A block off the old Chip. [Aug 2016, p.117]

He's back where he really belongs with the T-Bone Burnett-produced Country Music. [Jun 2010, p.132]

A house album that strips out the weaknesses while putting boosters under the strengths. [Aug 2015, p.113]

...Like Clockwork is a return to form. [Jul 2013, p.107]

It's charm lies in the warm melodies Sheppard and his supporting cast coax from their mostly acoustic instruments, including marimbas and vibraphones. [Aug 2015, p.112]

Wildly collaborative, pan-globalistically luvvy-duvvy and heaps of fun, it just about hangs together as her best outing since 2007's Kala. [Oct 2016, p.102]

Their sonic ingenuity enhances even the most basic garage-rock templates. [Sep 2001, p.122]

[Mann has] returned to writing songs which are wry, funny, adult and perceptive, all wrapped up in handsome melodies. [Oct 2002, p.112]

Perseverance with the rougher sound and jerky arrangements will be rewarded. [Dec 2004, p.129]

This inventive debut mixtape continues the journey with no previously released tracks but much ammo for his claim to the capital's diasporic underground. [Nov 2018, p.111]

No question, Ultrasound are carving a very nice late-career niche out for themselves. [Feb 2017, p.119]

A defiant record from a band who've made a career of doing their own thing: Enter Shikari have upped their game again. [Feb 2015, p.108]

An 18-song adventure in sparse and particular beauty. [Jun 2020, p.97]

A fake band they might be, but it makes for a solidly enjoyable listen. [May 2019, p.111]

The Futureheads have found their way back by making their most emphatic statement yet. [June 2008, p.144]

There's all the usual yarn-spinning and nerdy wit here, but ... there's also a warmth and wisdom that no amount of lo-fi goofing can disguise. [Nov 2011, p. 135]

The spirit of drunk adolescence, cramped kitchens and broken valuable endures on their frightfully fun debut. [Mar 2013, p.101]

The connective sense of an on-the-hoof holiday from the day job, plus emotionally deep and humorous lyrics, make this a winner. [Summer 2020, p.98]

The collaboration between British singer-songwriter Helena Costas and US hip-hop producer Danger Mouse, for a project called Joker's Daughter, seems unlikely, but it works surprisingly well. [Jul 2009, p.124]

There are songs here which recall protestant hymns, others full of Kurt Weill cabaret humour and slick, modern white blues that suggest an energised, liberal attitude to the traditions in which he's working. [May 2013, p.101]

Externalising her feeling with space and power, I Awake gives everyone's inner life its due, the personal rendered universal. [May 2013, p.95]

This is a band consolidating their talents rather than simply showcasing them. [Aug 2003, p.108]

He rarely slips into simple pastiche. The real deal. [Jul 2015, p.112]

Yet for all Stride's laddishness, this is a sophisticated album that never coasts or repeats itself. Making pop sound this effortless, this joyous, is no easy task. [May 2010, p.124]

Sixth album by the artist who won MOJO's Best Breakthrough Act award 2007, aged 66. [July 2011, p. 100]

While unpredictable in parts, there are great melodies here to pull the floating voters in. [Oct 2016, p.106]

Different Creatures is a beast of a record. [Apr 2017, p.117]

An album that dares to tackle life's big questions head on. [Jun 2020, p.101]

Underachieving alternative heroes finally come up with the goods. [Nov. 2010, p. 110]

In its street-level politics, lucid delivery and hypnotic hooks, Novelist Guy is confirmation that this wave has a lot further to roll yet. [Jun 2018, p.107]

Their joyous music has an even greater emotional weight. [Dec 2008, p.133]

Hypnotic stuff. [Summer 2020, p.100]

Droll, baffling and brilliant in equal measure. [Mar 2002, p.128]

For all the deft production touches, it's Lanza's lost-on-the-dancefloor persona, at once sensuous and mysterious, which supplies the magic touch. [Jul 2016, p.109]

Playful pop brainteasers from the cult quartet. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

The result is gorgeous. [Jun 2013, p.93]

A record that hasn't cut itself off from its predecessor, yet sounds more dramatically expansive and forward-facing. [Jul 2016, p.102]

It's a dazzling trip. [Jul 2015, p.108]

They might be old, they might be poorly and they might be running scared from their wives, but on 13 Black Sabbath roll back the years and sound young again--and blacker than ever. [Jul 2013, p.102]

Easily the best Welsh language record since the Super Furry Animals' Mwng. [Jul 2014, p.100]

The psychedelic haze of second LP Kaleidoscope Dream us toned down, replaced by a quixotic take on the R&B and rock landscape that, more than anything, stakes a claim for otherness. [Sep 2015, p.113]

A great man still making great music. [Sep 2013, p.99]

They already had the style, but with this bold step Elliott Brood now have the songs. [Nov 2012, p.95]

They nail it from the start. [Apr 2020, p.111]

In its elegiac tone, its gauzy production and its sense of impending finality, The Ghosts is Williams' Time Out Of Mind, the album on which Bob Dylan pondered his own mortality. [Mar 2016, p.117]

There are echoes of other singular vocal talents such as Jonsi and Anonhi, but Ghersi here occupies a sonic multiverse of his own creation. [Jun 2017, p.102]

The results are frequently riveting. ... A challenging listen, then, but that's its appeal. [Jun 2017, p.110]

An oddity for sure, but much too good to be restricted to specialist alt-rock record retailers. [July 2002, p.122]

What sounds difficult at first unfurls with force over repeated listens, veering from the chant-driven 'Molalatladi' to 'Lakeside's' space rock reverie. [Oct 2009, p.108]

South Coast Krautrockers' quirky, moody fourth. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

