It's worth having--just don't expect the act of possession to be all one way. [Feb 2014, p.110]

An engaging, easy on the senses combination of murk and shine, then. [Feb 2014, p.115]

Stirratt and Sansone combine this all into a scrumptious hotpot of classy, classic songwriting, rich in texture and flavour. [Feb 2014, p.111]

Challenging yet compelling. [Feb 2014, p.110]

An artist on the verge of a spectacular breakthrough. [Oct 2013, p.107]

The electro-inspired beats and declamatory rhymes are just as uncompromising and unorthodox as before. [Oct 2013, p.107]

With songs this weak, Randall's Norfolk-flat voice has nowhere to hide. [Oct 2013, p.107]

It's a clear-eyed first step to turning their ideas into reality. [Oct 2013, p.106]

Elisabeth Maurus's second album finds her still awkwardly straddling the divide between sensitive songwriter and would-be stadium rocker. [Oct 2013, p.106]

[A] frequently sublime follow-up. [Oct 2013, p.105]

The Diving Board is less engaging, widescreen lyrics paired with waddling blues and maudlin balladry. [Oct 2013, p.104]

This is easily is best work to date. [Oct 2013, p.104]

Her songs are challenging, expansive and cinematic, turning minimalist melodies on their heads and redefining the limits of pop. [Oct 2013, p.103]

It's at its best on Drive, where throbbing bass and a giant chorus dominate, but then Peace slides--albeit stylishly--into a repetitive blur. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Asymmetry is their best yet. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Well worth exploring. [Oct 2013, p.102]

It doesn't keep up the quality all the way through but given his relentless enthusiasm from start to finish, El Khatib is probably used to people not keeping up with him. [Oct 2013, p.101]

Nominally folk gospel, they embrace an array of styles from rock to dance, via unashamedly esoteric. [Oct 2013, p.100]

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

There's a potent '80s smoke machine-ambiance wafting through the plush, slow-fizz synths and padded percussion that fill their debut full-length. [Oct 2013, p.100]

At 69 White has no need to prove himself, so be grateful he feels the desire to do it anyway. [Oct 2013, p.99]

His trademark lyrical honesty and sublime fingerpicking remain at the fore. [Oct 2013, p.99]

Few of the remaining tracks, all instrumentals, stray far from the blueprint. [Oct 2013, p.99]

This final testament is all the more heart-breaking for the fact we'll never hear from Campbell again. [Oct 2013, p.99]

Ultimately you're listening to an increasingly original singer and songwriter. [Oct 2013, p.98]

The result is an exciting, albeit one-paced, record, but one that arrives with a significant question mark over its purpose. [Oct 2013, p.98]

There's enough here certainly, though, to suggest he's one to keep an eye on. [Oct 2013, p.97]

[The album blurs] genres with the same ease it blurs expectations. [Oct 2013, p.109]

The Stepkids' sense of fun and pop nous makes Troubadour a constantly entertaining listen. [Oct 2013, p.112]

Highly intriguing. [Oct 2013, p.97]

A return with soul and fire. [Oct 2013, p.110]

Throughout, chunks of ska and pop ensure an absurdly cheerful atmosphere. [Oct 2013, p.110]

[Placebo is now] sounding modern and sneakingly world-beating. [Oct 2013, p.109]

Not exactly immediate, definitely rewarding. [Oct 2013, p.109]

Onwards and upwards. [Oct 2013, p.109]

All told, a sunny delight. [Oct 2013, p.107]

There's still the odd detour into eerie atmospherics, but essentially this is electronica for people who fine The Knife hard going, with recent Kylie collaboration, Whistle, providing a final dusting of pop sugar. [Oct 2013, p.106]

Her latest album is a little more conventional but no less arresting. [Oct 2013, p.99]

Five years away hasn't damaged their ability to wow and Hesitation Marks puts Trent Reznor's soundtrack albums into context; here, he sounds at his very best and right where he belongs. [Oct 2013, p.108]

These ever-changing moods don't make MGMT an easy listen. [Oct 2013, p.105]

This restless duo have never sounded so much like themselves, and the result is spellbinding. [Oct 2013, p.107]

It's a hit-and-miss affair. [Oct 2013, p.105]

Rather than radical reimaginations, Lanegan serves up tweaked arrangements within the original frameworks. [Oct 2013, p.105]

Though a little limited on variation, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon's careful balance between comedown cook and genuine emotion suggests a new king for both club kids and guitar vets has (finally) arisen. [Oct 2013, p.105]

Occasionally frustrating and sometimes even a little soapy, Mechanical Bull has its flaws, but it also brims with personality and passion. [Oct 2013, p.104]

It's this ease of expression, both lyrically and musically, that makes Rewind The Film such a captivating listen. [Oct 2013, p.101]

Days Are Gone is a pretty impregnable collection of songs, their alloy of golden Fleetwood Mac melodies and liquid R&B polished to a reflective shine. [Oct 2013, p.103]

Their second album brims with crunching guitars, subtle stabs of synth and--more importantly--a winning line in big, anthemic choruses. [Oct 2013, p.102]

An adult in every sense, Goodie Mob are clearly now fully-grown. [Oct 2013, p.102]

It remains to be seen, though, whether the record-buying public are prepared to give Glasvegas another go, but on this evidence they should. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Warm and addictive. [Oct 2013, p.112]

Heavy, punishing and dense groove metal that never quite manages to be memorable. [Oct 2013, p.102]

Impressive but so unblinkingly stern. [Oct 2013, p.101]

AM continues a pattern, then: every couple of years, the Monkeys make a great album, sounding tighter and more telepathic with each release. [Oct 2013, p.97]

At times, the album merely provides a straight-arrow version of more twisted talents. [Jan 2014, p.124]

