There is nothing much new here for longtime fans, but Royal Albert Hall is a fine live record of one of popular music's minor-key geniuses. [May 2015, p.104]

These crafted confessionals are a reminder that Murphy couldn't write a bad song if he tried. [Aug 2020, p.109]

Heartbreaking Bravery's pop sensibilities take Moonface out of his bizarre world and into a place much more accessible. [May 2012, p.101]

The shock of the new is gone, but they've rediscovered the art of surprise. [Aug 2019, p.111]

Moral and financial considerations aside, this stands a monument to success and excess. [Summer 2018, p.118]

Without diluting the pair's roots, the 1 tracks weave a binding spell that feels just as familiar to Western ears as African. [Mar 2010, p.108]

Outbursts sees them returned to a duo and the acoustic cut'n'thrust of old. [Apr 2010, p.120]

Yet again, Mann's songs concentrate on life gone wrong - but this is timeless stuff.

He's taken chances and won again. [Jul 2014, p.115]

It's an immersive experience you'd need to be a right old fuddy-duddy not to plunge into. [Sep 2016, p.114]

This assured, intense record heralds the emergence of a major force. [Nov 2003, p.123]

An inspired, invigorating concoction. [Feb 2002, p.108]

It's about 15 minutes and three songs too long. [May 2007, p.117]

An act of liberation as well as creation, it's thrilling testament to a spirit set free. [May 2020, p.102]

You could break your teeth on their solid pop structures, especially on Hated By The Powers That Be, but there's a volatility in these touch-paper guitars and flammable vocals, that ensures Brickbat is never straightforward. [May 2019, p.115]

It's an enchanting and quietly moving new chapter. [Jul 2020, p.104]

His overgrown rustic dream, though, is oddly modern and littered with fly-tipped rubbish, with free-ranging neo-folk mini-dramas drawing parallels between imagined past and haunted present. [Aug 2017, p.103]

The eight tracks and 31 minutes of the Night Train EP/mini-album, recorded during the Pefect Symmetry tour, should sate the faithful. [Jun 2100, p.127]

Their Macabre storytelling and aura of imminent violence lend themselves well to Twitch's vintage synths, and suspenseful effects. [Jul 2011, p.119]

It looks like The Rapture--now a trio following the departure of bassist Matt Safer--have regained their despite to flaunt their slightly awkward moves. [Sep 2011, p.102]

Clark had already mastered storytelling; now she's mastered heartbreak. [May 2020, p.103]

The third album is equally uncompromising, atonal industrial noise offset with melodious crooning, never settling for predictable paths. [Dec 2007, p.115]

This follow-up goes one further [than his 2006 debut], pushing Dawkins to the forefront of modern soul voices, his delivery suggesting a less showy John Legend. [Nov 2010, p.105]

It all works rather well. [Apr 2015, p.102]

Quirky nods to power pop, jazz, and even sci-fi dub suggest a restless, Beck-like future. [April 2012, p.107]

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

Heavy-duty electronics doing repeatedly bloody battle with grimy strings... An intense but worthwhile experience. [Nov 2000, p.102]

This time, there's a bankable chorus or barbed sentiment for every mirror-ball moment, not just on the singles. [Sep 2001, p.112]

A guest spot from scene legend Greg Hetson confirms Eyes And Nines as the real deal. [Jun 2010, p.120]

Sound[s] authentically retro without ever veering into Lenny Kravitz territory. [Sep 2003, p.101]

For all of its denseness, America feels as panoramic and wonder-filled as the cross-country travels that inspired it. [Sep 2012, p.99]

A gloriously adrenalised return to form. [Dec 2019, p.106]

Having already been feted by everyone from Thom Yorke to Mark Ronson, this second album arrives with an infectious gait that's nigh-impossible to resist. [Nov. 2011, p. 140]

