All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is a confrontationally loud, brilliant album, and every bit as bleak as its title. [Jul 2016, p.103]

The alchemy lies not only in the sonic contrast of the horn and keys but also the creative tension between Redman's roots in bebop's askew interrogations of melody and Mehldau's stream of notes rippling from the wellspring of European classical romanticism. [Oct 2016, p.110]

A true meeting of minds then, and one that's deeply affecting throughout. [Sep 2018, p.119]

An album that is very much more than the sum of its parts. [Aug 2019, p.108]

The result is an album that balances intellectual importance with the simple pleasures if great melodies played on meaty guitars. [Feb 2008, p.94]

Her directness about the experience of falling in and out of love with women is both refreshing and literal. [Apr 2019, p.113]

Set the controls for the heart of somewhere very uneasy, but rather beautiful. [Sep 2019, p.112]

The album's deft genre-hopping is navigated with a confidence that comes from clearly hard-won experience. [May 2020, p.110]

Fagen's fourth albums is as airtight as his others. [Dec 2012, p.104]

Playing almost everything himself, his command of sounds and styles feels masterful, seamlessly gliding between MOR-ish pop funk, stacks of gothic choral harmonies and the dreamy future-psych of Tame Impala. [Dec 2019, p.106]

They have made an amazing album about how amazing pop music can be. [Jul 2012, p.106]

With its beauty and sonic twists, Citizen Of Class is a thing of quiet wonder. [Dec 2016, p.110]

It would be easy for Exiled to come across as a lame pastiche. That it's quite the opposite is testament to the quality of the songs--most notably C.S.A.M.'s anti-imperialism tirade and Brave New Church's attack on facism's resurgence--and the ferocious delivery. [Aug 2019, p.108]

Despite the backward glances, a record very much in the moment. [Apr 2020, p. 106]

While a generic indie rock sound is flirted with, an amicable relationship deelops between that and their trademark hush. [Mar 2005, p.100]

The result is classic rock with a sneer. [Mar 2017, p.108]

Yet another display of his banter and brains. [Feb 2020, p.106]

It's 10 tracks are produced by veteran Chicagoan No ID, who provides a consistently soulful feel for the rapper's reflection on family, fatherhood and fidelity. [Sep 2017, p.110]

He's getting better with age. [Aug 2008, p.140]

At a time when Fatboy Slim has gone chill-out, Orbital have gone noodly, and Underworld, nd Prodigy seem to have just gone somewhere else, Basement Jaxx are, happily, on hand with another brilliantly messy blueprint for UK dance music - and dance music that you can actually dance to, at that.

This is top-notch stuff that draws comparisons with Neil Young and Father John Misty. [Jul 2017, p.114]

Dawson's vision is exceptional; his sound is harder to follow. [Dec 2019, p.109]

At its best you're reminded of Yorke's eminent skill: a fluency in dark, otherworldly romance that makes the alien sound familiar. [Dec 2018, p.106]

Extremely inventive, a litttle uptight and slightly high on their own cleverness, Vampire Weekend are the musical equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie. [Mar 2008, p.109]

A late-career peak. [May 2019, p.115]

The sheer musical scope means Vagabon resembles a shifting mood piece, tied together not by generic tropes but its creator's singular sensibility. [Jan 2020, p.114]

Elbow have hardly stepped out of their comfort zone here, but then their comfort zone has always been oddly unsettling. They're still burning: slowly, maybe, but stronger than ever. [Apr 2008, p.114]

The result is another emphatic celebration of Malian musicianship. [Feb 2014, p.111]

A splendid blast of pop art--with the accent on tunes and outrageous fun. [Jun 2015, p.110]

On his masterful second album, the choirboy-turned-beat-maker beds down in this uneasy state, lacing opulent production with minor-key anxiety. [Jul 2018, p.111]

This is gold for fans. Worth the £18 for the definitive version of lost classic Lift alone. [Aug 2019, p.119]

Headphones and a quiet room are essential for capturing the full depth, but the payoff is a sound-world of uncanny resonance. [Dec 2019, p.106]

At its core On Sunset is the sound of someone genuinely excited about all the glorious possibilities the world of music has to offer. [Jul 2020, p.96]

