The way Blumberg expands and contracts the title track four times over the record, or filters a warped background shriek into Silence Breaker, underlines his experimental drives, his desire to push through sound barriers. [Sep 2020, p.107]

Holly balances a nostalgic timelessness and modern, urgent emotions. [May 2014, p.120]

A great leap forward. [Oct 2003, p.113]

Years & Years may not be with us for the long haul. But right now, they're picture perfect. [Aug 2015, p.110]

For once, the return to form tag rings true. [Dec 2003, p.129]

An altogether more satisfying supply of air punching, stadium sized choruses. [Jun 2004, p.103]

This deeply melancholic brand of haunting, sparse folk is as intoxicating as it is unsettling. [Feb 2020, p.111]

It amounts to Mark Eitzel's best album in years. [Feb 2017, p.112]

Nobody... rekindles the dark brooding of their first two albums. [Dec 2014, p.117]

Stuart Murdoch's lyrical muse is a touch subdued but Come On Sister's moreish synth-pop and the gleeful bubblegum, of Stevie Jackson's I'm Not Living In The Real World prove their sense of indie wonder remains undimmed. [Nov 2010, p.114]

'I Heard Wonders' and the title track are standouts, blissed-out epics suggestive of U2 tangling with 'The Jesus And Mary Chain,' while instrumentals 'Story Of The Ink' and 'Theme/IMC' radiate desolate beauty. [Oct 2008, p.147]

Hold Time cements his status as one of America's best roots songwriters. [Mar 2009, p.105]

It's their most melodically accomplished and wide-ranging effort yet. [Apr 2009, p.111]

An astonishing, envelope-pushing vision that mocks the idea of bluegrass being a revival genre. [Apr 2012, p.94]

Gentle, droll and - bar the disappointingly immature Oh Shucks - mercifully free of knob gags, Minor Love is charming. [Feb 2010, p. 108]

Throughout, the bouncy enthusiasm of old has become heavier, louder, faster and stronger. [Jan 2003, p.113]

Most of it... suggests that New York's time is, once again, imminent. [Aug 2003, p.119]

Want Two isn't an immediate album, but what it lacks in pop hooks in makes up for in ambition. [Mar 2005, p.92]

What's The Sound? is an intimate, lavishly layered collection topped by Woolhouse's worried vocals. [Jan 2017, p.115]

Smart, witty and warm. [Dec 2017, p.113

It is both slick and accomplished. [Oct 2011, p.120]

Another rewarding helping of tuneful art-rock that moves their initial Sonic Youth fixations into far more expansive fields. [Feb 2020, p.108]

Tinashe's voice is pure and malleable, her lyrics suggestive and assertive. [Dec 2014, p.116]

Six albums in, Baxter Dury has realised a sound and lyrical approach that is unmistakably his alone. [May 2020, p.101]

From the anthem-like 'Ode To LRC to the sanguine finale of 'Window Blues,' this is beautifully paced and utterly beguiling. [Dec 2007, p.112]

The songs are embedded with reflection and romance... This is how Christmas records are really done. [Jan. 2012 p. 118]

A brilliant distillation of Reich's twin enduring motifs: repetition and melancholia. [Apr 2018, p.112]

There's a deliciously tangy freshness to the massed voices and acoustic thrum. [Apr 2014, p.103]

DVA's full-length debut Pretty Ugly feels more late night than early morning, cutting a swathe through dubstep, future soul and jittery electronica. [Apr 2012, p.98]

A wonderful album that exists in its own little world. [#361, p.112]

Like other scary experiences, it's also frequently exhilarating. [Mar 2004, p.107]

It's strong medicine for sure, but also an astonishing record that will haunt you long after it's finished playing. [Aug 2013, p.98]

[Fuzzy Logic] has aged well. [Dec 2016, p.117]

Jamie Treays has come back fighting and fighting brilliantly. [Nov 2014, p.117]

More expansive, darker and that much more intriguing. [Feb 2020, p.109]

