This willfully obscure yet eerily beautiful music sounds all the more absorbing in remastered form. [May 2014, p.124]

This third LP has all the Afrobeat pioneer's brute power, if little of his subtlety. [May 2014, p.113]

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

It's a sound that can be as unsettling as it is melodic but at its best its hypnotic and all their own. [May 2014, p.108]

Distinct high and lows are lacking, the songs blurring like a long night, but Green remains a mistress of her mood. [May 2014, p.110]

A step backwards. [May 2014, p.121

For a man who continues to spell his surname with two dollar signs, his act is lacking in real drama. [May 2014, p.121]

It occasionally goes Heartbeat but Jackson largely swerves pastiche with his knack for limpid romanticism and muzzy atmosphere. [May 2014, p.120]

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

The acoustic-leaning song-cycle Hendra presents mature reflections on memory and loss. [May 2014, p.120]

The mood is one of eerie dread as the music slowly unfurls in stately fashion, the rhythms frequently mimicking a horse's trot. [May 2014, p.119]

The combination of dreamy pop noir and the remorseless quality of the tunes suggest they'll soon be both big and clever. [May 2014, p.119]

Decent enough, but still not up to their best. [May 2014, p.119]

This 35-minute suite is hypnotically cinematic, skillfully orchestrated. [May 2014, p.119]

Not the breakthrough they crave but a highly engaging 45 minutes nonetheless. [May 2014, p.118]

SOHN is partial to sampling his own voice to augment the wounded confessionals. They stutter rhythmically and mix with a patchwork of minimal yet intricate electronics and low end beats to spine-tingling effect. [May 2014, p.118]

Twisty and characterful, this is frequently dazzling stuff. [May 2014, p.118]

An album that manages to pile on fresh, innovative production without drowning out the frequently spectacular songwriting. [May 2014, p.118]

What TEEN have fashioned here is heady stuff. [May 2014, p.117]

The solemn dream-pop of Dominic is a rare highlight that serves only to demonstrate the rest of the album's shortcomings. [May 2014, p.116]

You leave the record feeling a bit like you've visited a museum. [May 2014, p.116]

More varied stylistically, it offers a powerful reflection of the band's consistently bleak worldview. [May 2014, p.116]

Chaotic and raw, it exemplifies the best of US punk rock. [May 2014, p.116]

Settle Me Down is an elegantly executed ballad and Dark Waltz evokes Creedence Clearwater Revival at their finest, but the unspectacular Another Night gets bogged down in sub-Springsteen-isms. [May 2014, p.115]

If there's a touch too much retrospective pastiche, there's also wit and mellifluousness. [May 2014, p.115]

The infinitely superior Cope might expand their reach further still. [May 2014, p.114]

Caustic Love is a truly excellent modern soul record. [May 2014, p.114]

It's a mixed bag. [May 2014, p.114]

Amid such fussy eclecticism, however, they can't always stop Lucius sounding like an idea for a great band rather than the real thing. [May 2014, p.113]

Many of the songs on this fourth LP begin promisingly enough, but some lose their way when frontman Alexei Barrow and bassist Kelly Southern pitch in with mildly hysterical vocals, the clashing combination descending into a shouty mess. [May 2014, p.113]

What makes those sounds compelling here are Ingersoll's buttery rhymes and an ability to zero in on your rhythmic G-spots. [May 2014, p.113]

At times it's almost too much to take in, the album's secrets and flavours gradually revealing themselves on the third or fourth listen. [May 2014, p.112]

There's nothing here to suggest Holtkamp should think about giving up his day job anytime soon. [May 2014, p.111]

Hoop's magic-realist folk idiom can veer a little too close to being the work of that free spirit who helps out at the health-food co-op, but here, the delicacy and subtlety of her songs is laid bare. [May 2014, p.111]

In places it lacks the character to make Horse Thief truly stand out, but this first outing is a fine enough place to start. [May 2014, p.111]

Teeth offers more upbeat songs about downwardly mobile characters, complete with Springsteen-scale musical drama and clever lyrics about dive bars. [May 2014, p.111]

The overwrought Fall From Grace is the only bum note: otherwise Singles is a brilliant, bewitching album. [May 2014, p.110]

With gospel tinges and road-dusted melodies, this is high-end Americana and piano balladry, his brothers' loss is everyone else's gain. [May 2014, p.110]

As always with the finest of Eels albums, Everett's loss is the listener's gain. [May 2014, p.110]

Cthulu has the melodrama, but not the bite, of Nine Inch Nails and So Blonde is pointless grunge landfill.... 100 Years achieves so much with just a delicate vocal, minimalist piano and lowing strings that the harder-edged songs seem like empty noise. [May 2014, p.109]

The pleasure was all ours. [May 2014, p.108]

Food is grown-up, womanly, but for all the hearth-and-home warmth, it doesn't forget the way to a listener's heart is through their ears. [May 2014, p.109]

Five tracks from the album were released as the Wake Me Up EP late in 2013, but on an album packed with possible alternative hits, the future is already his. [May 2014, p.107]

Band Of Skulls may be taking a slow route to the top, but the peak is definitely within view. [May 2014, p.107]

After a decade as pop's court jesters, Kaiser Chiefs have finally found their true voice. [May 2014, p.106]

It's a thrilling snapshot of a young rock'n'roll band bent to no-one else's will but their own. [May 2014, p.105]

File under "trip-pop." [May 2014, p.105]

Everyday Roberts is a wonderful record. [May 2014, p.104]

The won't slay any kings without more killer choruses. [Apr 2013, p.111]

