It's the quality of the songwriting that really shines through here: every song is top drawer in melodic terms. [Feb 2019, p.115]

An intriguing collision of the musical outer reaches and American indie rock. [Jun 2013, p.107]

Always an engaging songwriter with a strong mystical and elemental bent, the seamlessly flowing July Flame now adds an increased accessibility to her armoury. [Feb 2010, p. 112]

He beefs up his sound with thumping drums and strings and what emerges sounds epic in comparison. [Mar 2012, p.111]

Unashamedly English with a slightly mysterious undertow, the likes of Harvest Time and Graven wood recall Pink Floyd at their most pastoral. [Jan 2010,p. 126]

St Elsewhere rivals Gorillaz' Demon Days for sheer inventiveness. [Jun 2006, p.109]

A deep listen. [Apr 2017, p.111]

A purely musical delight. [May 2007, p.126]

It's a beautifully dark album. [May 2016, p.107]

Like Coldplay rummaging through a charity shop, it's a patchwork of moods and styles all stitched together by Dangerfield's heart-on-sleeve exhortations. [Aug 2006, p.113]

A sprawling, bewitching album. [Aug 2014, p.108]

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]

In its own flawed, modest, off-kilter way, this might turn out to be one of the most accomplished records of the year. [May 2015, p.98]

Ultimately, The Coral aren't doing anything they haven't done before, but the greatness of these songs is undeniable and the production is slyly inventive enough to to keep us hooked. [Apr 2016, p.115]

London Sessions is a solid memento of the group at their peak, albeit closer to a Peel session than a live album. [Feb 2011, p.120]

More variety is needed and it's all been done before, but rarely with such a sense of fun. [Apr 2008, p.108]

It's big and clever; also bloody brilliant. [Aug 2012, p.98]

Altogether, it's a thing of great beauty. [Jul 2018, p.112]

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

This [is] their best album in an age. [Sep 2012, p.110]

The most intimate record of the year, and one of the warmest. [Oct 2003, p.113]

Eventually, though, the guitar-and-piano-only, stripped-down dynamics mean that a dull torpor settles over the album.

A worthy addition to the Clash canon. [Nov 2008, p.126]

She sounded better as a bit of a bad girl. [Jun 2014, p.106]

Thier first albun of entirely self-penned instrumentals should finally see an end of [the world music tag], the fluid yet percussive tunes also impossibly nimble. [Oct 2009, p.116]

Very New York and strongly redolent of the whole DFA/LCD sound. [Jul 2005, p.114]

Crucially, as well as nailing the sound perfectly, they do so with a winning passion. [March 2011, p. 117]

Alone again, naturally - and rather beautifully. [Apr 2020, p.106]

Embryonic has a cloudy feel, full of hulking, malformed basslines, distorted drums, and melodies that circle without ever ascending. [Nov 2009, p.102]

You Can't Go Back... holds no surprises. [Apr 2016, p.114]

Each of the 10 songs are beautifully simple, sounding like they've been passed down in a Welsh oral tradition from generations long forgotten. [May 2012, p.100]

A trash-conscious blend of craft and humour gives them the sass, style and balls to sound like no one else around. [Mar 2004, p.111]

Strikes a winning formula of DIY integrity and big bucks sheen. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Ghost Culture's self-titled debut often feels like eavesdropping on a late-night confessionary: one where influences such as Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode mastermind Martin Gore and Soulwax are fused into a thundering, fluid whole. [Feb 2015, p.109]

With Fender's vocals soaring over skyscraper guitars and choruses that accelerate into a surging, full-throttle blast, it's hard not to imagine the stadium potential of these songs. There's a power in their marriage of beauty and disgruntlement, towering moments that recall '80s U2 or Simple Minds. [Oct 2019, p.115]

The tales of love, loss, life and death on his 14th album are embellished with brass flourishes for the first time, which only adds to the sense of drama. [Nov 2012, p.102]

Que Aura presents his top-drawer songwriting in the form of new-wave psychedelia, smart guitar-pop and budget R&B. [Oct 2017, p.111]

You could break your teeth on their solid pop structures, especially on Hated By The Powers That Be, but there's a volatility in these touch-paper guitars and flammable vocals, that ensures Brickbat is never straightforward. [May 2019, p.115]

This album sees the acquisition of a new twin-sticksman rhythm section, which powers Dwyer's ever-progressive tracks to new heights of psychedelic delirium. [Oct 2016, p.110]

This record's packed with singalong moments. [Apr 2017, p.108]

An intriguingly woozy melange of out-of-focus vocals, feedback squalls and metronomic beats, everything coming together just so on the compelling 'Nothing Ever Happened.' [Nov 2008, p.121]

While on the secular likes of Randy Newman's Losing You she's never less than majestic, it's when celebrating her Lord that things really click. [Oct 2010, p.116]

Even more meandering than its celebrated, if somewhat cold, predecessor. It's also more confident, more coherent, yielding an all-enveloping warmth that's entirely resistant to any iPod shuffle function. [Jul 2004, p.119]

It confirms that rarest of achievements: a group somehow hanging on to the essence who they are, while pushing their art into thrillingly unforeseen places. [Aug 2017, p.99]

There are enough thrilling moments on Black Dialogue to justify the collaboration. [Apr 2005, p.123]

There are few voices in contemporary alt-country quite so adept at wresting consolation from the depths of despair as Hinson's sonorous baritone. [Jul 2010, p.133]

