They pack in an astounding brutality reminiscent of Napalm Death's grueling grindcore. [May 2013, p.99]

There's a little too much in the way of filler, but this is a promising start. [Feb. 2011, p. 113]

Trux obsessives will be drawn to Eve's Child--a nod to her old production alter-ego--but it's the sense of Herrema shaking off her troubled past which impresses. [Aug 2014, p.103]

All in all, as resonant and dignified a covers album as you'll ever hear.

While their previous albums have always had great songs, with this latest set they've managed to place them in the right order, creating a truly impressive journey...

Pawn Shoppe Heart is a party album, albeit soundtracking the sort of party where too much alcohol causes lifelong friends to come to blows. [Feb 2004, p.96]

Think Mogwai at their loudest or a less willfully awkward Godspeed You! Black Emperor. [Apr 2007, p.118]

Their fifth album together since 2002 maintains an astonishing standard comparable even to that of original legends like Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. [Jan 2014, p.122]

The breakbeat-based tracks offer obvious comparisons with like-minds such as Prefuse 73. [Jun 2006, p.113]

A staggering, intoxicating record. [Dec 2013, p.116]

Oddly, for an album inspired by the blues, there's not much misery, and what vocals are there get looped and treated beyond storytelling. [Oct 2012, p.103]

[Smith's] curiously magical songwriting skills... remain undimmed by time and drink. [Nov 2005, p.124]

The country-folk roots are earthly present, but old-time tropes are given contemporary settings. [Jun 2014, p.112]

Despite the pluming black-metal geyser of Death Drop, it doesn't have the evil heft of 2017 predecessor World Eater. [Sep 2019, p.108]

Clocking in at a shade over tow hours, there's room for fans of all vintages to find something of value. [Apr 2013, p.94]

If you can forgive them their fondness for epic arrangements, theirs is a debut to transport you to a gentler place. [Jul 2005, p.122]

The Great Western is arguably stronger than either of the last two Manics albums. [Aug 2006, p.116]

His most conventionally rocking album in aeons. [Nov 2006, p.143]

Rushes to the head aside, Progress is a triumph musically, conceptually, personally. [Dec 2010, p.100]

A record that confounds expectations on every level. [Jun 2011, p.110]

With Mariachi El Bronx II, the Mexican wing of The Bronx have moved swiftly to reinforce their authenticity. [Nov. 2011, p. 136]

It clatters past in little over an hour, lean and propulsive despite its sprawling, scattershot nature. [Jun 2012, p.109]

His version of Hey Joe curls around your ears like smoke before you notice what it is. Alice In Chains' Got Me Wrong works because Mehldau doubles the rhythm section on piano, giving it a real kick up the backside and sounding not unlike the great Neil Crowley. [Nov 2012, p.101]

Not so much a comeback, more a welcome back. [Nov 2013, p.114]

There's a deliciously tangy freshness to the massed voices and acoustic thrum. [Apr 2014, p.103]

Despite the hypnotic repetition at its core, it's surprisingly tuneful. [Jul 2014, p.109]

It's easily enough to leave you wishing The Coral would get their distinctive acts together again soon. [Dec 2014, p.108]

A collection that delves deeper than her previous albums. [Mar 2015, p.111]

What Hardy has done here is make a folk album for people who don't normally like folk music. [Apr 2015, p.103]

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]

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

The spirit of Thom Yorke hovers over the proceedings in places, but ultimately those pining for the still missing-in-action Bon Iver should find some comfort here. [Sep 2015, p.109]

Bold and uncompromising, Transmission is Death In Vegas' most coherent and compelling record yet. [Jul 2016, p.110]

[Dandy is] not even the best thing here, as Fingers Crossed continues Hunter's chain of excellent 21st-century albums. [Oct 2016, p.107]

Lovers isn't instant, but perseverance brings great rewards. [Oct 2017, p.100]

The results are still as unsettling as they are stunning. [Mar 2018, p.107]

It's fantastically alive, electrifying and witty stuff, the sound of something fresh and thrilling occurring. [May 2018, p.109]

Bad Contestant may sound studiously restrained, but Maltese never lets things stagnate, buoying the album along with his amusing lyricism. [Jul 2018, p.115]

Hideously wrong, fantastically right. [Jan 2019, p.114]

The lyrics aren't exactly sunny but the furiously cathartic Silver Age is his strongest work since Copper Blue. [Nov 2012, p.102]

None of this would work, of course, if there wasn't pop-rock nous at the core of this band whose opening shot is relentlessly, exhilaratingly effective. [Dec 2008, p.123]

Heightened emotions stop Keepsake's soft-focus textures from slipping into the background. [Aug 2019, p.111]

It's the vocals which gives this debut its distinctive flavour. [May 2018, p.107]

The overall impression is one of a band who are now masterfully in control of their craft. [Apr 2014, p.111]

Tinashe's voice is pure and malleable, her lyrics suggestive and assertive. [Dec 2014, p.116]

Instead of intense rock, it's a more atmospheric piece of work. [Nov 2005, p.123]

It often feels as if Aitchison's nasal croon and counter-intuitive toplines are the least interesting bits of her own project. [Nov 2019, p.116]

The mood is one of eerie dread as the music slowly unfurls in stately fashion, the rhythms frequently mimicking a horse's trot. [May 2014, p.119]

Anderson has rarely sounded more desolate. And Suede, for two decades, have rarely sounded this compelling. [Feb 2016, p.106]

Club Meds is a bold move from a rapidly developing talent. [Feb 2015, p.110]

An interesting stopover on a journey marked by constant curiosity. [Oct 2019, p.110]

