He resurfaes as a country-tinged singer-songwriter of poise and substance. [#361, p.108]

A haunting, left-field album of some class. [Jun 2003, p.96]

Despite the odd bump Sexsmith could be in business at last. [Dec 2002, p.111]

Crucially, as well as nailing the sound perfectly, they do so with a winning passion. [March 2011, p. 117]

An essay in coolly assured, sophisticated leftfield rock, occasionally laden with trademark discordance yet also full of scintillating tunes. [June 2002, p.123]

These folk and country-tinged tunes are melodic, deft and emotive. [Dec 2002, p.108]

This is certainly no party album, and its colours are almost exclusively monochrome, but its majesty reigns supreme. [Sep 2005, p.112]

It's a strange, sometimes excellent record. [Feb 2019, p.119]

A warm, spirited pop record that holds its own against everything else in their canon. [Nov. 2011, p. 134]

Newcomers may be amazed that a rock band can still feel so vital. Even diehard fans will wonder at the sheer melodic intensity. [Feb 2015, p.107]

Only Revolutions has enough in the way of nous, intelligence and tunes to broaden their audience immeasurably. [Dec 2009, p.122]

Universal themes absorbs and moves far more than it frustrates. [Aug 2015, p.113]

These are fine-boned tracks, filled with lops, piano, surges of sound and Tomberlin's hazy voice. But they are carried on the shoulders of great melody, so the effect is of gloriously distorted pop--warm, somnolent, slightly out of focus. [Sep 2018, p.118]

This feels indispensable, as both bereavement therapy and Brexit-era protest. [Oct 2018, p.117]

Cornershop have clearly been biding their time, not squandering it, returning with the kind of meaty, substantial, truly multi-dimensional project they've long been working towards.

David Lewis Gedge seldom received credit for his Sinatra-esque vocal prowess or Dylan-style lyrical insights when fronting The Wedding Present, but his subsequent Cinerama project is a far more intriguing and beguiling affair.

Against the odds, the band have managed to keep things small and strange, and learned a few thrilling new tricks along the way. [Apr 2006, p.110]

This lack of reinvention... does not mean lack of invention. [Jul 2006, p.108]

The results are ferociously good. [Feb 2018, p.106]

An album that reflects the best moments of his solo debut. [Nov 2014, p.114]

Midnight Organ Fight more than delivers on its promise: tons of spiky energy, proper tunes and a real lyrical bite to the likes of The Modern Leper. [June 2008, p.149]

This mixtape-style collection is more ramshackle than his most celebrated work, but it's still packed wirh inspired funk. [Dec 2008, p.127]

Cudi is very much in a world of his own. [Dec 2010, p.110]

"I need to rebuild a gang spirit," Morrissey said, and you can hear exactly that quality in the album's best moments. [Mar 2014, p.122]

Shine is a work of subtlety and hushed intimacy that, at times, barely seems to exist at all. [May 2003, p.109]

Once the listener gets beyond the references, Clarietta really hits the mark, with a high strike rate of knockout tunes. [Jun 2013, p.94]

With Kozelek's compelling ache of a voice to the fore, his star deserves to wax anew. [Mar 2004, p.113]

It's simply another excellent Elbow record. [March 2011, p. 98]

They are as fearless and undiminished as ever here. [Aug 2015, p.114]

As a collection of songs, this is hugely impressive. As a debut album, its confidence is right up there with Definitely Maybe. [May 2004, p.96]

Previously hushed, hymnal recordings are twisted into warming rock'n'roll. [Dec 2005, p.149]

Clearlake have headed into deeper, darker waters. [Feb 2006, p.101]

A grippingly dramatic latterday-Leonard-Cohen-alike near-masterpiece. [Oct 2014, p.117]

Music that sounds completely out of time, made by an often incredible string band. [Sep 2006, p.108]

Throughout, The Hum is a thrilling testament to Hookworms' single-mindedness and conviction. [Dec 2014, p.112]

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

While the 23-year-old will make more complex music than this, it will be tough to come up with something more fun. [Aug 2008, p.140]

His first proper UK release is a treat, at times conjuring the beautiful, stark bleakness of Nick Drake, elsewhere not afraid to crank things up. [Feb 2009, p.119]

All this is but a prelude to the albums extaordinary, elegant climax, Bellamy’s three part, 12 minute orchestrial work 'Exogenesis: Symphony.' [Oct 2009, p.102]

The mix is full of voices, all snipped up in fragments or rendered as blurred tones. The results lends his exquisite productions a haunting emotional resonance. [#361, p.115]

Exhausting, but borderline brilliant too. [May 2003, p.102]

Bracing, cynical, state-of-the-art fun in the spirit of Little Richard, Van Halen and The Damned.

Voyage, ironically, takes us nowhere we haven't been, but has a blast revisiting Vitalic's favourite haunts. [Feb 2017, p.119]

Pusha T and Malice are deft wordsmiths who deliver lean, whip-smart couplets. [Mar 2007, p.111]

Thrilling stuff. [Dec 2012, p.109]

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

This record's packed with singalong moments. [Apr 2017, p.108]

The Dodos are too uptight to freak-out totally and the clash between slacker lyricism and unpredictable acoustic outbursts lends an intriguingly split personality. [July 2008, p.101]

These renditions, however, also stress how undeserved their reputation for tea-and-cakes twee was, using Stuart Murdoch's lyrical sharpness and the radio sessions' rough edges to draw blood. [Jan 2009, p.126]

It works... stretching rap into weird new shapes. [Feb 2003, p.97]

Darkly funny and strangely beautiful. [Nov 2009, p.111]

Ash & Ice isn't really a reinvention but it does triumph as a bold restatement of just what makes The Kills unique. [#361, p.109]

