Eucalyptus is a carefully constructed illusion of random perceptions, an apparently scattered psyche coming together beautifully. [Aug 2017, p.102]

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.

The four-piece, fronted by Valerie Trebeljahr, rarely ever risk bereaking a sweat on Our Inventions. Theirs is a world where icy electro clicks and surges in sublime slow-mo. [May 2010, p.122]

Melodies unfold, lyrics reveal their meaning and the wait is revealed as having been worth it. [Jun 2014, p.116]

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

Sometimes an attitude, a thumping beat and an A-plus scream like the one Carrie Brownstein provides here are really all that's needed. [Oct 2002, p.117]

The key is that Murphy, unlike his peers and the bands he's produced, is more interested in excellence than cool. [Feb 2005, p.96]

The Neon Skyline stands up as a great collection of moodily atmospheric songs. [Mar 2020, p.120]

A more approachable set that engulfs his melodramatic grumble with dizzy synths and sax from Chicago extraordinaire Mantana Roberts. [Feb 2019, p.115]

He more often turns the spotlight on himself, raw and uncompromisingly direct in a way that only an album recorded in a few short days can be. [Feb 2016, p.115]

This eccentric experiment from indie-dance pioneer Steve Mason sees him embracing the '80s with fervour. [Aug 2008, p.132]

Easy Machines is ultimately more engaging, its mangled classic pop recalling Guided By Voices. [Jun 2017, p.105]

There's a crystal-clear production and a return to his most precious musical touchstones. [Jul 2017, p.115]

Remarkably fresh, contemporary and upbeat for a band's 13th studio album. [Jul 2017, p.106]

On this career highlight they deliver their memorandum as effectively as at any time in their 30-odd-years of operation. [May 2013, p.113]

As twinkly-toed as debuts come. [Aug 2017, p.109]

By turns impassioned, thoughtful and thrilling, it makes for a standout debut. [Jun 2014, p.117]

Richard Feerless's far-ranging and impeccable influences are combined to create something new and exhilarating. [Oct 2011, p.131]

Forty albums into his career, Morrison might just be summoning a new creative burst. [Feb 2019, p.115]

It's one of the best things Childs has ever done. [Dec 2013, p.104]

Overall, a promising, if risk-free start. [Apr 2019, p.116]

Truely, a voyage of discovery. [Jan 2009, p.121]

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

Somehow nothing appears to be missing from the tantalisingly brief beats and blues of 'There Is No Light,' while 'Chain Of Steel's' tick-tocking marimba adds spooky variation. [May 2009, p.119]

Only a pair of horribly grafted on cameos from Iggy Pop and Elf Kid threatens to undo the good work. Otherwise, the charm offensive continues apace. [Aug 2017, p.108]

You & I is the most single-minded record you'll hear all year. [Aug 2016, p.107]

Orkenvandring and Sauerkraut evoke the motorik thrum and ringing guitar melodies of Neu!, splashed with Balearic colour and cloosely attuned to the squishy ambience of the hour just before dawn. [May 2010, p.125]

Immersive and enigmatic, it's the work of a singular talent. [Sep 2017, p.116]

Beast Epic arks a surprising loop back to the more insular feel of his earlier material. [Sep 2017, p.110]

QOTSA's seventh album wisely tweaks the recipe just enough to keep things spicy. [Sep 2017, p.114]

Carved Into Stone revisits their sludge-prog-industrial metal roots with impressively honed and effective results. [Jun 2012, p.100]

An exuberant debut. [Aug 2004, p.110]

The Savage Heart is the Revue's third album and is comprehensively their best to date. [Nov 2012, p.98]

Radiates good feeling and warmth. [Nov 2005, p.131]

Homebrewed splendour. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Their third album pulsates in glorious obliviousness to all interim "developments" in rock. [Feb 2016, p.115]

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]

Superabundance us a celebratory affair--a hugely likable and intelligent pop album that sings with human warmth and, ultimately, quiet defiance. [Apr 2008, p.106]

With high-up bassline grooves and synth-psych mayhem oozing from every pore, it's another absolute winner. [Jun 2017, p.105]

If you ever wondered how Bjork would sound if she was caught in a snowdrift, here's your answer. [May 2009, p.112]

The results are just wonderful. [Sep 2003, p.112]

Anyone familiar with Portishead's magisterial Third and Barrow's production on The Horrors' Primary Colours knows the terrain-metronomic rhythms stretched like elastic; percussion as precise as surgery; disembodied keyboards and vocals. [Dec 2009, p.11]

One Part Lullaby's chugging, folk/soul interface and tagged-on beats has a more natural flow than before ... He's still proffering those cryptic, jittery asides ("one part lullaby, two parts fear" in the title track), but at least Lou Barlow's music sounds relaxed these days.