Sound[s] like out-takes from [Daft Punk's] Discovery. [Jun 2005, p.118]

Make Way For Love is a brooding and soulful offering from an artist keen to burst expectations. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Play With Fire is the perfect length: straight in and straight out, leaving you wondering just where that knife wound came from. [Sep 2020, p.109]

Some tracks are more outre than others... but throughout his sustained, idiosyncratic vision is absorbing. [Dec. 2001 p. 123]

As piano and strings crescendo, concluding Pale Green Ghosts' uncommon vistas of seriousness, levity and disco dancing, you can imagine the singer departing in triumph, and anything but an underdog. [Apr 2013, p.112]

Mortality hangs heavy over this music, but Collins, ultimately, makes it deathless. [Jan 2017, p.107]

This is a great album first, and a great Christmas album second. [Feb 2017, p.115]

It's a record that demands you get to know it inside out. [Jul 2014, p.101]

There's too little oomph to suggest they'll bother the scorers. [Jul 2017, p.114]

It's a raucous, righteous performance, one that underscores IDLES' current status as Britain's most vital band. [Feb 2020, p.112]

What could so easily be just another folky Americana album is lifted high above the norm by the sheer strength of Porterfield's quite brilliant songwriting. [Aug 2013, p.96]

For all the finely crafted, impeccably produced numbers there are enough stripped-back torch song moments to remind us of the simple power of Wainwright's talent. [Aug 2020, p.113]

Tracks such as the blistering hardcore of Cathouse and Cafeteria Food are the sort of exhilarating rock'n'roll songs that could kick start your year. [Mar 2013, p.108]

Beautiful stuff: sunny with a sad undertow, like The Beach Boys, Beck and The Beatles put in a blender. [Nov 2003, p.110]

It's all linked by a sense of dignity, wisely chosen collaborators and David Hidalgo's voice. [Aug 2004, p.115]

A rich quilt of Americana, as if the folk, country and rock strands were brought together in a starlit saloon somewhere near the border. [Jun 2003, p.106]

A dramatic, wide-screen, expertly executed, even genuinely executed thrilling rock record worthy of an audience way beyond nu-prog’s regular constituency. [Apr 2007]

It's engagiing enough that even the happily perplexing nine-minuter "The Well" breezes by with no danger of outstaying its welcome. [May 2010, p.117]

It's a rap record for rap people. [Oct 2015, p.106]

This cracking 19-track collection, plus extensive 24-page booklet, cherry-picks the area's best club music from the mid-'70s, an exuberant, carnival-esque mishmash of local carimbo and siria styles with big-band brass and frenetic Afro-Latino percussion. [Summer 2019, p.119]

Parquet Courts have delivered a fifth full-length album that ticks every box on the application form [for an uber-cool New York band of the Velvet Underground/Sonic Youth lineage]. [May 2016, p.114]

Grey Tickles, Black Pressure captures everything great about Grant's past and bundles it into his most riveting album yet. [Nov 2015, p.110]

More earthy than his contemporary Richard Thompson, Chapman shows younger pretenders a clean pair of heels with impeccable guitar-picking and tunes that veer from moist-eyed remembrance to defiance at times's relentless passage. [Mar 2019, p.112]

It walks the line between indie and pop without stumbling. [Oct 2006, p.125]

Its gorgeous chamber-pop is painted from a muted colour palette, with Farfisa organs, Hollies/Mamas harmonies and lyrics about weeping willows and late afternoons. [#361, p.108]

Rodriguez digs deeper into rave and party culture here. [Jun 2020, p.97]

Andrews shares far more than just a haircut with Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell, while heartbreaker ballads such as Only In My Mind roll from her fingers like Carole King. [Feb 2017, p.111]

This follow-up goes one further [than his 2006 debut], pushing Dawkins to the forefront of modern soul voices, his delivery suggesting a less showy John Legend. [Nov 2010, p.105]

A charming record. [Aug 2014, p.115]

The youngsters prove themselves masters of dynamics, in The Mountain's gradually explosive ascent, and the muscular spasms of They Keep Silence. [Aug 2016, p.113]

Earle believes this is one of his best albums; he's not wrong. [Jun 2009, p.132]

