Mirage rock's persistent melodies and infectious energy is hard to resist. [Oct 2012, p.87]

MacNeil is certainly a stronger singer--though without the coarse and charismatic Carter there's a sense that they are now one punk band among many, albeit still more sonically violent than most. {Oct 2012, p.86]

Nothing here is less than intriguing. [Oct 2012, p.86]

Believe You me is something of an art-house installation. [Oct 2012, p.86]

[Lekman] delivers a buoyant, frankly heart-wrenching, autobiographical album. [Oct 2012, p.86]

This brilliant, complex and surprising piece proves to be no exercise in getting to know them better. [Oct 2012, p.82]

For every infectious pop song, there's a lengthy, piano-and-synth-based epic, and everywhere a lust for life. [Oct 2012, p.83]

Charmer is in essence an Americana and power-pop confection with piano and tasteful guitars swaddled in the choicest vintage tones. [Oct 2012, p.83]

Easily their most accessible album, Algiers is also Calexico at their most expansive and very, very best. [Oct 2012, p.94]

This is cerebral yet genial fare. [Oct 2012, p.91]

It'll surely rank as British alt-rock's finest debut of 2012--genuinely fit for a place in Dougall Sr's pantheon. [Oct 2012, p.88]

Tempest is Dylan's best musical album of this century, a vibrant maximising of strict rules and the savaged-leather state of that voice. [Oct 2012, p.84]

It's a return to their best. [Oct 2012, p.83]

Scratchily downbeat, this is a true artist's vision in that Hood can remove himself from the pain without stinting on the honesty. [Oct 2012, p.82]

Those fans who jumped on with 1994's breakthrough album Dookie should rejoice: your favourite slacker-punks are, briefly, back. [Oct 2012, p.82]

If letting the world in has resulted in an album this beguiling, there's nothing to fear. [Oct 2012, p.80]

This band played their earthly songs with far more gentle elegance than they deploy nowadays in their sporadic revival. [Sep 2012, p.102]

The smooth edges of Mature Themes doesn't mean this music is any easier to grasp. [Sep 2012, p.86]

This fierce debut [is] an essential purchase for anyone who has fallen for the jazzier end of the Ethiopiques spectrum. [Sep 2012, p.97]

Amid the psychedelic soft rock and esoteric twiddling, three tracks stand out. [Sep 2012, p.94]

This is the album to prove that great Afrobeat doesn't have to be a Kuti family affair. [Sep 2012, p.97]

Frenetic take on Radiohead's Street Spirit aside, the tightly arranged songs here are pleasingly Queen, AC/DC, Lizzy and Leppard-aware. [Sep 2012, p.86]

The best thing he's done since [Hard Road to Travel]. [Jul 2012, p.88]

DOOM is in the form of his life here. [Jun 2012, p.85]

This sounds like a calculated genre exercise. [Sep 2012, p.90]

While Anastasis is typified by lengthy songs and sometimes rather ponderous beats, Gerald is in her element on Kiko. [Sep 2012, p.95]

Ultimately Four is an album of two 9uneven) sides). [Sep 2012, p.89]

This is Swans at their most user-unfriendly and trouser soiling. [Sep 2012, p.94.]