Georgia electro-popper emerges as the first star of "chillwave". [Aug. 2011, p. 122]

His best record in more than a decade. [Dec 2017, p.104]

The meticulous arranged synths, crackling guitars and electronic glitches ensure the attention never wavers. [Feb 2016, p.114]

Their boldest and best album for years. [Jan 2012, p.124]

Extremely inventive, a litttle uptight and slightly high on their own cleverness, Vampire Weekend are the musical equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie. [Mar 2008, p.109]

It's arty and possibly proggy, but the warmth of Duncan Wallis's voice never lets it get distant. [Feb 2013, p.103]

Parquet Courts have delivered a fifth full-length album that ticks every box on the application form [for an uber-cool New York band of the Velvet Underground/Sonic Youth lineage]. [May 2016, p.114]

This third effort sees the band step into darker territory, blending detuned guitars and Sonic Youth-esque dissonance with infectious pop-punk hooks. [Mar 2012, p. 100]

Rogers remains her forcefully idiosyncratic self throughout, endlessly impressive in her ability to draw on electro-pop history yet not be beholden to its past. [Summer 201, p.115]

Politically charged, smart, melodic and irrepressible--it's a fascinating record. [Summer 2018, p.116]

Melodically, this matches The Lemonheads at their best. [Aug 2002, p.126]

An all-conquering white female rap crew? It's been a long time coming and, on the strength of this debut, may be arriving sooner than you think. [Jun 2003, p.105]

American producer conjures up dazzling electronics. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

Utopia is like walking through a vast tropical greenhouse, full of sunlight, oxygen and the twittering of birds. [Jan 2018, p.108]

Guitar pop at its most ecstatic. [Apr 2006, p.113]

Ellison's reliably single-minded approach will appease seasoned Flying Lotus followers, but Until The Quiet Comes might just attract new followers. [Nov 2012, p.95]

His debut combines melodic dubstep with a dose of Timbaland-style R&B. [Dec. 2001 p. 127]

Crucially, her songwriting has deepened and matured. [Nov 2007, p.146]

This is music which feels as though it needs to be tethered down, lest it slip its moorings and float higher than the sun. [Mar 2015, p.115]

Stay Positive isn't so much of an instant gratification, but a record that reveals more with each listen. [Aug 2008, p.131]

As the sound of a band revelling in what they do best, it makes for an album that's up there with their most purely enjoyable. [Aug 2017, p.105]

Fortunately, Elliott and Timbaland's idea of old school is rather unorthodox. [Jan 2003, p.121]

Making soaring beauty out of the disarray of her life. [Sep 2019, p.112]

There are some exquisite songs here. [Nov 2016, p.111]

An assemblage of electro-pop, affecting melodies and Dear's sonorous voice, Black City variously recalls Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem and The Magnetic Fields. [Sept. 2010, p. 114]

Field's tough but tender holler, adventurous arrangements and razor-sharp rhythms combine to ensure these breezy tributes to Motown, classic rock, and psychedelic soul always hit the right note. [April 2012, p.94]

Sometimes I Sit And Think is littered with wry, smile-inducing couplets and wonderfully mundane detail. [May 2015, p.114]

File under soundtracks to mescaline days and animal sacrifice nights. [Jul 2016, p.104]

She's gone big and bold. [Aug 2017, p.107]

A poignant revisiting of Whitsun Dance catches the profound power of this richly arranged album. [Aug 2020, p.105]

Creeper may lack originality, but they make up for it with ambition and sheer cheek. [Aug 2020, p.105]

Experimental yet entirely accessible, Transference proves that Spoon are of America's finest bands. [Feb 2010, p. 111]

One Life Stand is the classic pop album they've always threatened to make. [Mar 2010, p.96]

What could've been an album of self-pity is transformed into a record of optimism and hope. [Sep 2019, p.111]

Proffers a newfound poignancy. [Nov 2003, p.110]

