Attacking God and country and rubbing his fellow citizens up the wrong way, is par for Manson?s course. Yet never has he done it with quite such passion.

The joyful whole has a depth and swagger that is as life-enhancing as popular music should be. [Mar 2005, p.100]

Saulnier's wild-man-on-a-rampage vocals are no longer hidden behind the unfettered sequel of his equally uncivilized guitar. [Jul 2012, p.109]

Happily, after nearly four decades, The Blue Aeroplanes can still bottle lightning. [Mar 2017, p.107]

The result is a pitch-perfect homage to the old master, whose voice resonates as powerfully as it did a decade ago. [Mar 2020, p.120]

This collection by 18-year-old Chicagoan David Davis makes footworking beats accessible. [Dec 2012, p.106]

When it swells and soars, it doesn't just work. It werks. [Feb 2014, p.115]

Cinematic, crammed full of literary allusions, odd time signatures and mature-in-wood musical textures, Nightingale is a record that will haunt you if you let it. [Mar 2011, p.110]

Juke joint heaven. [May 2003, p.106]

What makes those sounds compelling here are Ingersoll's buttery rhymes and an ability to zero in on your rhythmic G-spots. [May 2014, p.113]

The projects most diverse and entertaining recording so far. [Aug 2019, p.109]

His originality peaked in '74, but for groovy, tuneful pizazz, Wings Of Love takes it even higher. [Jun 2013, p.115]

Still a stunningly individual reinvention of hip hop and R&B, with great songs swimming in a murk of bizarre arrangements. [Apr 2002, p.119]

In short, a welcome retelling. [Oct 2018, p.116]

All hail the new Johnny Cash. [Oct 2004, p.132]

An unpolished gem. [Feb 2006, p.104]

McClure says he's regressed to the catchy rock essentials after years spent experimenting: smart move. [Jan 2017, p.104]

2 Bears have hit a rich seam of easy-going melancholic euphoria. [Oct 2014, p.101]

It could be horribly contrived, yet Bird has the rare touch to make it sound as natural as breathing. [May 2007, p.125]

The Aliens' album often has the wide-eyed beauty of Brian Wilson or Jonathan Richman. [Apr 2007, p.120]

Free from any external pressure to conform, Hebden has managed to make a wholly uncompromising record that remains compulsive from start to finish. [Dec 2013, p.115]

There's scarcely a moment here that doesn't light a fire. [May 2017, p.100]

The result is the album Roots Manuva has always threatened to make; approachable yet with real substance. [Oct. 2010, p. 113]

[Linden's] breathy vocals elevate these warm, enveloping songs to a richer level. [Feb 2014, p.116]

With shards of melody poking through the noise, the overall effect is often stunning. [Nov 2008, p.117]

PROTO sometimes hews close to well-worn dystopian tropes, and the child narrator and see-sawing breath sounds of Extreme Love are undeniably annoying. But Herndon's creative restlessness and textural mastery sustain interest across 45 minutes. [Jul 2019, p.108]

Get Well Soon is a starkly beautiful record that mines the sounds of the last four decades of Americana. [May 2011, p.126]

Don't believe a word of it; this mediation on aging has moments as filthy as anything from his X-rated past. [Jun 2011, p.125]

Her jazz-tinged voice soars; the music manages to be both wonderfully austere and subtly strange. [Jun 2004, p.98]

[There's] a raw, anxious quality reminiscent of '80s US cult favourites Violent Femmes. [May 2004, p.104]

A joy from start to finish. [Dec 2003, p.124]

There's the humanist warmth and simple joy that you hear in The Beach Boys or The Flaming Lips at their best. [Nov 2002, p.114]

This 11 track-LP is bursting with energy and invention. [Jun 2012, p.99]

Tongue-in-cheek though this often is, the self-indulgence is never at the expense of the music. [Jul 2014, p.114]

Ode To Joy shivers on this ledge between defiance and dissolution. Despite Tweedy's fears, it turns out more Wilco music is exactly what's needed. [Nov 2019, p.117]

45 bonkers minutes. [Jun 2004, p.103]

These are songs that do indeed seem to move through another era, from the delightful mournful I Can't Listen To Gene Clark Anymore to the pulse of Roy Orbison beneath Lover Release Me and Dream Dream Big In The Sky. [Nov 2018, p.108]

A beautifully moving, soul-stirring, bravely genre-blurring album. [Oct 2014, p.111]

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

You've got the novelty of a live album that borders on essential. [Jan 2017, p.104]

Display[s] a broad musical taste that brings elements of Jack Johnson-styled folk and XTC jerk-pop to their unbridled, youthful joie de vivre. [Mar 2006, p.107]

Formerly one of the finest melodicists of his generation, this assured debut secures his position as one of our finest artists. [Nov. 2011, p. 124]

A mind-expanding trip for sonic explorers. [Mar 2017, p.107]

Exhilarating end-of-days from the US trio. [Oct. 2010, p. 113]

A late-career peak. [May 2019, p.115]

Nominally folk gospel, they embrace an array of styles from rock to dance, via unashamedly esoteric. [Oct 2013, p.100]

May be his most sad-eyed collection, but it's also his best yet. [Jul 2019, p.109]

Mount's intoxicating amalgam of past and present is the real thing. [Apr 2014, p.114]

