As ever, it's wildly inventive. [Jul 2017, p.108]

It's not a wildly eclectic trip, but for dependable hooks and relatable emotion, Alvvays are spot on. [Oct 2017, p.100]

Delights in filtering classical motifs through electronic effects. [Mar 2018, p.104]

Tracks such as The Way It Goes or Suck It Like A Whistle are dynamic, dramatic rap-funk, which find the ambition to measure up to her obvious talent. [Mar 2019, p.118]

The music here is more than arresting enough. [Jul 2020, p.113]

Dream Wife draw on the politicised ire of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill while putting their own fun, frivolous spin on things. [Feb 2018, p.111]

Using multiple, often unsystematic rhythmic modes, this alien mood is sustained, though when Kode9's late lyrical foil The Spaceape makes a spectral appearance in the fleeting Third Ear Transmission, you're reminded of how much he contributed. [Dec 2015, p.109]

At 10 tracks, it's a concise and perfectly paced record, veering between subtlety and stampede. [Oct 2015, p.100]

Primal Scream haven't sounded this vital in at least a decade. [Jun 2013, p.97]

There's a real depth to an album that is brimming with inventive, clever hooks and individualism. [Oct 2014, p.114]

Ferry has covered so much ground that it's hard not to repeat himself. [Apr 2002, p.112]

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

The result is a vibrant hybrid of bass-heavy beats and ragga toasting that echoes the digital dub revolution that swept through reggae in the mid '80s. [Aug 2009, p.109]

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

Wearing their influences as badges of honour, the New Jersey quartet blast out affecting, soulful punk rock strewn with bitterweet memories of small-town blue-collar America. [Sep 2008]

The emphasis is on big, radio-friendly choruses, four-part harmonies giving an euphoric dimension to their punk-influenced sound, with less of the earlier complex angularity. [Jun 2010, p.127]

Downtempo triumph from Seattle indie journeyman. [July 2010, p. 135]

Serotonin finds them back in more familiar territory, delivering screwball pop gems under the guidance of veteran knob twiddler Chris Thomas. [Aug 2010, p.123]

The result is like a more chaotic Nirvana or Dinosaur Jr, with gentle diversions into geeky indie, drone-rock and fuzz-pop that only enhance the racket-making around it. [Apr 2013, p.109]

Much of Brighter Wounds is beautifully textured and sonically impressive but songs feel constructed from carefully plotted blueprints, which doesn't leave much room for nuance. [Apr 2018, p.115]

If Williams would only take the time to explore just a few of the ideas he presented here, his album would be far deeper than it is broad.[Mar 2016, p.117]

Such is the electronic murk elsewhere, it feels better to dabble your toes in this record than plunge right in. [May 2011, p.120]

This isn't music designed to be passively enjoyed and it's all the more thrilling for it. [Apr 2014, p.116]

The songs here convey life's troubles - failing relationships, feelings of rootlessness - with an unfeasibly languid, almost opiated calm.

This really is a joy. [Dec 2001, p.121]

Three's still something fresh about Stereolab's brand of trippy space pop. [Mar 2004, p.112]

Both in the lyrical themes and in its sound, we are floating in familiar space. [May 2017, p.104]

Angels Of Destruction builds on the momentum of 2005's "If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry." [Feb 2008, p.99]

Still raging, not drowning, their flame burns unfashionably on. [Oct 2010, p.110]

Album 13 of experimental Californian acoustic folk. [March 2011, p. 115]

It's more melodic, dynamic and accessible than before. [Jul 2012, p.102]

A very professional job, then, even though it feels as if Levi's wilder instincts have been tamed. [Apr 2017, p.115]

With measured assistance from pianist Huw Warren and melodeon Maestro Andy Cutting, it seems almost rude to suggest it's probably too one-paced and cheerless to really warm to. [Mar 2011, p.115]

This second LP falls slightly short of its predecessor. [Jul 2015, p.105]

It sounds as you would expect: a desolate dreamscape punctuated by nervous drum machines. In other words, it's a bit Kid A. [Aug 2006, p.110]

Mischievously sexy. [Aug 2013, p.94]

They sound leaner and more quietly aggressive than ever--a streamlined, seething version of themselves. [Feb 2014, p.118]

As the set progresses, the trademark Nirvana sound begins to take shape. [Dec 2004, p.152]

The music is as compelling and versatile as Polachek's voice. [Mar 2012, p. 97]

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

Here, at last again, is the Ryan Adams of Heartbreaker - creating a uniformly strong collection of songs, singular in mood, each articulated by a voice that, whilst more lived in, remains a lovely instrument. [Nov. 2011, p. 137]

They'll have to evolve quickly to avoid being tarred with the copyist brush, but for now it's just dandy. [May 2008, p.135]

Inventive Londoner plunders all corners of the dancefloor. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

Opener Into the Night sets the tine with its robotic glitterball soul music, while Undecided fantastically tweaks the Roland 303 to Olympian levels of ecstasy. [Mar 2012, p.111]

Though twee-o-phobes may baulk at the confessional tone, wit and self-deprecation win the day. [Oct 2012, p.105]

At times, stellar. [Jun 2014, p.112]

[There are] some great songs lurking in the darkness of their debut. [Jan 2016, p.111]

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

Swedish popstrel on fine form, midway through her trilogy. [Nov. 2010, p. 114]

Without scaling any great heights, it's a sweetly engaging mix of lo-fi indie-rock and '60s girl group innocence. [Sep 2010, p.122]

Both vocals and music here shimmer with a weird radiance... to dizzying, intoxicating effect. [Aug 2012, p.108]

Their juggernaut third album is the sound of a band becoming ever more defiantly themselves. [Sep 2020, p.104]

