Anyone ever touched by the likes of English Rose or Fly will find much to cherish here. [Oct 2018, p.113]

Bold stuff and proof Shinoda remains a richly talented creative force. [Aug 2012, p.103]

Uncompromising as ever, Hidden Fields is an alien transmission from a band with a singular vision. [Oct 2015, p.115]

Naturally, it's an immaculately stoned affair. ... You might not be able to teach old punks new tricks, but who cares when they perform as well as this. [May 2020, p.115]

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are indeed funny, but over the course of an album they're musical enough to withstand repeated plays. [June 2008, p.138]

Sleeping Around The Corner is a finely calibrated update of their FM-rock blueprint, while Too Far Gone nods cheekily to Tango In The Night's Big Love. [Aug 2017, p.100]

Evans the Death manage to make humdrum, everyday existence sound quite magical. [May 2012, p.96]

the expectancy of being universally tipped for greatness may yet sink her, but she's delivered here. [Mar 2011, p.109]

A fresh production eye might have rescued its weaker segments - Love Calling Earth or the dull By All Means Necessary - and its surprising lack of overall oomph.

After nearly 20 years, their sonic spell shows no sign of fading. [Aug 2016, p.111]

This is a set which pushes boundaries with a gripping sense of adventure. [Aug 2016, p.108]

Something special and fascinating and really quite contemporary. [Jul 2015, p.111]

Star Wars feels like the work of a band remapping their space. [Oct 2015, p.115]

Pacific Daydream can be read as a bitter reaction to the Trump era and geo-political chaos, or maybe it's just a set of (mostly) great tunes that provide light relief from it all. [Nov 2017, p.114]

Although they're heavily fracking the '70s, they're doing so with a punky precision that keeps them on the right side of oddball. [Dec 2016, p.113]

Live albums rarely come equipped with such a strong pulse. [Jan 2006, p.124]

Dido should keep checking over her shoulder. [Feb 2004, p.105]

St Elsewhere rivals Gorillaz' Demon Days for sheer inventiveness. [Jun 2006, p.109]

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]

The second LP of their decade-long comeback is defined by the warm fuzz of Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge's guitars--like a dusty desert sirocco, creating a benign concussed daze. [Mar 2019, p.118]

Hardly new territory, but there's enough melodic might here to suggest the six-piece might find success on a path already well-trodden by The Killers and others. [Nov 2013, p.105]

Terrific, politically charged covers album from soul's Mr. Nice Guy. [Nov. 2010, p. 107]

The lasting impression os of music full of a magic and panache that a mere compilation album can't quite reflect. [dec 2008, p.136]

Emotion drips from every breath. [Feb 2009, p.118]

American Twilight is lifted above cliche, though, and works best when heading full pelt toward the horizon. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Everything here delivers the predominant warmth "Sky Blue Sky" lacked and betrays a sharp ear for melody that has often been obscured by sonic theatrics. [Aug 2009, p.1000]

You can take the boy out of the working man's club but yo can;t take the working man's club out of the boy. [Summer 2019, p.111]

This is their most rewarding yet, built to enjoy in one 38-minute session, languid, melancholy tunes growing out of barely audible static pulses, incoherently Vocodered whispers or preposterously exciting cymbal splashes, carried on by soft pianos, vulgarity-free brass and strings into Bitch Magnet-meets-Samuel Barber electric cataclysms.

On I Speak Because I Can, her great leap forward after 2008's captivating Mercury-nominated debut, Marling deploys an archaic folk patois with convincing gravitas. [Apr 2010, p.118]

Putting it on is less like listening to an album and more like scaling a mountain. [Jun 2014, p.121]

With the group fermenting a heady stew of gnarled psych rock, the result is as droll as it is challenging. [Oct 2019, p.114]

There is no doubt that his songwriting chops just keep on getting better.

Once over the shock of Mould's familiar tones being vocodered beyond recognition, Modulate offers some of his most effective pop songs. [June 2002, p.120]

Making A New World resonates with hidden meaning and lost connections. [Feb 2020, p.111]

An album very much worthy of The Specials' name. [Mar 2019, p.118]

This is gorgeous. [Jan 2013, p.109]

It is a joy to hear. [Apr 2017, p.113]

Williams has offered much to admire, and even more to contemplate. [Mar 2016, p.119]

It obeys no single genre but it sounds like 20 years of London at night. [Mar 2013, p.98]

This is pop music with a pint in its hand and joy in its heart. [Jun 2019, p.112]

It's no surprise they've held up so well after all these years. But it's the extra features, spread over four different editions that truly impress. [Apr 2009, p.114]

Sweet Kind Of Blue may shock people who only know Barker through her theme tune for Kenneth Branagh's Wallander, but it finally set out her true claim for stardom. [Jul 2017, p.104]

It feels like a nimble, pleasure-seeking record which takes its grown-up themes in its stride and wants to entertain first and impress second. [Feb 2011, p.126]

A concentrated shot of charisma, undiluted and intoxicating. [May 2012, p.92]

She does more than enough to establish herself as a contender. [Mar 2011, p.112]

It might be wearing, were it not for the fact that his voice... is a thing of considerable power. [Aug 2005, p.122]

Each track sparkles with a playful inventiveness, while Meath's beguiling, melancholy melodies are impossible to resist. [Jun 2014, p.121]

The Argument is a wondrous thing, full of its own joy. [Aug 2013, p.99]

