Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere is often weigted with doom, though there's an intoxicating impetus to the tar-like bass and woozy funk. [Aug 2008, p.140]

It's clear Russell was a true renaissance man, as at home with thoughtful guitar pop as he was with New York disco. [Dec 2008, p.143]

Erland And The Carnival is an exquisite update of the classic folk-rock sound of the late '60s, full of dark and lovely covers and originals starring tramps, carnivals, Derby Rams and death. [Feb 2010, p. 105]

This is music of incredible warmth, where melody and emotion come before science. [Mar 2013, p.107]

The gauzy production effects on Lamplight are among the few concessions to modernity, though the opening credits theme proper--where Zeffira breathily channels chanteuse Francoise Hardy--is hauntingly gorgeous. [Apr 2015, p.98]

The disruptions continue on these post-classical keyboard pieces given extra depth by textured electronics, which create an underlying tension befitting the album's brief to examine possible ecological futures. [Jun 2017, p.109]

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 presiding theme here is one of nocturnal activity, and it's rather nice to see the songs as half-lit visions, as if it were all a Puckish Midsummer illusion. [Sep 2018, p.118]

There's an emotional spark here that never goes out. [Oct 2018, p.115]

Melnyk's compositions wobble and hesitate, as if embarrassed by their beauty. Brief moments of optimism strike a philosophical tone, his notes dancing around an equilibrium that never quite arrives. [Feb 2019, p.112]

This latest installment unearths yet more rare and diverse dancefloor gems. [June 2019, p.119]

This doesn't veer wildly in style from Vile's previous four--he still sounds like a stoned Springsteen singing from the bottom of a well--but his songwriting reaches a mesmeric peak. [May 2013, p.112]

Spoon are a band who are impossible to second-guess, and one deserving of much more attention. [May 2017, p.101]

Allen's mastery of rhythm holds this inventive album together. [Nov 2014, p.102]

Forster's songwriting is crisply understated, his salt-and-pepper voice perfect for the succulent storytelling for No Fame and Life Has Turned A Page. [May 2019, p.111]

Dark, often opaque, but also full of emotion, this is a gem. [May 2011, p.127]

Dig In deep seamlessly follows 2012's Slipstream in personnel and style. [Apr 2016, p.113]

It's familiar, but immaculately done, and by far the most focused work this band has managed thus far. [Sep 2002, p.100]

An essay in coolly assured, sophisticated leftfield rock, occasionally laden with trademark discordance yet also full of scintillating tunes. [June 2002, p.123]

This is a complex record, full of bleak lyrical themes, but it's also riveting, hypnotic and really very good indeed.

All The Time is cool and compelling dance-pop. [Aug 2020, p.108]

The pomp they derive from taking dour post-rock to a rave--notably here in Prisms--is satisfying. [Nov 2013, p.101]

It's a seductive, refreshing but gratifyingly purposeless ride. [Sep 2019, p.1110]

Made up of Coombes's most beautiful compositions yet. [Feb 2015, p.116]

A fascinating insight into Joe's mind and the last days of The Clash. [Nov 2018, p.115]

PROTO sometimes hews close to well-worn dystopian tropes, and the child narrator and see-sawing breath sounds of Extreme Love are undeniably annoying. But Herndon's creative restlessness and textural mastery sustain interest across 45 minutes. [Jul 2019, p.108]

The only gripe here is that the odd longueur makes Historian solid rather than spectacular. [May 2018, p.107]

An unmitigated success. [Summer 2019, p.108]

Classic lived-in country. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Their most mature album to date. [Jul 2006, p.118]

Gifted '60s casualty delivers first record in 14 years. [July 2010, p. 131]

So let any indie bands planning a trip to the keyboard shop take note: this is how it's done, with a desire to surprise and be surprised. [May 2009, p.104]

A dream partnership. [Mar 2014, p.110]

A giant leap from their 2016 debut. Critical is the discovery of drummer Aaron Frazer's falsetto voice, leading six of the 12 songs, he's doubled the band's stylistic and emotional range. [Apr 2019, p.113]

For the umpteenth time, hats off, gents. [Dec 2012, p.122]

Often inspiring, sometimes challenging, but, crucially, never dull. [Dec 2015, p.118]

The giddy result of years spent twisting and caressing orchestras of samples into a living, breathing organic whole, There Is Love In you brims with a playful sense of wonder, never more so than on centerpiece This Unfolds. [Feb 2010, p. 109]

Simple pleasure delivered in style. [Apr 2016, p.107]

Through its trippy ballads and spacey funk, Childqueen is quite a sonic journey. [Summer 2018, p.106]

Heavy Light holds her ground beautifully. [Apr 2020, p.104]

Asymmetry is their best yet. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Gloominess is nothing new in traditional American music, but Wolfe layers the sorrow with a compelling sense of urgency. [Oct 2019, p114]

Fans will debate stand-outs but Brothers will shiver the spine of anyone in love with unsanitised rock'n'roll. [Jun 2010, p.128]

The old Jarvis Cocker is back. [Dec 2006, p.130]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this template leaves little room for subtlety, yet what the duo's first lacks in brains it makes up for in sheer noisy exuberance, displaying on Crazy/Forever a common thread with the once majestic ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. [Dec 2009, p. 116]

Unhinged but snow-cool. [Apr 2004, p.114]

Overall this is brain music of remarkable potency. [Aug 2003, p.102]

It seems they've raised their game in hallucinogenic style. [Jun 2009, p.135]

