Their 11th LP will remind newcomers of Metallica's buffed-up chugga-chugga, but also, a trifle disappointingly, of late-era Iron Maiden's blanded-out chest-beating anthemics. [Apr 2016, p.101]

A moody, low-key opening does them few favours, but there's no shortage of intensity once they hit their groove. [Apr 2016, p.105]

As her previous two albums showed, Moss is a dab hand at writing about affairs of the heart. [Apr 2016, p.105]

The whole, though, is surprisingly cohesive and always uplifting, linked by knowingly sultry vocals and veteran innovator Bill Frisell's typically oddball guitar work. [Apr 2016, p.114]

Though some tracks' slightly antiseptic atmospheres mean reality-obliteration promised by the group's name fails to fully manifest. [Apr 2016, p.102]

Simple pleasure delivered in style. [Apr 2016, p.107]

Ambitious yet oddly affecting, wash day need never sound the same again. [Apr 2016, p.111]

The whole thing comes with a sort of knowing childishness, like reverting back to your most obnoxious teenage self after 10 Minutes with your family. [Apr 2016, p.112]

It's an intriguing scrapbook of ideas and frequently enjoyable, but could use a banger or tow. [Apr 2016, p.112]

A decidedly loveable record. [Apr 2016, p.113]

A masterful collection of songs from an overlooked, but truly brilliant artist. [Apr 2016, p.113]

Dig In deep seamlessly follows 2012's Slipstream in personnel and style. [Apr 2016, p.113]

Sadly, Better Nature is the sound of a band barricading themselves into their own comfort zones. [Apr 2016, p.115]

On the rich and dazzling Malibu, Anderson.Paak has truly found his voice. [Apr 2016, p.116]

Frustratingly, the tricksy production and Auto-Tuned vocals of the fragmented second-half tend to overwhelm the songs rather than enhance them. [Mar 2016, p.109]

The result is that a few songs in you find yourself rather craving a bit of imperfection, something scruffy and incorrigible to disrupt all this generic rhythm and gusto. [Mar 2016, p.116]

A five-year sabbatical finds them both refreshed and free of rancour. [Mar 2016, p.111]

This restless, shape-shifting experimentalism might have been something Mason's been working on now for two decades, but it's rarely sounded better than it does here. [Mar 2016, p.118]

Nine Track Mind whimpers like a sick kitten. [Mar 2016, p.113]

If the absence of slow-builds and ambient drones makes for more succinct tunes, they're still no snappier. Choruses won't be bellowed, the air won't be bellowed, the air won't be punched, devotees will likely be delighted. [Mar 2016, p.105]

While Wonderful Crazy Night lacks a truly great Elton John song, he sounds more driven than he has in years. [Mar 2016, p.108]

Over 17 similarly sounding tracks it becomes slightly more soporific. [Mar 2016, p.109]

Deviations aren't needed when you can enjoy Hidden City for what it is: a Cult record. [Mar 2016, p.108]

A triumph of irregular precision. [Mar 2016, p.109]

At once elegant and enigmatic, only he willfully prosaic title strikes a jarring note. [Mar 2016, p.111]

In its elegiac tone, its gauzy production and its sense of impending finality, The Ghosts is Williams' Time Out Of Mind, the album on which Bob Dylan pondered his own mortality. [Mar 2016, p.117]

By turns thrilling and blissful. [Mar 2016, p.115]

Tatum's sonic upgrade pays off handsomely. [Mar 2016, p.118]

The range of his ambition and the nailed-on vocal performances soar beyond. [Mar 2016, p.119]

Gumption is slow, resolute, low on dazzling epiphanies but high on atmosphere and texture. [Mar 2016, p.119]

Williams has offered much to admire, and even more to contemplate. [Mar 2016, p.119]

The most successful tracks are those where Tricky is front and centre. [Mar 2016, p.117]

They're derailed by a dearth of new ideas. [Mar 2016, p.116]

