Kimbra has created a sparkling, witty debut that hymns commitment at every turn. [Sep 2012, p.102]

Building on 2015's explosive comeback album Freedom, War Music offers further proof that the gamble paid off, with Blood Red mixing Marxist doctrine and surging riffs to stunning effect. [Dec 2019, p.114]

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

Textbook soft rock. [Jul 2006, p.111]

A great leap forward. [Jan 2007, p.148]

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]

Despite the weight that hangs on its shoulders, Crushing doesn't feel defeated, rather it's the sound of a fearless songwriter putting the past to bed and regrouping stronger than ever. [Apr 2019, p.112]

An intimate, close and enjoyably ambiguous record. [Jun 2020, p.94]

Kings of Leon needed to make a very specific sounding type of album in order to seize their moment, and that they have done, entirely successfully. [Oct 2008, p.134]

It's the multi-layered harmonies and busy, overlapping rhythms that stick. [Jul 2020, p.104]

It's one of the least boring records you'll hear this year. [Nov 2008, p.108]

It's a mode that has little time for novelty or subtlety but plenty of potential to crowd-please on both sides of the pond. [June 2019, p. 108]

Staples's fire is undiminished. [Jul 2019, p.114]

It's a thrilling ride with an artist who keeps everyone on their toes. [Aug 2017, p.108]

Daltrey climbs inside every song, slaps it around a bit and makes it his own. [Jul 2018, p.111]

The quiet, melodic Curse Your Branches - think American Music Club with superior melodies - is an open-veined, self-lacerating look at his break-up with God ("You expect me to believe that all this misbehaving grew from one enchanted tree?" he asks on the brutal Hard To Be), his subsequent alcohol issues ("All this lethal drinking is to forget about you") and his estrangement from his young daughter. [Dec 2009, p. 111]

Wonky restores the Hartnolls' reputation among electronic music's greats. [May 2012, p.103]

Reserve space and time for it. [Feb 2005, p.104]

Joyous and rammed with hits: it's worth the wait. [Oct 2018, p.111]

Confidence seeps through Coldplay's eighth album. It's a thrilling new start, a daring way to kick off their second chapter. [Jan 2020, p.104]

Autolux balance droney post-rock and electronics with rare skill. [Sept. 2010, p. 113]

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]

A slice of West Country meets Southern soul glory to rival anything Auerbach's ever been associated with. [Apr 2019, p.118]

Another quixotic foray into New Age vibrations, all hazy Balearic moods and flashback to '50s exotica. [May 2018, p.112]

Kingdom Of Rust is Doves' defining work, an album of bold adventure. [May 2009, p.108]

Heroic. [May 2015, p.100]

Ellis taps the pulse of his surroundings in manner akin to Massive Attack's Mezzanine. [Aug 2020, p.111]

A highly original two-disc set that as precious as it sounds, adpats poems from such diverse sources as ee cummings ans Gerald Manley Hopkins. [May 2010, p.124]