They share a love for the kind of heady jams previously lost in the mists of the '70s psychedelia, Shadow's On Behalf's shimmering harmonies and loose-knit rhythms drawing inspirations from such exponents of starry-eyed soul as David Axelrod and Rotary Connection. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Richard Feerless's far-ranging and impeccable influences are combined to create something new and exhilarating. [Oct 2011, p.131]

Twenty years, five discs, but Nevermind is always more than the sum of its parts. [Oct 2011, p.133]

Oregon four-piece serve up a conceptual gem. [Oct 2011, p.128]

Oregon trio deliver harmonious indie bliss-out. [Oct 2011, p.127]

British rapper ups the stakes with boundary-stretching pop turn. [Oct 2011, p.94]

Mockingbird Time, the band's first album in eight years, places them right back in the hazy glow of Laurel Canyon sunset. [Oct 2011, p.123]

Frontman Brian Fallon serves up a mostly restrained and as a result more resonant set as an opening salvo for The Horrible Crowes. [Oct 2011, p.123]

Killer Sounds feels like a missed opportunity. [Oct 2011, p.120]

Fresh-faced wunderkind aces his debut. [Oct 2011, p.118]

In the end, the try-everything approach works out: if only because Girls' scatterbrained classic rock patchwork is so idiosyncratically odd. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Poetess-godmother of punk compiles own Best Of. And she's still sustaining. [Oct 2011, p.137]

He never sounds hurried, but Gentle Spirit overflows with ideas, albeit ones mostly from circa 1972. [Oct 2011, p.131]

This follow-up proves a slightly less ramshackle but equally engaging electro-powered soundclash that even finds Bell adding the odd new twist. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Freaky electronica from West Coast bass maestro. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Two of Everything is a smorgasbord of delights and unexpected touches. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Their debut...has all the right soul/pop/early Motown moves, plus enough retro fizz to get any party started. [Oct 2011, p.130]

Charming without being cloying, Paradise is the work of a band beginning to stretch their wings.

Uneasy listening from honey-tongued, dark-hearted singer.

Miracle Fortress' version of the '80s manages to push the decade's bookends together, fusing the analogue synthetics of early Mute records and proto-shoegazing's disorienting, ecstatic swirl of noise. [Oct 2011, p.127]

As giant a leap on from the lo-fi oddness of 2009's Gather, Form & Fly as it was possible to make. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Nicholas Drain Lowe, now 62, remains sweetly lethal with a tune. [Oct 2011, p.124]

Elsewhere they veer off into roboid electro, but a certain lack of variety costs points. [Oct 2011, p.124]

As rock, soul and funk steep together, the overriding sense is that Kravitz would prefer to be the leering loverman than the seer. [Oct 2011, p.124]

It feels like a splash of teenage aftershave: a pass at sophistication, not the real deal. [Oct 2011, p.123]

It's the heart of the matter, and the song that sets the bar. [Oct 2011, p.122]

L.A.-based quintet unleash positively euphoric debut. [Oct 2011, p.120]

It's undeniably infectious, maddeningly so at times. [Oct 2011, p.120]

Captivating. [Oct 2011, p.120]

Christians The Devil Wears Prada are in possession of the worst name is metalcore, yet their music is punishing. [Oct 2011, p.120]

Drifting, dreamy and at times, driving, it's further proof of the Swede's eclecticism. [Oct 2011, p.120]

It;s the mesmerising sonic weave which provides the intrigue. [Oct 2011, p.117]

Quality control lets down power-poppers' fifth effort. [Oct 2011, p.117]

A rugged, roaring listen. [Oct 2011, p.117]

Solid rather than inspired. [Oct 2011, p.117]

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

They make a decent stab at it. But with such an overfamiliar sound, it smacks too much of the World Cup exit montage. [Oct 2011, p.117]

Hip hop heavy weights stop squabbling for long enough to justify their star billing. [Oct 2011, p.116]

In crafting their best album to date, the Leicester quartet will almost certainly haunt the charts and the airwaves for many, many months to come. [Oct 2011, p.114]

Their second album...doesn't quite venture out into shark-infested experimental waters but it does prove that there's more to The Drums than fishy pastiche. [Oct 2011, p.113]

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

Hardly coherent, enough of the disparate strands hang together to make it curiously moreish. [Oct 2011, p.112]

Mood music with a soul. [Oct 2011, p.112]

Beautiful Imperfection is never less than easy on the ear, but equally never more than that either. [Apr 2011, p.110]

It emerges as its own beguiling, brilliant listen. [Sep 2011, p.106]

It makes a great introduction to an oft-overlooked band. [May 2011, p.133]

When she does go heavier, the results are tepid. Happily, it doesn't happen very often. [Aug 2011, p.119]

