An album of subtle, but nonetheless wonderful ear-worms. [Jun 2018, p.110]

Touching and thoughtful, these 16 tracks are tended with the same care Clark brought to his beautiful storytelling. [Jun 2019, p.111]

Things calm down in the second half; You Of All People and Join are an angelic two-step, providing a welcome respite to end the album on a hopeful note. [Jun 2018, p.116]

A brilliant distillation of Reich's twin enduring motifs: repetition and melancholia. [Apr 2018, p.112]

Like eclipse glasses, these songs are a way to see things too intense to stare at directly. Peer through them, though, and there's Bejar's world, darkness and beauty visible. [Mar 2020, p.121]

The albums are interchangeable, neither one being the stylistic leap that was Is A woman in comparison to its predecessor, Nixon. [combined review of both discs; Mar 2004, p.112]

Mostly this debut sidesteps the freakish in favour of pop immediacy. [Jul 2015, p.113]

It's best when it's at its most trippy. Less effectove are the parping brass and chukka-chukka guitars on "Baby Can't Stop." Happily there's enough of the former to outweigh the latter. [Mar 2010, p.105]

At times Return To The Sea can be too clever for its own good. But there's also an ambition here that's hard to knock. [May 2006, p.126]

His production helps Malkmus's fifth post-Pavement album roll buy with a supremely confident West Coast looseness. [Sep 2011, p.116]

It was the album that cleared the way for them to become one of the '90s biggest bands. Country Feedback is still one of their best songs, a plaintive, alt-country ballad that allowed Michael Stipe's voice to shine. [Dec 2016, p.117]

Treat Yourself With Kindness... calls to mind what Morrissey and Marr might have come up with if requested to soundtrack the closing credits of It's A Wonderful Life. [Mar 2003, p.102]

Howard's evolving sound is fast becoming distinctively his own. [Jul 2018, p.118]

[Her] voice [is] as clear as a Great Smoky Mountain stream. [Aug 2005, p.127]

Band Of Joy is a good place for him to stay a little longer. [Oct 2010, p.114]

Impressively, all this is delivered with sufficient panache to make it sound fresh and exciting, rather than merely eager to please. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Morrison languidly strolls though the light and dark of his past stylistic glories over 14 entirely new self-penned songs. [Jan 2020, p.110]

It helps that the guitarist composes vocal-free songs that, on his fourth album, are reassuringly acoustic, a brew of melancholy and romance. [Mar 2019, p.120]

[Cohn reprises] his thick, often indecipherable Midwestern accent, but with spot-on timing and flashes of surreal wordplay. [Aug 2013, p.104]

He likes to temper the euphoria with a much darker undertow. [Mar 2012, p.112]

More often than not, this is pop punk as it should be: direct, streamlined and raucous but of enough substance that preachy points are made within nagging, urgent choruses. [Oct 2012, p.93]

A brilliant mix of pre-Wings-era oddball genius Macca-isms, the post-hippy blues of Tyrannosaurus Rex and some super-sticky '70s-scented gritty glitter-pop. [Oct 2014, p.110]

Funny, provocative and concise at 10 tracks, Bleed is the sound of a powerful and unique voice back on peak form. [Dec 2015, p.105]

Their debut LP serves as an impressive case for why--a mingling of youthful bombast and strikingly mature ambition, the songs here are anthemic, introspective, delightful. [Jun 2017, p.102]

Leithauser's voice is its usual delicious scuffed-up howl, the music covers a broad indie-rock sprawl, but the focus here is the stories. [Jun 2020, p.102]

The guitar may intrude a little more but Emmaar is still built around gnarled guitar, harmonised chants, hyperspeed percussion and the sense that this music is as relentless as the Sahara sun. [Mar 2014, p.121]

High On Fire sound like Lemmy fronting Black Sabbath on a Slayer tribute night. [Apr 2010, p.106]

It does reconfirm her knack for making grown-up dance albums unlike anyone else. [Jun 2015, p.106]

Blackly comedic, this is a great debut. [Nov 2018, p.112]

Toronto outfit, The Weekend, have been hailed as one of the most exciting new sounds in modern R&B -- hype that, on the basis of this equally startling follow-up, seems entirely justified. [Nov. 2011, p. 138]

The results are a no-less-entertaining 33 minutes of madness, like a Ramones album spun at 78 rpm. [Jan 2014, p.123]

This unashamedly adult collection drags Feist deeper still into major talent territory. [Jul 2017, p.107]

American Slang isn't a record to change the world. But if Brian Fallon is yet to take on the Springsteen mantle of seeing and articulating that world way beyond his own neighborhood, it will surely bringh im closer still to The Boss' heartland audience.

