They're sparkling again. [Aug 2018, p.111]

There may be a lack of tub-thumping choruses, but he has an unerring ability to craft a warm, welcoming atmosphere. [Jun 2019, p.111]

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]

Silencio! really soars when Sadier rails loudly against the injustices of our austerity era, as on Auscultation To The Nation. [Aug 2012, p.109]

He can take his more laid-back approach too far, however, sounding as if he might be about to nod off during Web So Dense, Yet the moments of genuine loveliness more than compensate for the occasional bouts of narcolepsy. [Dec 2018, p.111]

Anyone expecting a lot of happy-clappy Bible-thumping best rethink. [Mar 2007, p.112]

It's very much a period piece, but a very enjoyable one at that. [Feb 2012, p.107]

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

Presley makes more connections than he ever drops. [Mar 2019, p.116]

S&P might not have rewritten the dub rulebook here, but they've certainly minted a thrilling new chapter. [Mar 2015, p.116]

Latin, their third album, turbo-charges post-punk, lolloping Karutrock and primitive electro.

A solid comeback, then. [Sep 2016, p.105]

A complex album that reveals more with each hearing. [Oct 2009, p.110]

While these songs still have Matsson's trademark melancholy at heart, there is a new kind of gladness and hope to them too. [Jun 2015, p.112]

Gleaming with instant hooks, this is a uniformly radio-friendly album. It's also a hugely addictive and likeable one. [Mar 2007, p.108]

The trio's lyrical style is woven into a bewitching mesh of soul, funk and psychedlia by cut-and-paste guru Madlib. [Mar 2010, p.98]

This is the sound of someone learning, brilliantly on the job. [May 2013, p.96]

On these songs and the anthemic "Hard Times," Drew achieves what's he's aiming for: a gritty urban update on '70s socio-political classics by Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. [May 201, p.119]

There's a lot going in here, but it's delivered with an effortless charm that trusts listeners to pay due attention in their own sweet time. So far, so swimmingly. [Aug 2012, p.94]

It's messy, it takes time to sink in, but it's worth it. [Sep 2007, p.100]

Who could of predicted, then, that Intriguer would be his best work in nearly two decades? [Aug 2010, p.116]

Alone In The Universe is warm-hearted, consummate, just about perfect. [Dec 2015, p.110]

He's smart to pair Angel Olsen with a beat from the understated end of Queen's playbook, but it doesn't always work with Camila Cabello sounding oddly generic on Find U Again. [Summer 2019, p.116]

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

This is a hugely promising debut. [Apr 2020, p.106]

Well crafted, easy-on-the-ear janglepop which chugs along in a jaunty fashion. [Mar 2006, p.108]

As the title implies, it tackles the big issues, sometimes at the expense of melody, but there's a handful of very fine songs here. [Nov 2008, p.118]

It's moments like this [on Malibu Man] when Auerbach hits the classic soul button that his versatility really shines. [Jul 2017, p.113]

Casablancas's lyrics are, as ever, largely and deliberately incomprehensible, but enough phrases slip intermittently into the foreground to convince you that they must mean something. [May 2020, p.98]

The only problem is Slim Shady. As Eminem outgrows his old alter-id, so the obligatory pantomime villainy, skits and crass cameos by Shady Records signings become a hindrance. [July 2002, p.109]

On too much of The Physical World they sound like a pale imitation of themselves. [Oct 2014, p.108]

For Much of Bashed Out, emotion is shown rather than told, but once the layers have been unpicked, it's obviously special. [May 2015, p.112]

It's an atmospheric and absorbing piece, a deep, dark pool of music. [Mar 2017, p.108]

Their first LP in five years falls well short of greatness, reheating past ideas to the point of cliche. [Sep 2019, p.111]

Clocking in at 23 minutes, they're never in danger of outstaying their welcome, even if raucous blasts such as Misery Factory implode too quickly to become actual songs. [Apr 2015, p.108]

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

When the quartet let loose, like on the screeching demonic cacophony of Island Epiphany, all hell breaks loose. [Jun 2013, p.96]

A glossy production makes for ear candy, but it's bereft of edge. [Feb 2005, p.102]

If this album is a mixed bag for West the producer, then it's a nadir for West the lyricist. [Jan 2009, p.114]

Hotspot sounds anything but anachronistic and yet, brushing shoulders against, say, the Europop grandeur of Will-O-The-Wisp, the tender intimacies dispensed in Only The Dark or a beautiful existential audit called Burning The Heather, it's also a record on which such classics such as Left To My Own Devices or Rent wouldn't sound especially out of place. [Mar 2020, p.123]

The lesson: it's us who change, not AC/DC, nor indeed rock itself. Our mistake. Rave on, Malcolm. [Jan 2015, p.120]

A record that's been worth the wait, it's the sound of music made by true originals. [Jul 2013, p.109]

It's hard to see it as anything more than another mildly diverting whim. [Apr 2006, p.116]

Koushik has crafted an album that glows like a California sunset, even though he's actually a Canadian now living in Vermont. [Nov 2008, p.118]

The songs themselves, again sung in English, are often cryptic to the point of obscurity.... But the drama here is all in Arnald's delivery. [Oct 2014, p.102]

Nine albums later the sextet's mix of American pop classicism and Khmer-language vocals is ever more indivisible, the melting pot now also including African rhythms. [Apr 2015, p.99]

With Permo, they display a self-starting urgency that keeps them up to speed with the turbulent here and now. [Jan 2018, p.114]

Fever Breaks is sharp and lean. [Jul 2019, p.114]