It finds them in rejuvenated form. Their lyrical seriousness is present and correct. [Nov 2017, p.115]

They've long threatened to make an album that would propel them to metal's major league. This might be it. [Jun 2013, p.95]

Their pitch-perfect nods to Badfinger, Jimi Hendrix and Big Star come with a timeless quality. [Sep 2015, p.112]

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

Pop-house banger Bipolaire-Les Noirs and the double-jointed Afrobeats of Soleil De Volt show a knack for memorable hooks, while the album's meditative second act, not least the expansive Peau De Chagrin-Bleu De Nuit, brings emotional depth to a fascinating journey across cultures. [Jun 2018, p.106]

The weaponised theatricality never overshadows a set of songs that are as entertaining as they are grandly ambitious. [Apr 2019, p.116]

Whereas on record the songs tended towards the delicate, here they're fleshed out, with a richer sound that evokes The Zombies or Love. More vital, is how the set-up re-imagines earlier material. [Jun 2019, p.116]

Help Us Stranger is Jack White and Brendan Benson's love letter to classic rock. [Summer 2019, p.114]

More familiar than freaky. [Jan 2019, p.114]

Color Theory is a record that weighs heavy with low self-esteem and personal tragedy. [Mar 2020, p.122]

10 years if touring, recording and a recent divorce have provided enough grit, soul and burr with the sort of peculiarly exquisite pain that's grown up enough to register life's grand futilities. [Sep 2013, p.101]

An excellent return. [Dec 2012, p.109]

A confident and enjoyable debut. [May 2019, p.111]

The follow-up mostly reverts to the synth-oriented dream-poppiness of 2010's Halcyon Digest. [Nov 21015, p.107]

This 131-track splurge still manages to throw up the occasional gem. [Sep 2012, p.116]

The Next Day is a loud, thrilling, steamrollingly confident rock and roll album full of noise, energy, and words that--if as cryptic as ever they were--sound like they desperately need to be sung. [Apr 2013, p.92]

A low-light delight. [Jul 2012, p.110]

The Texan singer and guitarist's fifth album feels like a one-man exploration of African-American music. .. The blues is in safe hands. [Apr 2019, p.110]

An arresting record for challenging times. [Mar 2012, p.113]

As a live document of The Rollling Stones in all their swaggering, arrogant pomp, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out is damned near essential. [Jan 2010, p.131]

Not only is he an edgy folk singer, but Regan's second album sees the young Dubliner plug in to a similar ragged, rockabilly vein to Dylan's mid '60s classics. [Feb 2010, p. 111]

A pleasing indulgence, then, rather than a necessity. [Jun 2011, p.117]

Swinging , both fleet-footed and fingered, and bursting with humour and joy, the brothers ball the jack on what is perhaps their best album yet. [Jul 2014, p.101]

What sets Faded Gloryville apart, however, is the new bluesy, soul-filled groove she found recording in Muscle Shoals. [Oct 2015, p.113]

It's not a record for anyone who likes subtle character development, but it hits the visceral spot. [May 2017, p.112]

A new fraught kind of soul music. [Mar 2019, p.115]

At times, things feel in danger of being middle of the road, but that's made up for by heavenly moments and voice-of-a-generation lyrcs already drawing comparisons with Lorde. [Dec 2019, p.110]

The Long Journey Home and God, I'm Missing You might look back at the past, but Crowell's best years are right now. [Jun 2014, p.107]

There is little that feels dull or predictable. [May 2017, p.107]

The music is stripped-back but always eclectic. [Nov 2018, p.104]

When it swells and soars, it doesn't just work. It werks. [Feb 2014, p.115]

A simple, often stark record reminiscent of her eponymous 1985 debut.

Fortunately, Elliott and Timbaland's idea of old school is rather unorthodox. [Jan 2003, p.121]

A record whose combination of chirpy choruses and sharp, dark lyricism is difficult to resist. [Jul 2019, p.106]

The familiarity of Ivy Tripp breeds disquiet, rather than contempt, its surface cracking like thin ice, revealing its depths. [May 2015, p.115]

Anyone ever touched by the likes of English Rose or Fly will find much to cherish here. [Oct 2018, p.113]

Atlanta Millionaires Club radiates a warm Muscle Shoals glow. ... Yet there's the unmistakable shape of '90s R&B and gloopy modern-day hip-hop moving beneath the more classicist surface. [Summer 2019, p.116]

Far from spreading himself thin, the polymath composer seems more uncontainable with each release. [Oct 2018, p.108]

It takes ?uestlove from The Roots to reproduce the kind of smooth, mellow-aged soul that made Green's name. [July 2008, p.102]

You could lose yourself for days here. [Dec 2005, p.142]

Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me is fuelled by issues addressed in Jeremy Bolm's furiously screamed, raw and sometimes, frustratingly po-faced vocals. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

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

A wonderful counterpart to his book, and just as special on its own. [Jul 2020, p.110]

It's true that none of the tracks here quite scale the heights reached early in his career.... But... James is at least trying to move beyond what he's achieved already. [May 2006, p.124]

AJ Tracey not only lives up to his hype, he transcends it. [Mar 2019, p.114]

This is far more than just a vanity project by a label boss. [Jan 2018, p.113]

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

His third album shows his mic skills to be only marginally above average--though given the right vintage soul groove he can raise his game. [Jan 2011, p.138]

Sees a great guitarist becoming a great songwriter. [Apr 2006, p.113]

For all of its typical craftsmanship you can't help but wish it had more moments like the stark despair of My Rock, My Rope. [Oct 2018, p.119]