A fake band they might be, but it makes for a solidly enjoyable listen. [May 2019, p.111]

When it stumbles it can dissolve into musical Esperanto. But when the balance is right--as on Everybody's nod to original diversity icons Sly And The Family Stone--Depayse makes for scintillating listening. [Aug 2019, p.116]

Aims for the middle ground, aided by Phil Ek and a sturdier indie-rock back-up that doesn't always suit them. [Mar 2020, p.120]

It's the same sure-footed, Beatles-inspired pop that made them so popular in the early '90s. [Sep 2007, p.100]

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

Swedish electro-pop hipsters take understatement to a new high. [Aug. 2011, p. 117]

Familiar BSP influences such as New order, Talk Talk and Bunnymen are present and it's shot through with a Telstar optimism, ensuring that the afterglow is defiantly positive. [May 2017, p.100]

Waterfall finds them back doing what they do best. [Jun 2015, p.108]

The 23-year-old Nashville resident's keening voice can drag you in with either the acoustic intimacy of 22, which resembles the stark folk of Father John Misty, or the electrified rock of Ramona. [Mar 2013, p.95]

This fourth album is all the better for its subdued tone, mining its own strain of sozzled melancholia via underwater guitars, waltzing rhythms and lyrics steeped in wistful regret. [Nov 2008, p.123]

The real revelation is Kaur herself, a wonderfully gifted singer whose shimmering vocals prove every bit as effervescent as her name. [Apr 2011, p.98]

With Multi-Love, Nielson has concocted an intoxicating brew. [Jun 2015, p.113]

It's to Bailey Rae's credit that never for one second does the album feel exploitative or mawkish, just truthful and real. [Mar 2010, p.94]

In a word, charming. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Another quirky, engaging curio.[April 2012, p.98]

There's lots here to get lost in. [Nov 2013, p.109]

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

A rip-roaringly varied listen. [Dec 2017, p.109]

Kingdoms In Colour maintains its atmosphere mainly through its use of hypnotic rhythms and light, primary colour trippiness. It could well be the perfect end-of-summer soundtrack. [Oct 2018, 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]

Here, melody and charmingly lo-fi electronics vie for attention next to moshpit riffing. [Apr 2011, p.106]

Enthusiasts for dooomy extremes will find much to love here. [Apr 2015, p.97]

An assured second outing, Fast Food is a full realisation of Shah's noirish visions. [May 2015, p.111]

Change Is Coming is piled high with Beastie trademarks.

When the songs are powerful enough, it all works gorgeously. But elsewhere, songs as Ordinary Life or Nigel & Fiona drift towards diluted boho chic. [Nov 2001, p.122]

Some songs haven't quite matured and a new mainstream polish sometimes dulls the emotional edge. [Aug 2003, p.102]

Her aching sincerity’s another major plus; that she can get away with Caged Bird’s Stevie Wonder-isms and Fallin’s near plagiarism of James Brown’s It’s A Man’s World speaks volumes.

This is a very minor-chord affair. [Feb 2004, p.104]

Feminist Sweepstakes is a clever, catchy Day-Glo riot that anyone can join. [#184, p.140]

Beyond the just-add-tears euphoria it also shows a band capable of a rawness that their self-created, slightly precious, image masks. [Dec. 2011 p. 135]

A collection of delicate, woozy and otherworldly electronics. [Sep 2013, p.99]

Here comes Motorhead, oblivious, oddly unpredictable, deliciously bluesy, punky and rocking--simply magnificent. [Jan 2014, p.126]

Extreme but accessible, they're best savoured with out namby-pamby earplugs, obviously. [Dec 2014, p.114]

For those yet to experience Reich's unique soundscapes, this is as good a place to start as any. [Dec 2014, p.115]

The vocals are more textural than Blake's, and Stefanski's electronic textures are as distinctive as his instrumental releases, giving this a strong personality all of its own. [Oct 2013, p.110]

Transcends its hackneyed backstory on account of its sheer quality. [Aug 2019, p.108]

The slacker boy wonder has grown up to be a man on a new mission. [Aug 2008, p.134]

While there's no doubt that listening to the Super Furries' seventh album is mostly a pleasure, there are moments when it feels like a little less relaxation might have paid off. [Sep 2005, p.116]

Kingdom Of Rust is Doves' defining work, an album of bold adventure. [May 2009, p.108]

It's the bolder likes of 'In the Middle of the Night' and 'I Wish I Were' where she really leaves her mark, somewhere between Patti Smith and ghost of Edith Piaf. [June 20008, p.148]

The follow-up repeats the trick, scattering dreamy pop between industrial soundscapes. [July 2010, p. 129]

The results are largely impressive, particularly on the fragile country of Follow Me Down, but you can't help feeling that eventually Nap Eyes will need to look to more distant horizons to maintain everyone's interest. [Apr 2018, p.112]

Though probably not the best place for the uninitiated to start exploring the work of this often brilliant and evocative musician, at the same time, songs such as the aching South rank up there with his best. [Jul 2019, p.110]

There was nothing like "Demon Days" before and there's been nothing like it since. Until now.[...] Plastic Beach picks up several steps on from where its predecessor left off. [Apr 2010, p.104]

What makes Most Messed Up stand out is that Miller's self-aware enough to play with those cliches. [Aug 2014, p.112]

There's nothing that reeks of genius here, but there's enough to be getting on with. [Oct 2012, p.97]

I Don't Run often feels like a post-tour comedown, meandering and forlorn, where its predecessor was uplifting and catchy. [Jun 2018, p.110]