Their fifth album together since 2002 maintains an astonishing standard comparable even to that of original legends like Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. [Jan 2014, p.122]

What a wild trip. [Jan 2014, p.133]

This is the rarity of a hits collection from a band still at the top of their game. There's plenty more to come. [Jan 2014, p.131]

Tasteful and soothing for Webb's ego, it's not much good for anything else. [Jan 2014, p.127]

Though still intermittently thrilling, even they must be beginning to feel like it's time for a change. [Jan 2014, p.127]

Mild existential dread is delivered over a quietly forceful musical template that owes a lot to the third Velvet Underground album. [Jan 2014, p.127]

Another French fancy, then, though one likely to appeal only to those with more rarefied tastes. [Jan 2014, p.127]

The weightless combination of flambe-d guitars, glacial vocals and mid-tempo time signatures feels a bit like being trapped in a well-constructed airlock, easier to admire than enjoy. [Jan 2014, p.126]

[The songs are] played with enough ear-catching acuity to satiate your inner psych-pop gourmand. [Jan 2014, p.126]

Here comes Motorhead, oblivious, oddly unpredictable, deliciously bluesy, punky and rocking--simply magnificent. [Jan 2014, p.126]

It's a curious detour rather than a sturdy follow-up to 2012's Animal Joy, but as a distillation of all those scattered flyers and setlists, it's a quietly touching piece of memorabilia. [Jan 2014, p.125]

While the track titles may be minimal, his music teems with beguiling sonic quirks. [Jan 2014, p.125]

Their new album features more jangling indie-pop than before.... But when the similarly inclined Too Far Gone To Know and closer Fall Out Of Love suddenly stir as the Krauty riffing recommences, you're left pondering. [Jan 2014, p.125]

It's just that he has done all this better before. [Jan 2014, p.124]

Every track on Tender Madness sounds like it's been chiseled out of Mount Rushmore. [Jan 2014, p.124]

It still has an easy going charm and the odd surprise, but more spice would have helped cut through the pervading blandness. [Jan 2014, p.124]

The results are a no-less-entertaining 33 minutes of madness, like a Ramones album spun at 78 rpm. [Jan 2014, p.123]

It's a beautiful set of sweeping prairie ballads. [Jan 2014, p.122]

Even though his wit and word patterns still dazzle, they need a livelier canvas if the Eminem nostalgia experience is to be the thrilling one it should be. [Jan 2014, p.122]

Cults' combination of mid-'60s girl-group and cusp-of-the-'90s shoegazing is still bewitching but takes a more stripped-down form here, and packs more of a thwack. [Jan 2014, p.120]

Exotic, hip and exuding an effortless charm, Costa Blanca is a sophisticated treat from start to finish. [Jan 2014, p.120]

It's good, but he's better as part of the Gang. [Jan 2014, p.119]

Almost worth getting a hangover for. [Jan 2014, p.119]

Hynes can't resist tinkering with the formula and a pair of incongruous rap cameos disrupt a sketchy second half during which the feeling develops that Hynes is still holding back some of his best ideas for stars of a greater magnitude than himself. [Jan 2014, p.118]

Not quite as organic as they seem, their perfection lacks taste despite its polish. [Jan 2014, p.117]

The melodies here are fine, they do a job, but nothing backs up Gag's Warholian rhetoric or scales the barmy heights of Bad Romance. [Jan 2014, p.116]

A record that unfolds like a collection of short stories, occasionally hokey but more often affectingly vivid. [Feb 2014, p.108]

Too much else here is a plodding, monochrome take on '60s psychedelia, lacking in originality or imagination. [Mar 2013, p.108]

A surprisingly easy album to enjoy. [Mar 2013, p.105]

Melodic, expertly crafted and laced with wistful emotion, the only thing missing is the element of surprise. [Apr 2013, p.113]

Broken Down Gentlemen is unshowy and classily-executed folk. [Apr 2013, p.101]

Ambitious and beautifully wrought, Dear River should mark Barker's entry into the big leagues. [Sep 2013, p.98]

Hardly new territory, but there's enough melodic might here to suggest the six-piece might find success on a path already well-trodden by The Killers and others. [Nov 2013, p.105]

A superb solo effort. [Dec 2013, p.105]

A solid, tribal-sounding collection of dramatic, literate rock with cello, brass and hints of frosty country. [Dec 2013, p.111]

Euphoric and uncompromising, Folly us up there with KOD's best work. [Nov 2013, p.109]

It's all good, clean, Beatles fun, on a record that celebrates a heart-warmingly more romantic and innocent age. [Dec 2013, p.118]

It still nods to The Velvet Underground and strung-out '80s pioneers Spacemen 3 and Loop, but chord changes are no longer as rare as Shane MacGowan's teeth, and there's more of a pop sensibility. [Dec 2013, p.117]

The follow-up isn't quite so startling [as his debut] and the horrible guitar indulgence of Dear Friend is his first major misstep, but assisted by Jackson Browne, David Crosby, assorted Heartbreakers, Roy Harper and Wilco's Patrick Sansome he's evolved. [Dec 2013, p.117]

Free from any external pressure to conform, Hebden has managed to make a wholly uncompromising record that remains compulsive from start to finish. [Dec 2013, p.115]

There is a slight foal-legged wobbliness to some of her allusions, some of the ardour, a roughness that prevents When Winter's Over or Come To Terms from being a too-mature blend of Cat power and KT Tunstall. [Dec 2013, p.115]

In all, a most diverting, Frankenstein-esque collision of caveman demon worship and unhinged science. [Dec 2013, p.115]

So far, so US-obsessed, but scratch below the surface and there's a charismatic quirkiness to Tinie, that makes him an artist apart from his contemporaries. [Dec 2013, p.113]