It's not perfect, but there's enough of their magic here to see even Harry Potter fall back under their spell. [Jan 2016, p.106]

Feels like a sideways step. [Jan 2016, p.113]

For a marriage of new ideas with old traditions, look no further. [Mar 2016, p.108]

A song cycle that ruminates on his condition and travails to an orch-pop soundtrack of piano, strings and voice. [#361, p.111]

[Johnny Lynch's] third album proper features confident, spangly pop music with beats as sneaky vehicles for stories of murder, primal blood rites and near-death experiences. [Nov 2016, p.113]

An album where technological trickery frequently delivers real magic. [Jan 2018, p.110]

A more approachable set that engulfs his melodramatic grumble with dizzy synths and sax from Chicago extraordinaire Mantana Roberts. [Feb 2019, p.115]

Quietly, and confidently, Two Door Cinema Club march on. [Summer 2019, p.116]

At times they meander a little too much, as on the ponderous Fool Thinking Ways, but this is far from the work of beginners. [Jun 2020, p.105]

The trajectory remains far-out, each track a space station on Deradoorian's exhilarating trip. [Jul 2020, p.106]

This follow-up boasts a more cohesive sound but without sacrificing the duo's Eastern-influenced allure. [Jul 2012, p.108]

The plush, throbbing synths and twinkling tension that filled Feel It Break are conjured again here, but there's a subtle shift this time in the dynamic and Olympia's power lies in its marimba-infused percussion. [Aug 2013, p.93]

These songs might waver and stumble, but they still feel like a successful step forward. [Jul 2019, p.106]

Almost the equal of 'Ordinary People,' 'No Hidden Path' again demonstrates that when the contary old buzzard plugs in and really goes to work, it's still a thrill like no other. [Dec 2007, p.113]

This is his most pleasing solo album for a decade. [Mar 2008, p.108]

It's a truly haunting record populated by ghosts. [May 2005, p.116]

Classy cross-pollination of techno and dubstep.[Nov. 2011, p. 136]

The Hawk Is Howling is similarly impressive [to "Mr. Beast"], the band's earlier experiments in noise more reined in, allowing a subtle and textured approach. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Those converted via the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack may find the starkness and religiosity here unpalatable. [Jan 2003, p.123]

A haunting, left-field album of some class. [Jun 2003, p.96]

A mess. [Feb 2003, p.107]

As always, fans will adore, everyone else will ignore. [Sep 2004, p.123]

Buoyed by a blissful, lovestruck mood, this album's sumptuous tone elevates it beyond familiar terrain. [Aug 2002, p.128]

Rhythms skip and play seemingly without touching earth... These are manifestly the labours of a man still with something to say. [Nov 2000, p.109]

[Producer Andrew Weatherall] helped bring out a kind of claustrophobic, harmonic distortion. [Mar 2012, p.113]

Music Complete is like good architecture: impressive in scale, the layers precisely pitched and the repetition absorbing. [Oct 2015, p.116]

The end-times have rarely sounded so sweet. [Mar 2014, p.113]

All in all, it makes for a promising re-start. [May 2015, p.106]

This second effort duly ushers in a greater sophistication, with near Kinksian observations of the waster mindset, set to a broader musical spread, laced with monster Who-y riffs and tinges of neo-psych. [Oct 2015, p.107]

At times--'Little Secrets,' despite its kiddie choir, 'The Reeling' and 'Moth's Wings'--it's a little too cloneishly Jake Shears for comfort. At other, though, they soar with MGMT-esque widescreen vitality. [Jun 2009, p.130]

Together Through Life is not by any yardstick classic Dylan. Even so, it's hard to imagine there's an item in his catalogue that he adores more. [Jun 2009,p.116]

The follow-up adds a little of their own personality and comes submerged in a refreshingly bratty wall of noise. [May 2013, p.107]

This is no Loveless but it is lovely. [Jun 2013, p.93]

The first few tracks feel like a positive transformation into sharper songcraft, but when New Moon latter half descends to the noisemongery of yore, right down to Freaky's flat-out Dinosaur Jr.-ism, one does have to ask: will the real Men please stand up? [Apr 2013, p.107]

Touring with Coldplay have clearly done little to dim the scale of Meiburg's ambitions. [Mar 2012, p.112]

Pointless drifting that fails to grip even on repeated listening. [Jun 2005, p.118]

Robin Carlsson has transcended myriad label problems to transform herself into the most glamorous and most fascinating electro-pop diva. [July 2010, p. 139]

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]

Danger Mouse's effect is apparent, the sparse guitar-and-drums template fleshed out with organ and banjo. [May 2008, p.126]

The Secret Migration shows a group in complete control of their cosmic idiom, familiar by now yet still seductive. [Jan 2005, p.120]

Alabama Shakes' nods to vocal giants past never overshadow the fact that their music has a raw, aggressive style that is completely their own. [May 2012, p.90]

Albarn seems bent on exploring unsettling moods and shuffling rhythms rather than gleaming melodies and addictive choruses. [Feb 2007, p.94]

Mount Moriah give the Southern tradition an indie-rock twist that's more effective the further they go. [Apr 2013, p.107]

This homebrewed, spacious music can still sound pretty blissful, but the quality songs have a directness and variety that will please David Gray fans as much as the acid folk devotees. [Jul 2006, p.119]

With the help of Animal Collective produce Ben H Allen, Girls in Peacetime busts the band out of a complacent rut by rendering them in full colour, as a pop group with depth of talent and breadth of vision. [Feb 2015, p.108]

Full marks for envelope-pushing, but this third album is very much an acquired taste. [Dec 2014, p.110]

