In louder and busier sections it's easy to lose the text and there's no melody as consolation. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

In the category of great rap reinventions, file it next to Daniel Dumile's post-KMD rebirth as MF Doom and Ultramagnetic's MC Kool Keith re-training as Dr. Octagon. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]

Ritual Union feels like the point at which Little Dragon's lyrical stride finally gets in step with their musical ambition. [Aug. 2011, p. 93]

Johannsson's austere musical settings continue to conjure up a world in which the old trade union slogans which give these pieces their titles .. are not so much throwbacks to a lost ideal of altruism, as mantras that we all might still live by. [Aug. 2011, p. 93]

Holland's singing identity still shifts disconcertingly. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]

This stylish set quantum leaps from the title track's ethereal doom disco to the acid-damaged dreampop of Tokyo Wonderland via robo-glam rave-up Party Boy, and deserves to find these most playful of veterans a wider audience. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]

Affirms that Boris can bench-press myriad weighty sub-genres in their sleep. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]

The Horrors manage to balance vinyl excavation with experimentation and a huge dollop of pop magnificently. [Aug. 2011, p. 90]

This is Coldplay getting in, delivering the tune, getting out, influenced by the discipline of cutting-edge R&B but still capable of testing arena acoustics with some supermassive bluster, glitterball lustre and classic Buckland glide'n'twiddle. [Dec 2011, p.46]

This newly winged Barn Owl glide on through celestial panoramas, a tempestuous sonic asteroid belt and heady, intergalactic drift. [Oct 2011]

To some, Hurts lugubrious, gruff delivery might jar with the LP, but it's entirely intentional--they cast the beauty and simplicity of the melodies into even sharper relief. [Oct 2011, p.96]

Amy Winehouse it ain't, but we can take a certain pleasure in a man who at least possesses the sort of grainy Sam Cooke mellifluousness that, down the ages, has redeemed blue-eyed-soul boys the world over. [Oct 2011, p.94]

Simpson's Indian summer roars on in an irrepressible blend of the English tradition and an unerring instinct for American material. [Oct 2011, p.106]

Inside The Ships is one of their most entertaining yet confounding albums. [Oct 2011, p.101]

Even when she blinds her audience wit science, though, Bjork's vision remains remarkable. [Oct 2011, p.97]

Like Eddi Reader's Sings the Songs Of Robert Burns, this is bard bigging-up of note. [Oct 2011, p.97]

It's an immersive, and inevitably cinematic, ambient gem. [Oct 2011, p.105]

Black Rainbows is a pretty good dress rehearsal. [Oct 2011, p.97]

The 14 tracks here represent just a fraction of what he produced in his prime, so beware that it may be habit forming. [Oct 2011, p.110]

Here, the tunes are dubbed to within an inch of their lives, reduced to fiddly-for-fiddling's-sake electronic bleeps and riffs. [Oct 2011, p.100]

The wait has been worth it. [Oct 2011, p.98]

Metals is the product of a stock-taking pause, it's clear the former Canadian indie scenester had rediscovered her bearings. [Oct 2011, p.106]

You're left with a record that few will better this year. [Oct 2011, p.101]

Like all the best dreams. [Oct 2011, p.100]

Witty, touching, adored by everyone from Bjork to to Jon Snow; the wait is over. [Oct 2011, p.100]

Brit rapper Rodney Smith takes a big step towards national treasure status on sobering fifth album. [Oct 2011, p.99]

Zig Zaj corrals its celebrity cameos within a strictly ring-fenced aesthetic. [Oct 2011, p.98]

The tunes are all there but the mood is woozy, the arrangements spare and programmed to hypnotize. [Oct 2011, p.98]