It takes a while to adjust to the darkness generated by these songs of loss, age and adultery, but once you have, you won't want to leave Shah's night visions behind. [Aug 2013, p.104]

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

The band, however, are a little too gauche to rock out convincingly and fare better on the softer, Beach Boys-influenced psychedelia of Mirror Of Time and Strange World. [Dec 2014, p.118]

Brand New Abyss is alive with twinkly, sometimes childlike soundscapes that occasionally overpower Khaela Maricich's whispery half-spoken word vocals. [May 2018, p.104]

There is a richness and an oddity to Condon's output that deserves continued attention. [Mar 2019, p.112]

Instead of setting alarm bells ringing, One-Arm Bandit manages to be both playful and innovative in a '70s prog-rock kind of way. [Mar 2010, p.110]

While it doesn't measure up to such great break-up albums as Beck's Sea Change or Blur's 13, Social Cues still possesses emotional heft. [June 2019, p.108]

Rush sound like they're slowly but audibly running out of puff. [July 2002, p.118]

Over six albums in nearly 20 years, Connecticut's Hatebreed have yet to deliver a record that sounds different from the last. [Feb 2013, p.107]

Liars' untidy room remains a wonderful place to visit. [Apr 2014, p.113]

Knight is now coming up on the rails. [Feb 2016, p.112]

They do lean away somewhat from the buzzsaw pop-punk which made them favourites of Kurt Cobain, and toward streamlined '70s FM rock, as well as new wave power pop in the vein of The Only Ones and The Flamin' Groovies, with a few interludes of Byrds/Big Star jangle. But don't be fooled by such mellow moments. [Jun 2016, p.116]

An album that yields more with each listen. [Nov 2016, p.111]

As singularly off-kilter as the time-travelling she seemingly blew in on us. [Mar 2020, p.114]

Rome has a fascination all of its own. [Jun 2011, p.121]

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

Admirably fresh, but perhaps too long. [December 2002, p.97]

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

For the most part, he keeps it all on the ingenious side of ridiculous. [Aug 2004, p.121]

This is The Cure sounding a lot like The Cure. Never a bad thing, just a familiar one. [Aug 2004, p.107]

This is a band consolidating their talents rather than simply showcasing them. [Aug 2003, p.108]

Lovable, albeit irritatingly so.

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

Way more inventive than the garage-blues hordes. [Sep 2003, p.111]

The bravery in hanging out such soiled laundry can't go unnoticed, and it's the album's greatest asset. ... The fact it's wrapped in such a lush indie-pop package only makes it more infatuating. [Apr 2018, p.106]

They manage to be thrilling and unsettling throughout. [Jan 2016, p.112]

It's their best album in nearly 20 years. [Aug 2016, p.112]

This raw, unsettling album's backstory, rendered through protesting guitars, is what gives it its defiant edge. [Nov 2013, p.102]

While there's nothing on here that feels quite as urgent as Nichijyou, last year's track recorded with Jehnny Beth from Savages, it's still a beguiling collection of songs. [Jul 2014, p.103]

Big Music's bold title matches the bold music within. [Dec 2014, p.118]

A record that pulls you in slowly over repeated listens. [Summer 2020, p.103]

The truth is that Youngblood writes terrific, instantly memorable pop songs, their fashionable new-wave cool rubbing against an urgent, almost disco undertow. [Aug 2008, p.141]

Their debut, recorded in frontman's Ed Macfarlane's parents' garage, is a tuneful affair. [Oct 2008, p.142]

As ambitious an album as you will hear from a young British group and they mostly pull it off. [Mar 2016, p.104]

There's something magical about the rapturous jumble of C86-esque indie, WOMAD rhythms and cooing dual vocals from Alister Wright and Heidi Lenffer. [Jun 2011, p.110]

Issues of assimilation aside, [sounding similar to Spoon] the songs are excellent. [May 2012, p.109]

Each song is like a little journal entry, lent emotional heft by Ashworth's use of repetition. [Apr 2019, p.114]

More quality control wouldn't have gone amiss. [Jul 2012, p.104]

It's neither deep nor meaningful, but Broken Boy Soldiers succeeds in sounding like four guys having fun making music; albeit music that's as elegant as it is raucous. [Jun 2006, p.108]

Though the younger Dylan hasn't the gravitas of those old masters, his best songs such as 'Will It Grow,' have an easy downbeat charm. [Aug 2008, p.135]

Everett comes on here like a less grizzled Tom Waits with a side order of Kurt Weill. [Apr 2006, p.113]

While The Double Cross is diverting enough, it is far from essential. [July 2011, p. 119]

The net result is an album that hangs suspended between Earth and the stars. [Jun 2019, p.116]

Not everything works, but there's a painful honesty throughout that befits a songwriter with no desire to lapse into a complacent middle age. [Mar 2012, p.111]

Angry, innovative and often ahead of the curve. [Feb 2012, p.111]

It's still not exactly crossover material. But the twitchy, Four Tet-like epic Thousand Yard Stare would slot perfectly into one of Yorke's after-hours DJ sets. [Jan 2017, p.108]

Oakland's finest [Green Day] won't exactly be quaking in their boots, but they may respectfully tip their hat. [Feb 2017, p.116]

Every so often, a newfound edginess gratifyingly creeps in, be that musical, on the gothic post-hardcore of "Plan A," or lyrical, on "The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future," a movingly detailed portrait of a suicidal girl. The signs of a band whose ambition may yet match their productivity. [Mar 2010, p.055]

Throbbing synth-pop from husband-and-wife duo. [Aug. 2011, p. 120]

Thanks to their guileless sincerity and boundless invention, The Lemon Twigs manage to pull it off. [Sep 2018, p.111]