They've upped their game. [Jun 2020, p.87]

Synths sway like palm trees, grooves come sun-baked, and nifying message songs flow. [Jul 2020, p.88]

In all, it's not only Johnson's sixth ace long-player in three years, but a heaven sent sanctuary from 2020's many brutal realities. [Jun 2020, p.90]

More evidence of the vast scope of his artistic vision. What’s extraordinary is how it continues to expand, containing multitudes no one else thought of.

The most instantly appealing to date, channeling a high degree of emotional intensity and a remarkable sense of joy through minimal instrumentation. [Jul 2020, p.87]

Haunting, unsettling hybrid. [Jul 2020, p.83]

On Sunset will not be remembered as Weller's most immediate record, or the most musically even, but it's certainly one of the most rewarding, and powerful. [Jul 2020, p.76]

Highly entertaining, though best consumed a few songs at a time, Quickies is more than a novelty record, though certainly novel. [Jun 2020, p.90]

There is a grab-bag of variety. [May 2020, p.93]

It's artfully rumpled, but the ragged angry gasps that close the record confirm Bridgers' songwriting isn't the effortless dream it seems. [Jul 2020, p.78]

Lyrics are vital, and here they often clunk where they should pierce, deadening some of her undeniable power. [Jun 2020, p.86]

A transporting treat, tapping both the personal and the universally political. [Jun 2020, p.86]

A trancelike alliance of technical mastery and instinctual chemistry far greater than the sum of its acoustic parts, GoGo Penguin already feels definitive. [Jun 2020, p.93]

The extras will delight Ig-heads and Bowie buffs, likewise the thoroughly annotated 40-page booklet, featuring new interviews with key participants. [Jul 2020, p.92]

Urgent, retro-futurist and profoundly absorbing. [Jul 2020, p.84]

Gene is not restful, but it displays impressive commitment to following the whorls and helixes of its inner logic. [May 2020, p.86]

There are a lot of moments when - sleeves rolled up, top button undone - it sounds as if they're pouring out their hearts to the same bartender as The National. When they get the detailing right, though, it flies. [Jul 2020, p.78]

If Sideways To New Italy is a reckoning, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's balance sheet is entirely in the black. [Jul 2020, p.79]

The sound has been filled out. ... The burnished folk rock accentuates the intimacy of Power's voice and her writing. [Jul 2020, p.80]

Beginners is less rip-it-up statement than subtle realignment; less countrified and polished, more folky and sparse. [Jul 2020, p.80]

Heartbreaker Please expresses its title in the most literal terms; it's broken and pleading. At the same time, the music provides a through-line to the 43-year-old's singer's past, striking his usual balance between Buddy Holly simplicity and Roy Orbison sweep, with a dash of Memphis horns tossed in. [Jun 2020, p.89]

It lacks the gargantuan personality and all-encompassing throaty bark of FU's leader Damian Abraham to give it a USP, but Falco, as frontman, does a decent job of stamping his own marker. [Jul 2020, p.84]

It starts in fine fashion. ... Tellier's Auto-Tuned croon is unrelenting, and by the album's mid-point we're approaching the realms of self-parody. [May 2020, p.89]

There are transcendent moments. ... But Atkins tries on so many hackneyed faces during these 11 tracks that the overall effort feels faceless. [Jul 2020, p.82]

Highlight of an unfathomable whole: Hell. [Jul 2020, p.88]

There's more hope to be found in the sound Deerhoof assemble into single songs that play like a hallucinating DJ's set. Any element sounds perfectly straight by itself, but layered together, they feel imported from the multiverse. [Jul 2020, p.87]

Too opaque to fully connect, Consummation keeps its mystery high. [Jul 2020, p.85]

The boogie imperative on Knuckleball Express is less deconstructed than usual. [Jul 2020, p.84]