It's all wonderfully executed. [Sep 2017, p.116]

In Conflict is as densely crammed with ideas and movement as his CV, an impression bolstered by the presence of the polymath's polymath Brian Eno. [Jun 2014, p.117]

Nellyville doesn't really have any side streets unexplored by the previous Country Grammar, but it's all so good-natured it's hard to object. [Sep 2002, p.111]

Liberated from Elbow's obligation to write at least a few songs big enough for arena stages and radio playlists, Garvey revels in lovingly crafted intimacy. [Dec 2015, p.102]

The balancing of Gainsbourg's natural good taste with this deeper emotional resonance remains key throughout. [Jan 2018, p.109]

His version of Hey Joe curls around your ears like smoke before you notice what it is. Alice In Chains' Got Me Wrong works because Mehldau doubles the rhythm section on piano, giving it a real kick up the backside and sounding not unlike the great Neil Crowley. [Nov 2012, p.101]

Paranoid, doomy synths temper the classicism of Christinzio's luxuriant Harry Nilsson songwriting. [Jun 2020, p.94]

The rest is a textbook example of a major African artist successfully reaching out toward Western ears without sacrificing integrity. [June 2009]

Its kitsch-free excellence confirms Hawley as a balladeer of the very highest order. [Mar 2003, p.109]

The album evokes not claustrophobia but space and freedom: an exhilarating screw-the-consequences leap into the bizarre. [May 2010, p.110]

A couple of other tracks veer too close to pastiche, but taken as a whole, this is a rich, brave, eloquent piece of work. [Sep 2019, p.108]

Superb. [Jun 2011, p.114]

It makes for a wonderfully warm way of celebrating life. [Aug 2003, p.102]

Moon Duo have eclipsed their previous best here. [Nov 2019, p.115]

Inventive Londoner plunders all corners of the dancefloor. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

It's a magnificently gothic trip in which guitars grind pitilessly against hip hop beats, electronic circuitry throbs to breaking point and Iggy Pop cameos as a serial killer.

It is only after about the fifth listen that the true wonder of Some Cities slowly starts revealing itself. [Mar 2005, p.97]

Some veteran rock stars write a memoir in order to make sense of their origins; Bono has chosen to sing one. From this autobiographical precision all the album's strengths flow. [Nov 2014, p.100]

There's still an absence of real emotional heft, but it's hard not to be won over by Blossoms' relentless, effervescent cheeriness.

9 may be quiet, but it is never easy listening. [Dec 2006, p.125]

By its very nature, Father Of All... is slight compared to a sprawling magnum opus such as 2009's 21st Century Breakdown, but it's close to impossible to emerge from its rapid-fire near-half-hour without a smile on your face. [Mar 2020, p.112]

Gifted '60s casualty delivers first record in 14 years. [July 2010, p. 131]

Far from being a downer, these songs are frequently sublime. [Feb 2016, p.113]

Their self-titled debut crackles with youthful brio. [May 2018, p.111]

Elvis Perkins in Dearland is more than good enough. [May 2009, p.117]

Beauty that can slice down to bone: double-edged and deep. [Jul 2016, p.108]

The World Is Yours is the usual drill: fast, frenetic and very, very loud, with Lemmy belching his messages of defiance and rock'n'roll redemption like a raging, fire and brimstone preacher. Who would want it any other way? [Feb. 2011, p. 124]

This is heavy, yes, but it's never leaden. ... With The Universal Want - sad, wary, yet still alert to life's thwarted beauty - Doves are in the right place, the right time. [Sep 2020, p.106]

What makes BRMC extra special and what steers them well clear of parody drone-rock territory is their three-dimensional sound. [Jan 2002, p.103]

Another like this and people will struggle to remember she was ever in another band. [Dec 2002, p.98]

It's the 27-year-old's patience that dominate this sultry debut.[Sep 2012, p.113]