There's a new-found clarity and sense of purpose here. [Feb 2020, p.113]

Overseen by Butch Vig, there's a continuity to Sonic Highways, in spite of its on-the-road creation. At the same time, the band stretch themselves. [Dec 2014, p.117]

Garden of Spirits up singular aural magic from today's mood of global dread. [Mar 2017, p.113]

An epic, genre-defying sonic stunt indeed. [Dec 2012, p.114]

Challengers, their fourth album, sees the band and its three main songwriters at the top of their game. [Sep 2007, p.99]

It marks a huge leap forward, with much of their previous discordant awkwardness replaced with a more focused approach. [Nov 2007, p.141]

The British collective's first album in 12 years reopens their conduit for nocturnal electronic, modern classical and tempestuous jazz, all in an engaging wash. Credit their bold selection of vocalists. [May 2019, p.108]

There's a richness here that's been absent from previous Jicks records. [Jul 2018, p.115]

Elegant strings and bass, recorded by pianist and composer Hauschka, creep like ivy around this all-consuming debut. [April 2012, p.90]

Grey Britain is at once more accessible than its chaotic predecessor, "Orchestra Of Wolves." but also harder hitting. [Jun 2009, p.122]

It's a delight. [Jun 2015, p.110]

High Voilolet features 11 tracks; five are good, six extraordinary. [Jun 2010, p.116]

An exquisite, unexpected gem. [Jun 2012, p.102]

A lesson in untouched simplicity, raw groove and my-woman-done-left-me throat wobbling. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Scott can't help but overcook things occasionally but fans will gorge on this rich feast of country, soul and downhome rock'n'roll. [Oct 2017, p.111]

It's cleverly and passionately done. [Nov 2019, p.112]

Similar in spirit to [Primal Scream's] Exterminator or Death In Vegas's The Contino Sessions, his third album tools up a live rock band with dance music's sonic armoury... it's a claustrophobic listening experience, challengingly thick with ideas.

This follow up to Psychic Chasms displays similarly exhilarating aural ambitions. [Nov. 2011, p. 139]

Big Music's bold title matches the bold music within. [Dec 2014, p.118]

He sing-raps stream-of-consciousness tales that, coupled with instrumentation from his brother Josiah and Doug McDiarmid, create contagious songs. [May 2008, p.141]

[An album] that's up there with its maverick creator's best.[Feb. 2012 p. 105]

Mutable Set is best at its most surreal. [Jul 2020, p.110]

The real relevation, though, is guest rapper Sway, who ditches his cheeky pop persona in favour of a prowling delivery perfectly suited to the title track's rolling bass and Eastern-tinged 'Jewels And Gems.' [May 2009, p.113]

Yes, he's a magpie--like, is My Girl really not a Ramones cover?--but Willy Moon is classy, forward-looking and 100 per cent on the money. [May 2013, p.100]

A more coherent album [than Play], it enchances rather than advances his previous approach, proving superior to its predecessor because its music is more sensitive, its emotions more personal, and what's on offer is a closer, more inviting experience. [May 2002, p.105]

Though rockier in parts than any of his previous work, this 12-track set houses some of Johnson's most impressive songwriting to date.

The live material shows the band in their element, even if the limitations of Johnson's voice are exposed, flawless performances of "Hells Bells" and "Live Wire" explaining why they're still one of the most thrilling live acts. [Jan 2010, p.131]

Just Because, Youth and Poverty and the simmering Finale show there's genuine craft here too. Thrilling. [Feb 2011, p.117]

It clatters past in little over an hour, lean and propulsive despite its sprawling, scattershot nature. [Jun 2012, p.109]

He's retained much of his fizz, but his new, relatively thoughtful, air means that the piano-led The Bruiser exudes a heap of rue and regret, while the autobiographical Mississippi Delta toasts a bright new future in a bright new place, something this album cements. [Oct 2018, p.116]

Green is a one-man game of musical consequences, mismatched but endlessly fascinating. [May 2006, p.124]