The Quiet One seized his moment with a burst of productivity encompassing 1968's raga-meets-rock-meets-music-hall Wonderwall Music, '69's Moog synthesizer noodle-fest Electronic Sound and '70s sprawling Phil Spector-produced melodic masterpiece All Things Must Pass. [Nov 2014, p.124]

Excellent from start to finish. [May 2020, p.103]

There is only one real slip - Stephen Fry's mood shattering appearance on the title track. [Dec. 2001 p. 123]

This is unvarnished rock, primal and exhilarating, songs groaning with their abundance of great hooks, suggesting that El Camino may well prove to be the pair's definitive records. [Jan. 2012 p. 116]

Hitchcock continues on a roll, all 10 songs here hooking you in with the head-nodding grooves and dreamy psych-pop tunes of seasoned pro. [Apr 2013, p.103]

At its core On Sunset is the sound of someone genuinely excited about all the glorious possibilities the world of music has to offer. [Jul 2020, p.96]

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

Relaxer is a special album. [Aug 2017, p.101]

There is slick virtuosity to all the playing here but it is her warm, witty presence that shines through. [Feb 2011, p.118]

Its woozy title track, oddly sideways lyrics and often meditative vibe make it a strangely gorgeous and graceful work. [May 2002, p.114]

Astonishingly good. [Jul 2004, p.127]

Beams is more expansive and vulnerable that the nightclubbing menace of 2010's Black City. [Sep 2012, p.99]

Gorgeous, grief-stricken LP. [Dec 2019, p.108]

Misch's fluid songwriting is still to the fore, as on the title track's loose-limbed shimmy, heightened by an uplifting string arrangement. [Jun 2020, p.102]

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]

Houck's trip through Nelson's 60-plus albums shows such love and attention the great man himself could only approve of such hangover gems as 'I Gotta Get Drunk.' [Mar 2009, p.101]

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

It sounds like the album Courtney Love might have made had she not spent periods of the past decade blitzed to the back teeth. Which is a (very) good thing, by the way. [Jul 2009, p.132]

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

Marcus Mumford's wearied vocal keeps the mood honest, rather than histrionic, and he finds a gentle beauty on 'After The Storm's' lonely walk home. [Nov 2009, p.115]

His debut album is a brilliantly inventive collision of '80s golden-era hip-hop, Aphex Twin-style beats and pop melodies that wouldn't be out of place on an OutKast record. [Nov 2009, p.107]

Kwaito beats and highlife guitars mesh with hip hop and dubstep, while love songs crash into mordant political satire. [May 2012, p.102]

Together We're Heavy's transcendent qualities grow as it flows onward, and the sheer musical ambition of the Spree's pet sound finally, really defies cynicism. [Aug 2004, p.116]

McKenna's charisma and melodic sense ensure it's a delight nonetheless. [Sep 2020, p.113]

An album full of freshness and fun that's less sketchy than its predecessors. [Jul 2004, p.110]

Throughout, the Horse prove their value over more polished ensembles, powering these naive constructs to a pure transcendent realm. [Dec 2019, p.113]

It shows a band building a new outpost atop the summit of their achievements. [Nov 2005, p.124]

In short: superb. [Dec 2016, p.106]

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

Miss Anthropocene is not quite as brilliantly weird as its predecessor, but is certainly compelling enough to maintain Grimes' status as one of the most fascinating pop stars on the planet. [May 2020, p.105]

Helmet have fleshed out their minimalist grinding with proper tunes, but the question remains: will anyone care these days? [Nov 2010, p.105]

Weirdly timeless, even now. [Feb 2012, p.117]

This is maverick electronica without the headaches. [Jul 2003, p.103]

This lean, adrenal debut fors one better, blurring the boundaries between dance and rock with a flair not seen since Hooky and co plugged in their keyboards in the early '80s. [Feb 2010, p.113]

It's equally ambitious, forceful and joyous as Courtney Love's high water mark. [Feb 2011, p.118]

