What Humanz lacks in memorable hooks, it makes up for in fist-clenching spirit--and We Got The Power sums that up best. [Jun 2017, p.113]

In its own fragile way, a delight. [Mar 2003, p.111]

Often sad yet always warmly sympathetic, it's a well-weighted, smartly observed collection of attractive pop. [Jun 2010, p.132]

The sheer volume of ideas bustles everything along. [Mar 2012, p.113]

Though frontman Tom Dougall's subdued vocals prove a little one-note over an album, the ground's certainly safer than it was three-fifth of Toy's old band. [Oct 2012, p.112]

Hardcore sounds defiantly re-energised, like a band starting over. [Mar 2011, p.112]

A profoundly, if unexpectedly, moving record. [Dec 2014, p.109]

Altogether, as lovely as its title suggests. [May 2016, p.104]

While Space Gun has its moments of off-kilter brilliance, they are cancelled out by more earthbound, laboured-sounding fare. [May 2018, p.108]

[The soundtrack is paring] the sound down for wistful and occasionally beautiful miniatures. [May 2013, p.106]

A strange dream state, then, with not a smiley or glow-stick to be seen. [Jul 2014, p.100]

Pitched somewhere between the Blues Explosion and Grinderman, it's an awesome racket, but the lack of time spent means the potential of 'Next Time' and the fevered 'New Meaning' have been lost in the rush to record. [July 2008, p.108]

For their sixth album, the quintet have finally made theor cranky Americana into fully fledged classic rock. [May 2010, p.118]

An IMAX band in an iPad age, it's there that they'll prosper. [Oct 2012, p.111]

An endlessly repeatable mood music masterpiece. [Mar 2014, p.119]

Unlikely to win any new converts then, Pylon still remains a triumph of wilful perversity. [Jan 2016, p.113]

A fiercely well-assembled soundtrack that blends '80s pop and club classics with more recent R&B innovations. [Apr 2017, p.116]

To make warm, immediate pop music that sounds so out of the ordinary is a rare feat. [May 2017, p.106]

A solid, if not essential, Desert Sessions return. [Dec 2019, p.109]

While the proceedings might be more restrained than usual on the '80s hardcore-aping Husker Don't and Sabbath clatter of Halloween 3, if you think Lightning Bolt have softened you're very much mistaken. [Jan 2020, p.110]

Five years away hasn't damaged their ability to wow and Hesitation Marks puts Trent Reznor's soundtrack albums into context; here, he sounds at his very best and right where he belongs. [Oct 2013, p.108]

Jannis Noya Makrigiannis clearly has his own agenda allowing his haunting songs to develop at leisure. [Apr 2012, p.106]

A big talent but no Billie Holiday. [Sep 2013, p.102]

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]

Tennessee Pusher pushes their envelope further still. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Shaver's always been a tough guy making trouble on the edges of a Nashville that values slickness. [Oct 2014, p.119]

Trux life feels more brilliantly warped than ever. [Apr 2019, p.114]

Musically, she delivers that desired top-down, sunny LA drive-time feel. [Jul 2015, p.100]

A collection of songs of pleasing weight and completeness, their musical joints expertly dovetailed, their detailing crisply hand-carved. [Jun 2016, p.108]

This debut collection of lo-fi chillwave-esque electronics and introspective song fragments locates itself deftly between Animal Collective's strung-out post-rock and the drum machine-powered sketches of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone.[Dec. 2011 p. 137]

A dreamy, atmospheric record. [Oct 2012, p.98]

Dumb Flesh strikes a fabulously oxymoronic tone: euphoric dread. [Jun 2015, p.100]

These songs coalesce into visionary rabble-rousing. [May 2020, p.106]

The result was a record stranded between the two [mainstream or underground cool], hummable, but too quirky to cross over. [Nov 2009, p.101]

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]

At times, it's too mellow. [Summer 2019, p.108]

More subtle delights from the bearded Mr. Beam. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]

A record that occupies the exact mid-point between the ghetto sass of her Puff Daddy-produced debut and 1999's poised, soulful Mary. [Oct 2001, p.117]

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

[His] gravel-like vocals envelop the album, while his well-travelled eyes ensure the lyrics are filled with knowing experience. [Mar 2004, p.109]

They've produced a demanding slice of music, brilliantly out of sync in an age of quick fixes and plummeting attention spans.

There's a pleasing mundanity to their lyrical scope. [Feb 2020, p.115]

It feels like a coherent vision, even if it occasionally spills into narco-whimsy. [Oct 2016, p.107]

The deeper emotions being stirred this time around fans out to several other highlights. [Mar 2013, p.106]

The No. 1ers' frenzied, hypnotic soundwhirl of old is leavened by the addition of precision-tooled beats and a shiny top-coat production. It works magnificently on the propulsive Yambadi Mama, yet less so when the motorik thumb pianos are left virtually unaccompanied. [May 2016, p.111]

Immediately satisfying. [Jun 2005, p.120]

Though Matmos are undoubtedly the Willie Wonkas of ear candy, just occasionally The Civil War gets too anal. [Oct 2003, p.109]