Though a little limited on variation, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon's careful balance between comedown cook and genuine emotion suggests a new king for both club kids and guitar vets has (finally) arisen. [Oct 2013, p.105]

Those raised on the Jayhawks' best Work Tomorrow The Green Grass and Hollywood Town Hall, will still go home satisfied. [Jun 2016, p.112]

Merrie Land works best when these sounds and visions come together in an impressionistic haze. [Dec 2018, p.109]

Emily Haines remains a commanding frontwoman, but where once she railed against war and consumerism, here she sticks to wishy-washy reflections on love and life. [Jun 2009, p.127]

A peerless comeback album that's as sad as it is uplifting. [Nov 2013, p.115]

This is an often astonishing record. [Feb 2015, p.112]

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

It's remarkably poised, a level gaze that could give a little more away. [May 2019, p.111]

Compelling and masterful. [Sep 2020, p.113]

It's business as usual, but when business produces songs as lovely as November's sumptuous indie-pop it's hard to resist. [May 2020, p.110]

Butler's spacey sing-song tones skip across the muddy off-kilter beats, forging a sound that is both immediate and moreish. [Aug 2017, p.110]

Hitchcock continues on a roll, all 10 songs here hooking you in with the head-nodding grooves and dreamy psych-pop tunes of seasoned pro. [Apr 2013, p.103]

The Terror is dark and experimental, full of synths and loops that owe more to Krautrock than guitar bands. [May 2013, p.101]

A sweetly brain-scrambling experience. [Apr 2006, p.114]

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

This is music that hovers at the edges of modern life, out of time but in its own glorious world. [Dec 2013, p.116]

Adams is such a contrary character you daren't use the phrase "career comeback," but that's what this is. [Oct 2014, p.101]

American Twilight is lifted above cliche, though, and works best when heading full pelt toward the horizon. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Eerie, exotic and utterly enchanting. [Mar 2002, p.116]

An all-conquering white female rap crew? It's been a long time coming and, on the strength of this debut, may be arriving sooner than you think. [Jun 2003, p.105]

Devoid of the chest-thumping drama of the real thing, this sprinkling of tracks, largely taken from Second Toughest In The Infants and its follow-up Beaucoup Fish sound curiously neutered.... Hugely disappointing.

Everytime they hit their stride, as on 'Weightless,' a delicious coupling of joyful guitar riffs and Matthew Caw's warm falsetto, it is quickly followed by a bog-standard indie jangle. [Mar 2008, p.108]

Steeple is a big, old hairy beast capable of stirring the most primal of instincts. [Dec 2010, p.115]

Wilson never forgets the melodies or real sentiment. [May 2013, p.113]

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]

Moon Duo have eclipsed their previous best here. [Nov 2019, p.115]

It's all very cinematic and atmospheric but with lyrics offering a light, sixth-form poetry vibe, much here is easy to bid adieu to. [May 2020, p.109]

The overall feel is Sonic Youth Unplugged. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Hey Venus! feels like a missed opportunity. [Sep 2007, p.94]

Field's tough but tender holler, adventurous arrangements and razor-sharp rhythms combine to ensure these breezy tributes to Motown, classic rock, and psychedelic soul always hit the right note. [April 2012, p.94]

Whenever the energy flags and the songs become a little so-so, she turns on the voice and dazzles again. [Sep 2015, p.113]

They manage to pack such a powerful emotional punch across these 10 tracks. [Feb 2019, p.117]

While you'd hope there is some post-concert studio enhancement afoot, the result is in effect an overly basic live album of new songs. [Oct 2010, p.120]

This is perhaps their strongest yet, their angular sounds augmented by a succession of memorable hooks, any one of which could be the one to break them into the mainstream after 14 years. [Oct 2010, p.121]

The Felice Brothers return bigger, better and full of surprises on their fourth UK release. [July 2011, p. 120]

What's missing is a sense of Glover himself as a defining character. [Feb 2017, p.112]

There's beauty amid the sonic desolation. [Sep 2017, p.116]

Not cutting edge, but it;s looking sharp all the same. [Nov 2017, p.111]

Another almost note-perfect recreation of the same pre-Beatles R&B world, this follow-up smoothly mainstains the good work with songs that recall the likes of The Drifters and even early James brown. [July 2008, p.102]

Cutler's surgically meticulous programming skills and ear for mesmeric melodies.... elevate this follow up to 2010's Emerald Fantasy Tracks above simple ['90's techno] homage. [Jun 2012, p.106]

It's not all restrained and even if in parts it sails too close to generic Americana, there's much evidence here that O'Donovan is one to keep an eye on. [Aug 2013, p.103]

The Savage Heart is the Revue's third album and is comprehensively their best to date. [Nov 2012, p.98]

This wonderfully sleazy chunk of dirty, dangerous rock'n'roll gets Stuart firmly back in the game. [Mar 2016, p.115]

It still occupies dark territory but this time excellent songs like Hidden Knives are defined by urgency, as well as venom. [Feb 2017, p.111]

While the ringtone-catchy Alive and fuzzed-up Stressy are obvious standouts, it's the reckless try-anything funk of Leader that holds best claim to being Flight's spirit guide. [Jul 2020, p.106]

'Love Runs Deeper' and the bustling 'Wanna Wait For You' especially confirm him as a master of his craft. [Oct 2008, p.153]

A set that sounds hauled up from another time and place. [Aug 2018, p.111]

It is, as always, complicated, but addictively, intriguingly so. [Apr 2017, p.111]

The result is an impressive but super slick collection of post-hardcore floor-fillers that's increasingly more "post" than "hardcore." [Jul 2009, p.117]

It's soulful, not funky, and brims with spiritual joy. [Dec 2006, p.134]