The mainstream looks a long way off again from here. [Sep 2012, p.97]

This seventh official LP is definitively their best so far. [Oct 2013, p.113]

A record to get lost in. [Jun 2015, p.99]

When he departs from the template, Foreverland truly excels. [Oct 2016, p.107]

At times they resemble a pumped-up Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but it's not all "you want some?" antagonism. [Mar 2019, p.120]

Deftly blending the celebratory and contemplative, Bainbridge has created a dance album that works as much on the mind as on the body. [Apr 2012, p.99]

The mood is largely sombre, quiet reflection the order of the day, although the odd striking lyric does leap out.... A grower. [Jun 2015, p.102]

While a creditable effort, it's unlikely to be a record that drags their heads too far above the parapet. [Jan 2016, p.114]

The irrepressible bounce of these tracks outweigh the poignancy, though. Viola Beach have a debut their families can be proud of. [Sep 2016, p.114]

The best moments are the ones that--whisper it--don't sound anything like the Grateful Dead. [Jul 2016, p.118]

There is a prevailing, bleary charm in its warmest moments - Eveningness, White Galactic One - that make Lockett's latest well worth investing in. [May 2012, p.101]

A hideous mess of electro noodling and maddeningly obtuse, tuneless vocals. [May 2006, p.126]

His most impressive feat is that the whole thing never once descends into Kravitz-sytle pastiche. [Dec 2007, p.116]

Lovely stuff. [Sep 2010, p.120]

Her attempts to swagger on songs like Dirty Dog will fool nobody. [Aug 2004, p.112]

Get Well Soon is a starkly beautiful record that mines the sounds of the last four decades of Americana. [May 2011, p.126]

Utilitarian is hardly an artistic leap yet is indisputably still Napalm Death. [Mar 2012, p.105]

Two Wounded Birds are an exotic rarity; a band that performs pastiche without sounding anything other than utterly authentic. [Jul 2012, p.112]

He's at his best on the doom-laden What's So, where guitars clang like church bells as White Broods over soul-selling and eternal damnation. [Sep 2016, p.114]

It shouldn't work, but it does and Harrison's melancholic melodies floating above the sonic swamps of London Water and Summertime Police prove that he's operating in no one's shadow. [Nov 2017, p.108]

Beware displays enough of Oldham's lyrical and musical guile to ensure that if Beware does become wallpaer, it's lead-laced anaglypa. [Apr 2009, p.100]

When backing singer Becky Jacob's voice is brought tot he fore, it wraps around Linday's like a warm hug, leaving you feeling that Tunng are the band you'd most like to watch sunrise over the stone circle with. [Apr 2010, p.114]

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

No Shame is a reminder that this is what Allen does, and she does it very well. [Summer 2018, p.111]

Irwin peppers her songs with Southern Gothic characters, while her keening, naive voice suggests remote mountains where dark deeds are the norm. [Oct 23012, p.94]

It doesn't eclipse their finest work, but if Toy is to be their farewell, it's a fine way to go. [Nov 2016, p.114]

Princess Nokia's genre-surfing might be attention-grabbing, but it's her honesty, openness and clarity of expression that make her a musician you can really invest in. [May 2020, p.111]

Tightly controlled melodic songs reminiscent of R.E.M. or The Velvet Underground. [Oct 2006, p.120]

Still on polyhedric form. [April 2012, p.102]

Impassioned, thoughtful, chock-a-block with great tunes, this rich mix of vibrancy and gloom does what all great rock should--lift the spirits. [Oct 2014, p.107]

All the things he once did well, he's still doing here. [Oct 2011, p.112]

The airier sound allows room for some soaring melodies, which find their ideal melodies, which find their ideal centrepiece in Michael Vidal's dolorous croon. [Oct 2010, p.103]

Friedmans and Everdell have struck gold. [Oct 2010, p.108]

Imagine a hillbilly White Stripes and you're almost there. [Oct 2014, p.119]

His finest collection of material for 10 years (at least). [Nov 2005, p.118]

It's just artful karaoke. [Jun 2005, p.116]

Classic soul opener Bet Ain't Worth The Hand sounds like the Philly soul of The Delfonics, but it's not long before we're into more up-to-date sonic shapes witht he dislocated beats of Lions. [Jun 2018, p.109]

These succinct, sparse vignettes could double as short stories, Darnielle's evocative imagery giving the likes of 'San Bernardino' a cinematic feel. [Mar 2008, p.108]

No moment of Discovery is left unfilled with an idea, a sonic joke, a spark of brilliance.... a towering, persuasive tour de force which ultimately transcends the dance label.

As a functional piece of music, it's fitness-for-purpose isn't in question,. But as a stand-alone album, the satisfaction it can offer, perhaps, is. [Dec 2014, p.119]

The 11 tracks on Citizen Zombie find these progenitors of the "Bristol sound" in satisfying rude health. [Apr 2015, p.108]

A force of nature is with us. [Mar 2006, p.110]

Their debut album marks a major hike in ambition. [Sep 2011, p.116]

If the squelching synths of 'The Original Thought' irritate, the jauntiness elsewhere suggests he's thriving on a lack of commercial pressure. [May 2009, p.119]

By the half-hour's end you might well consider strangling the singer but, by that time, these tunes will have launched their own potent psychological counterblast. [Apr 2003, p.109]

Far from rehashing her debut, she's made an older and wiser sequel, where the quiet magic of each song gets stronger with every listen. [Mar 2003, p.101]

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

In a genre considered creatively bankrupt, this is genuinely new metal. [Jul 2003, p.102]

Amid such moments of clarity, however, there's the kind of meandering you originally expected from such an arty bunch. [Nov 2003, p.105]

The only flaw is the former soldier's gravelly drill-sergeant bark. It packs a visceral punch in small doses, but an unadulterated hour of it is like being violently bullied by Busta Rhymes.

