The switches from retro punk to camp stadium rock are seemless, and Creeper prove themselves worthy heirs to the bombastic rock bands of the past. [May 2017, p.103]

Barbara Barbara is an ideal way for them to restate their currency. Having lain dormant, the creature is alive once more, electrifyingly so.[Apr 2016, p.103]

Their [stardom] has been a slow rise. The ascent continues apace. [Mar 2014, p.108]

Brighten The Corners found the Califirnian indie five-piece buoyed by a more consistent set of songs than 1995's sprawling "Wowee Zowee." [Feb 2009, p.124]

When it clicks, as on the exhilarating rush of single 'Family Galaxy' or 'Fortress's' twisted rock operatics, the results glow with all the Technicolor detail of the Roger Dean-gone-digital cover art. [May 2009, p.112]

It's purging stuff, for sure, but clearly empowering and, as a listener, you're with him every step by highly emotional step. [May 2015, p.101]

Dumb Flesh strikes a fabulously oxymoronic tone: euphoric dread. [Jun 2015, p.100]

It may have been recorded in a church, but this is a record celebrating the celestial and the sinister in equal measure. [May 2011, p.126]

That song [Found What I've Benn Looking For], turbo-charged, grandstanding and whipped into shape by Grennan's gravel voice encapsulates his committed, lavishly layered approach. [Aug 2018, p.111]

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]

Brown's vivid storytelling skills bear testament to a major talent. [Jun 2012, p.108]

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

This is actually a deeply groovy album, beautifully produced and full of sparkling detail. [Sep 2013, p.108]

By the time disc one wraps with the anthemic Halo On Fire, Metallica have already produced the excellent album expected of them. [Jan 2017, p.109]

A band with swagger once again. [Jan 2013, p.109]

A rip-roaring busman's holiday. [May 2017, p.108]

Her dark theatrics dominate 68 Screen, evoking '70s punks X-Ray Spex with a call-and-response about women's commodified bodies. [Jun 2019, p.115]

It's bracing stuff. [Mar 2014, p.110]

Hunger's three-minute nuggets blend '80s guitar jangle with doo-wop harmonies, the nostalgic charm offset by the neurotic intensity of both the lyrics and frontman Frankie Francis's desperate vocals. [Mar 2011, p.104]

Calexico rarely disappoint. But this is a definite leap forward. [May 2015, p.102]

This is the sound of someone learning, brilliantly on the job. [May 2013, p.96]

The results range from extraordinary to bemused but they are never dull. [Summer 2019, p.111]

For all the sonic bricolage, nothing upstages Garbus's own force of personality: her vocal range thrillingly from demure cooing through sassy funk to lung-bursting holler. [May 2011, p.126]

The presiding theme here is one of nocturnal activity, and it's rather nice to see the songs as half-lit visions, as if it were all a Puckish Midsummer illusion. [Sep 2018, p.118]

Music for thirtysomething teenagers, and none the worse for that. [Jun 2003, p.92]

The raggedy, pared-back approach puts the spotlight right back where it should be: on Moorer herself. [May 2004, p.106]

This second album packs sock-it-to-me punch aplenty in 12 tunes that just happen to be about the Lord. [Sep 2014, p.114]

As lovelorn and jaded as it is unshakeable. [Apr 2006, p.116]

Their 11 post-punk/hip-hop songs are brittle, but catchy and fun. [Sep 2006, p.107]

All you need to notice about Oui Oui... is that, together, these musicians can still rustle up a synergy no other band can imitate. [Dec 2012, p.102]

On his impressive second album, the LA-born R&B auteur offers fresh options for mainstream urban pop. [Jan 2013, p.110]

High Risk Behaviour is about as enjoyable as the sound of bored small-town kids thrashing around with guitars gets. [May 2020, p.107]

It works exceedingly well. [May 2017, p.108]

In the US, Night Time, My Time was the most exciting pop album if 2013. It will be hard to beat this year as well. [Mar 2014, p.111]

[The album] is filled with intricate detail. [Mar 2015, p.113]

Some may scoff at the limited musical palette on tracks such as the La's-like Lazy Love, but beneath the bluff exterior beats the heart of a great pop band. [Jun 2018, p.109]

Eyes On The Lines is the follow-up to his excellent 2014 album Way Out Weather and it finds Gunn rolling down the same never-ending dusty highway. [Jul 2016, p.108]

The pleasure was all ours. [May 2014, p.108]

Not only is he an edgy folk singer, but Regan's second album sees the young Dubliner plug in to a similar ragged, rockabilly vein to Dylan's mid '60s classics. [Feb 2010, p. 111]

Dark, often opaque, but also full of emotion, this is a gem. [May 2011, p.127]

Sharp, seductive music from a band at their peak. [Oct 2001, p.119]

Atmospheric, soulful and cohesive, with beats as strong as rhymes. [Jun 2012, p.108]

Pared back or not, The strength of these songs means Thompson can always stand alone. [Sep 2014, p.115]

It's uplifting stuff. [Mar 2015, p.104]

Simons and Rowlands are making music that has the dizzying plasticity of their best work. [Jun 2019, p.113]

Slipway Fires requires more of your time and duly rewards it. [Dec 2008, p.120]

This daughter of Missouri has merely up-twanged her still-rockin' sound, and boosted the songs' mom, kids and downhome content and the gritty, often rub-tickling detail in the telling that keeps it real. [Mar 2014, p.111]

He's never been quite so on top of his game or quite so blessed with melodic magic. [Mar 2009, p.100]

