Abrasive textures win out over melody, and the odd flashes of In rainbows-era Radiohead only serve to underline the inaccessibility of the rest of the material. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Within its polished melancholy, Clean is a raw portrait of sadness. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Cocoa Sugar finds Young Fathers at a fascinating juncture: opening up, moving forward, but still existing in a sonic hall-of-mirrors world of their own. [Apr 2018, p.104]

All Nerve is less the sound of a band trying to revisit the vitality of its youth, than a collection of musicians who don't appear to have ever lost it. [Apr 2018, p.110]

A punchy, potent return from one of UK music's most distinctive voices. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Even the most flint-hearted cynic will struggle not to get caught up in his swivel-eyed lust for life. [Apr 2018, p.116]

This is menacing, magical stuff. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Lilting protest number Corruption Na Stealing comes closets to discovering a rhythm of its own. [Apr 2018, p.111]

It's an engagingly ramshackle record, off its hinges, but never off the peg. [Apr 2018, p.106]

If Ben Knox Miller's vocals barely break the surface, underneath lies a record of hidden depths. [Apr 2018, p.112]

Depth Of Field styles the same retro sound with greater finesse and raises her songcraft game so that tunes, grooves and arrangements work all of a piece. [Apr 2018, p.106]

The results are still as unsettling as they are stunning. [Mar 2018, p.107]

These songs sound as if they could have echoed around soot-stained ports and roadside taverns for generations and can still cast 21st-century listeners under their spell. [Mar 2018, p.117]

Enjoyable but not exactly exciting. [Mar 2018, p.108]

It is disorientating, but clocking in at just 26 minutes, this is also a tight, brilliantly breathless dispatch of noise. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Whatever language it's in, Le Kov casts a lovely musical spell. [Apr 2018, p.107]

Buffalo Tom remain a very fine shoulder to cry on, warm, steady and strong. [Apr 2018, p.106]

Standouts Everybody Wants To Be Famous and Something For Your M.I.N.D.. The rest divides between disposable cut-and-paste experiments and breezy indie-dance, at least making up in energy what it lacks in depth. [Apr 2018, p.115]

A blank regeneration. [Apr 2018, p112]

The best record he's [Saul Adamczewski's] done. [Apr 2018, p.111]

Irresistible. [Apr 2018, p.112]

Holly Ross and David Blackwell's heaviest record in years. [Apr 2018, p.111]

It's the album's introspective second half which delivers the punch. [Mar 2018, p.109]

Any fears his propulsive energy may have waned in exiles are quickly dispelled. [Mar 2018, p.111

These 11 songs are unashamedly informed by her maternal role in its varying facets of joy, growth, complexity and, on the self-explanatory So Tired, exhausting labour. But it also ranges more wildly. [Mar 2018, p.107]

A true coming together. [Mar 2018, p.113]

This fifth record sees them step up from mere underground ambition. [Mar 2018, p.115]

As intense as music can be, this record may be quiet but it isn't for the faint-hearted. [Mar 2018, p.111]

A masterclass in the art of collaboration. [Mar 2018, p.108]

These songs sound as if they could have echoed around soot-stained ports and roadside taverns for generations and can still cast 21st-century listeners under their spell. [Mar 2018, p.117]

The obscurity of some of what's here might seem almost comical, but the love that has gone into the whole package couches most of the tracks in a sense of lost treasure. [Mar 2018, p.116]

There's polish here aplenty, yes, but less majesty. [Mar 2018, p.107]

What makes debut Silver Dollar Moment such a satisfying listen isn't just the gusto with which they make it their own, it's how the record bubbles with ideas. [Mar 2018, p.113]

[Passover] can be frustratingly sparse in places. [Apr 2018, p.106]

The bravery in hanging out such soiled laundry can't go unnoticed, and it's the album's greatest asset. ... The fact it's wrapped in such a lush indie-pop package only makes it more infatuating. [Apr 2018, p.106]