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]

Startlingly original. [Apr 2007, p.117]

While the guest MCs provide the better-known names (Ghetts, Kojey Radical), it is the singers who make this such a special album. [Mar 2019, p.120]

Any charges of cultural tourism are rebuffed by the magnificence of the music. [Nov 2007, p.142]

For the most part, Made In The Dark pulses with an unusual intelligence and creative bravery. [Mar 2008, p.101]

Sleazy listening at its best. [Jun 2020, p.106]

Thirty-something mother-of-two Giddens's versatility is breath-taking. [Mar 2015, p.108]

A perfect distillation of creatively experimental folk music in the UK today. [May 2008, p.126]

There's much here to justify Alan McGee's awe. [Oct 2008, p.148]

This could have all ended in Tears For Fears, but their winning seriousness is matched by a penchant for a grandiose but hummable melody. [Feb 2009, p.119]

Rhythmically complex yet deftly controlled. [Jul 2018, p.116]

This willfully obscure yet eerily beautiful music sounds all the more absorbing in remastered form. [May 2014, p.124]

The whole album passes without anything you could call a tune, but there's a keen intelligence at work: while fiercely odd, it's frequently electrifying, too. [Feb 2010, p. 112]

Montreal's Preistess are more holy smokers than divers, to the point where this engrossing second album recalls the potent psych-rock of the early-'90s-era. [Apr 2010, p.106]

A happy mess of ideas, fun and riffing. [Jul 2004, p.122]

It won't bring down the establishment, but it does light a bonfire under their arses. [Oct 2019, p.113]

The 11th studio [release] has a brooding familiarity yet is also coolly exhilarating. [Oct 2015, p.111]

It's a journey that's wildly eclectic, hard to endure through every tangled turn, but impossible not to love. [Jan 2019, p.117]

Hearing these set whole makes a difference: sparse yet hypnotic; with Lou on commanding form. [Jan 2016, p.120]

Her most purely enjoyable album since 1978's Easter. [May 2007, p.120]

A great leap on from an already remarkable debut. [Oct 2012, p.114]

Second time round, they still marry old and new, but they've cut down on the stodge. [Apr 2017, p.118]

Fans of Gonzalez's intimate solo bedroom folk may be taken aback by the kaleidoscopic bells and whistles of Fields, but the rest of us should be thankful the sales of those two previous releases have given Gonzalez andd his mates the freedom to indulge every whim. [Oct 2010, p.109]

The range of his ambition and the nailed-on vocal performances soar beyond. [Mar 2016, p.119]

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

As this flits from widescreen country soul to palpitating Meat Loaf theatrics, the overriding impression is of a band that's having a blast. [July 2008, p.99]

The Flower Lane is a collection of hazy but beautifully constructed songs. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Nothing here sounds forced. [Jun 2017, p.102]

A meditation on modern urban life that lets the city shine with mystery, menace and grace. [Jan 2004, p.118]

There is something unceasingly engaging about Trans Am. [Apr 2004, p.122]

With Williamson delivering street-ranter streams of consciousness over Andrew Fearn's frigid post-punk/jip-hop productions, it's possibly not for the casual listener out for a few laughs but there's much to invigorate in its unaffected, defiant slagging of hated jobs, metropolitan hipsters, Twitter and more. [Jun 2014, p.120]

A dark album for darker times--at 53, Saadiq is still ahead of the curve. [Oct 2019, p.110]

In places, though, the live show is a little too freeform and rambling. The 11 new studio tracks on CD2 are much more focused.... [Dec 2001, p.131]

A commanding return. [Nov 2005, p.131]

On tracks such as single Weapon Of Choice, Berlin, 666 Conductor and Need Some Air, BRMC can show anyone a clean set of scuffed heels. [May 2007, p.123]

Their fifth album is another step up the ladder. [Apr 2008, p.117]

A band recharged and re-energised. [Mar 2019, p.120]

Nicole's tunes are so memorable you almost don't need to buy them. [Dec 2007, p.123]

Pinkshinyultrablast have lifted their eyes from their laces to the skies. Superb. [Apr 2016, p.113]

Spidery tendrils of sex-and-drugs-related dread curl around dramatic synth-pop and twinkling R&B, Yet there's also a batch of tracks that draw from bombastic, slightly tacky '80s pop - a warm, funny and wholly welcome diversion from the stylish but sterile bleakness that remains Tesfaye's calling card. [Jun 2020, p.106]

At The Drive-In's astringent, scouring return doesn't feel so much like a blast from the past, as one aimed right at the heart of the present. [Jun 2017, p.108]

Maybe having others to lean on in the big bad world brings the best out of Fullbrook, who sounds bright and confident where once she was charmingly hesitant. [Jun 2014, p.122]

Vernon is an expert curator of his emotions, even if i,i needs to let a little more air in under the glass at times. [Oct 2019, p.110]

As feral and ferocious an album as they've made in years. [Oct 2001, p.130]

It's excellent. [Nov 2015, p.107]

A noble, affecting sign-off worthy of the name. [Feb 2017, p.118]

A deeply satisfying upgrade. [Feb 2019, p.115]

This is serious fun. [Mar 2007, p.106]

It helps that the guitarist composes vocal-free songs that, on his fourth album, are reassuringly acoustic, a brew of melancholy and romance. [Mar 2019, p.120]

It's the album's introspective second half which delivers the punch. [Mar 2018, p.109]