A rather lovely bedtime listen. [Jan 2013, p.101]

At times, they sound like Black Sabbath might, if Tony Iommi had ever misplaced his genius for memorable riffs. Far better is when they harness their power more constructively. and fragments of tunes emerge from the sludge. [Jun 2017, p.112]

Rather than radical reimaginations, Lanegan serves up tweaked arrangements within the original frameworks. [Oct 2013, p.105]

For the most part it's a decent but needless reworking of her Compass Point trilogy of albums from the early '80s. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Ultimately, though, it's her own barnstroming commitment and sheer affability that steer things safely home. [Dec 2008, p.123]

Trail Of dead have kept faith with their traditional mix of prog pomp and grunge power for their sixth album. [Apr 2009, p.97]

Sometimes brillliant, but often baffling. [Nov 2009, p.107]

It's a more searing and cranked-up affair than its predecessor. [Jun 2013, p.99]

Throughout, Hunx nasally trills teenage romantic pain over raw retro clatter, and if Spector heard songs such as The curse Of being Young and Tonite Tonite from his prison cell, he'd surely approve. [May 2011, p.116]

Despite a clutch of well-crafted songs, the results are hit and miss.

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

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 very diversity makes it a little impersonal and even arch, but there are strong songs here and a retrospective disc shows there's plenty more where they came from. [Jan 2013, p.102]

It's a hit-and-miss affair. [Oct 2013, p.105]

The work of a solid pro rather than gripped by genius. [May 2016, p.111]

While the music is mellow, his stories can be tricky. [Aug 2017, p.107]

Enjoyable and fresh, retro and modern, English Electric's only fault is that its creators try a bit too hard to sound like their own past. [May 2013, p.107]

It's on the final track, Punch, however, that they reach a brand of strung-out, sun-soaked lamentation that feels entirely of their own making. If only there were a little bit more of that elsewhere. [Aug 2017, p.100]

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]

Presenting a more elegiac, frigid sound than recent albums, the songs, notably the Mogwai-meets-Morricone Make, show rhythmic agitation and conversing guitars finding resolution in horns and massed voices. [Jan 10, p. 119]

Thirty years since first making her entrance as the distaff Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones still sounds utterly unique. [Dec 2009, p. 126]

It swaps the ramped-up volume of the past for a jittery urgency that mirrors 21st-century urban Britain. [Nov 2017, p.108]

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

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

Broder's lyrics are as evocative as ever. [Sep 2007, p.92]

While Sing The Delta isn't DeMent's best work, it's full of understated, sharply observed songs. [Jan 2013, p.102]

It's an engagingly ramshackle record, off its hinges, but never off the peg. [Apr 2018, p.106]

With the exception of 'Hummingbird,' they indulge in far too many sixth-form mioments. [July 2008, p.98]

The whole, though, is surprisingly cohesive and always uplifting, linked by knowingly sultry vocals and veteran innovator Bill Frisell's typically oddball guitar work. [Apr 2016, p.114]

It's when she slows down that Wiliamson really shines. [Jul 2018, p.118]

It's all overly familiar in the most reassuring way. [Jun 2009, p.125]

Their packed schedule has finally allowed space for this lavish eponymous debut. [Sep 2009, p.95]

The album is a pleasing companion in its own right. [Nov 2009, p.111]

File under "trip-pop." [May 2014, p.105]

A startling fusion of ethereal singing with churning, computer-generated beats and ambience. [June 2002, p.110]

There are moments when it becomes a bit Baltic Eurovision, but Okovi is as tender as it is tough. [Oct 2017, p.111]

Outrage! Is Now makes a convincing fist of them not sounding like a band pushing 40. [Oct 2017, p.100]

Arguably his best record in 20 years.

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]

Songs like Harvester cut through the austerity with undercover earworms, providing a melodic relief you'll long for when the anti-pop sensibility finds its logical conclusion in dreary jams. [Oct 2018, p.108]

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

The aerated atmosphere might leave some feeling light-headed, but Thompson-Hannant's unfettered energy is infectious. [Oct 2014, p.115]

These ever-changing moods don't make MGMT an easy listen. [Oct 2013, p.105]

His sequel to the quirky, lo-fi assault of 2007's "Spiderman Of The Rings" has a similarly maniac edge, at once mesmerising and unnerving. [Apr 2009, p.102]

There might not be any hits, but it's still a convincing chapter few would have predicted. [May 2013, p.102]

It's a thrilling snapshot of a young rock'n'roll band bent to no-one else's will but their own. [May 2014, p.105]

Hope St. is an expertly crafted burst of energy. [May 2011, p.119]

There is still plenty to enjoy here, though, especially Little Surprise, which occupies a similar territory to Mystery Jets at their best. [Jun 2011, p.124]

