Surprisingly muted, sophisticated synth-pop that lowers its eyes and keeps to the shadows, a glint of hi-tech disco chrome occasionally catching the light. [Feb 2018, p.116]

His penchant for flyaway drama is anchored by his winning way with a soaring melody. [Feb 2018, p.115]

They could do with stretching out a little. [Feb 2018, p.115]

Morrison swings as he sings, conventionally but enjoyably in a classy jazz club mode. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Curious rather than essential. [Feb 2018, p.112]

He delivers stompers and torch-carriers alike with irresistible power, all couched in sonic opulence. [Feb 2018, p.111]

The best record of the three record of the three recorded with his new and far younger band Promise Of The real, it veers between raw fury an tender melodies. [Feb 2018, p.110]

She's created an album that discovers an uncanny balance all of its own. [Feb 2018, p.109]

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty sand Bob Dylan makes their presence felt, especially on the title track, but the sci-fi sound collage that starts No Man's Land and Forever Pt. 2 underline the band's subtle warping of the Americana dream. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Badu shines a light on less frequently explored areas of Kuti's back catalogue. ... One of music's undisputed heavyweights. [Jan 2018, p.116]

Williams and Hugo's unerring ability to transform a few notes into a sharply mesmeric riff laces their most experimental work yet with immediacy. Alive and well, N.E.R.D. have come back swinging. [Jan 2018, p.111]

Looose's invocation of early '80s New York, complete with squeaky sax solo, is less compelling, but when they hit their groove with the aptly titled Heavy Meditation, it really does sound as if there are superhuman powers at work. [Jan 2018, p.114]

There's a real and sinewy loveliness to these compositions. [Jan 2018, p.106]

Entertaining and informative. [Jan 2018, p.117]

A new rock force was born. [Jan 2018, p.117]

Bananas but in a good way. [Jan 2018, p.106]

Miguel has been mentioned in the same breath as Frank Ocean (often by himself) and The Weeknd, but this album doesn't quite unlock such self-contained worlds. [Jan 2018, p.107]

Hayward drums like h e needs your attention right now, Moore plays like an apocalypse, and it's all loud, snappy and catchy as hell. [Jan 2018, p.109]

These BBC radio sessions from the period don't offer many revelations. There's still a thrill to be had from listening to them rattle through this selection of--mostly--non-originals though. [Jan 2018, p.117]

An album where technological trickery frequently delivers real magic. [Jan 2018, p.110]

Growing up is hard to do, but Bruland has clawed some fabulously uneasy songs from the process. [Jan 2018, p.109]

Opener 9:13 is too close perhaps to Brian Eno to make much of an impact. But when a chorus of ghostly voices rise above the fractured piano of Phantom Brickworks III, the theme really works, offering a genuinely unsettling air of spookiness. [Jan 2018, p.106]

Sometimes the results a re a bit too wilfully weird. ... When his songs are sturdier though, Blau is an intriguing figure. [Jan 2018, p.106]

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

A smart melting pot of influences and references. [Jan 2018, p.113]

It's a record that manages to find hope among the uncertainties. [Jan 2018, p.113]

There are a few missteps along the way--the attitudinal stomp of Wicked being one--but it is otherwise executed with authority. [Jan 2018, p.114]

Impossibly energetic, joyously extreme and a little bit exhausting. [Jan 2018, p.114]

With Permo, they display a self-starting urgency that keeps them up to speed with the turbulent here and now. [Jan 2018, p.114]

Both [HIM and Pray] perfectly distill the vision and boldness of this return. [Jan 2018, p.115]

Perhaps not something you'd put on to get the party started, Yung Lean has though nailed the comedown. [Jan 2018, p.114]

Potent stuff. [Jan 2018, p.114]

An LP that, on balance, really is just for Christmas. [Jan 2018, p.113]

Sometimes overly busy album. ... Swift soars when she is most herself. [Jan 2018, p.112]

[Her] final LP gives as much pleasure as her 2002 breakthrough. [Jan 2018, p.110]