Intricate guitar lines twine tightly and Josh Block's hyperactive drumming keeps the whole rickety enterprise a hair's breadth shy of total collapse. [Jul 2011, p.121]

Warm, welcoming and dazzling. [Sep 2012, p.100]

The minimalism only focuses the listener on his searching, spiritual lyrics and lovely, time-aged voice. [Feb 2020, p.111]

There's an Iberian undertow to the gorgeous You Sigh and the upbeat Answers. Yet, when he goes for beauty, he strikes gold and propelled by an earworm melody, Lights Out distills all that's right about Cunningham. [Mar 2017, p.107]

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

The airier sound allows room for some soaring melodies, which find their ideal melodies, which find their ideal centrepiece in Michael Vidal's dolorous croon. [Oct 2010, p.103]

Restrained, graceful and poised, the lady remains country music's finest ambassador. [July 2008, p.103]

His pure delivery--he scales the heights, but never over-sings--and cryptic/mystic worldview are still the main attractions. [Dec. 2008, p.100]

It might be a record looking to the past, but it has Harris and Crowell doing some of the best work of their careers. [Apr 2013, p.103]

Crucuially, though, he's lost none of his songwriting skill, with each song here perfectly capturing a mood of reflective melancholy. [May 2009, p.110]

It confirms that rarest of achievements: a group somehow hanging on to the essence who they are, while pushing their art into thrillingly unforeseen places. [Aug 2017, p.99]

On his masterful second album, the choirboy-turned-beat-maker beds down in this uneasy state, lacing opulent production with minor-key anxiety. [Jul 2018, p.111]

Live At The Olympia more than stands up as a vital, vibrant document in its own right. [Dec 2009, p.118]

Energy levels stay firmly in the red throughout and, perhaps, unsurprisingly given the subject matter, it sounds as though the pair had enormous fun in making it. [May 2012, p.102]

Everything that made their past albums so engaging--the lopsided melodies, frontman Tim Elsenburg's anguished drawl, those lazy Bacharach-style brass fills--is still here, but harnessed to better songs. [Jul 2015, p.114]

More of these slinky, emotional outpourings please. [Dec 2019, p.113]

Impressively reconfirms why she's alt-country's brightest rising star. [May 2005, p.111]

In crafting their best album to date, the Leicester quartet will almost certainly haunt the charts and the airwaves for many, many months to come. [Oct 2011, p.114]

Up there with her best. [Dec 2005, p.144]

A sumptuous record that leans heavily on familiar Floyd themes. [Apr 2006, p.111]

An epic, in no way ironic record whose tart electronic tones belie its emotional warmth and musicality. [Nov 2012, p.90]

Like eclipse glasses, these songs are a way to see things too intense to stare at directly. Peer through them, though, and there's Bejar's world, darkness and beauty visible. [Mar 2020, p.121]

If her band's 28-minute-long debut album doesn't quite possess that same ferel delinquency [as the live shows], it still has teeth that bite. [Feb 2018, p.116]

Teeming with new developments and heralding a welcome lightening of touch, this is a major step forward. [Mar 2018, p.114]

The sheer variety of music is astounding. [Jan 2013, p.114]

If it's occasionally all a bit much, it's also unlike anything else you'll hear this year. [May 2018, p.111]

Songs swerve through ranting country, Celtic balladry and doo-wop. And you have to raise a glass to anyone who dares defile Like A Rolling Stone by redirecting its venom inwards. [May 2018, p.114]

For its black lyrical humour alone, I Love You, Honeybear would be a winner. The fact that it's matched to towering songwriting makes it masterful stuff. [Mar 2015, p.107]

The odd electronic twist sugars the pill, but it's mostly relentless if brutally effective stuff. [Nov 2010, p.105]

Always an intriguing lyricist, her divorce from producer T. Bone Burnett seems to have added a bittersweet dimension to her words too. [Oct 2008, p.150]