It's noisy, danceable, by turns exhilarating and excruciating. But at 90-odd-minutes, beyond exhausting. [Sep 2018, p.114]

A cut high above your usual tankard-on-the-belt stuff. [Jul 2014, p.103]

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

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

He clearly has difference aspirations to many of his contemporaries, but on this evidence hasn't completely freed himself o f their influence. [Sep 2014, p.112]

Mixing pleasingly unevolved Ramones-y bangarounds and more reflective punk-pop, the therapeutic lyrics teem with unidentified protagonists having or inflicting a hard time. [Oct 2014, p.115]

Stanley Park, Hornets and Magpie carry a wistful, charming nostalgia about them, but maybe it's a generation too removed making In The Magic Hour's nods to tradition often superficial rather than tapping into the music's deepest heartbeat. [Feb 2016, p.115]

The Violence is ambitious in Hayman's homemade, almost hesitant way, but his vision goes far beyond any other current independent artist, and is a true treasure. [Jan 2013, p.105]

This Boys Noize-produced return is nothing if not perverse. [Oct 2010, p.108]

The results remain defiantly out of the ordinary. [June 208, p.145]

Their quirky, inventive take on hip hop deserve a bigger audience. [Mar 2009, p.98]

Soppiness has become overbearing on recent records, This eighth LP, though, rediscovers their heaviness. [Jun 2013, p.99]

Disappointingly straight-laced. [Jul 2003, p.104]

While One By One starts like the best Foo Fighters album ever it doesn't deliver track-upon-track. [Nov 2002, p.110]

Conflict was always at the root of Living Colour's sound, and finding a balance remains a challenge; even more so for a group whose members work together so occasionally. [Nov 2017, p.111]

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.

Employment is an album that demands furious scrawls of red pen in the margins. [Apr 2005, p.120]

It's when Hutchison's sinister demeanor matches the darkness of the music that Owl John works best. [Oct 2014, p.116]

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

Classic Roots. [Oct 2006, p.126]

She's not ready to call time just yet. [Jan 2013, p.105]

It's imaginative, if profoundly unbalanced. [Mar 2015, p.109]

There's plenty of squelching, soaring solos, and drone rock, just the ticket for those turned on by 11-minute epic 'The Rise' from the last album. [Apr 2009, p.97]

Marigold and Paradise Drive show they aren't short of thrills, but Levitation's title track, which despite its seven minutes and two parts, never achieves the promised lift-off, and encapsulates Flamingods's shortcomings. [Jul 2019, p.110]

There's little revelatory, but it's another fine record to add to their cannon. [Oct 2009, p.119]

There is a fluid coherence to the project.

An acquired taste. [Mar 2003, p.109]

Laughing Party proves a pleasing surprise. [Jun 2012, p. 104]

Imperfect but never less than interesting. [Oct 2019, p.110]

A fine album which often suggests Elliott Smith wreaking merry havoc in a library of sound effects. [May 2001, p.116]

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]

Though Strange Sensation guitarist Liam "Skin" Tyson is no Jimmy Page, Plant can still strut with the vigour of a man half his age. [May 2005, p.114]

Shaver's always been a tough guy making trouble on the edges of a Nashville that values slickness. [Oct 2014, p.119]

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

While on the secular likes of Randy Newman's Losing You she's never less than majestic, it's when celebrating her Lord that things really click. [Oct 2010, p.116]

The tragedy, once again, is that nothing here approaches greatness. [Mar 2008, p.103]

Listening to this third LP, you wonder if some of the good ones slipped through the cracks. [May 2017, p.102]

While there is no denying the heady rush of the band in full flow, predictability creeps in over 45 minutes. [Apr 2008, p.113]

But, too often, tracks such as We Go and Defender merely taxi along the dancefloor runway rather than take off and soar. [Jul 2018, p.116]

Inevitably, it's a bit of a mess.... But if you like Poe, or Reed, and can tolerate the incoherence, there's fun to be had. [Feb 2003, p.105]

Jones's voice and melodic savvy means this album boasts--if you will--just enough entertainment to perform. [Jul 2003, p.109]

He's shot truer and more heartfelt arrows than these. [Jul 2004, p.122]

While this more contemplative side rounds out their usual roaring punk, it does strip them of some edge, making The Black Market sound oddly anonymous. [Sep 2014, p.113]

It's as welcome as a warm fire on an autumnal evening. [Dec 2019, p.110]

When samba's beat is uppermost, the music takes off. [May 2006, p.129]

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

There's nothing desperately new here, but it's all sharply enough executed. [Jun 2006, p.114]

Sounds like a natural follow-up to the original Ommadawn. [Mar 2017, p.112]

This is a swig of all that's gone before, chased down with much warmer production. [Jan 2013, p.107]

It's often bleak fare, but it's also compulsive stuff. [Jan 2008, p.105]