We Are Not Your Kind marks a supremely confident reassertion of their capacity to pulverise. [Sep 2019, p.116]

May not be their most ambitious album, but it's one of their finest. [July 2011, p. 113]

If this really is a farewell, Bright Eyes is at least going out with an apocalyptic bang. [March 2011, p. 100]

It's uniformly good, apart from Bob Mould's new house direction, which gets laughs for all the wrong reasons. [Jan 2004, p.124]

This is a thrash of real poise: precise, inventive and recklessly fast when necessary. [Nov. 2011, p. 135]

At times, it teeters between nostalgia and self-parody. .... But you can forgive the odd-slip-up, because the whole thing sounds so joyous. [Mar 2018, p.115]

Melodic and eccentric, this is a multi-layered beauty. [Feb 2015, p.106]

[A] wonderful album of covers showcasing his mastery of pianistic romance, witticism and flourish. [#361, p.116]

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]

Even though Nagalo Ni Piny Odag opens their second album in "traditional" style, all chirping percussion and Nyamungu's stringy twang, the tracks which follows cut across genre with winning flair. [Jun 2013, p.103]

Trendy, sure, but occasionally terrific.

Second album confirms sonic wizard's wizardry. [March 2011, p. 116]

You wonder how many guitar bands in the interim have matched the standard set here. [Jun 2012, p.119]

Their debut is a giant leap in the right direction. [Jul 2011, p.118]

It feels like a step into a brave new world. [Oct 2017, p.108]

This is a starkly beautiful suite of music by a band who--after two decades--just keeping growing in stature. [Oct 2018, p.115]

The result is an album that balances sophistication with a satisfying pop sense, and emotional heft with a lightness of touch. [Oct 2018, p.110]

Big, major-chord jams and subtly political messages abound. [Nov 2015, p.113]

It was the album that cleared the way for them to become one of the '90s biggest bands. Country Feedback is still one of their best songs, a plaintive, alt-country ballad that allowed Michael Stipe's voice to shine. [Dec 2016, p.117]

Yet another display of his banter and brains. [Feb 2020, p.106]

Hayward drums like h e needs your attention right now, Moore plays like an apocalypse, and it's all loud, snappy and catchy as hell. [Jan 2018, p.109]

A raucous, irresistibly melodic collection of songs that ring with indignant, apathy-infused joie de vivre. [Feb 2019, p.112]

These 11 songs are unashamedly informed by her maternal role in its varying facets of joy, growth, complexity and, on the self-explanatory So Tired, exhausting labour. But it also ranges more wildly. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Ephyra sees them merge their blissful tendencies with the chutzpah and restless creativity of '80s new wave, mixing in retro-futurist synths, mannered vocals, disco beats and erudite lyricism. [Apr 2019, p.118]

A powerhouse of big riffed rock 'n' roll drenched in '70s sunshine. [Sep 2012, p.110]

Anyone who's ever loved a record by Midlake or the Fleet Foxes should investigate immediately. [#361, p.117]

Stepping outside of their natural environment ensured their longevity in the '90s, stepping back in seems to have given them a fresh boost. For all Zooropa and Pop's pushing of the envelope, limiting themselves to rock's core ingredients has given the band a new challenge. Certainly, not since The Joshua Tree have U2 sounded so like U2 but, with songs of this startling calibre, right now being U2 is no bad thing.

Always an engaging songwriter with a strong mystical and elemental bent, the seamlessly flowing July Flame now adds an increased accessibility to her armoury. [Feb 2010, p. 112]

It might well be their best album yet. [Sep 2019, p.116]

It's their broadening of the musical palette which is more impressive. [Aug 2015, p.112]

She's utterly beguiling, a fresh presence at last in singer-songwriter land. [Jun 2003, p.95]

It's the overall sense of joie de vivre which makes Where The Heaven Are We such a triumph. [Aug 2013, p.101]

It's true that none of the tracks here quite scale the heights reached early in his career.... But... James is at least trying to move beyond what he's achieved already. [May 2006, p.124]

Such Hot Blood is best when it's at its most anthemic. [Nov 2013, p.101]

Memories Are Now is an inventive nine-song affair. [Apr 2017, p.112]

Motion To Join makes the druggiest meanderings of the similar "Spiritulized" sound full of pep. [Dec 2008, p. 126]

I Love You. It's A Fever Dream is hardly cluttered, but it's those little details that really lift his fifth LP as The Tallest Man On Earth. [Aug 2019, p.116]

We get their most pastoral outing to date, piano ballads one minutes, laid-back Neil Young the next. [July 2010, p. 129]

The Grenoble DJ/producer's third and best solo release, may feature some ropey lyrics, but the sultry dominatrix voice in which she intones them helps her get away with it. [Jul 2013, p.108]

Battered, bonkers and bewitching in equal parts, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at last finds Wilco's "interesting" phase becoming downright fascinating. [May 2002, p.121]

It's clear that MacLean and Whang have never sounded better. [Oct 2014, p.112]

File besides Peaking Lights as odd couple doing weirdly accessible wonders. [Dec 2012, p.112]

Ghost Culture's self-titled debut often feels like eavesdropping on a late-night confessionary: one where influences such as Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode mastermind Martin Gore and Soulwax are fused into a thundering, fluid whole. [Feb 2015, p.109]

The Union has pulled off the canny trick of allowing Elton to revisit his past, while still sounding like a songwriter looking and moving confidently towards the future. [Dec 2010, p.106]

Ultimate Success Today is convulsed by End Times thoughts of collapse and an American dream eating itself. [Aug 2020, p.111]

This is the sound of a band hitting their stride, albeit belatedly. [#361, p.116]