One Step Behind shifts the goalposts, compromising a 32-minute title track and the eight-minute Heart And Soul, an elegant, soulful comedown in the mould of Music From Big Pink. [Nov 2019, p.94]

Joyful and, at times, unpredictably good fun. [Nov 2019, p.90]

Bid renders the album's picaresque litany of devious noblemen, murdered knights and debauched bishops with typically knowing aplomb. [Oct 2019, p.89]

Thrilling, unpredictable and often inspired stuff. [Nov 2019, p.86]

A decent album, but perhaps not the one some of us were hoping for. [Nov 2019, p.95]

Part 2's brittle, somewhat alienating production isn't exactly subtle. ... Foals sound like they are overreaching themselves a little. Two highly ambitious, thematically-linked albums in six months was always a big ask. [Nov 2019, p.86]

[Album opener Civil Servant is] sonically inventive, with vocoder interludes and a rousing final call of "Refuse! Refuse!," but its on-the-nose swipes at "Bus-fulls of meat...staring at phone-screens" can't avoid the patronising tone of 95 per cent of all songs about "the workers," written by those otherwise employed. ... Far better are songs where Dawson locates the misery and mystery of life in smaller worlds and stranger vignettes. [Nov 2019, p.90]

Elbow reflect an unruly world here, but if they sometimes lose faith, they never lose heart. [Nov 2019, p.87]

Lanegan brings dependable authenticity to these savvy pop songs; dire admonitions, but also an abundance of swagger and fun. [Nov 2019, p.94]

The group are definitely branching out, but they've not quite reached Zabriskie Point yet. [Nov 2019, p.91]

Sparer but equally powerful record [to U.F.O.F.]. [Nov 2019, p.90]

No Home record offers few tunes you could whistle, but at it's best Gordon's no-wave din and take-no-shit snarl offer unabashedly militant thrills. [Nov 2019, p.87]

OEH are a more intriguing venture when confident enough to aim for the universal. [Oct 2019, p.86]

Exudes confidence as it cleverly tweaks harmonic principles and discreetly unveils its dramatic arc. [Nov 2019, p.93]

Though brief nautical ballad Deck Chair is a skit too far here, there's a great bubblegum-pop song fighting its way through the exploded theatrics of Heavy Metal Lover, while silly song of thanks for the six-string We Are The Guitar Men is a virtuosic hoot. [Nov 2019, p.89]

A beautiful, comforting lament. [Nov 2019, p.95]

Apocalypse rears its head in bare-bones instrumentation, reverberating synths and lyrics that hunt for a meaningful future. [Nov 2019, p.89]

Carla Dal Forno's newest release sounds strangely fragile and vulnerable. ... Interspersed with exquisitely forlorn Eno-esque instrumenetals. [Nov 2019, p.95]

Soroor is the star of this set. ... Her pre-relocation stuff--even her Afghan Star audition is online--is always interesting, but this is a whole new level. [Oct 2019, p.86]

Its uvowedly less manic, but uknowhatimsayin¿ still cuts deep. [Nov 2019, p.93]

The duo shine as a beacon of warm and quirky outsiderdom in a rising tide of cookie-cutter Nashville Americana. [Nov 2019, p.90]

Worth the 10-year wait. [Nov 2019, p.91]

This is a sparse, minimalist ode to joy. [Nov 2019, p.88]

Behind the parachute silk and dry ice, the smoke and mirrors, stands a record in high emotional definition, its outline becoming sharper by the second. [Nov 2019, p.92]

Anderson's typically earnest, if uncharacteristically earnest, readings of Buddist sutras punchuate proceedings, and a pervading transcendence lingers long after the music has ceased.[Nov 2019, p.89]

It's an absorbing listen. [Nov 2019, p.108

Often described as old beyond his years, on Fires For The Cold Tolchin has truly grown up. [Nov 2019, p.88]

This second LP moves country into enterprising, occasionally spooked spaces. [Nov 2019, p.96]