Funny, provocative and concise at 10 tracks, Bleed is the sound of a powerful and unique voice back on peak form. [Dec 2015, p.105]

Here Greenspan takes a more direct approach, showcasing his feel for melody and melancholy to brilliant effect. [Oct 2006, p.125]

Barry Adamson has often broadcast his affinity with tortured individuals at breaking point. This has found raw expression in his solo work, and Know Where To Run does not deviate from the script. [Mar 2016, p.105]

Pop-house banger Bipolaire-Les Noirs and the double-jointed Afrobeats of Soleil De Volt show a knack for memorable hooks, while the album's meditative second act, not least the expansive Peau De Chagrin-Bleu De Nuit, brings emotional depth to a fascinating journey across cultures. [Jun 2018, p.106]

It's the curveballs, rather than the reliable Lanaganisms that make Blues Funeral such a powerul return. [Mar 2012, p.101]

As a calling card, it's as close to perfection as the title suggests. [Jul 2016, p.109]

A masterpiece of bombed orchestral elegance, at once expansive and intense. [Dec 2002, p.112]

Why didn't they just call it Supernatural II and have done with it? [Dec 2002, p.110]

A superbly restorative tonic for troubled times. [Sep 2020, p.108]

In every way, it's alive, but mostly, it's alive with possibility. [Jun 2011, p.112]

Treat Yourself With Kindness... calls to mind what Morrissey and Marr might have come up with if requested to soundtrack the closing credits of It's A Wonderful Life. [Mar 2003, p.102]

As always with this gem of a musician, all human life is here. [Sep 2012, p.113]

It's a strange and beautiful album, one that's hard to turn away from. [Nov 2014, p.102]

This is lush music to get lost in. [May 2020, p. 100]

The Chatham Singers furnish these 12 tracks of street crackle and pop with skeletal verve. [Jun 2020, p.94]

There's nothing here likely to be adopted as a stadium chant, but in its tethered imagination, Boarding House Reach is the most surprising and eccentric record White's made. [May 2018, p.110]

Brooding is the word for their claustrophobic jams, forged on skeletal guitar lines and smothered in reverb. [Dec. 2010, p. 112]

Classic lived-in country. [Apr 2009, p.107]

A supremely confident collection from an artist just gearing up for greatness. [Jun 2016, p.111]

They even give Madonna's I Deserve It a new level of dignity. [Jan 2004, p.118]

The W is largely a return to murky idiosyncratic form after 1997's filler-bloated Wu-Tang Forever. Weighing in at a svelte 60 minutes, it plays to the group?s main strengths: brutal hooks and scary ambience.

Thirty years in NIN sound reinvigorated. [Summer 2018, p.116]

Smart audio trickery and intriguing atmospheres draw the listener in and, overall, it's a real beauty. [Sep 2020, p.111]

His first album in more than 15 years sees him back atr the musical vanguard--thanks in large part to XL boss and producer, Richard Russell, whose arrangements brilliantly frame the 60-year-old's rich burr and terse street poetry with brooding electronica and stark blues handclaps. [Mar 2010, p.106]

The songs here are rougher, louder, and often more exciting than their "official" versions. [Nov 2000, p.123]

This irresistibly funky makeover feels like the emergence of a major new talent. [Aug 2017, p.108]

The enveloping crescendos of "Albatross" define the album's blend of beauty and pure power in a record that puts "classic" back into classic rock. [Apr 2010, p.106]

Most of Kish Kash sounds like the album they intended to make after Remedy. [Nov 2003, p.106]

It's difficult not to warm to any record that quotes Prefab Sprout's Cars And Girls in one breath and uses the word "phlebotomist" in the next. [Jul 2014, p.109]

This 131-track splurge still manages to throw up the occasional gem. [Sep 2012, p.116]

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

This is an electrifying collection of electronic music with heart and soul as well as dancefloor throbs. [Jan 2012, p.1222]