Of the 11 tracks, five are lovely, three are makeweights and an equal number excellent. [Dec 2006, p.133]

Making soaring beauty out of the disarray of her life. [Sep 2019, p.112]

He's more class than charisma. [Jul 2015, p.111]

For the most part, though, this record is defined by its vibrancy, especially with bassist Lou Barlow's melodic vocal contributions to Love IS... and Left/Right. [Aug 2016, p.110]

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

It works... stretching rap into weird new shapes. [Feb 2003, p.97]

Comeliness and brutal candour in equal measure. [Jun 2003, p.92]

It's uniformly good, apart from Bob Mould's new house direction, which gets laughs for all the wrong reasons. [Jan 2004, p.124]

The good news is Songs For Christmas isn't the self-indulgent folly it may appear. [Jan 2007, p.152]

Monsters Of Folk haven't quite produced the great American record the title promises, but they're a pretty super group all the same. [Oct 2009, p.109]

{Awayland} is not blessed with the stark folkloric purity of Becoming A Jackal. It still confirms, however, that O'Brien is a songwriter out of step, out of time, and when he hits his lyrical stride, out of this world. [Feb 2013, p.110]

Though its concept may remain opaque, Carnival Of Souls compels. [Oct 2014, p.116]

The result is his slickest and best-produced record yet: all warm beats, electric piano and weeping, reverb-y pedal steel. [Nov 2018, p.113]

Finn's sonic tricks and references to love gone sour undercut the prettiness and hook the listener in, again and again. [Aug 2008, p.142]

It's impressive she even had enough time to record an album, let alone one as accomplished as Fading Lines. [#361, p.107]

It roars with confidence and vigour. [Sep 2019, p.106]

The Walkmen are inching closer to the mainstream, while remaining utterly distinctive. [Jul 2012, p.112]

While the songwriting draws heavily on bigwigs such as Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson, albeit ckloaked in layers of woozy production. This is its chief asset, providing a dark undertow. [Oct 2009, p.111]

Radiohead's ambitions are so modest that it's hard to tell whether this is just creative throat clearing or the quieter path they've settled for. If it's the latter, well, Radiohead sound calmer and more content than ever. [May 2011, p.106]

Ultimately, the accord reached between Mark Ronson and the quartet is that there's nothing wrong with the Black Lips formula; merely that their exuberance sometimes needs a calming hand on the shoulder. [July 2011, p. 115]

A spiralling blend of infectious psychedelic pop that froths and fuzzes for a noisy hour. [Jul 2004, p.122]

A breath of fresh air. [Nov 2005, p.122]

It's playful rather than facetious, and the combination of sweet pop tunes and mean distorted guitar is as winning as it ever was. [Nov 2012, p.104]

It's this ease of expression, both lyrically and musically, that makes Rewind The Film such a captivating listen. [Oct 2013, p.101]

As playful as they are serious and as innovative as they are traditional, this is surely what Syd Arthur set out to be. [Dec 2016, p.115]

Like Boys Outside, Monkey Minds casts Steve Mason as a gifted songwriter, a world-worn bringer of anger, melancholy, hope and melody. [Apr 2013, p.96]

These are great songs, regardless of categorisation. [Mar 2005, p.101]

The Wonder Show of the World turns over life's topsoil to find the truths beneath. [May 2010, p.122]

His debut album is a brilliantly inventive collision of '80s golden-era hip-hop, Aphex Twin-style beats and pop melodies that wouldn't be out of place on an OutKast record. [Nov 2009, p.107]

The album's joy lies in being whisked seat-of-pants through moods, styles and tempos by a band always with pop glory in their sights. [Summer 2020, p.105]

It amounts to Mark Eitzel's best album in years. [Feb 2017, p.112]

Beautiful and candid, One Breath proves Anna Calvi has her frailties. They just happen to be as captivating as her strengths. [Nov 2013, p.106]

A second take on [Cellar Door], hollowing out its blissful balearica to create echo-y somnambulant disco-dub. [Oct 2015, p.110]

There's not much in the way of light relief. [Apr 2007, p.118]

An album of satisfying melodic warmth, Down Like Gold is a winter morning headphone treat. [Mar 2014, p.110]

Hitchcock is a genre of his own, and he's giving it a good name. [Jun 2017, p.109]

This is heavy, yes, but it's never leaden. ... With The Universal Want - sad, wary, yet still alert to life's thwarted beauty - Doves are in the right place, the right time. [Sep 2020, p.106]

A thrilling record of an artist in his element. [Jun 2019, p.115]

Like Willy Wonka, Jack White is a strange, dramatic and otherworldly figure. Lazaretto amplifies all these character traits to electrifying effect. [Jul 2014, p.106]

You'll have to search long and hard for a more original and distinctive album this year. [April 2012, p.100]

A beautifully unsettling album. [Oct 2017, p.111]

Amidon has honed his music's suspenseful edge. [Jun 2013, p.90]

City Music maps a landscape of uncertainty and wonder, Morby first steadying the wheel with his sure songwriting, then letting it spin. We've all been there, but not quite like this. [Aug 2017, p.111]

It's heavy stuff, and there is a real rawness at the heart of standouts Where I Found You, Before The Bridge, Give Us The Wind and The Great Fire - all a little hard to swallow at first, but ultimately quite remarkable. [Nov. 2011, p. 128]

There's no doubt Chasny and his cohorts know all about dynamic underpinning, making Ascent a trip worth taking. [Sep 2012, p.111]

The riffs are cleaner and catchier than on previous records. [Aug 2002, p.126]

It's a magnificently gothic trip in which guitars grind pitilessly against hip hop beats, electronic circuitry throbs to breaking point and Iggy Pop cameos as a serial killer.