It's Hield's increased confidence as a singer that is most striking. [Jul 2012, p.102]

If it's not an easy introduction to Mascis's work, for the converted it's a treat. [Jul 2012, p.102]

Intricate and thoughtful, it recalls the work of Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson. [Jul 2012, p.102]

It's more melodic, dynamic and accessible than before. [Jul 2012, p.102]

Inventive and technical, it's death metal with a brain. [Jul 2012, p.102]

Some Nights is ultimately a confused, turgid tangle of ideas. [Jul 2012, p.100]

Tracks like Sorry and the brainiac funk of Mind Control show that the same sparky formula can stretch over a whole record. [Jul 2012, p.100]

It's to Russell and Albarn's eternal credit, then, that they not only noticed but reach out and made this wonderful record happen. [Jul 2012, p.99]

He's equally skilled as a stream-of-consciousness philosopher or gripping storyteller. [Jul 2012, p.98]

Soar finds a happy ground between Dexys' debut and their much-loved but seldom-sold third. [Jul 2012, p.98]

This Machine sounds more like an off-cuts collection than a comeback. [Jul 2012, p.98]

They've lost their way on the follow-up. [Jul 2012, p.97]

Tom Burke's voice is perfect for the role of geek Lothario with a dozen clever ways to get the girl, and yet just as convincing when , on the sad-sack swoon of I Wouldn't Want To, heartbreak wipes off the smirk. [Jul 2012, p.97]

It's accomplished but hard to love, with many squawking digressions. [Jul 2012, p.97]

When the volume dips and Smith takes centre stage, United We Stand suddenly comes alive. [Jul 2012, p.95]

Such a nuanced take on pop's paisley-coloured past won't be to everyone's taste, but devotees will be left dizzy. [Jul 2012, p.95]

The winter to Johnson's eternal summer. [Jul 2012, p.95]

There's undeniably something new and intriguing going on here. [Jul 2012, p.95]

They pull it out of the hat in quite an extraordinary fashion here. [Jul 2012, p.94]

It's taut, slick and more transatlantic than its predecessor but they lose some of the quirks that gave their debut much of its charm. [Oct 2012, p.112]

Leblanc doesn't break new ground, but he treads his haunted patch with quiet grace. [Sep 2012, p.104]

The array of styles that are spliced together--space rock, electronica, trip-hop, orchestral flourishes--fail to add up to a cohesive whole. [Sep 2012, p.97]

Like all the best break-up albums, Who Needs Who bleeds heartache from every lyric, but keeps faith in music as the surest form of consolation. [Oct 2012, p.97]

The real surprises come when they sound relaxed, even delicate. [Oct 2012, p.92]

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]

The tension between light and dark is this album's masterstroke. [Oct 2012, p.104]

Ambition too often trumps listenability. [Oct 2012, p.104]

An album that sounds hushed, bucolic and carefully crafted. [Oct 2012, p.94]

A dreamy, atmospheric record. [Oct 2012, p.98]

The players' energy and instrumental prowess are captured intact, even if some of the analogue grit that makes the '70s originals so compelling has been sacrificed. [Aug 2012, p.102]

Here's a band on top of the world, and on top of their game. [Oct 2012, p.98]

This is ultimately comfortable listening, befitting folk sounds of a resolutely un-freak variety. [Oct 2012, p.96]

Solidly enjoyable though Uno! is, they might have been wiser to mix things up fro the start. [Oct 2012, p.92]

Despite the familiar palette, it's brutally effective. [Oct 2012, p.94]

Melancholic, romantic and unashamedly emotional, his loss is our gain. [Oct 2012, p.103]

They strain to resemble the Stooges and mavericks from the Beasties to the Stones but still can't conjure the killer tune. [Oct 20012, p.103]

Their third album takes them into Foo Fighters' radio-friendly anthems territory. [Oct 2012, p.98]

Potent incantations such as Nissim and, particularly, the two tracks with Warp's sinister rapper Gonjasufi, prove this to be a wonderfully bananas breakthrough. [Oct 2012, p.100]

Oddly, for an album inspired by the blues, there's not much misery, and what vocals are there get looped and treated beyond storytelling. [Oct 2012, p.103]

Their 14th album sees them once again focusing on stripped down Nuggets-era garage rock. [Oct 2012, p.107]

Shields is part spiralling indie rock, part wistful '60s pop. [Oct 2012, p.102]

Too much of the material is lightweight, ultimately making this an exercised in what might have been. [Oct 2012, p.101]

For all its finite charms, though, Mirage Rock lacks the slinkiness of Infinite Arms. [Oct 2012, p.93]

17 years on, Liquid Swords represents hard-nosed hip-hop at its peak. [Oct 2012, p.117

You can't argue with the boldness of the move, but it's hard to know who really wants a sensible Sic Alps. [Oct 2012, p.110]

They should always say yes to excess. [Oct 2012, p.107]

Unfortunately the stamina isn't there and other tracks hold all the surprise of a Kate Hudson rom-com. [Oct 2012, p.95]

This one is stranger than most. [Oct 2012, p.117]

It's good in places, sporadically very good, but is no significant step up from their debut. [Oct 2012, p.113]