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]

Short, but extremely sharp. [Feb 2010, p.104]

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]

This is compassion delivered with the force of a jackhammer. [Mar 2017, p.107]

These succinct, sparse vignettes could double as short stories, Darnielle's evocative imagery giving the likes of 'San Bernardino' a cinematic feel. [Mar 2008, p.108]

Its triumph is in its intimacy and honesty. [Dec 2008, p.134]

It's exhilarating in both its fury and its craft. [Jul 2017, p.114]

They're on terrific form. [Apr 2014, p.106]

A beautiful album that nudges a classic past into a brave future. [Jul 2016, p.109]

This debut seems to tremble on the threshold between the past and the present, the known and unknown, O'Brien's voice and allusive lyrics displaying a mixture of vulnerability and dexterity. [July 2010, p. 137]

Four albums in and Tunstall's voice remains original and excellent. [Jul 2013, p.111]

Genuinely anarchic and surprising. [Dec 2004, p.148]

Ballet School update and enhance, rather than copy or clone their '80s forebears. [Oct 2014, p.103]

The results are perhaps closest in spirit to Rough Trade-period Scritti Politti, all controlled experimentation and unexpected musical shapes thrown to enhance the songs, rather than indulge musical whims. [May 2005, p.112]

Her references are classic, but she's never polite with them, twisting her heritage into a brilliantly volatile LP. [Feb 2017, p.112]

Relentlessly entertaining--a vessel for the impressive vim and vigour of an artist who is many things, but never a bore. [Mar 2020, p.115]

Sorrowful and stately, Griffin's voice is a startlingly expressive instrument. [May 2007, p.125]

Alongside an early double hit of the two best pop songs the band have written in a decade and a rabble rousing take on their own Sproston Green, the album sees Tim Burgess pay respect to lifelong influence Crass. [Sep 2010, p.118]

There's not much room for nuance, but who needs subtlety when you've got pounding riffs and heroic guitar solos like this. [May 2020, p.112]

Irresistible. [Feb. 2012 p. 107]

An atmospheric masterclass. [May 2018, p.104]

This broadens his musical palette, with digi-dub, moody techno and deranged dubstep adding weight to Martin's winning sonic menagerie. [Aug 2008, p.132]

Post-punk might not be new, but like their name, with a few tweaks and some bold personality Eagulls have defiantly made it their own. [Apr 2014, p.108]

The addition of Southern-fried sludge makes this album almost the complete New Wave Of American Heavy Metal package. [Aug 2009, p.101]

On their first LP in five years, Thomas and his 15 collaborators lovingly craft 12 richly layered but never precious songs which burst with invention, melody and surprising saxophone, all underpinned by chief singer Carol Catherine's appealing melancholy. [Jun 2013, p.104]

Choice of Weapon is absurd, brilliant and stupidly good fun. [Jun 2012, p.100]

A true meeting of minds then, and one that's deeply affecting throughout. [Sep 2018, p.119]

With its beauty and sonic twists, Citizen Of Class is a thing of quiet wonder. [Dec 2016, p.110]

A force of nature is with us. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Lovely stuff. [Sep 2010, p.120]

Utterly mesmerizing, psychedelic document of the random music made by machines and nature. [Jan. 2012 p. 127]

Asymmetry is their best yet. [Oct 2013, p.102]

A fitting send-off. [Jul 2019, p.109]

While this record might ultimately be a mere palette cleanser for the next stage in PJ Harvey's journey, it suggests her mouthwash tastes sweeter than most others' fine wine. [Apr 2009, p.101]

Much as Get Direct and New Year's day cry to be fleshed out, the reggaefied Ask Me suggests another way forwards, while the fiercely intelligent songs Shame and Stay sum up all that's right about this most singular artist. [Apr 2014, p.112]

The music works best when combined with the lurid wit and fruity, odd sonics deployed. [Apr 2014, p.115]

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

Produced by the ever-tasteful T-Bone Burnett, Ray Charles wouldn't have been disgraced by the earthy mix of soulful blues and gospel. [Mar 2011, p.105]

Terrific stuff. [Dec 2003, p.129]

There's a curious romance at play throughout their debut album. [Jul 2013, p.112]

The record's strongest, strangest moments come, however, when he lets himself go. [Aug 2014, p.100]

Music that makes you 10 percent sleazier than you were--now where's that dancefloor? [Jul 2004, p.110]

Garvey sounds different, too, willing to sit with his fears rather than chase them away with optimism and charm. ... It's all the more moving because Elbow have taken such a raw, self-questioning route to get there. [Nov 2019, p.113]

It's the most vital-sounding record he's made in years. [Dec 2016, p.110]

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]

Mortality hangs heavy over this music, but Collins, ultimately, makes it deathless. [Jan 2017, p.107]

What distinguishes Phantom Radio as a "band" project rather than a solo one is moot, but when the result is this good, who cares? [Nov 2014, p.114]

It's good to have his unique groove back. [Jun 2006, p.116]

The most powerful moments are frequently the most stripped-down, underlying the fact that Feist is surely one of the best singers working today. [Nov. 2011, p. 126]

Waiting for the Sunrise is a blissful alt-country album where the Hammond organ swells and pulses like it's being tickled by Al Kooper. [Oct 2008, p.152]