A work of lovely, floaty wonder. [Oct 2017, p.103]

Quietly thrilling. [Feb 2002, p.113]

Using everything from string quartets to jet turbines, metal sheets and electric guitar, it moves from being severely irritating to moments of great beauty. Worth persevering with, if you're willing to go the emotional distance.

Terrifying, but in a good way. The bar is raised. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Whereas Wanderland at least felt like Kelis was moving in a new direction... Tasty seems retrogressive, a step back into a more conventional landscape of guest raps and heavy basslines. [Mar 2003, p.106]

Its brilliance lies in sifting the wheat from the enormous quantity of thenameless movement's chaff. [Aug 2003, p.119]

Baird's pure vocals might promise a bucolic dream, but there's the seed of a nightmare mushrooming here, a tension Heron Oblivion push as far out as they can. [Apr 2016, p.107]

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]

It's with the good-foot funk of Save Me and slow-lane soul of Hold On that Williams's vision really pulls into focus. [Aug 2020, p.113]

Furman's collage approach and his Joanthan Richman-styled variations are charming, full with both life and with tunes. [Aug 2015, p.106]

There's plenty to uncover within its slowly crashing waves of sound, but the main problem is that it all washes over you without leaving a lasting impression. Sumptuous, but forgettable. [Jul 2018, p.108]

A trip worth taking. [Jun 2005, p.116]

Songs is uplifting, his clever wordplay and minor chord piano and guitar ballads reminiscent of his hero Townes Van Zandt. [Aug 2014, p.106]

An effortless marriage of modern dream-pop loops and classical 70s guitar lines, it entertains notions of Thin Lizzy and Steely Dan, while producer Chris Coady lends the whole a steadfastly modern feel. [Jun 2011, p.120]

Hallelujah Anyhow is the sound of a man happy in his own skin. [Nov 2017, p.108]

Follows a smilar pattern to 2003's Monday At The Hug And Pint, fleshing out their deceptively simple songs with expanded arrangements and quicker tempos. [Dec 2005, p.148]

This one is stranger than most. [Oct 2012, p.117]

Has the evocative tang of something ancient and the folk-rock idiom of the modern age. [Feb 2005, p.103]

It makes for an affecting, beautifully measured, very grown-up affair. [Mar 2012, p.111]

At 69 White has no need to prove himself, so be grateful he feels the desire to do it anyway. [Oct 2013, p.99]

There is nothing much new here for longtime fans, but Royal Albert Hall is a fine live record of one of popular music's minor-key geniuses. [May 2015, p.104]

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

Truly one of a kind. [Nov. 2010, p. 117]

Their rock'n'roll commitment is beyond doubt, although casual observers might want to wait for their promised new album. [Dec 2008, p.142]

Showcases her luminous vocals, rich lyrics and subtle arrangements. [Sep 2005, p.120]

A great leap forward. [Jan 2007, p.148]

The results defy you to even care whether it's real or fake: it rocks, end of story. [Apr 2015, p.107]

Whether reworking Steve Earle's 'The Mountain' or the traditional heart-tugger 'The Blind Child,' it represents a small yet very real personal triumph. [Dec 2007, p.121]

For this stunning first offering South London producer Derwin Panda connects organic harmonies of Noah Lennox's Panda Bear project with Four Tet's dizzying cut-ups. [Nov 2010, p.109]

A record that twists in thrilling shapes but rarely gets tangled. [Dec 2018, p.111]

Even if diverse moods elude them, they channel disenchantment superbly. [Jun 2019, p.108]

It sets out the stall for Tinariwen's most rewarding, mesmerising effort to date. [Sep 2011, p.118]