Into The Diamond Sun takes a fistful of seemingly incongruous influences and hammers them into something akin to pop music. [Oct 2012, p.111]

An IMAX band in an iPad age, it's there that they'll prosper. [Oct 2012, p.111]

Where once he dreamed of Fireflies, now Young just sounds burned out. [Oct 2012, p.108]

Though his band can meander, Harrison has proven himself his own man. [Oct 2-012, p.107]

Although his monotone becomes a little wearing over an entire album, this is still his best work in a long time. [Oct 2012, p.106]

While other rappers struggle to maintain consistency across one album per year, Big K.R.I.T. has made his second corker of 2012. [Oct 2012, p.106]

Gallows is less significant than its predecessor, but it often sounds more urgent. [Oct 2012, p.100]

These are genuinely moving, but a change in pace wouldn't have gone amiss. [Oct 2012, p.98]

Ambient meditations and busy electro picaresques like Glow Hole add variety to a record that doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel but at least paints it in bizarre colours. [Oct 3012, p.98]

His latest is a nicely varied set. [Oct 2012, p.97]

It's far from perfect but still worthy of investigation. [Oct 2012, p.97]

Dark subjects [apocalypse], perhaps, but surprisingly enjoyable all the same. [Oct 2012, p.97]

Charming, dexterous and completely compelling. [Oct 2012, p.108]

There's nothing that reeks of genius here, but there's enough to be getting on with. [Oct 2012, p.97]

The mid-paced mellowness is too omnipresent and stifling. [Oct 2012, p.97]

Lateral-thinking producer Jneiro Jarel builds complex but catchy soundscapes from bowel-shaking tuba loops, stuttering Casiotones and grime's muscle, as DOOM pinballs hypnotically through vivid metaphors and free-association rhymes. [Oct 2012, p.103]

A missed opportunity. [Oct 2012, p.107]

The airy-fairy aggression sometimes misses the mark. [Oct 2012, p.112]

All the freshness and ingenuity that made their 2009 debut such a revelation is here. [Oct 2012, p.111]

Not good. [Oct 2012, p.106]

Though twee-o-phobes may baulk at the confessional tone, wit and self-deprecation win the day. [Oct 2012, p.105]

A thrilling journey of self-rediscovery. [Oct 2012, p.95]

It's intoxicating listening that demands repeated attention. [Oct 2012, p.102]

Though frontman Tom Dougall's subdued vocals prove a little one-note over an album, the ground's certainly safer than it was three-fifth of Toy's old band. [Oct 2012, p.112]

Most of the record is a vivid splurge of new wave, glam-rock and showtunes, armed with lyrics as punchy and memorable as their melodies. [Oct 2012, p.108]

Quarter-hearted anthems such as Winner fail to recapture the desperate glamour and delicate optimism of their best work, making Elysium the definition of a mixed bag. [Oct 2012, p.104]

The mood of their music often feels a little stuck, though. [Oct 2012, p.100]

But for a little judicious editing, it's a pleasure we could have shared with him. [Oct 2012, p.99]

All in all, Algiers showcases a band utterly assured and fully aware of their intoxicating potency. [Oct 2012, p.95]

The songs, driven by their charismatic duets, mix inventive brass grooves with playfully indelible melodies. [Oct 2012, 94]

Priorities is inspired by the post-hardcore of Hundred reasons, Reuben and Hell Is For Heroes. [Sep 2012, p.110]

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

In all that attention to detail, there's flair and fire enough to quash the qualms and revel in people doing something over and doing it right. [Sep 2012, p.97]

For the most part Hot Cakes leaves you with the sense that The Darkness' reinvigoration will delight those longing for rock to rediscover the fun button. [Sep 2012, p.106]

The producer's spectral strand of electro-noir is as seductive as it is unsettling on his debut album. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Four may be too diffuse and rough around the edges to qualify as a knockout comeback but it shows a band relocating their purpose and promise by changing their habits. [Sep 2012, p.96]

It consistently fails to match their parent group's most sublime moments. [Sep 2012, p.110]

By the end you might feel like you've just had your ear bent by a particularly forthright mum outside school gates, but Havoc and Bright Lights is Alanis Morissette's most inviting album in a long, long time. [Sep 2012, p.103]

A fascinating trawl through the post-Talking Book period where black pop first embraced electronics. [Aug 2012, p.109]

Betty Wright is a wise, commanding presence. [Aug 2012, p.11]

Get What You Give is angular, immediate and littered with booming breakdowns. [Aug 2012, p.102]

Cellar Door is so gorgeous it could persuade the most hardened clubber to give it all up for a hammock and a cool breeze. [Aug 2012, p.100]

There are hints of Shoes' mentor Dilla in the woozier beats, and grittier curs such as Nails show where his reputation comes from. [Sep 2012, p.107]

It's a low-pressure affair that variously recalls such non-rocking reference points as Phillip Glass, Debussy and Chopin. [Sep 2012, p.100]

As with the Beatles, the outtakes and rarities are the best place to appreciate the abundance of songwriting chops and interpersonal chemistry Blur had at their disposal. [Sep 2012, p.118]

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

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

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

As ever, his lyrics are oblique yet thought-provoking, if sometimes unwieldy. [Sep 2012, p.112]