Warped and touching, this is an LP for both higher and lower selves. [Oct 2018, p.119]

Challengers, their fourth album, sees the band and its three main songwriters at the top of their game. [Sep 2007, p.99]

It seemed as if they'd perfected the balance of 2002's glowing "Neon Golden," but here manage to continue the evolution. [July 2008, p.108]

[Deluxe's] successor is equally likeable. [Oct 2017, p.108]

There's a curious romance at play throughout their debut album. [Jul 2013, p.112]

Saloon-bar rockers such as Split Decision sound tired and hackneyed alongside a beautifully downbeat cover of Dylan's Standing in the Doorway... the peaceful life suits her. [May 2012, p.105]

Make-Believe is a record you're more likely to respectfully admire than fall hopelessly in love with. [Jun 2012, p.110]

[Mann has] returned to writing songs which are wry, funny, adult and perceptive, all wrapped up in handsome melodies. [Oct 2002, p.112]

It's The Black Keys, Florence Welch and Julian Casablancas who walk the line between homage and reinvention most deftly. [Sep 2011, p.114]

It's mainly successful: co-written with Ed Sheeran, new acoustic single Say You Love Me may ebe a relation of Extreme's More Than Words, but elsewhere stories are told more vividly, with non-showboating vocalist Ware infusing the songs with restrained emotion. [Nov 2014, p.114]

[The DFA's] desk work on Automato's impressive debut raises the profile of their proteges. [May 2004, p.98]

Here, as elsewhere, Thing of the Past is as educational as it is delightful. [June 2008, p.148]

Victory Shorts makes art-pop by contrasting Michaelson's mordant lyrics and juanty, sophisticated melodies. [Oct 2008, p.139]

A career-spanning, alternative "best of." [Feb 2012, p.101]

This collection collects their best and worst. [Oct 2012, p.118]

Four albums in and Tunstall's voice remains original and excellent. [Jul 2013, p.111]

Aventine does not reveal its atmospheric charms instantly and the brief instrumental Tokka is a reminder she can veer too close to chamber music, but repeated listens unfurls all sorts of wonder. [Nov 2013, p.113]

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

Although they occasionally slip into boilerplate territory, overall Peace are finally dancing to the beat of their own, pared-back, drum. [Jun 2018, p.113]

[It] is a lusher and less challenging listen than recent efforts, but it's also curiously featureless, the sound of a group drained of passion and fresh ideas. [Jun 2006, p.118]

Tatum's sonic upgrade pays off handsomely. [Mar 2016, p.118]

While the 23-year-old will make more complex music than this, it will be tough to come up with something more fun. [Aug 2008, p.140]

The Noisettes have done a stylistic handbrake turn for the follow-up, and come up with an intoxicating blend of pop, soul and disco. [May 2009, p.116]

Back on track. ... The time away has taught them that if the sings are good enough, there 's no need to chuck in the kitchen sink too. [Mar 2020, p.114]

Her multiple selves clash more often than they connect. [Aug 2020, p.110]

Their jittery new-wave revivalism isn't unique, but their sparse rock attack still yields rewards. [May 2006, p.130]

A rewarding curio. [July 2010, p. 128]

While it's undoubtedly the frontman's vision at play here, it's the alchemy between the siblings that turns these songs into something truly special. [May 2019, p.106]

It's a flinty rock record that lets Cocker's inner guitar beast out. [Jun 2009, p.118]

While there are hints of tiredness, Grandaddy are not leaving us with heads bowed. [Jun 2006, p.116]

Sad, happy, tragic and triumphant, just like country music should be. [May 2013, p.102]

Goddess is a while world to get lost in and it looks like Banks is a star just waiting to happen. [Oct 2014, p.104]

Wareham is in fine, sardonic form throughout. [Nov 2004, p.130]

A return to his best work. [Apr 2006, p.116]

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

With its grunted refrain and tinkling xylophone, this strange group manage to out-weird even Waits himself. [May 2008, p.141]

It's a little one-paced over the long haul, and she does wail at inappropriate moments, but there's enough here to build on. [May 2002, p.108]

Gabriel is mesmerising, his plaintive rasp never more gorgeous. [Oct 2002, p.107]

Part 1's eight deluxe country rock essays all impress. [Feb 2004, p.98]

They've sadly cranked up the wackiness. [Apr 2004, p.108]

No one could have expected the four Stooges reunion tunes to sound so young and furious. [Nov 2003, p.120]

Struggle, New Disco, and Dance To The Underground are too-self conscious by half but they're still hoisted by a steamrolling dynamic and sharp hooks. [Nov 2002, p.110]

These songs sound more like her collaborators' than hers. [Mar 2002, p.120]

The trio's nearly sub-sonic blues, jazz and beat poetry hybrid once again evoking a dangerous Spanish Harlem drinking den while Near Eastern influences and a subtler instrumental mesh hint at what might yet have been.

Ultimately, this is a fun record by a fun band. Not a bad thing by any means, but a little more salt in the soup would have been welcome. [May 2016, p.117]

In the past, they have demonstrated the power to leave people flattened: Valtari, however, just falls a little flat. [Jun 2012, p.94]

Younge and Muhammad give Ayers a crisp edge that achieves the unlikely feat of dragging jazz-funk into the modern world. [Sep 2020, p.107]

It really is an indie-pop romp to die for. [Apr 2015, p.105]