The music itself remains more in debt to Blue Note classicism, but the palatability is alluring. [Summer 2018, p.113]

The effect is evocative if nothing less than a 21st-century Caledonian Spirit Of Eden. [May 2011, p.119]

Like a technology-phobic Beck, Desser tells his off-kilter tales with a wry eye. [Sep 2004, p.119]

Whenever the energy flags and the songs become a little so-so, she turns on the voice and dazzles again. [Sep 2015, p.113]

Occasionally slightly Gallic, but consistently intoxicating, it's a trip definitely worth taking. [Aug 2013, p.103]

Speakerboxxx takes up where Stankonia left off.... The Love Below isn't really hip hop at all. Its sound and lyrics owe a huge debt to, inevitably, George Clinton. [Sep 2003, p.97]

A revelation. [Apr 2004, p.107]

Core members Jonathan Donahue and Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak render sadness in twinkling matinee orchestrations, Central Park East or Coming Up For Air sounding pillowy, expansive, there to cushion a fall. [Oct 2015, p.111]

Matt Shultz has never sung more convincingly, but these are big, ideas-drenched songs, packed with beguiling twists and turns. [Jan 2016, p.108]

It's the best thing either has done in a decade. [Apr 2008, p.116]

Deerhunter might be fascinated by the vanishing tricks people play, but Halcyon Digest is a thing of unmistakable substance. [Nov. 2010, p. 113]

Invoking the spirit of minimalist commposer Steve Reich, Hebden crafts music of fragile beauty fron the simplest sonic palette. [June 2008, p.142]

Their sixth album has everything you should want from a rock group: riffs, daring ambition, big choruses and a bit with bagpipes in it. [Mar 2013, p.103]

'Love Runs Deeper' and the bustling 'Wanna Wait For You' especially confirm him as a master of his craft. [Oct 2008, p.153]

There are funk-pop uplifts too, but it's when he slows the pace down that Eastgate really comes into his own. [Summer 2020, p.101]

It's when he stops trying to be the people's poet, however that Falcon soars. [Mar 2010, p.100]

It all points towards an altogether shinier future. [Dec 2018, p.114]

She's delivered an intimate record tailor-made for long wintry nights. [Jan 2020, p.106]

Swedish popstrel on fine form, midway through her trilogy. [Nov. 2010, p. 114]

The baroque embellishments of Nowhere To Go and Blind Eye are a perfect dressing for the emotions that created them. [Mar 2013, p.104]

It might alienate those who prefer him to wallow, but there's magic and bravery here. [Dec 2008, p.130]

He'll never be an easy listen, but for now Actress has found a happier role. [Jul 2017, p.104]

A record that pulls you in slowly over repeated listens. [Summer 2020, p.103]

A surprisingly well-nourished beast. [May 2013, p.105]

Thick, claggy basslines anchor them alongside The Fall a their most pulverising. .... The debut's best moments, however, are when they push against what a post-punk band should be. [Aug 2020, p.109]

While the songwriting stays high, it's her strong but sensitive voice, with its lonesome hint of yodeling, that captivates. [May 2011, p.115]

Here they sound as out of place as ever, and all the better for it. [Jul 2013, p.101]

A record whose card-shuffling diversity proves to be its ace. [Oct 2019, p.113]

It reaffirms Mockasin's status as the maddest biscuit in the box. [Nov 2018, p.109]

Cole's beats may differ but she speaks the same language of shadows and longing. [Sep 2013, p.100]

For new disco freaks and their parents alike, here are 43 old-school minutes of party-down pleasure. [Nov 2013, p.106]

Alt-rock supergroup create new genre: stoner AOR. [July 2010, p. 132]

Another almost note-perfect recreation of the same pre-Beatles R&B world, this follow-up smoothly mainstains the good work with songs that recall the likes of The Drifters and even early James brown. [July 2008, p.102]

BNQT is a happy meld of snug-fitting millennial Traveling Wilburys and Gorillaz pop nous, a giant avert for the powerful attraction of opposites. [Jun 2017, p.102]

By striving to find romance and poetry in grim times, Fontaines D.C. have made a record to fall in love with. [May 2019, p.113]

Though Gang Of Four are the same bracing proposition as they ever were, 2015's literary imagery and less blokey vibe mark a successful leap sideways. [Apr 2015, p.100]

Tauter, tighter and leaner, it's at its best when epic choruses collide with soaring guitars. [Mar 2012, p.105]

With strings, brass and a great deal of drama on his side, it's a beautiful escalation. [Summer 2020, p.103]

Forever Turned Around shares the warm textures that made its predecessor so endearing, but finds the band's fortunes looking up. [Oct 2019, p.114]

Although at times Lost Girls' nostalgia feels slightly generic, the record does benefit from Khan's ability to weave nuanced emotional portraits--something that imbues an overused retro aesthetic with intrigue once more. [Oct 2019, p.109]

Even more delicate and autumnal. [May 2004, p.104]

A bastion of control and quaking vulnerability that strikes a match against its sombre surrounds. [Jan 2019, p.113]

Effortlessly tuneful, and swathed in allusions to Greek mythology, this is classic Harper. [Nov 2013, p.108]

This 20-track spread, ending on caustic wig-out You're On Your Own, would make a worthy farewell. [Feb 2019, p.108]

Downtempo triumph from Seattle indie journeyman. [July 2010, p. 135]

At once elegant and enigmatic, only he willfully prosaic title strikes a jarring note. [Mar 2016, p.111]

Truly one of a kind. [Nov. 2010, p. 117]

The record's second half feels a little dreary after the spectacular opening, but the combination of doleful beauty and violent emotion that makes Hadreas's work extraordinary is never hard to find. [Summer 2020, p.104]