He's got the lovesick blues, but his offering are not of the Hank Williams kind rather they are pages ripped from a personal diary. This could all add up to something of a drag were it not for Stamey's ability to tug at the heart-strings. [Mar 2013, p.87]

Even for Ron it makes for downbeat listening, but when it really comes together, such as Lost In Thought, his rock-bottom emotions truly reach for the stars. [Mar 2013, p.87]

A sounding board for confessionals too heroically wonky to be dull. [Mar 2013, p.86]

Listener as shrink? A bit, but you'll be happy to attend E's chaise longue. [Mar 2013, p.86]

Though succinct segues Housing (In) and Housing (Out) have something of the filler about them, State Hospital and December's Traditions are bleakly beautiful portraits of Broken Britain, Hutchinson's fervent vocal letting it all hang out. [Mar 2013, p.86]

He's written better collections of songs, but for fun, warmth, vigour and power, it' sup there with his best. [Mar 2013, p.86]

A 2am album of sheer, devastating beauty. [Jun 2012, p.86]

Challenging it may be at points, but absorbing and complex too. [Dec 2013, p.94]

It benefits substantially from the synergy that the potent presence of Charlie Musselwhite helps to create. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Extra bass and echo enhance it reality-subverting agenda. [Feb 2013, p.98]

A little of these Lee & Nancy-style duets foes a long way. [Feb 2013, p.98]

Heartfelt and brilliantly executed, it's a creative peak. [Feb 2013, p.89]

[An] engaging, likable, thoroughly listenable, and indeed, sing-along album. [Feb 2013, p.96]

Dreamy and cacophonous. [Feb 2013, p.98]

[James Jackson Toth] fleshes out more whiskey-warmed, heart-sore folk with flashes of humour. [Feb 2013, p.98]

Atmospheric, reverbed beats that suggest indie boys who dance. [Feb 2013, p.98]

It's Bramwell's knack for a kind of "surely this one must be a cover-version" classicism that impresses most. [Feb 2013, p.96]

A convincing and often quite brilliant restatement of Ubu's early noir-meets-B-movie-sci-fi inclinations. [Feb 2013, p.93]

Hands Of Glory is a flamboyant country cousin [to 2012's Break it Yourself]. [Feb 2013, p.92]

Fractured but never broken, Arc takes chaos and crunches it into a satisfying and surprising whole. [Feb 2013, p.92]

[Bundick] constructs a wold of dancey digital pop out of low-slung Cali R&B rhythms, blunted hip-hop, Gallic dance pop and quirky house. [Feb 2013, p.91]

Fusing techno with campanology is a bold aim on paper; in practice it's a revelation. [Feb 2013, p.91]

This is beautiful music. [Feb 2013, p.91]

Taken as a whole, it's an arresting step towards the light. [Feb 2013, p.90]

[Hank Cochran's] proven an inspirational figure for honky tonk star Johnson, who's managed to rope in half of Nashville for this revamp of Cochran's songbook. [Feb 2013, p.90]

Kudos goes to the French Afrobeaters Fanga and Moroccan trance master Abdallah Guinea for finding a new spin on Fela Kuti's funk. [Feb 2013, p.89]

Even after three intervening decades of teknoid endeavour, these pioneers remained uniquely disturbing. [Feb 2013, p.88]

Fade feels like a definitive and hugely uplifting summary of a cult institution. [Feb 2013, p.88]