These dreamy but ambivalent folk and pop pieces have an incantatory quality. [Sep 2017, p.116]

Like the '70s, then, but much more fun. [Nov 2002, p.98]

Even more mesmeric and deep into Nick Drake territory: intense and slightly damaged. [Jun 2004, p.94]

There's so much going on here that joining the musical dots is a lengthy journey, but on this evidence Georgia can be special. [Sep 2015, p.110]

Greendale is a bonkers, utterly headstrong conceit. Let's hope that Neil Young never stops having them. [Sep 2003, p.111]

It's frequently unsettling listen, but never a joyless one. [Dec 2019, p.110]

The twosome have cooked up something special. [Dec 2016, p.113]

An epic backdrop for that next Pacific Coast Highway road trip. [Jun 2005, p.102]

An album full of playful daring. [Aug 2006, p.115]

There's a sleek electronic sheen but also a welcome return to stripped-down songcraft. [Jun 2010, p.126]

It might be falling apart, but it comes together beautifully. [Feb 2019, p.115]

The 11 tracks on Citizen Zombie find these progenitors of the "Bristol sound" in satisfying rude health. [Apr 2015, p.108]

Its humongous piledriving choruses, variously recalling Placebo, Wheatus and even Rush, are match by its gloriously knowing wit. [Jul 2017, p.112]

It's beautifully put together, remarkably so given that it was constructed largely via the internet. [Jun 2009, p.124]

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]

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

After a rocky couple of years, Good Evening New York City is proof that Paul McCartney's mojo appears full recharged. [Jan 2010, p. 116]

Few bands epitomise so well the virtues of not fixing that which isn't broken.

It's pop opulence with the wires sticking out the back, high-end songwriting with a coat of lead paint, but those flaw and fixes give Shitty Hits a compelling outsider edge. [Sep 2017, p.116]

This really is a joy. [Dec 2001, p.121]

A worthy and wonderful addition to [their] cannon. [Aug 2012, p.98]

Where other ambient artists can veer dangerously close to musak, Frahm always brims with invention. [Dec 2019, p.109]

An LP that is all over the place, yet with a clearly defined sense of self. [Nov 2018, p.105]

Their sixth learns from those mistakes [on their fifth album], sounding rougher, tougher and altogether more like the raucous joy of their live shows. [Sep 2013, p.102]

Although comprised of offcuts, it amounts to a great fourth and final record. [Dec 2018, p.104]

[The album] is in turns seething and sweet. [Nov 2014, p.115]

Snapshots of old stand-bys come through, but it's in tunes such as the disco tribute Rainbow and the clonky piano of The Drifter that his gift for marrying the modern to history, both recent and ancient, really shines. [Apr 2015, p.108]

Filled with brilliantly wonky melodies, The Weather is a sonic hall-of-mirrors. [Jul 2017, p.112]

Grace/Wastelands isn't quite the defining statement of his genius that his cheerleaders always insisted was just around the corner, but it demolishes the charge that his talent has been fatally squandered. [Apr 2009, p.98]

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]

It's straightforward rock'n'roll and it's done with irresistible vim and contagious melody. [Jul 2016, p.107]

Washington's gift for euphonic arrangements and eagerness to explore new forms is evident throughout. [Summer 2018, p.115]

Almost defiantly ramshackle the mix of classy songcraft and threadbare instrumentation nonetheless makes for a compelling listen. [Jun 2014, p.118]

Sounds more focused than ever. [Sep 2017, p.115]

A boundlessly entertaining expose of what happens when you mix fine words with excellent melodies to make great songs.

This 147-track box (plus 92-page booklet) is thankfully packed with predominately great music. [Oct 2017, p.113]

Good Morning to the Night is a truly remarkable record, one that will repay your deep and repeated listening tenfold. [Aug 2012, p.99]

There are too many skits, but there's still more than enough fun to go round. [#180, p.108]

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]

Completely unexpected, utterly brilliant. [Feb 2019, p.116]

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

Some of the best [tracks] of Rose's career. [May 2019, p.116]

This is an often astonishing record. [Feb 2015, p.112]

It's a stimulating and animated listen, his resigned confidences frequently sharpened by dyspeptic wit. [Jun 2017, p.105]

The result is something of a left-field classic. [Nov 2008, p.114]

His fourth LP feels like a statement of defiance, strength and unabashed beauty. [Jul 2017, p.112]

This is not a document to be eaten all at one, maybe, but it brilliantly records Dylan's skill for interpreting his own songs. [Summer 2019, p.118]

A nice career reboot, in short, which doesn't torch everything they've achieved in 15 years together. [Sep 2015, p.114]

At times recalling Eno's Another Green World.

The singer's greasy, street pimp-talking vocal style is sometimes at odds with The Sadies' cleaned-up garage vibe, but if you can reconcile a 70-year old drug addict growling: "I like my rum, cos I got no teeth, I let it flow over my gums"... with fiddle-led folk rock and surf guitar, then Night & Day will push all your buttons and then some. [Aug 2012, p.111]

Ultimately, Qualia's propulsive grooves make it the perfect soundtrack to a journey. [Nov 2017, p.115]

Anicca's luminous take on electronica shows Mandowa still prioritises quality over quantity and features some stellar collaborators. [Dec 2019, p.114]

This is a record of real substance. [Dec 2019, p.111]

Contradiction incarnate, Yeezus is Kanye's most Kanyeish LP yet. [Sep 2013, p.103]

Potent incantations such as Nissim and, particularly, the two tracks with Warp's sinister rapper Gonjasufi, prove this to be a wonderfully bananas breakthrough. [Oct 2012, p.100]