One can't shake the feeling that This Is Acting was compromised from the start. [Mar 2016, p.114]

And so, yet again, Prince remains an artist in sore need of an outside editor. Still, if your attention span as a Prince fan has been sorely tested, HITnRUN Phase Two is a good point to reconnect with him. [Mar 2016, p.113]

It's a collision of classic rap skills and singular beats that makes this album outstanding and far more substantial than its "prelude" billing implies. [Mar 2016, p.110]

For a marriage of new ideas with old traditions, look no further. [Mar 2016, p.108]

The production is pitched halfway twixt Adele and Bastille, and All I need feels like the album that will kick Foxes up from the second tier to the A-lists and playlists. [Mar 2016, p.110]

If Williams would only take the time to explore just a few of the ideas he presented here, his album would be far deeper than it is broad.[Mar 2016, p.117]

Barry Adamson has often broadcast his affinity with tortured individuals at breaking point. This has found raw expression in his solo work, and Know Where To Run does not deviate from the script. [Mar 2016, p.105]

They are slowly getting closer to realising their original aim. [Mar 2016, p.109]

These unforeseen electro-moves should rightly bag fresh converts. [Mar 2016, p.113]

A wildly inventive yet mainstream sound that suits her lyrics. [Mar 2016, p.106]

As her voice took centre stage on the original recordings too, the effect of stripping away almost everything else isn't that radical. Still, for anyone unfamiliar with Foster's work, this represents an excellent starting point. [Mar 2016, p.110]

Including songs by Neko Case and Nick Cave, this fine album reaches way beyond the church. [Mar 2016, p.115]

The sound of a man finding freedom, it's an impressive reincarnation. [Mar 2016, p.112]

The thematic predecessor to this LP underlined Yoko Ono's re-evaluation as a musical envelope pusher by a new generation of artists including Cat power, Spiritualized and The Flaming Lips, who all reworked moments from her back catalogue. This sequel successfully repeats the trick. [Mar 2016, p.112]

SVIIB is a memorial, yes, but it's a glorious one. [Mar 2016, p.107]

It's undoubtedly her strongest record yet. [Mar 2016, p.111]

A collection of electronics-based tunes, drifting, gently paced but surprisingly torpid. [Mar 2016, p.108]

The over-punctuation is the least unnecessary thing about the lame pop of Shark Attack!!!!!!!!!!, meanwhile, the second half is noticeably more restrained, and aL the better for it. [Feb 2016, p.111]

The whole album yields a little more magic with each play. [Feb 2016, p.118]

Their second LP is an aged-in-the-wood delight of fiddle, mandolin, accordion, guitars and keyboards texturing swinging rock'n'roll. [Feb 2016, p.117]

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

A boot-stomping blast from start to finish. [Feb 2016, p.110]

Slightly wan and wispy. [Feb 2016, p.119]

Stanley Park, Hornets and Magpie carry a wistful, charming nostalgia about them, but maybe it's a generation too removed making In The Magic Hour's nods to tradition often superficial rather than tapping into the music's deepest heartbeat. [Feb 2016, p.115]

Enigmatic, but still worth puzzling over. [Feb 2016, p.111]

Their third album is their most developed yet.... What's missing is that sense of real emotion, the euphoria or misery that makes for great pop. [Feb 2016, p.108]

What sounds antagonistic in premise actually proves to be a brilliant odyssey through the eclectic backwaters of Keely's imagination. [Feb 2016, p.112]

Throughout, there's a warmth to the songwriting that seems at odds with an album released in January. A genuine joy. [Feb 2016, p.116]

The unruly palette endures throughout, with dirges, ersatz country and cracked pop variously suggesting Clinic, Throbbing Gristle and Blackpool cults Ceramic Hobs. Lyrically, trigger warnings may be necessary. [Feb 2016, p.110]

It's pleasing listening. [Feb 2016, p.112]

Unforced and rewarding. [Feb 2016, p.119]

The meticulous arranged synths, crackling guitars and electronic glitches ensure the attention never wavers. [Feb 2016, p.114]