The War On Drugs might never quite find what they're looking for but with a record as gloriously realised as A Deeper Understanding, it feels like they're getting closer every day. [Sep 2017, p.104]

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

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

Furiously innovative first offering. [Feb 2020, p.112]

It's a record of quiet confidence, its brightness dialled down but its impact still fierce. [Jun 2020, p.100]

[It takes a while] for the songs to emerge out of the mist. When they do, they stand among the band's best work. [Jul 2019, p.104]

It's not a perfect album--some songs feel too fast, almost manic in their desire to exist--but its message is clear. Kesha is surviving, yes, but thriving too. [Sep 2017, p.108]

New View, the follow-up to 2013's Personal Record, shares that persistent quality, setting up home in the corner of your head after the briefest acquaintance. [Feb 2016, p.110]

It's a thrilling listen. [Dec 2014, p.119]

Feels like reconnecting with a well-loved school friend on Facebook and finding that he's barely changed his clothes, let alone his ideas: a pleasure but not quite a thrill. [May 2012, p.100]

His synapse-fusing take on acid-house, however, first showcased on 2005's OK Cowboy, reamins an underground phenomenon--this sequel won't alter that. [Nov 2009, p.114]

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

There could be no finer tribute to a departed friend. [May 2008, p.135]

This is living, breathing music that avoids the trap of comfy nostalgia. [Jun 2013, p.94]

Someone still plays the Devil's music. [Jun 2004, p.98]

O'Rourke revisits the lush orchestration and dreamy atmospherics he pioneered in Gastr Del Sol, but hanging out with Thurston Moore also appears to have had an effect. [Dec 2001, p.128]

It's clever, zesty and kaleidoscopic and sometimes... quite brilliant. [Aug 2002, p.121]

Their second LP contains songs of remarkable quality. [Nov 2018, p.106]

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

Twelve Nudes is a deliriously fun, seriously thought-provoking record that manages to gratify on every level. [Sep 2019, p.113]

An extraordinary record. [Mar 2007, p.115]

It's impulsive and scrappy, lyrically uncomplicated and musically crude, yet each strange, hypnotic composition turns a quiet epiphany into a revelation. [Sep 2018, p.113]

It's to Russell and Albarn's eternal credit, then, that they not only noticed but reach out and made this wonderful record happen. [Jul 2012, p.99]

Dazzling with its intensity, the futuristic splice of swooping symphonics and grimy looped percussion once again sets Stevens in his own orbit. [Dec 2010, p.114]

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

In all, a most diverting, Frankenstein-esque collision of caveman demon worship and unhinged science. [Dec 2013, p.115]

Anderson's anger, defiance and pride are all here, but what comes out is peculiarly beautiful and affecting. [Aug 2014, p.108]

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

Having been criticized for lacking emotional resonance with his lyrics, Bird addresses the problem [here]. Worth the wait. [April 2012, p.90]

All told, the grand old men of post-rock still rock. [May 2016, p.108]

The Coup's sixth album recalls OutKast or The Roots at their boldest, and Riley's an engaging host. [Dec 2012, p.103]

Potent stuff. [Jan 2018, p.114]

It's not ground breaking, but its commitment to creating an authentically deranged vibe could see your fringe grow an inch with every song. [Jun 2012, p.109]

There is nothing new here but Teleman make it sound like their own. [May 2016, p.109]

New Path has an almost cinematic drama that makes its propulsive dancefloor rhythms thunderously exhilarating. [May 2018, p.108]

Tremendous fun while it lasts, but hard to recall once the tracer lines have faded away. [Feb 2020, p.110]

While not every idea feels as flesh out, Modus Vivendi teases a talented artist trying something genuinely new. [Apr 2020, p.105]

If there is an immediate impression here it is one of polish and precision. [May 2015, p.104]

An emerging songwriting talent with a style and sophistication all his own. [Oct 2015, p.107]

In truth, there are unexpected delights at every turn here, not least in the realisation that Mercury Rev may only just be hitting their collective stride. [Sep 2001, p.115]

Paul Kelly still captivates with the strength of his storytelling. [May 2013, p.102]

Cthulu has the melodrama, but not the bite, of Nine Inch Nails and So Blonde is pointless grunge landfill.... 100 Years achieves so much with just a delicate vocal, minimalist piano and lowing strings that the harder-edged songs seem like empty noise. [May 2014, p.109]

[Sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank] are adept at finding new connections, new paths. [Mar 2015, p.118]

Emotion drips from every breath. [Feb 2009, p.118]

Nobody... rekindles the dark brooding of their first two albums. [Dec 2014, p.117]

To a soundtrack of country blues and earthly soul, parallels are drawn with past and present injustices. [Apr 2017, p.112]

One of the finest of his career. [May 2020, p.109]

The Argument is a wondrous thing, full of its own joy. [Aug 2013, p.99]

Keeping hold of their past while seizing the present, Suede are still capable of taking you over. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Oozes convention. [Jun 2003, p.98]

Enjoyable, but a gold star or two short of his 1997 masterpiece, Other Songs.

In the time since OK Computer, Radiohead seem to have built up reservoirs of fresh bile and listened to a lot of Aphex Twin records.... Musically, the album's best features are its keening, lapwing guitars and a thin, atonal orchestral drizzle.... Kid A will still baffle and upset those who are disappointed that they don't do Creep anymore. [Nov. 2000, p.96]