It's clear The Architect has elevated her to a whole new level. [Jan 2018, p.109]

It starts off well. ... It's a shame then, that the second half of the album is so unspectacular. [Jan 2018, p.109]

The balancing of Gainsbourg's natural good taste with this deeper emotional resonance remains key throughout. [Jan 2018, p.109]

Utopia is like walking through a vast tropical greenhouse, full of sunlight, oxygen and the twittering of birds. [Jan 2018, p.108]

The manic arrangements sometimes overwhelm, but there are worse places to drown than Baths' ball-pit of an imagination. [Jan 2018, p.106]

Songs Of Experience will likely go down as a late-career classic. [Jan 2018, p.104]

His best record in more than a decade. [Dec 2017, p.104]

Smart, witty and warm. [Dec 2017, p.113

Memory reverts to his early-noughties down-tempo incarnation as OCS, which only illuminates his frailties as a singer/lyricist. [Dec 2017, p.109]

His second album evokes a fragmented, at times nightmarish, digital world. [Dec 2017, p.113]

The frequently heavy subject matter is brightened musically by flashes of pedal steel and taut strings--meaning things never get too oppressive. When it's over though, you're left feeling you've been touched by something deeply elemental. [Dec 2017, p.109]

Morrissey, at 58, once again proves himself a pop provocateur of enduring efficacy. [Dec 2017, p.100]

This 25th anniversary deluxe edition includes a collection of curious demos and live takes. ... The record itself remains a masterpiece, a cross-generational smash hit from which they'd never truly recover. [Dec 2017, p.115]

A roster of guest vocalists elevate his noir-shaded take in Detroit techno and '80s "dark-wave" synth-pop. [Dec 2017, p.102]

The album is drenched in the cosmic swirl of warm synths and dreamy atmospherics. [Dec 2017, p.106]

While odd duds such as Cryin' In Your Beer occasionally stall proceedings, this trip down memory lane otherwise yields compelling results. [Dec 2017, p.113]

Fans of his early output will continue to wonder why he's forsaken immaculate prog house so completely: those up for the trip, conversely, will just be keen to know where he's headed next. [Dec 2017, p.108]

A joy throughout. [Dec 2017, p.105]

Politics seldom sound this heartfelt and honest. [Oct 2017, p.108]

Deacon's score is all subtle mood shifts and intriguing instrumentation. [Nov 2017, p.108]

Dillards-quality instrumentals such as Office Supplies keep the whole album zinging along. [Dec 2017, p.106]

Admirers of The Boo Radleys, the group Carr side-stepped stardom with in the '90s in favour of eclectic cult-dom, will appreciate the sophisticated dance-pop, rock, soul and Brian Wilson-like orchestral curlicues in evidence. [Dec 2017, p.102]

A dense dish to consume in one sitting, perhaps, but Bootsy's spicy narrations and undulating, jazz-informed basslines hold it all together. [Dec 2017, p.105]

Casually unique and an unbounded joy to listen to, it's the quintessential Baxter Dury album. [Nov 2017, p.105]

Screen Memories feels like the cryptic overspill, gnomic fragments of ideas and visions embedded in gloriously baroque synth-pop. [Dec 2017, p.109]

The sound of an artistic slump coming to an end. [Dec 2017, p.107]

Alicia Bognanno's diary-like vocals still slide from ingenue-like to raging screams and back again but now her delivery is a little more taut. It makes the bits where she loses control feel very real. [Dec 2017, p.102]

Across these songs, Bridgers manages an unusual marriage of delicacy and lo-fi wit, and it's a union that has led her to quietly make one of the albums of the year. [Dec 2017, p.102]

The Ooz can be dark and difficult. But it is also ambitious and delightful, reaffirming the delightful, reaffirming the delicate boundary between beauty and ruin. [Dec 2017, p.103]

An album rich in swirling emotions, backed by inspired productions from electronica virtuosos Arca and London-based Jam City. [Dec 2017, p.106]

Sun Gong is a two-part aural resonance-bath suitable for ultimate relaxation. [Dec 2017, p.106]