Occasionally, Byrne subtly expands her musical palette with strings and woodwind, but never at the expense of her own guitar and vocals. [Feb 2017, p.111]

It's remarkably poised, perfectly calibrated vocal swells evoking the synthetic English pastoral of XTC or Julia Holter's experimental layering. [#361, p.112]

It's a thrilling ride with an artist who keeps everyone on their toes. [Aug 2017, p.108]

An arty, confident and exhilarating debut. It's everything pop music should be. [Mar 2005, p.94]

Their sound is now driven by a tensile energy that sounds like they've been mainlining the early Factory catalogue. [Oct 2017, p.107]

The accompanying impression of sincerity is enough to save unashamedly sentimental tunes such as Wedding Party and Two Children from mawkishness. [Jul 2012, p.96]

It's this urgently speculative spirit ["Is it human to ask for more?"] that make Adore Life a compulsive and substantial thrill. [Feb 2016, p.117]

A more than a welcome return, Painted Ruins is the album you suspect Grizzly Bear didn't think they'd ever make. [Sep 2017, p.111]

Strong and melodic, atmospheric and creative... a powerful work. [Oct 2004, p.120]

Don't believe a word of it; this mediation on aging has moments as filthy as anything from his X-rated past. [Jun 2011, p.125]

Dawn Chorus is quietly, but righteously confident. [Jan 2020, p.109]

Wyatt continues to be full of delightful surprises. [Nov 2010, p.117]

It's quite sublime. [Summer 2018, p.116]

He's still more traditionalist than outlier, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. [Jul 2020, p.19]

An audacious, bold and provocative artistic statement, an album that raises the bar for any rock band who aspire to re-writing the rulebook. [Aug 2003, p.101]

Longer, looser, less eager to impress, and more American than its predecessors ... Vampire Weekend's prettiest album is also their weightiest. [June 2019, p.106]

Soar finds a happy ground between Dexys' debut and their much-loved but seldom-sold third. [Jul 2012, p.98]

From rock riffs to cheesy electronics, nothing is off limits here, the gurgling stream of playful beats and gorgeous melodies carried along on a tide of Can's dreamy krautrock, ambient instrumental bliss and infectious '70s rock grooves.

Simultaneously lovely and repellent, there's echoes of the Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd and Momus. But, in truth, their combination of the sinister and the delicious is entirely original.

This freewheeling third record is picthed just the right side of sobriety. [May 2010, p.112]

Fifteen years after his debut, it was about time Ed Harcourt made a career-defining record. Here it is. [Sep 2016, p.106]

Far from running on empty, the spouses from Charleston, South Carolina have life to thank for refilling the song tank. [Nov 2016, p.114]

The result is a surprisingly jubilant follow-up, with the Richmond, Virginia-based singer-songwriter largely disposing of her delicate sound in favour of groove, R&B and '80s pop. [Jul 2018, p.116]

Sheff's unorthodox, often beautiful songs blend folk and country with left-field rock influences.

His sometimes-still-too-warbly voice is the main instrument on this follow-up, but it's pockmarked with new friends' influence. [May 2013, p.96]

Savages are still best viewed in the wild, then, but Silence Yourself documents a spirit and passion that could never be background music. [Jun 2013, p.98]

Worth investigating. [Mar 2007, p.115]

With her debut, the former member of art-noise cult Gowns sounds like she would quite literally rip out her heart as a sleeve adornment if it served her creative purpose. [July 2011, p. 111]

It might not add up to a must-have, but it's good to hear Springsteen with the pressure off. [Jun 2006, p.112]

It's all good, clean, Beatles fun, on a record that celebrates a heart-warmingly more romantic and innocent age. [Dec 2013, p.118]

Its kitsch-free excellence confirms Hawley as a balladeer of the very highest order. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Like R.E.M. when they were good, [The National's] superficially simple songs have a real depth and resonance. [May 2005, p.114]

It is their poppiest, most direct album yet, with a '60s swing permeating throughout its 10 tracks, but Cox has never sounded so disconnected from the world. ... It is a lean and often brilliant album. [Feb 2019, p.110]

Ultimate Success Today is convulsed by End Times thoughts of collapse and an American dream eating itself. [Aug 2020, p.111]