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

There are no highlights. Appalling. [Sep 2011, p.110]

It'll undoubtedly please their cult following, if few others. [Sep 2011, p.110]

A dark, violent and relentless listen. [Sep 2011, p.110]

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

The result is at once fluid and fractured, with a restless experimental edge that never quite allows the beat to settle into anything approaching a predictable pattern. [Sep 2011, p.104]

At time innovative, but as with much alternative hip-hop, one for the previously converted. [Sep 2011, p.104]

It looks like The Rapture--now a trio following the departure of bassist Matt Safer--have regained their despite to flaunt their slightly awkward moves. [Sep 2011, p.102]

Their debut presents tuneful, superior indie rock and bittersweet lyricism. [Sep 2011, p.119]

It sets out the stall for Tinariwen's most rewarding, mesmerising effort to date. [Sep 2011, p.118]

His production helps Malkmus's fifth post-Pavement album roll buy with a supremely confident West Coast looseness. [Sep 2011, p.116]

Dinosaur Jr producer John Angelo coaxes dreamy harmonies from their skewed sound. [Sep 2011, p.114]

They fail to relocate it [their exuberance] on the follow-up, which if anything, is even drearier. [Sep 2011, p.104]

Holland's fragmentary syntax, rendered in a variety of heavily treated voices, rarely proves as mesmeric as the music. [Aug 2011, p.116]

Classic thrash gets proper remastering for 25th birthday. [Sept. 2011, p. 123]

The trouble is, for all its inventive wordplay and expert pastiches, Join Us swiftly becomes the musical equivalent of that witty, but rather-too-clever male party guest who always ends up going home alone. [Sept. 2011, p. 119]

Mission statement from feted San Franciscan droners. [Sept. 2011, p. 119]

Devon soul woman meets Dave Stewart, in Nashville. [Sept. 2011, p. 118]

Alt-rap veteran's lo-fi gamble pays off handsomely. [Sept. 2011, p. 116]

Swedes channel shoegaze on strangely beautiful debut. [Sept. 2011, p. 113]

London "ravestep" duo make vividly raucous debut. [Sept. 2011, p. 115]

Patchy sixth efforts from hip hop innovators. [Sept. 2011, p. 111]

Halcyon haze from Californian flute-toters. [Sept. 2011, p. 110]

Los Angeleans' Paul Simon-channelling second LP. [Sept. 2011, p. 110]

Zach Condon's troupe emerge from indie safe house on triumphant third. [Sept. 2011, p. 109]

At Glastonbury she dazzled; here she plays it safe. [Sept. 2011, p. 105]

West Coast eccentrics' second ambitious offering. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]

ADHD-powered hardcore New York punk. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]

Recent name change can't save disappointing debut. [Sept. 2011, p.105]

Hynes, it seems, can get away with more than most. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]

Big Talk are less grandoise and more low-key than his dayjob, thought, and these 12 tracks do sag in the middle when this eponymous debut takes a detour into pub rock with No Whiskey and Girl At Sunrise. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]

Brain-melting return from digital hardcore heroes. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]

Nu-folk starlet shines ever brighter on third outing. [Sept. 2011, p. 100]

It still sounds fabulous and relevant too, though this Super Deluxe Edition with lots of superfluous add-ons and a super £50-plus price tag to match is surely for completists only. [Aug 2011, p.133]

Growing confidence as a songwriter, arrangements that push the boundaries of Americana, even an unlikely Captain Beefheart cover make Stranger Me, her third release, extra rewarding. [Aug 2011, p.126]

Yucca is pure pop primitivism that's all distorted vocals and fuzzy guitar swirls, just like The Jesus And Mary Chain never happened. [Aug 2011, p.126]

Before stardom, they stopped off to reinvent guitar rock. [Aug. 2011, p. 128]

Enigmatic dubstep maestro's spooky follow-up. [Aug. 2011, p. 127]

Spine-tingling electronic experiments from Denmark. [Aug. 2011, p. 127]

Psychedelic 12th LP from prolific garage rockers. [Aug. 2011, p. 126]

Osaka pop-punk veterans release their 17th record. [Aug. 2011, p. 126]

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

While there may not be anything startingly new here, there is a definite sense of ease with Murphy's past. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

It's an album that sounds somehow both old and new, resembling Bibio and Yeasayer rewriting Brian Wilson's back catalogue. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]

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

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

Canadian electro duo's dreamy fourth album. [Aug. 2011, p. 120]

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

Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me is fuelled by issues addressed in Jeremy Bolm's furiously screamed, raw and sometimes, frustratingly po-faced vocals. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

Pressure And Time is a powerful, soulful affair full of strut and swagger. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

The album's late lurch into electro and stadium rock is plain bizarre. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]