A collection of songs that are either from or reflect different eras of his work--all linked by his idiosyncratically engaging vocals and melodies. [Jun 2013, p.108]

Rice is much more appealing when he blatantly ramps up the theatre, sticks a bit of greasepaint over his sincerity, tips irreversibly into show business. [Dec 2014, p.114]

The worthiest addition yet to her legendary status. [Nov 2004, p.119]

Only the title track, with its surge of guitar fuzz, really matches the idea with the execution. [May 2011, p.120]

A fascinating new direction. [Nov 2019, p.115]

A surprisingly well-nourished beast. [May 2013, p.105]

The result is one of his most rounded, fulfilling solo records. [Jul 2014, p.111]

You would not have predicted, however, he'd settle for an album of songs that sound like leftovers from the Dear Science sessions. [Sep 2010, p.116]

As complex and remarkable as everything that preceded it. [Jun 2003, p.92]

This is music that exerts as much effortless cool as young pups The Strokes. [Oct 2001, p.118]

This is an album which manages the rare trick of being accessible and head-warpingly barmy both at the same time. [Nov 2002, p.96]

Trendy, sure, but occasionally terrific.

Unrest follows a clean electronic trajectory, which manages to project both urban complexity and domestic quiet, while Oye's free-associative lyrics meander amiably here, there and nowhere. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Who would want another version of We Shall Not Be Moved is, surely, debatable, but elsewhere the results are more persuasive. [May 2007, p.129]

It features a clutch of terrific songs delivered with a sense of real elation. [Sep 2013, p.106]

The quality dips towards the album's close, but all told, this is a solid return to the fold. [Jul 2015, p.102]

At times they lack the focus to quite surmount their influences. [Aug 2006, p.117]

The result is undeniably lovely, if never truly transcendent. [Jan 2020, p.114]

Everything here delivers the predominant warmth "Sky Blue Sky" lacked and betrays a sharp ear for melody that has often been obscured by sonic theatrics. [Aug 2009, p.1000]

A moody, low-key opening does them few favours, but there's no shortage of intensity once they hit their groove. [Apr 2016, p.105]

Far from rocket science, but immense fun nonetheless. [Jun 2006, p.117]

Rock N Roll Animals is a particularly curdled creation. [Sep 2013, p.104]

While Derdang Derdang has killer hooks aplenty, they're all too often obscured by stop-start rhythms and the unhinged-sounding vocals of Sam Windett. [Apr 2006, p.119]

Like LCD [Soundsystem], Out Hud spice up electronic grooves with lithe basslines and post-punk guitars, albeit with less finesse. [Apr 2005, p.123]

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

BNQT is a happy meld of snug-fitting millennial Traveling Wilburys and Gorillaz pop nous, a giant avert for the powerful attraction of opposites. [Jun 2017, p.102]

[It] finds her on familiar territory, offering 12 concise yet fully realised vignettes. [Oct 2006, p.124]

With some judicious skipping of tracks this is another eminently listenable set. [Oct 2014, p.109]

There's little to grasp here, the chiming guitar of 11 and blustery feedback of 6 excepted. [Aug 2015, p.106]

Ultimately, My Morning Jacket's diversity proves their partial undoing and Circuital remains a frustratingly hit-and-miss affair. [July 2011, p. 112]

Where the spiraling The Tide is a ringer for his old band, he's at his best when he's playing a velvet-voiced Mephistopheles on A ghost or leading a spectral New Orleans jazz band on through the low-key electronic soundscape of Lockless. [Apr 2020, p.109]

Two of Everything is a smorgasbord of delights and unexpected touches. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Lady From Shanghai laughs in the face of chart pop, but the listener can't help cackling along. [Feb 2013, p.108]

The more you ignore Bell X1, it seems, the better they get. [Aug 2013, p.94]

Pared back or not, The strength of these songs means Thompson can always stand alone. [Sep 2014, p.115]

Entirely instrumental, it retains the band's elasticated, rhythmic approach but stretches and softens it to create something much more atmospheric and evocative. [Aug 2015, p.105]

What holds it all together is Henderson's blank, uninflected vocals, though the resulting ambience couldn't be more self-consciously avant-garde if the album came packaged with wrap-around shades and a copy of White Light/White Heat.[Sep 2016, p.106]

The personal trauma behind pony was evidently tough, but hope has rarely sounded so fresh. [Dec 2019, p.110]

Very much an album of two halves. [Jul 2019, p.113]

Wisely, everything is as it was. [May 2013, p.111]

This folk-rooted album is ideal for listeners who think they're tired of folk music. [Nov 2012, p.94]

It's gorgeous, summery, dreamy pop. [Sep 2019, p.108]

There is occasional subtlety and drama amid the bombast. [Jul 2014, p.114]

Ambitious yet oddly affecting, wash day need never sound the same again. [Apr 2016, p.111]

Including songs by Neko Case and Nick Cave, this fine album reaches way beyond the church. [Mar 2016, p.115]

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]

Bolstered by members of Dylan's band, the songs are built on buoyant '60s pop and Beach Boys harmonies soar alongside lively brass. [May 2013, p.103]

The resultant upgrade sounds like a ZX Spectrum wired to a jack hammer. Add the occasional pause for breath--as on the glacial "The Erskine Bridge"-- and Come Down With Me is a thrilling invitation. [Mar 2100, p.101]

Christians The Devil Wears Prada are in possession of the worst name is metalcore, yet their music is punishing. [Oct 2011, p.120]

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

Uncompromising as ever, Hidden Fields is an alien transmission from a band with a singular vision. [Oct 2015, p.115]