Back on track. ... The time away has taught them that if the sings are good enough, there 's no need to chuck in the kitchen sink too. [Mar 2020, p.114]

An unexpected pleasure. [Dec 2014, p.118]

Despite the dark moments, Lost Domain keeps the flame. [Dec 2014, p.119]

The album's deft genre-hopping is navigated with a confidence that comes from clearly hard-won experience. [May 2020, p.110]

As a covers album, this is about as good as it gets. [Mar 2010, p.104]

Heartbreaking, gorgeous and totally individual, these big-production numbers meld the different but complementary beauties of Nashville country and sweet soul while adding a dash of wine-dark weirdness.

Napolitano's lyrics exemplify the "perfect turn of word" for which she praises Bryan Ferry in a tribute song called Roxy. [Jan 2002, p.98]

This is the work of a band who are beginning to realise they don't always need to bark so loudly to be heard. [Jun 2012, p.103]

Struggle, New Disco, and Dance To The Underground are too-self conscious by half but they're still hoisted by a steamrolling dynamic and sharp hooks. [Nov 2002, p.110]

Writhing and urgent, it's the record that might make them stars. [Aug 2013, p.101]

Mood music with a soul. [Oct 2011, p.112]

Storytone presents the same 10 songs twice: compellingly naked save for a guitar or ukulele, then dressed to kill in Hollywood strings and big band brass. [Dec 2014, p.119]

This is a beautiful, soul-searching record and the one that Joan Wasser has spent her whole life building up to. [Mar 2018, p.110]

Oldham has been so far ahead of the folksy Americana pack for so long that it now sounds like he's even caught up with himself. [Jan. 2012 p. 119]

His second album is braver and more expansive and, in the case of 'Cigarette Eyes,' surprisingly angry. He's getting near to brilliant. [Feb 2008, p.95]

Their 16th album proves that while Guided by Voices' songs are legion, their gifts remain singular.[Feb. 2012 p. 109]

A confident and enjoyable debut. [May 2019, p.111]

Mature, classy and a hard-earnedtriumph. [Jul 2020, p.105]

Historic recreation pop, yes, but it presents beautifully. [June 2019, p.111]

Hippo Lite is brilliantly abrasive, any prettier blips overwhelmed by Real Outside's uncanny whirl or the ESP crackle of Corner shops. ... Such insularity only means you lean in, however, as close as possible to their intriguing transmissions. [Jun 2018, p.110]

Dazzling with its intensity, the futuristic splice of swooping symphonics and grimy looped percussion once again sets Stevens in his own orbit. [Dec 2010, p.114]

It's seamless, silly, but seriously good stuff. [Jun 2016, p.113]

What Hardy has done here is make a folk album for people who don't normally like folk music. [Apr 2015, p.103]

Elevated throughout by Garcia's immaculate phrasing, this is music that fuses he tradition and modern with real purpose. [Sep 2020, p.110]

If you were charmed by early Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, or simply fancy a bonkers tune-fest, this inspired, lo-fi rock is for you. [Apr 2004, p.114]

Slipknot make one hell of a racket, an abrasive amalgam of death metal blastbeats and bestial grunting. [Oct 2001, p.130]

While AAARTH doesn't veer too wildly from the template--tightly-wound rock riffs and pummelling drums forming a circle around frontwman Ritzy Bryan's atmospheric hooks--it doesn't put a foot wrong, either. [Nov 2018, p.109]

There are songs here that count among the best they've made. [May 2005, p.119]

It's a thrilling listen. [Dec 2014, p.119]

A wildly inventive yet mainstream sound that suits her lyrics. [Mar 2016, p.106]

Groove Denied is a brilliant and varied sonic experiment that zigzags through early-'80s analogue synthscapes and early Cure. The second half returns him to more familiar wonky guitar territory, but it's a joy to hear him stretch out. [May 2019, p.115]

180 captures all the exuberance of the sweatbox gigs they've held in its basement, while showcasing them as a scorching rock'n'roll band. [Mar 2013, p.106]