It's the beeping, whirring creations that shine most, signalling that Hannon and his trademark wit and empathy are still there. [Summer 2019, p.108]

Catching the eye more than the ear, the rickety Maybe I Am Amused features Nirvana's Krist Novoselic. Meatier stuff surfaces on the quintessentially sludgy War Pussy, while I Want To Tell You thrillingly imagines Osborne's heroes, Kiss, covering The Beatles in hypermelodic proto-psych mode. [Jul 2016, p.111]

Curiously compelling for something so minimal, it's like nothing else around. [Jul 2003, p.110]

It's magical stuff. [July 2011, p. 116]

The 11 [songs] selected for The Green Album hark back to the keenly observed power pop of Weezer's multi-platinum '94 debut, and there isn't a bad apple among them. [Aug 2001, p.142]

The results are quietly measured and beautifully judged. [Sep 2014, p.115]

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

The old Jarvis Cocker is back. [Dec 2006, p.130]

There's a brief slump with One Last's fey melodies, but it's not enough to derail proceedings. A serious talented young band. [Jun 2010, p.119]

A dark well of frustration, anger and guilt illuminated by just the smallest crack of redemptive light. [Dec 2013, p.106]

There is a pleasing wide scope to his source material. [Mar 2019, p.116]

The more Pulled Apart By Horses yield to their chaotic instincts, the greater they become. [May 2017, p.111]

Kline's disclosures are striking because they feel genuinely homespun, less rallying cry than cheery counsel from a friend perched on your bed. [May 2018, p.107]

Pitched somewhere between James Blake and Erykah Badu, it's a subtly delightful album. [Mar 2015, p.109]

All told, a sunny delight. [Oct 2013, p.107]

Drowners wear their influences with pride, but their charm is all their own. [Mar 2014, p.112]

The nostalgia would be overwhelming were it not for Bayley's ability to offset it with woozy, elastic beats. [Aug 2020, p.102]

What stops it from feeling like an exercise in arch, vintage chic fancy dress is the warmth of their tunes and the lively untidiness if the execution. [Sep 2020, p.109]

What was often missing was much in the way of engaging, nuanced songwriting. Four alums in, though, there are clear signs of progress. [May 2011, p.121]

Bloom is one of those rare records that skirt close to perfection, an effortless and intriguing listen that can't help but drag a more significant audience into Bloom's orbit. [Jun 2012, p.98]

It still sounds fabulous and relevant too, though this Super Deluxe Edition with lots of superfluous add-ons and a super £50-plus price tag to match is surely for completists only. [Aug 2011, p.133]

There are unexpected pleasures in the margins. [Oct 2015, p.105]

He's sounding like a contender again, something only Borrell himself would have ever betted on. [Dec 2018, p.113]

Beauty made for basking in. [Dec 2019, p.114]

There's clarity on The Haunted Man that comes from the sense of physical boundaries being pushed, of personal space being tested to its limits. [Nov 2012, p.97]

Onwards and upwards. [Oct 2013, p.109]

What A Boost sounds like somebody trying to make a confusing world slot together in a way that ultimately makes sense. [Jun 2019, p.115]

An endlessly repeatable mood music masterpiece. [Mar 2014, p.119]

Their most exceptional record yet. [Jun 2016, p.115]

Fever Breaks is sharp and lean. [Jul 2019, p.114]

A collection that feels like a fresh bookend to their first three classic albums. [May 2015, p.115]

This is direct, explosive and packed with big choruses. [May 2013, p.99]

It's '80s synth-pop in spirit rather than form, miles away from the make-up clad silliness of electroclash and much more interested in muching about with present day technology than simply recreating the past. [Jun 2004, p.98]

A wealth of quality material. [Jun 2012, p.99]

On this fourth LP, the hook-laden Here Among You is as celestial as pop music can be: if they have a breakout song it's this, but it's far from the only moment of magic. [Oct 2017, p.100]

Mothers marks this once unremarkable band as real contenders. [Oct 2015, p.115]

If listening to this record feels like eavesdropping, however, what's overheard is emotional dynamite. [Feb 2016, p.109]

These Texans stick to the plan: the concoction of very wonderful thinking-dudes' rock albums, recycling yesteryear's classic vinyl. [Dec 2013, p.110]

The passage of time sometimes has a way of making youthful politicking seem naive, but not here. [Jan 2013, p.121]

It's not a record for anyone who likes subtle character development, but it hits the visceral spot. [May 2017, p.112]

The truth is that Youngblood writes terrific, instantly memorable pop songs, their fashionable new-wave cool rubbing against an urgent, almost disco undertow. [Aug 2008, p.141]

The record's sexual frankness unfairly overshadowed the intricate songwriting idiosyncrasies or Phair's deadpan articulation of relationship dynamics. ... [The Girly-Sound tapes] provide a fascinating roadmap to her debut. [Jun 2018, p.119]

This follow-up displays an admirable desire for transformation. [Jun 2018, p.111]

This a rare and colourful leap forward. [May 2013, p.102]

Theirs is a cerebral electronica, characterised by slippery time signatures, off-kilter drum patterns and baroque flourishes. Their 10th album, Polymer, distills all these traits. [Summer 2019, p.115]

As always with the finest of Eels albums, Everett's loss is the listener's gain. [May 2014, p.110]

Musically, she delivers that desired top-down, sunny LA drive-time feel. [Jul 2015, p.100]

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

There's months of listening here. [Nov 2012, p.108]

It has the messy, majestic sprawl of classic Crazy Horse. [Dec 2012, p.115]