This Best-Of encapsulates a remarkable career built on fearsome imagination and creativity. [Apr 2014, p.123]

Best Of Times lacks the spark of the melodically blessed and, even though there are regular nods to Krautrock, there's a cloying wimpishness that too often derails them. [Apr 2014, p.115]

[When Paloma] revert to classicism, she proves there's more than one way to skin the "vintage" cat by adopting the persona of an exuberant disco diva, invoking the spirit of '70s glitter ball goddesses such as Teena Marie or Alicia Bridges. She wears it surprisingly well. [Apr 2014, p.108]

The music works best when combined with the lurid wit and fruity, odd sonics deployed. [Apr 2014, p.115]

The performances reflect his wind-down way. [Apr 2014, p.96]

His septuagenarian's enthusiasm is undeniably infectious. [Apr 2014, p.119]

No album with a nursery rhyme like Bongo Bill takes itself seriously, but even when he tackles the titular Persephone having her eternal hippy idealism rudely punctured, there's still a kindly smile on Tilbrook's lips. [Feb 2014, p.121]

It's very good indeed, throwing in splurges of psychedelic colour, a hatful of great songs and some almost baggy grooves. [Apr 2014, p.105]

Sonic Bloom is about inch-perfect accuracy. In other words, re-enactment. Period. [Apr 2014, p.115]

Rainy's debut ends up as a near-perfect album from an approaching summer. [Apr 2014, p.117]

It's by no means awful; it's just as if Nirvana had recorded 12 versions of Territorial Pissings for Nevermind. [Apr 2014, p.105]

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

[A] thoughtful solo debut. [Apr 2014, p.118]

At 15 tracks long there's occasionally some saggy moments, but with plenty of verve and sparkle in the main, The Melodic's debut proves unexpectedly life-affirming. [Apr 2014, p.115]

It's not ground-breaking, but Piano Ombre is a beautifully off-kilter record to lose yourself in. [Apr 2014, p.109]

Things unravel with the folky fuzz of closer Aphorismic Wasteland Blues, but for a band whose charm is enjoyably slack'n'sleazy that's kind if the point. [Apr 2014, p.112]

[This fifth album] still sounds refreshingly unconventional. [Apr 2014, p.116]

It's not hard to see where they're going--or coming from. [Apr 2014, p.121]

"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]

It's a good album. [Apr 2014, p.122]

Odludek feels more like a mixtape than a sole artist's work. [Apr 2014, p.107]

It's exhilarating in short snatches but too samey over the long haul. [Apr 2014, p.110]

It's not particularly pretty in places, but it is a hellishly good time. [Apr 2014, p.110]

It's a good sound, and he has past form here. [Apr 2014, p.120]

There's a definite vim here; all they need to do now is to add in a little more of their own DNA. [Apr 2014, p.119]

Despite its strengths, No Mythologies To Follow is still a touch green. [Apr 2014, p.115]

Too Much Information is a brisk and accessible record. [Apr 2014, p.114]

A hauntingly quiet triumph, Croz gets under your skin and stays there. [Apr 2014, p.114]

One of the oddest albums you'll hear this year. [Apr 2014, p.113]

While William's folk inspirations remain obscure, with talking fish and tortoises featuring as well as birds, her music boasts a striking immediacy. [Apr 2014, p.112]

Snider and friends bring the party to songs not necessarily associated with wild abandon, but it's the perfect soundtrack for your next keg party. [Apr 2014, p.110]

A sameness of mood is not helped by debatable lyrics. [Apr 2014, p.106]

The orchestral pieces with their abrupt phrasing and lumpen scales, merely sound like one of those conceptual "jokes" no one except artworld insiders are in on. [Apr 2014, p.105]

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

This is wishy-washy music for moody goth-lite teens. [Apr 2014, p.112]

Not his most graceful, but certainly his most strikingly personal, Benji is another colourful stop on Kozelek's glorious journey into the light. [Apr 2014, p.119]

The country reggae of the title track may be too far for some, but mostly Speer's country art-rock with a side of Southern fried is damn tasty. [Apr 2014, p.106]

While their new setting can't quite extinguish their thoughtful charms, it has trampled on their mystique. [Apr 2014, p.103]

There are unnerving, alone-in-the-forest atmospheres aplenty here. [Apr 2014, p.108]

The Brighton duo's fourth LP, recorded in Berlin, throws that baggage away in favour of a cavalier hedonism. [Apr 2014, p.105]

They've never sounded heavier, now delivering songs without compromising their complex songcraft. [Apr 2914, p.103]

Blatant Queen rip-off Heaven Knows is fun, but it all goes wrong when she breaks out ballads. [Apr 2014, p.116]

Although things quieten down on the pseudo-R Kelly front as the record progresses, the squirm factor never totally vanishes. [Apr 2014, p.106]

Symphonica feels supper-club safe. [Apr 2014, p.103]

Ultimately, this 11-track LP is nine songs too long as the rest swill around the bottom of the indie-rock barrel like thin gruel. [Apr 2014, p.121]

It's a stripped-down and straight-ahead rock record. [Apr 2014, p.121]

It's charming, tuneful stuff, rich in canonical cool. [Apr 2014, p.121]

The slower numbers, built around pneumatic electro basslines and memories of Giorgio Moroder soundtracks, aren't as slick, though 58BPM's is a stylish, slow-motion homage to the neon-lit world of '80s synth-pop. [Apr 2014, p.120]

Much as Get Direct and New Year's day cry to be fleshed out, the reggaefied Ask Me suggests another way forwards, while the fiercely intelligent songs Shame and Stay sum up all that's right about this most singular artist. [Apr 2014, p.112]