Blunt, focused and inventive, it's as near to classic metal as Trivium have been. [Sep 2011, p.110]

The fact that Cohen is nearer to the Pennines than he is to Portland shines through, though, with a dry wit tempering the sunniest songs. [Sep 2012, p.105]

Far from running on empty, the spouses from Charleston, South Carolina have life to thank for refilling the song tank. [Nov 2016, p.114]

A work very much bigger than the sum of its parts. [Feb 2020, p.108]

There are few voices in contemporary alt-country quite so adept at wresting consolation from the depths of despair as Hinson's sonorous baritone. [Jul 2010, p.133]

A weapons-grade blast from start to finish. [Jan 2013, p.113]

Islands Intervals basks in a stately, other-worldly beauty akin to Sigur Ros and Icelandic folk artist Asgeir. [Mar 2014, p.112]

The overall effect is expansive--this is kosmische musik for a desert rather than an autobahn--and it's far-out in the best possible way. [May 2015, p.105]

A poised, inventive record, designed to catch you out. [Aug 2020, p.111]

The curiously carved music is a perfect frame. Another peak. [Aug 2019, p.115]

Some of the sharpest beats and catchiest tunes ever to grace a dance LP. [Jun 2003, p.93]

LA-based trio unveil their schizo-pop blend. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

While Ocean's artistic ambition is impressive, it's his haunting candour that really casts a spell. [Sep 2012, p.106]

Packed with mesmerising detail yet powerful enough to dance to, the result is electronic music that radiates intelligence and emotion. [Dec 2019, p.109]

The lyrics aren't exactly sunny but the furiously cathartic Silver Age is his strongest work since Copper Blue. [Nov 2012, p.102]

They stand up to modern scrutiny. [Apr 2020, p.118]

Once cosmic scallies dazzled by pop's sepia-tinted past, Butterfly House is proof that The Coral;s psychedelic pop is now just as beautiful. [Aug 2010, p.118]

American Gangster sounds less like a last gasp than the possible start to a second act in Jay-Z's career. [Jan 2008, p.103]

Against all odds, this is a brilliant second act. [Jun 2020, p.97]

For this stunning first offering South London producer Derwin Panda connects organic harmonies of Noah Lennox's Panda Bear project with Four Tet's dizzying cut-ups. [Nov 2010, p.109]

Thrilling and vital sounding stuff. [May 2019, p.111]

It's the explosion in Diamandis's songwriting that's most noticeable here. [May 2015, p.107]

It's with the good-foot funk of Save Me and slow-lane soul of Hold On that Williams's vision really pulls into focus. [Aug 2020, p.113]

All in all, the treatment effectively lights these already great songs from fresh angles, revealing hidden depths and added poignancy to what was already a strikingly powerful set of songs. [Sep 2019, p.116]

His fifth and final Streets album turns into his best since "A Grand Don't Come For Free." [Feb 2011, p.123]

Throughout, Grace's gift of melody is only surpassed by her candid lyricism. [Oct 2016, p.105]

Invite The Light reaffirms that Dam-Funk needn't coast on others' charisma when his music has more than enough of its own. [Oct 2015, p.104]

On his strongest album yet, Jackson Jr deconstructs the back catalogue of comedian/musician Rudy Ray Moore, star of blaxploitation movie Dolemite. [Sep 2012, p.106]

This LP shows fierce songwriting strength. [Feb 2020, p.108]

Steele may be in thrall to [Brian] Wilson and The Beatles, but his talent is precocious enough to give him his own very singluar voice. [Aug 2006, p.112]

Boundless and ecstatic, this is house music at its very best. [Dec. 2001 p. 126]

The result is an album that balances intellectual importance with the simple pleasures if great melodies played on meaty guitars. [Feb 2008, p.94]

Occasionally Hawkline veers off the rails, but his overall cryptic psyche surrenders its charms easily. [Jul 2017, p.108]

There's a lot going on, but Welch never confuses breadth with depth. [Aug 2009, p.98]

A bewitching, urgent, magical debut. [May 2012, p.103]

They've re-emerged, stronger, more focused and full of headspinning ideas. [May 2012, p.106]

A Circle Without Having To Curve is a billowing transmission from some gigantic sullen hulk. Elsewhere texture, hiss and layered voices head into abstraction, but if you think he's afraid of revealing himself, the voice and guitar reprise Contain (Cedar Version) ends the album with a sweet re-entry to the daylight. [Aug 2016, p.110]

Compelling and masterful. [Sep 2020, p.113]

Zeroes QC bristles with ideas, assimilating elements of Krautrock, electronica and post-punk to dazzling effect. [Feb 2011, p.124]

A wonderful album. [Jun 2012, p.104]

There are guitars, but they are rarely central. The beat-driven tracks veer towards the arty, white boy-with-beatbox line of Talking Heads and The Clash. [May 2003, p.96]

The broader palette suits him. [Nov 2017, p.107]

When it works, it's a glorious thing. [Sep 2012, p.108]

The real stars... are Lewis's songs. [Feb 2006, p.103]

A fantastic voyage. [May 2007, p.128]

The 17 loose, grungy guitar-led songs here ... sound full of renewed energy. [May 2012, p.103]

Turn Off The News captures his talents in full bloom. [Sep 2019, p.115]

Face Stabber finds him in cosmic wigout mode, double majoring in late-'60s psychedelia and early-'70s Krautrock. [Sep 2019, p.115]

Overall this is a record that's as thrillingly dark and overwhelming as anything they've attempted to date. [Oct 2015, p.117]

This [is] their best album in an age. [Sep 2012, p.110]

The Gallaghers sound more comfortable than ever in their skins. [Jun 2005, p.102]

