The album's dozen essays zigzag with the same unpredictability as Veirs's vertiginous melody lines, everything united by her compellingly aerated vocal tone and Tucker Martine's deep focus production. [Sep 2013, p.88]

Not everything is quite so Travis by-the-numbers--and with mixed results. [Sep 2013, p.88]

They've created a splendidly polite fusion of Fleetwood Mac and the Cocteau Twins. [Sep 2013, p.86]

Played with authority and aplomb. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Lucid lyrical imagery punctuates the muzzy near-consciousness. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Plays like an xx-lite confined to analogue. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Pretty but lightweight. [Sep 2013, p.96]

A record which is less abrasive and more measured, if slightly wishy-washy from time to time. [Sep 2013, p.96]

A sound that lies somewhere in between early Beach House and breezy, ambient techno. [Sep 2013, p.96]

An impressive follow-up album. [Sep 2013, p.96]

Some wildly uneven wordplay, on a needlessly bloated set, suggests the Brooklyn king's crown is slipping. [Sep 2013, p.94]

The brittle world he creates is a seductive one. [Sep 2013, p.95]

[A] hazy smoked-out amalgam of shoegaze, analogue synths and surf-pop harmonies. [Sep 2013, p.95]

This improbably excellent debut album eschews the studied blankness of many of that race's [psych revivals] current front-runners in favour of a playful yet intense engagement with psychedelic rock traditions. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Still ethereal and episodic, it's less sequestered, more outgoing [than Ekstasis], with an influx of strings and brass bringing warmth to concoctions of stunning invention and variety. [Sep 2013, p.94]

Her candy floss-flavoured cough syrup vocals will be a little sweet for some tastes on first hearing, but when backed up with an acid lyrical kick, the overall effect is devastatingly insidious. [Sep 2013, p.95]

It's a more downbeat affair than their 2009 debut and best envinced by the stuttering tech soul of Gita. [Sep 2013, p.95]

In spite of its two-headed musical harmony, the personal disharmony in The Civil Wars is all too evident. [Sep 2013, p.94]

The animals are well cast as they orbit Magic Town. [Sep 2013, p.91]

Not quite enough to give Win Butler the vapours, but not far off it. [Sep 2013, p.90]

As ever with Borrell, it's never less than weirdly, grippingly fascinating. [Sep 2013, p.90]

A move to their own label sees them lose the plot entirely, sliding into the stodgy AOR navel gazing of From A Window Seat and listless choogling. [Sep 2013, p.90]

Nepenthe finds Julianna Barwick's already established wash of angel tones and free-floating radiance newly influenced by the breathtaking, often alien wonders of her host country. [Sep 2013, p.90]

Nasty, brutish, short, and wholly compelling, Yeezus begs only one question: where next? [Sep 2013, p.89]

This is (finally) an album that is enjoyable solely as a listening experience. [Sep 2013, p.89]

Production detail aside, their is little tinkering with their formula. [Sep 2013, p.91]

Lee's declared love of hymns, evident in his falsetto flutter and overarching cavernous mood, should ensure former Oasis fans won't clamor for Bluebell Field or Hold Me Forever, the key tracks to Money's particular, profound brand of Mancunian sound. [Sep 2013, p.91]

It's a compact yet satisfying set of 10 surging semi-acoustic almost-ballads with occasional electric interludes. [Sep 2013, p.91]