His second album evokes blade Runner's stylish futurism, populating it with Spaceape's paranoid poetry and drowning clean lines in tape crackle. [May 2011, p.119]

His knowing delivery is laboured and the relentless schmaltz proves difficult to stomach over a whole album. [Nov 2007, p.141]

There's a naivety and nostalgia to his evocation of woozy times on Northern beaches that is uniquely loveable--the perfect music for a summer's day. [May 2008, p.140]

Poetess-godmother of punk compiles own Best Of. And she's still sustaining. [Oct 2011, p.137]

A grippingly dramatic latterday-Leonard-Cohen-alike near-masterpiece. [Oct 2014, p.117]

It's a tough listen--Lotic's aural trademark, a kind of restless arrhythmia, can be exhausting--but pays off with dazzling highs such as Bulletproof, the blueprint for a reconstructed avant-pop paradigm. [Aug 2018, p.113]

Truly, Believers is nothing short of divine. [Dec. 2001 p. 123]

Their 16th LP is their most challenging to date. For all the fine musicianship and vaulting ambition, though, there are lengthy longueurs. [Oct 2015, p.111]

Spidery tendrils of sex-and-drugs-related dread curl around dramatic synth-pop and twinkling R&B, Yet there's also a batch of tracks that draw from bombastic, slightly tacky '80s pop - a warm, funny and wholly welcome diversion from the stylish but sterile bleakness that remains Tesfaye's calling card. [Jun 2020, p.106]

An oddity for sure, but much too good to be restricted to specialist alt-rock record retailers. [July 2002, p.122]

A stoned gas. [Dec 2003, p.123]

Us bristles with huge choruses and idiosyncratic lyrics, albeit suggesting that Pet Sounds is his record collection. [Apr 2003, p.111]

As feral and ferocious an album as they've made in years. [Oct 2001, p.130]

Freaky electronica from West Coast bass maestro. [Oct 2011, p.130]

This is a thrash of real poise: precise, inventive and recklessly fast when necessary. [Nov. 2011, p. 135]

His gently intense third album is sometimes breathtaking in its melancholy sweep and songwriting skill, and always absorbing. [Mar 2013, p.96]

Externalising her feeling with space and power, I Awake gives everyone's inner life its due, the personal rendered universal. [May 2013, p.95]

Wed 21 is a great place to enter Molina's world, but doesn't tell fans anything they don't already know. [Dec 2013, p.110]

Easily the best Welsh language record since the Super Furry Animals' Mwng. [Jul 2014, p.100]

Georgiadis and his crew have all the chops and charisma to pull this lunacy off. [May 2015, p.114]

Understated but always adult record, but Aves's guitar twinkles across these impossibly catchy tunes and his voice's warmth masks its sometimes barbed content. [Mar 2016, p.106]

Out of disappointment and distress, Elbow have crafted another brilliant album. [Mar 2017, p.104]

A brisk 11 tracks and not a duff moment on it. [Summer 2018, p.106]

The second LP of their decade-long comeback is defined by the warm fuzz of Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge's guitars--like a dusty desert sirocco, creating a benign concussed daze. [Mar 2019, p.118]

Electrifying, again. [Jan 2020, p.109]

A serious sustaining of quality. [Feb 2020, p.122]

Zimpel's most electronic album to date, though it's the kind of moody electronics you're more likely to find in the cinema than the club. [Apr 2020, p.114]

This is the sound of a band perfectly balanced and creatively ablaze. [Summer 2020, p.104]

It's an enchanting and quietly moving new chapter. [Jul 2020, p.104]

Any charges of cultural tourism are rebuffed by the magnificence of the music. [Nov 2007, p.142]

Certainly, there's an absurdity about the great man wrapping his frail tonsils around vocally acrobatic piece like Stormy Weather. Yet, his passion for the task of rescuing these poetic tunes from cultural obscurity is palpable. [Jun 2017, p.106]

The W is largely a return to murky idiosyncratic form after 1997's filler-bloated Wu-Tang Forever. Weighing in at a svelte 60 minutes, it plays to the group?s main strengths: brutal hooks and scary ambience.

While other rappers struggle to maintain consistency across one album per year, Big K.R.I.T. has made his second corker of 2012. [Oct 2012, p.106]