The heartening sounds of an old master at work. [Oct 2011, p.117]

Furiously innovative first offering. [Feb 2020, p.112]

This is their strong set of songs in years. [Feb 2018, p.108]

A broken heart has long been the conductor for Adams's talent--it's a testament to the quality here that he sounds so thoroughly broken this time. [Mar 2017, p.107]

Despite the voices changing from one song to the next, Marshall never lets you forget you're listening to the same LP. Mission accomplished. [Apr 2020, p.109]

It's when Moorer drops her guard on Like It Used To Be, Thunderstorm/Hurricane and the self-lacerating Mama Let the World In that Down To Believing bursts from black and white into full colour. [May 2015, p.109]

Quietly thrilling. [Feb 2002, p.113]

The songs here are supremely catchy and delivered with the kind of sleek sheen you'd expect from a Katy Perry or Kesha record, but it's the inventive instrumentation and surprising twists they take that give Happy To You its edge. [May 2012, p.104]

Throughout the songs share a similar colour palette, but vary in tone, texture, technique. It's the sound of a band enjoying the discovery of their sound. [Sep 2019, p.115]

Bands aren't suppose to peak on their sixth album, but Okkervil Rover are more tortoise than hare and they've been building towards I Am Very Far since they convened back in 1998. [Jun 2011, p.118]

Stronger on revved-up dancehall than coffee-table soul, it's on the collaborations they really come into their own. [Feb 2011, p.125]

A record that finally fulfils sampling's original promise of generating fabulous new sounds from skilfully lifted bits of existing tracks.

MACHINA/the machines of God is, mostly, a wonderful rock album.

It's a raucous, righteous performance, one that underscores IDLES' current status as Britain's most vital band. [Feb 2020, p.112]

Powerful soul medicine best taken a track at a time. [Nov 2012, p.101]

Simultaneously earthy and ethereal, pieced together in the loft of his house in the village of Cellardyke and left to fly free. [Apr 2019, p.118]

The results okays to their strengths. ... There's a lightness of touch here lost since An End Has A Start a decade ago. [May 2018, p.108]

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

Both stunning and original. [Jun 2018, p.106]

Although just 26 minutes long, it's an unexpected triumph. [Apr 2009, p.115]

The melodic flow of Alchemist;s beats perfectly offsets his partner's raw, unfiltered delivery. [Aug 2020, p.107]

So is it White Ladder II? In a word, "yes." [Nov 2002, p.94]

It's the gritty funk of the title track and production turns from Mark Ronson and Donae's that make this an outstanding hip hop album, establishing Bizzle as a worthy rival to the similarly eclectic Dizzee Rascal. [Nov 2009, p.109]

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

There's a slightly scattershot quality to 21 that suggests that Adele is not quite the mistress of her own destiny. Greatness is tantalizingly within reach, though; perhaps she just needs to grab the wheel, and quickly. [Feb 2011, p.106]

On an album tat is filled with gems, Jenny Lewis is the crown jewel. [Sep 2007, p.85]

Music as tense as Pink Squirrel and as Kraftwerky as Tokyo Metro comes together quite happily in the snarling Creep Show sound. [May 2018, p.107]

United as a trio, their talents flare up to blinding effect. [April 2012, p. 94]

Redoubled his grime values: scene loyalty via scathing wit and wildly entertaining chutzpah. [Aug 2020, p.104]

The most intimate record of the year, and one of the warmest. [Oct 2003, p.113]

For the first time in their 19-year career, Pearl Jam actually sound--whisper it--fun. [Oct 2009, p.119]

There is one glaring drawback: so taboo-shredding are her lyrics, and so brutal her music, that she probably won't achieve the clout to which she obviously aspires. [Oct 2003, p.99]

A mix of '70s art-rock, hipster funk and sleek DeLorean pop. ... Shuman's loss is our gain. [Sep 2019, p.112]

Satisfying in every way that Aphex Twin's Drukqs wasn't. [Apr 2002, p.110]

There's no doubt Chasny and his cohorts know all about dynamic underpinning, making Ascent a trip worth taking. [Sep 2012, p.111]

It's the renewed sense of urgency and bubblegum appeal--see Live 'Til I Die--which ensures that Prof Hawkins's musical multiverse is still a thrilling place. [Dec 2019, p.109]

A collection of irresistible pop-rock anthems. [Nov 2005, p.125]

Long-term aficionados will enjoy the sinuous throb of King Of Bones, while those thinking of rejoining the party, the expansive voodoo rattle of Haunt shows the band's mastery of (bad) mood has only matured with age. [Feb 2018, p.108]

The Result is a monochrome masterclass where khol-eyed '60s pop and British Invasion riffs are given emotional depth. [Sept. 2010, p. 117]

The songs this time have a depth and a warm maturity, a Neil Young sensibility coupled with a soul-singer sensuality and a distinct pop edge. [Feb 2016, p.113]

Full of irresistible choruses and quirky surprises, it's the sound of a band fully deserving of star billing. [Sep 2007, p.90]

It's the vocals which gives this debut its distinctive flavour. [May 2018, p.107]

This is a winner from start to finish. [May 2018, p.111]

All the evidence anyone needs that the 50-something Weller is in the midst of a supersonic prime. [Mar 2012, p. 98]

It's undoubtedly a sad voice she presents on Reward, but one that is unlike anyone else's. [Jul 2019, p.107]

It all ads up to an unlikely, if not unlovable nostalgia trip to a less fraught time. [Sep 2019, p.112]

Air thrive on existing at an otherworldly tangent and their cosmic bent is never far away here. [Feb 2004, p.99]