There's nothing remotely new here--and his hyper-ventilating yelp won't be for everyone--but it's a rollicking 40-minute ride. [Apr 2018, p.108]

There's always been a wistful strain to [Cook's music]. Youth's contribution is to amp up the dreaminess in a way that perfectly suits songs such as Lunar Addiction and Ghostly fading. [Apr 2018, p.108]

There are enough twists and delights such as lugubrious free-jazz saxophone and the keenness of his lyrics to make this record sublime. [Apr 2018, p.108]

The title track and Come Out To LA hit home with the impact of a piece of GCSE Social Studies course work. [Apr 2018, p.108]

When they ease off the gas, such as on the relatively forgettable High and Afterglow, they can err towards pedestrian emo, but there's enough toughness here to see them comfortably over the line. [Apr 2018, p.108]

The result is uniformly deft, sumptuous and moving. [Apr 2018, p.110]

While album two adds flavours from the Mediterranean and Iran, the fundamental intent is the same with less-is-more funk beats and bass providing an opiated shagpile foundation for Mark Speer's light-touch guitar lines. [Apr 2018, p.111]

Rock Island will leave intrepid listeners feeling like they've glimpsed many shades of paradise. [Apr 2018, p.112]

His abiding fascination with conceptual work is mirrored in the mischievous spirit at play on Pure Beauty. [Apr 2018, p.113]

Much of Brighter Wounds is beautifully textured and sonically impressive but songs feel constructed from carefully plotted blueprints, which doesn't leave much room for nuance. [Apr 2018, p.115]

Throughout, Man Of The Woods seesaws brilliantly between pop and country. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Last Night makes for a perfect farewell, with tracks from across the band's career. [Apr 2018, p.116]

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

A grand vision is hard to discern, but when it comes to bringing the party, Culture II delivers with a scale and swagger that's hard to resist. [Apr 2018, p.117]

In A Poem Unlimited never preaches its messages--it purrs them, the melodies letting them percolate slowly. Remy has taken on today's biggest topic and made it sparkle. [Mar 2018, p.105]

Their latest is in constant motion. [Mar 2018, p.108]

The sound of a seasoned crafstman at work, One For The Ghost is a record that radiates his customary warmth and intelligence. [Mar 2018, p.104]

A record that embodies a whole world of vulnerability, confusion and unsteadiness without losing shape. [Mar 2018, p.102]

With their harmonies having never sounded more like perpetual benchmark The Everly brothers, the cantina guitars and dusty, hazy lyrics conjure a world of adobe bars and lazy roof-top jams as the sun dips behind the cactus. [Mar 2017, p.111]

The title track sounds like it was written for a TV movie and Lower The Tone is a sexless sex-jam, but it's an energetic return regardless. [Mar 2018, p.113]

Hardcore aficionados might doggedly stick to the original but for new fans, it's a treat. [Mar 2018, p.107]

The sound of a band renewed, Always Ascending fizzes with the energy of a first album and lets Franz Ferdinand start all over again. [Mar 2018, p.106]

Teeming with new developments and heralding a welcome lightening of touch, this is a major step forward. [Mar 2018, p.114]

This is a beautiful, soul-searching record and the one that Joan Wasser has spent her whole life building up to. [Mar 2018, p.110]

The scale and bombast of this record are inescapable, it has a swagger one might associate with acts far bigger than those in the cult hero waters Furman swims in. [Mar 2018, p.112]

They churn and drone their way through five epic tracks culminating in the 16-minute And I Will, a pop-psycho-trip of wailing voices and flutes. At this late stage in the game, it's excellent behaviour. [Mar 2018, p.104]

Delights in filtering classical motifs through electronic effects. [Mar 2018, p.104]

At times, it teeters between nostalgia and self-parody. .... But you can forgive the odd-slip-up, because the whole thing sounds so joyous. [Mar 2018, p.115]

Gusts of electronic noise, ominous drones and Menuck's semi-spoken vocals fight for supremacy throughout, occasionally coalescing into something special. [Mar 2018, p.111]