Gallows is less significant than its predecessor, but it often sounds more urgent. [Oct 2012, p.100]

Soulful debut from Omaha's answer to Duffy. [July 2010, p. 136]

Even the most flint-hearted cynic will struggle not to get caught up in his swivel-eyed lust for life. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Poignant and powerful. [Aug 2017, p.110]

They churn and drone their way through five epic tracks culminating in the 16-minute And I Will, a pop-psycho-trip of wailing voices and flutes. At this late stage in the game, it's excellent behaviour. [Mar 2018, p.104]

Darnielle's striking way with a phrase makes songs about Milky Ways for breakfast and smelly flats into things of quiet wonder. [Mar 2004, p.107]

Over time, a soulful, joyous record reveals itself. [Sep 2014, p.103]

Veteran art-punks reinvent themselves 35 years on. [Feb. 2011, p. 125]

There's nothing so prosaic as choruses, but there's warmth to spare. [Nov 2007, p.137]

Civilians is the most approachable and coherent of his recent offerings. [Oct 2007, p.98]

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

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

This time around Petty's Heartbreakers have brought out the very best in the man himself. [Sep 2014, p.102]

If an album's ever demanded the description "plangent" or "mellifluous", it's here. [Dec. 2011 p. 128]

Despite a late lapse into mediocrity, the good here far outshines the bland. [Feb 2003, p.96]

One Part Lullaby's chugging, folk/soul interface and tagged-on beats has a more natural flow than before ... He's still proffering those cryptic, jittery asides ("one part lullaby, two parts fear" in the title track), but at least Lou Barlow's music sounds relaxed these days.

It's a stride towards true excellence. Although likely to remain a cult item, The Beta Band are now easier to embrace than ever, less pastoral and more direc, courtesy of a clear, sharp, intensely rhythmic new sound... [#180, p.97]

They've still managed to convert their technological shortcomings into some fuzzed-out, genuinely energised rocking. [Jul 2003, p.113]

Like all jokes, it's not as funny second time around. [Jul 2003, p.110]

The new "proper band" architecture well suits these touching, often funny songs. [Apr 2002, p.119]

Inevitably, it sounds dated. [Feb 2005, p.102]

There's nothing desperately new here, but it's all sharply enough executed. [Jun 2006, p.114]

There's... a core of tunefulness and celebration to their experimentation. [Apr 2007, p.118]

It might not add up to vintage Joni, but her artistic integrity and sheer class are never in doubt. [Nov 2007, p.140]

As ever, North Star Deserter doesn't pull many punches, with the bare-boned 'Warm' making the starkest of openers. [Oct 2007, p.94]

Rootsy San Diego five-piece Delta Spirit's debut is a thought provoking surprise. [Apr 2009, p.102]

Nutty Boys no more, Madness may be big men but, judging by this, not entirely out of shape. [Jun 2009, p.131]

Sparky debut from trio in thrall to US post-hardcore. [July 2010, p. 135]

Conjures up a haunting, almost mythical American landscape of lost highways and endless skies. [Dec 2011, p.137]

Hawley wields his guitar with fresh zeal, unfurling long, turbulent solos while his chocolatey baritone is less Roy Orbison, more Mark Lanegan. But the songwriting lags behind the sound. [Jun 2012, p.104]

Emotions are high, though their impact could be heightened if the band's post-hardcore sounds was less generic. [Nov 2012, p.103]

[The glitchy beats and samples] gives them a whole new playground but even the most synthesized moments here sound natural and unforced. [May 2013, p.109]

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]

There's something about these piledriver riffs that remains powerful yet lacking in punch. [Aug 2013, p.96]

A breezy, rangy collection of songs that give the impression of a man keen to make a move without over-analysing too much. [Aug 2013, p.102]

Their determination to get further and further out there is undimmed on this, their 26th(!) album. [May 2014, p.115]

An afterhours ambience attending his salty evocations of vintage soul, R&B and rock and roll. [Jul 2014, p.117]

A struggle to balance the killer riffs and aggression that the fans want with the melodicism that the band themselves seem far more interested in. [Dec 2014, p.116]

One of his best then, and a perfect entry point for anyone who might be intrigued. [Nov 2014, p.116]

It's best when he makes mood music for out-of-body states. [Oct 2015, p.114]

The whole thing is one long hazy delight. [Nov 2015, p.115]

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

And the Anonymous Nobody delivers. [Sep 2016, p.104]

A wealth of imaginative arrangements make for a genuinely unique debut album. [May 2017, p.103]

Edgar Jones offers up grit and depth often lacking in modern production. [Jun 2017, p.109]

Their most richly-coloured record to date. [Nov 2017, p.104]

Sometimes the results a re a bit too wilfully weird. ... When his songs are sturdier though, Blau is an intriguing figure. [Jan 2018, p.106]

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

A record that embodies a whole world of vulnerability, confusion and unsteadiness without losing shape. [Mar 2018, p.102]

The shine wears off before the final, 14th, song. But it's fun until then. [May 2018, p.111]

It's hard to keep up, but it's an enjoyably bonkers journey. [Summer 2018, p.113]