Their music is a similarly odd hybrid [as the Bray Road Beast that their first track references], its great dreamy prog head gazing down at its shoes. [Feb 2016, p.108]

With Pedro de Dios Barcelo's vocals so Andalusian-accented even other Spaniards have trouble following. No Matter: their readiness to rumble transcends such trifles. [Feb 2016, p.111]

Some suitably dramatic music. [Feb 2016, p.115]

Here he finally found a head-expanding, mind-frazzling voice all of his own. [Jan 2016, p.108]

Of the four new tracks, Just Like We Never Said Goodbye is the pick, evoking a John Hughes school disco scene soundtracked by Aphex Twin, though anyone feeling the package still lacks substance can select the full "Silicon" option at Sophie's webstore. [Feb 2016, p.118]

His once winning formula now sounds wanly formulaic. [Feb 2016, p.112]

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

Knight is now coming up on the rails. [Feb 2016, p.112]

To no-frills, English Velvet Underground-style indie pop, this seasoned, perceptive narrator also turns his gaze on dilemmas including the plight of the still-game senior rocker (Mr. Music), bewildering transience (There It Goes) and, seemingly, divorce (Good Enough), lightly wearing life experience without sacrificing impact. [Feb 2016, p.107]

If you've skipped some of their more recent efforts, you'll be shocked by just how innovative and impressive they've become. [Feb 2016, p.119]

The lack of uptightness suits them. [Feb 2016, p.118]

Far from being a downer, these songs are frequently sublime. [Feb 2016, p.113]

The songs this time have a depth and a warm maturity, a Neil Young sensibility coupled with a soul-singer sensuality and a distinct pop edge. [Feb 2016, p.113]

Any playfulness surrounding the album's titular pound-shop themes quickly evaporates amid a sound so spacious and tune-free as to border on emptiness. [Feb 2016, p.116]

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

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 impossible not to be swept up in the exuberance. [Feb 2016, p.111]

While Bloc Party Mk II don't quite reach the dizzying heights of hits such as Banquet or Flux, Hymns restores your faith in both their ability and ambition. [Feb 2016, p.114]

There are moments of real pathos. [Feb 2016, p.108]

It's this urgently speculative spirit ["Is it human to ask for more?"] that make Adore Life a compulsive and substantial thrill. [Feb 2016, p.117]

It's a confusing affair, where [Urie] foolishly tries to croon like Frank Sinatra on the title track and never quite nails down whatever the big idea was supposed to be. Still, there are moments to cherish. [Feb 2016, p.115]

A secret deconstruction of normative notions of romance, with early tasters handed out ribbon-wrapped in Mills & Boon novels. [Feb 2016, p.107]

This isn't a bold project and they haven't been expanded nearly enough. [Feb 2016, p.118]

They can't quite maintain that standard [in the first three singles] throughout but nevertheless this remains a deeply impressive debut. [Jul 2015, p.108]

Not the place to start an exploration of his musical output--that's the superb Witchazel LP--but it's impossible to dislike an album containing The Innkeeper's Song Couplet. [Jan 2016, p.106]

Prong's no-rills approach is a far better fit than, say, Slayer's patchy Undisputed Attitude from 1996.... They're less sure-footed on a raucous stab at Husker Du's Don't Want To Know If You're Lonely that bludgeons all the magic out of the original, however. [May 2015, p.109]

The sheer oddity of the constituent parts is the thing that provides the thrill in the process, making this another perverse triumph. [May 2015, p.115]

It's not always a comfortable union. [Jul 2015, p.102]

The 30-year-old's debut album proper is a thing of hushed beauty. [Jul 2015, p.106]

A small but perfectly formed addition to his [Anton Newcombe's] stellar back catalogue. [Dec 2015, p.104]

These are big, stately songs, packed with rue as much as brio. [Dec 2015, p.103]

A rebirth that's actually been worth the wait. [Jan 2016, p.]