An ideal Fall primer for the uninitiated. [Mar 2018, p.117]

This is a record of stormy intensity, hauling its emotions up to the mountainside to expose them to the elements. [Mar 2018, p.115]

While it lacks the polish of a major pop album, it's not dulled by the overthought conservatism that might bring with it. [Mar 2018, p.115]

Weaving Song and Poor Old Horse's exhilarating communal bellow show the band homespun and raw. [Mar 2018, p.115]

It's lawless crashing of styles--genres mangled include FM radio rock, queasy disco and a waltz--might appear off-putting, but are, instead invigorating. [Mar 2018, p.115]

[An] equally seductive follow-up [to 2013's Woman] with a musical collective shaped from his touring band. [Mar 2018, p.113]

They artfully balance soaring interference-cloaked anthems with dreamier My Bloody-style FX investigations. [Mar 2018, p.113]

This won't make them stars, but that's not the point: it's lovely and they should pursue further. [Mar 2018, p.113]

A ferociously Velvetsy turn from Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe on Istanbul IS Sleep only highlights how mind-blowing The Liminanas could be if they ventured further from the shadows. [Mar 2018, p.111]

Expanding your sound without losing your edge is a tough trick to pull off, but Hookworms manage it with inner space to spare. [Mar 2018, p.111]

Overall Open Here is joyful and reliably brilliant. [Mar 2018, p.108]

Eminem has never sounded more like a man out of time. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Where David sometimes fall short is on lyrical content. ... Such disposable fluff aside, David's triumphant return is otherwise still going strong here. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Overall Lionheart is an uneven listen, with some of the quieter songs blending a little too politely into the background. [Feb 2018, p.112]

The songs here are real beauties. [Jan 2018, p.110]

Impressive. ... The gravitational pull of easy-going '70s jazz-funk is felt throughout. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Listeners so far unhipped to the contemporary avant-classical may find themselves pleasantly intrigued. [Feb 2018, p.117]

Not so much a wholesale reinvention as an impressive readjustment. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Django Django have proved they can blur the boundaries: now they need definition. [Feb 2018, p.114]

Dream Wife draw on the politicised ire of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill while putting their own fun, frivolous spin on things. [Feb 2018, p.111]

This is their strong set of songs in years. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Hansard's elastic vocals hit all the right notes. Missing, however, is an earthiness that could take these polished songs to another level. [Feb 2018, p.111]

If her band's 28-minute-long debut album doesn't quite possess that same ferel delinquency [as the live shows], it still has teeth that bite. [Feb 2018, p.116]

Long-term aficionados will enjoy the sinuous throb of King Of Bones, while those thinking of rejoining the party, the expansive voodoo rattle of Haunt shows the band's mastery of (bad) mood has only matured with age. [Feb 2018, p.108]

The results are ferociously good. [Feb 2018, p.106]

Music that strives for knitted-brow intensity. [Jan 2018, p.110]

Throughout charming naivety rubs awkwardly against clumsy delivery. [Feb 2018, p.111]

Despite operating in the between-floors world of indie R&B, it connects both sonically and melodically and as such engages the listener rather than, as in the past, totally overwhelming them. [Feb 2018, p.116]

It's rarely an easy listen, but in among all the post-punk references lurks a soundtrack to 2018's looming global catastrophe that's urgent and compelling. [Feb 2018, p.113]

Her references are classic, but she's never polite with them, twisting her heritage into a brilliantly volatile LP. [Feb 2017, p.112]

There's so much going on, why hold it back by singing from a half-hearted songsheet? [Feb 2018, p.111]

There's serious craftmanship here. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Curious fans of contemporary pop-house acts such as Disclosure might find the spartan style forbidding, but once Dunn hits his groove it's impossible not to feel the force. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Some of it is a bit too frenetic. But with Trouble On My Mind and All The Times You Prayed, The Staves' gorgeous harmonies shine out in a new setting. [Feb 2018, p.116]