Yet for all the walks-ons, this remains a two-man show that celebrates the MC/producer relationship at the heart of hip-hop--and allows both talents to shine at their brightest levels. [Summer 2019, p.113]

Reminders of a great talent lost, and what might have been. [Sep 2020, p.111]

Buoyed by a blissful, lovestruck mood, this album's sumptuous tone elevates it beyond familiar terrain. [Aug 2002, p.128]

A dense, fascinating, idiosyncratic and accomplished art rock album.

Sister Wolf and Justine, Misery Queen highlighting the pair's ability to twist their songs into new, potently alluring shapes. [Jan 2017, p.107]

An intoxicating listen that's well worth experiencing for yourself. [Dec 2012, p.109]

He's getting better with age. [Aug 2008, p.140]

It's charming, tuneful stuff, rich in canonical cool. [Apr 2014, p.121]

If there is an immediate impression here it is one of polish and precision. [May 2015, p.104]

Caustic Love is a truly excellent modern soul record. [May 2014, p.114]

The English Riviera is a major progression for Metronomy, idiosyncratic but also as instantly accessible as, say, Hot chip. It's a winning combination. [May 2011, p.114]

At 10 songs and 35 minutes, Cala doesn't over stay its welcome, making its hypnotic pull all the greater. [Sep 2019, p.116]

Gorgeous, sun-dappled sounds from San Francisco. [July 2011, p. 121]

The relentless macho intensity would be oppressive were Hill and Morin not having so much fun pillaging everything from punk to crunk. [Jun 2012, p.100]

Marauder is not the sound of a group chasing lost sounds or long ago glories, rather it is a band detaching itself from its past, from a time that has long defined them; it is the sound of growing older, closer and more open. [Sep 2018, p.108]

This is the sound of Low finding extremity in a new, thrilling way. [Oct 2018, p.112]

Golden State is, inevitably, rather good.

It's big and clever; also bloody brilliant. [Aug 2012, p.98]

It's a nocturnal-sounding affair--with the spectrally moody title track, the bleepy poetry of Writer and the Kid A vibes of JFK. Taken together, FLOTUS is a beautiful thing. [Jan 2017, p.108]

Soused remains a distinctly perverse pleasure. [Nov 2014, p.120]

Worth investigating. [Mar 2007, p.115]

A varied and hugely absorbing record. [Feb. 2012 p. 107]

It's a one-tempo caramel cream of an album--sticky-icky and irresistible. [Feb 2014, p.110]

Beneath their silly-string riffs are nuanced screamers. [Jun 2018, p.114]

Knock Knock is a visionary blend of minimal techno and armchair psychedelia, jammed with canny features. [Jun 2018, p.117]

Mostly their ebullient sixth LP is clever and kooky enough to be cherished on its own terms. [Jul 2019, p.110]

It's a stripped-down and straight-ahead rock record. [Apr 2014, p.121]

Bobby Gillespie murmurs over Minimal's slinky pop, while Silenced and Kuzurenai toy with space, R&B dynamics and even more tunes. [Sep 2020, p.107]

The infinitely superior Cope might expand their reach further still. [May 2014, p.114]

All 10 songs yield more delights with every hearing. [May 2003, p.112]

Their best and most cohesive album since 1999's "Vertigo." [Mar 2010, p.111]

When backing singer Becky Jacob's voice is brought tot he fore, it wraps around Linday's like a warm hug, leaving you feeling that Tunng are the band you'd most like to watch sunrise over the stone circle with. [Apr 2010, p.114]

There's nothing here that hasn't been heard before from countless others, but it's put together with impeccable taste and--importantly--a skilled ear for a tune. [May 2010, p.118]

Even at their most acerbic or delicately downplayed extremes, Incubus are compelling. [#184, p.137]

A more mature mix of intelligent guitar tunes and acoustic noodling. [Oct 2002, p.113]

Get To Leave and Paradise Here Abouts unite Gelb's notoriously scattered logic into music showcasing an immense generosity of spirit and poetic warmth. [May 2006, p.124]

The xx are too smart to get caught in that trap, extending past glories rather than copying them, finding new places for the spotlight to fall. [Mar 2017, p.109]

It's all good, clean, Beatles fun, on a record that celebrates a heart-warmingly more romantic and innocent age. [Dec 2013, p.118]

The Five Ghosts deserves to chaperone them to greater things. [Sep 2010, p.121]

Elbow have hardly stepped out of their comfort zone here, but then their comfort zone has always been oddly unsettling. They're still burning: slowly, maybe, but stronger than ever. [Apr 2008, p.114]

Her songs are challenging, expansive and cinematic, turning minimalist melodies on their heads and redefining the limits of pop. [Oct 2013, p.103]

A true leap forward for an artist maybe only just coming into his own after 25 years. [Jul 2019, p.110]

Whether they can carry with them a rebirth of indie as characterized by debuts by Suede, The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys before them remains to be seen. But there's more than enough here to justify their talk-of-the-town status. [Apr 2011, p.96]

Comfortably their finest outing since 1982's Forever Now. [Sep 2020, p.113]

An effortless melding of Stones and Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield and computers, all topped off with Tim Burgess's fetching new falsetto.... With every track a winner, Wonderland is a truly thing of wonder.