Some tracks still sound ripe for Christmas rom-coms. But the best see veteran producer T-Bone Burnett, Tom Wait's guitarist Marc Ribot and Krall's husband Elvis Costello rough up her seductive keys with some electric Americana fuzz. [Nov 2012, p.99]

His best record in more than a decade. [Dec 2017, p.104]

Wilderness quickly makes it clear that the passing of time hasn't dampened down their taste for the macabre mysteries if existence. [Jul 2013, p.105]

This second installment is immaculate, an artful, emotional tour de force that underlines their "American rock's Radiohead" status. [May 2008, p.130]

The threesome's Orcadian tribute is a remarkable modern-yet-ancient mini-musical. [Jul 2012, p.105]

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

A lovingly crafted, deeply satisfying step forward. [Mar 2013, p.110]

Dark and greasy, The Other Life is where Shooter's past and present finally come to terms with each other. [Aug 2013, p.105]

Vega's still small voice of calm remains where the action is,kin to early-'70s Leonard Cohen in her lyrics of enigmatic confession, tarot-casting romance and cool mystique. [Mar 2014, p.121]

Garwood's gruff whisper can't touch Lanegan's death rattle, but it lets him slip in the odd love song without sounding like he's sketching a suicide pact. [Mar 2015, p.106]

To no-frills, English Velvet Underground-style indie pop, this seasoned, perceptive narrator also turns his gaze on dilemmas including the plight of the still-game senior rocker (Mr. Music), bewildering transience (There It Goes) and, seemingly, divorce (Good Enough), lightly wearing life experience without sacrificing impact. [Feb 2016, p.107]

He surprises with an unexpectedly stark romanticism inspired at least partly by his love for Isaac Hayes and Ray Charles. [Jan 2017, p.108]

It rearranges songs from the back catalogue into both psychologically probing dream-pop and freer, almost meteorological expressions. [May 2017, p.104]

A sweetly gloomy affair mostly for guitars and voice. [Aug 2017, p.105]

This narrative of self-empowerment might be superficially uplifting but it can also be rather inane, recalling the tween-friendly messages of positivity spread by pop powerhouses like Little Mix. That lightweight lyricism is in contrast to Mahalia's sophisticated sonic palate. [Oct 2019, p.109]

Turns out that melancholy is his band's key constiturnt, however for without it the result is a bit too sugary. [Apr 2010, p.112]

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

A soul-warming treat. [Jun 2011, p.116]

Like a violent assault by a Moshi Monster, it's fluffy, frightening and utterly overwhelming. [Apr 2014, p.105]

Too often, these songs feel as though they're being executed with an arched eyebrow, Lewis Jr. peering knowingly from behind the curtain with a nod and a wink. [Aug 2012, p.110]

Herd Runners is ambitious and emotionally enthralling throughout. [Jun 2014, p.106]

[An] absorbing, multi-layered debut. [Sep 2016, p.112]

Startisha is a marriage that nods to the old while leaning on the new, where results are more mixed. [Summer 2020, p.103]

There's nothing wrong with the songs that make up its second act, save that each is as woozy, wistful and gossamer-fragile as the next. [June 2008, p.140]

Its charms are bound up with the subtle pleasures of listening to these songs anew and re-understanding their make-up. [#184, p.127]

Sees him progressing further towards becoming a punked-up Bruce Springsteen. Trouble is, someone's got there already--his best mate, Ryan Adams. [Jul 2004, p.118]

Errors have always been technically thrilling, but [this album] sees the four-piece imbue their machine-like synth and riff soundscapes with a new-found warmth.[Feb 2012, p. 104]

It's a glorious return; joyous, enraged and exciting. [Aug 2017, p.103]

Brooding and complex, Deafman Glance isn't easy to grasp, but repeated listens get you through the sophisticated structures to appreciate some mid-blowing moments, out-there lyrics, and, on Telluride Speed, hard-won prettiness. [Jul 2018, p.118]

Too aimless for the initiated, the likes of 'Barfuss Durch Gras,' a cacophony of clocks unwinding will have dinner party dilettantes spitting their soup. [Oct 2008, p.142]

The tension between light and dark is this album's masterstroke. [Oct 2012, p.104]

Far less commercial, but also far richer. [Aug 2005, p.129]

This isn't anything like a Best Of, but there remains plenty of enjoyment in these spacey oddities. [Sep 2006, p.118]

The overall effect is warmly intoxicating and that the album comes so close to matching up to the records it's in thrall to means you can forgive its obvious debt to others. [Mar 2014, p.110]

Why? always had the brains, now they've located their heart. [Nov 2009, p.115]

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]

He's made his most palatable LP yet. [Feb 2013, p.109]

[They sound] pissed off, over-amped, just the right side of sloppy, shorn of the brass grafted into recent outings--i.e. exactly like themselves. [May 2013, p.106]

Bizarre and not a little perverse. [Apr 2007, p.117]

Their sonic structures remain complex, and experiment still take precedence over entertainment. [May 2010, p.115]

He gets his message across smoothly without ever needing to resort to heavy-handedness. [Jun 2013, p.107]

Third album Black Dog Barking can be a lot of fun. [Jul 2013, p.111]

For new disco freaks and their parents alike, here are 43 old-school minutes of party-down pleasure. [Nov 2013, p.106]

Too many of the riffs sound flimsy and thin when they should suckerpunch out of the speakers. [Oct 2013, p.100]

Like every era of electronic music all balled up together, CCTV and subways, excitement and fear. [Jun 2014, p.123]

Melodies unfold, lyrics reveal their meaning and the wait is revealed as having been worth it. [Jun 2014, p.116]