While Introspection and Ocean Flow Zither pluck strings in infinite caverns of echo and temple bells, elsewhere things are more earthbound, though still transcendent. [Dec 2017, p.106]

While generational ennui smoulders in the lyrics, their main concern remains heartbreak and its vicissitudes. [Dec 2017, p.106]

Such bitter pills are sugared by some stellar Cure/Smiths-style indie arrangements, making this an uneasy treat. [Dec 2017, p.109]

A rip-roaringly varied listen. [Dec 2017, p.109]

An album with dirgeful ballads, though they do at least let her show off her excellent voice. [Dec 2017, p.109]

The result is as Russell surely intended. [Dec 2017, p.110]

Her second album's pithy songs of turmoil, imperfect love and drinking bring the weight of personal life experience. [Dec 2017, p.110]

Where The May Queen plugs into a strain of joyous psychedelic folk that owes much to the 1660s as the 1960s, the stark desert blues of the title track showcases Plant's love of North African music, not to mention a voice that's been beautifully weathered by the elements. Who needs a Zeppelin reunion anyway? [Dec 2017, p.112]

This is an almanac for the chronically inert, best when bottling the sparks that fly as misery meets fine company. [Dec 2017, p.111]

Hedben crafts the best album of his career. [Dec 2017, p.112]

A soul-baring album it may be, but The Weather Statio's forecast is still bright and breezy. [Dec 2017, p.113]

If there's a weakness it's the lack of an obvious pop banger. [Dec 2017, p.113]

Pacific Daydream can be read as a bitter reaction to the Trump era and geo-political chaos, or maybe it's just a set of (mostly) great tunes that provide light relief from it all. [Nov 2017, p.114]

A spirited version of Wild Mountain Thyme salutes his influences but it's Head's own songwriting that draws attention. [Nov 2017, p.113]

Everything you love about the band is here, along with anything you don't. ... The demos drive home just how beautifully The Smiths played together. [Nov 2017, p.116]

Rarely has he sounded so consistently vulnerable. It suits him. [Nov 2017, p.107]

Old fans will be delighted: new recruits may be seduced. [Nov 2017, p.112]

Nine jewels of noir glamour. [Nov 2017, p.108]

If their principal audience is a nostalgic one, The Selecter deserve credit for refusing to bask in its obvious comforts. [Nov 2017, p.112]

This polished set plays to his strengths--Oil And Water is an emotive half-ballad with Rag'n'Bone ambitions while the surging Fuel To The Fire channels Emeli Sande. It's a relief, though, when he lightens up a bit. [Nov 2017, p.112]

Modern folk songs shot through with great melancholy and humour, and embroidered with bursts of electronica and instrumentation. [Nov 2017, p.108]

Their most richly-coloured record to date. [Nov 2017, p.104]

Each St. Vincent album has outclassed the one before, and her fifth is no exception. [Nov 2017, p.106]

His best uptempo record since Odelay. [Nov 2017, p.109]

An intoxicating approximation of Beach House's gauzy atmospherics. They replicate them skillfully enough but you can't help feeling they're ultimately trying to move into a space that's already taken. [Nov 2017, p.107]

Things get really interesting once the early euphoria fades, with Jenny Hval collaboration Bungl (Like A Ghost) stirring eldritch poetry and fractured jazz into an enthralling mix. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Neither subtle nor very shocking, it still sounds as if Manson, Countess Bathory-style, has received a shot of fresh blood. [Nov 2017, p.111]

There's the occasional intriguing beat and nods to musical theatre. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Killer tunes. The hyperventilating Buccaneers Of Hispaniola is as cheesily brilliant as it sounds. [Nov 2017, p.107]

Not cutting edge, but it;s looking sharp all the same. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Revisitations of several Fall tunes, such as Hotel Bloedel from Perverted By Language, allow her glam spirit to shine, minus MES's obfuscation. New compositions are hot too. [Nov 2017, p.104]

As You Were stands as proof that rock's most charismatic general is back on active service and spoiling for trouble. [Nov 2017, p.102]