Storm Corrosion deserve to reach a wider audience than their CV, record collections - or suspect band name- would imply. [Jun 2012, p.112]

There's something transcendent about the former hardcore kid and the musicians he assembles for Hiss Golden Messenger, this time featuring Aaron Dessner of The National and Jenny Lewis. [Oct 2019, p.106]

A dazzling alloy of vintage progressive jazz and synthetic digital funk fired by unashamedly cosmic aspiration. [Aug 2013, p.106]

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]

Earthly's songs of early-20-something kicks and empowerment prove enduringly infectious over repeated listens. [Dec 2016, p.113]

There's a little more in the mix here [than in her solo debut album], dabs of lap steel on Babylon and elsewhere, gentle harp flourishes on Song For Next Summer, but this is barely less lovely than its predecessor. [Nov. 2011, p. 127]

A quietly beautiful record. [Dec 2012, p.105]

Like quicksand, it's subtle, surprising and utterly absorbing. [Oct 2007, p.98]

This is easily is best work to date. [Oct 2013, p.104]

Cox's great virtue is that he wears his experimentation lightly; though meticulously orchestrated and teeming with digital feints, these songs feel wonderfully spacious and derive an easy-going charm from his hazy vocals and their one-take recording. [Jan 2010, p. 117]

The latest outing re-establishes them as sculptors of heavy-but-humourous CD-length aural odysseys. [Summer 2018, p.113]

The trajectory remains far-out, each track a space station on Deradoorian's exhilarating trip. [Jul 2020, p.106]

While this falls short of the momentous A Few Small Repairs, it's still something to treasure.

The best Graham Coxon imaginable. [Jun 2004, p.97]

Stunningly impressive... It's something that demands to exist beyond iPods, something that should be bought rather than downloaded, and played from start to finish. [Aug 2004, p.108]

It's bold, brassy and way more ebullient than a 75-year-old has any business sounding. [Jun 2012, p.112]

There's barely a wasted note on these nine tracks. [Aug 2014, p.104]

A leap forward. [Apr 2004, p.120]

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]

The frenzied feel of the record as a whole might scare off some Bloc Party fans, but this is vital, exciting stuff. [Dec 2019, p.113]

Eternally Even retains James's parent band's mystery and washes of sound, but it's underpinned both by his conspiratorial, intimate vocals and a new-found, tacit anger on an album brought forwards to coincide with the US election. [Jan 2017, p.114]

A pleasure, of course. [Dec 2018, p.104]

A richly rewarding listen. [Jul 2006, p.114]

The result is classic rock with a sneer. [Mar 2017, p.108]

It's a decent enough introduction to Antony & The Johnson's early works.... Turning bursts into colour on the accompanying DVD. [Dec 2014, p.106]

What really elevates the songs though, is the underlying weave of Latin-influenced percussion and subtle string arangements which draw deftly on Garzon-Montano's French-Colombian roots. [Mar 2017, p.108]

The self-produced Watershed is the best thing she's done since 1992's "Ingenue." [Feb 2008, p.96]

Exotic, hip and exuding an effortless charm, Costa Blanca is a sophisticated treat from start to finish. [Jan 2014, p.120]

Her lived in voice adds new nuance to material as diverse as the traditional Kimbie and Morrissey's 'Dear God Please Help Me.' [Feb 2009, p.113]

Skins is the sound of a band reinvigorated. [Apr 2011, p.98]

She establishes herself as the freshest voice on the dancefloor. [Apr 2011, p.109]

It doesn't hold back on the lysergic craziness. [Aug 2017, p.106]

While they never quite manage to better the decayed teen-idol horror-pop of Deerhunter, another band preoccupied with the thin membrane between dreams and nightmares, at their best they keep the listener from Playing I Spy with their influences. [Mar 2011, p.107]

There's lashings of charm in the way the songs unfurl, touch upon an array of ethereal womenfolk and end, having gone nowhere much, but prettily.

Stylish yet raw and angry yet enchanted, Bauer creates a smouldering album with a kooky heart. [Aug 2014, p.86]

Lies somewhere between Kate Bush and a deranged Divine Comedy. [Apr 2005, p.124]

Deeply ambiguous yet wittily epigrammatic, You Want It Darker is all one might want from a final testament, short of cosy reassurance. [Dec 2016, p.114]

A collection of wonderful stripped-down folk rock. [Dec 2016, p.106]

Despite the familiar palette, it's brutally effective. [Oct 2012, p.94]

Five albums along and Hot Chip continue to outdo themselves, not to mention most of their peers. [Jul 2012, p.111]

Williams and Hugo's unerring ability to transform a few notes into a sharply mesmeric riff laces their most experimental work yet with immediacy. Alive and well, N.E.R.D. have come back swinging. [Jan 2018, p.111]

If the 17-track Pom Pom does little to un-muddy the waters, within its exploded binliner of '80s FM rock licks, novelty squelch noises and other home-recorded debris, songs of splendour lurk. [Dec 2014, p.106]

[A] frequently sublime follow-up. [Oct 2013, p.105]

A joy in itself, but watching the accompanying film to experience the full audio-visual wallop is a must. [Feb 2014, p.113]

If some of Stornoway's folkier past has been lost in transition, then so be it. Fortunately, the conceptual nods to birdlife on every song from chief songwriter and rained ornithologist Brian Biggs compensate by finding a mainstream-friendly alternative. [May 2014, p.112]

There is plenty here to treasure here. [Apr 2011, p.111]

Chaotic and raw, it exemplifies the best of US punk rock. [May 2014, p.116]

Beady Eye's Different Gear, Still Speeding was always going to be one of the most important records Liam Gallagher would ever make. The gobsmacking reality is that it's also among the best. [March 2011, p. 102]

One of the year's most inventive debuts. [Jul 2004, p.114]

Their second LP contains songs of remarkable quality. [Nov 2018, p.106]

The hardest-working slacker in rock goes from strength to strength. [Nov 2015, p.108]

A hugely moving affirmation of life. [Nov 2006, p.136]

The album's dark Heart, though, is Forever, a mesmerising 13-minute-epic.... He's developing into one of UK electronica's most distinctive voices. [Dec 2014, p.107]