthine a hip hop debut as New York has delivered since Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus. [May 2014, p.87]

Much of Supermodel feels alienatingly dense. [May 2014, p.86]

Waterhouse's 2012 debut, Time's All Gone, combined strong songwriting with an impressive, hard-voiced approach, and this follow-up does the same again. [May 2014, p.94]

Hendra might deal with life's compromises, but there's no disappointment here. [May 2014, p.92]

This is a more expansive, rococo production than Callahan's Dream River. [May 2014, p.91]

They still sing some parts in unison, but here their voices are arranged more imaginatively. [May 2014, p.89]

The bold Old Fears is more than a side project. [May 2014, p.89]

Only a few moments--Happy, the Daft Punk-featuring Gust Of Wind and I Know Who You Are--sound truly out of the ordinary. [May 2014, p.86]

Nutini has grown up, and his music has grown with him: in a world littered with handsome young singer-songwriters who become obsolete some time between their first hit and first album, it's an admirable achievement. [May 2014, p.88]

Wildewoman is more of a patchwork quilt. [May 2014, p.94]

The deep soulfulness that always set The Afghan Whigs apart from the pack was no mirage, and on Do To The Beast, it has matured with grace and power. [May 2014, p.86]

Much is intimate and seductive, but Undress emphasizes the feeling Hoop is in a holding pattern which is increasingly hard to escape. [May 2014, p.91]

Cameron Neal earths this plangent guitar-rock with his anxious cris de coeur and admits to a teen Smiths crush, which helps explain the metropolitan jitters and Marr-like cadences that feed into Fear In Bliss. [May 2014, p.91]

What used to work well just doesn't any more, even though Finn still conjures street stories with a rank, raw conversational truth. [May 2014, p.87]

Occasionally tracks are achingly earnest; but overall this is light in the darkness, about love and death and bravery of all kinds. [May 2014, p.94]

It's the chiming guitars of album centerpiece, A Swallow In The Sun, that really underlines a sense that The Cautionary Tales Of... operates in the same ballpark as Sea Change--Beck's 2002 work of staggering heartbreak. [May 2014, p.91]

Timely stuff. [May 2014, p.88]

The Cordon Bleu-trained chef transforming humble ingredients into Michelin-starred delicacies at once melting, tender and sweet. [May 2014, p.93]

It's less effective on the bland troubadour pop of Here Today and The Man, which samples Elton John's Your Song and is already a US Top 5 hit. [May 2014, p.92]

The album's stand-outs come when they soften their stance. [May 2014, p.93]

Subtly psychedelic, intuitively clever and constantly challenging, Everyday Robots underlines that Albarn is an artist of originality and depth, a master of the haunting, insidious melody and--perhaps this needs no reiteration--a gifted, inventive musician. [May 2014, p.84]

The elements that make up Best Of times were all there before, but even the band concedes that they have finally found their true sound. [Apr 2014, p.90]

She sounds a tad daft masquerading as a feisty Harlem mama on the Pharrell-produced I Can't rely On You, but her uber-gutsy delivery still charms. [Apr 2014, p.90]

A nice little happy-ever-after. [Mar 2014, p.92]

Now restored to their original length, the Fillmore performances--characterised by lysergic avant-funk and tripped-out soundscapes--are incredibly powerful and a permanent reminder of Miles Davis's pathfinding genius. [Apr 2014, p.107]