In the comparatively safe musical surrounds of 2005, he stands out as a compelling and utterly unique artist. [Oct 2005, p.119]

Songs Of Experience will likely go down as a late-career classic. [Jan 2018, p.104]

Life lived close to home, outside any metropolitan notions of centre, is continually apparent in these intimate melodic reveries, which mull romantic vicissitudes via folk-influenced acoustic and sometimes molten electric rock. [Dec 2015, p.113]

As singularly off-kilter as the time-travelling she seemingly blew in on us. [Mar 2020, p.114]

It's a thing of grief-blasted beauty, and Gibbons brings tender pain to these words of lost children and mothers, her voice rising and falling impressively to the the occasion. [May 2019, p.112]

Off With Their Heads affirms the undying pleasures of smart, catchy pop music does well. [Oct 2008, p.137]

Which Bitch? is a blaze of glory. [Mar 2009, p.103]

So convincing does the Boston-based siren inhabit this cut-off, gothic world that it's hard not to be sucked inside the darkly compelling likes of 'River Of Dirt.' [Apr 2009, p.107]

Beach House may get all the headlines for this style of music, but Spokes seem destined to make waves of their own. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Stylistically he's been likened to just about everybody from Leonard Cohen to Kurt Cobain. However, the use of loops and samples on Chemical, for instance, are just as likely to recall Beck, while the damaged tone could give Eels's E a run for his money.

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

The fact that Cohen is nearer to the Pennines than he is to Portland shines through, though, with a dry wit tempering the sunniest songs. [Sep 2012, p.105]

Far from running on empty, the spouses from Charleston, South Carolina have life to thank for refilling the song tank. [Nov 2016, p.114]

A work very much bigger than the sum of its parts. [Feb 2020, p.108]

There are few voices in contemporary alt-country quite so adept at wresting consolation from the depths of despair as Hinson's sonorous baritone. [Jul 2010, p.133]

A weapons-grade blast from start to finish. [Jan 2013, p.113]

Islands Intervals basks in a stately, other-worldly beauty akin to Sigur Ros and Icelandic folk artist Asgeir. [Mar 2014, p.112]

The overall effect is expansive--this is kosmische musik for a desert rather than an autobahn--and it's far-out in the best possible way. [May 2015, p.105]

A poised, inventive record, designed to catch you out. [Aug 2020, p.111]

The curiously carved music is a perfect frame. Another peak. [Aug 2019, p.115]

Some of the sharpest beats and catchiest tunes ever to grace a dance LP. [Jun 2003, p.93]

LA-based trio unveil their schizo-pop blend. [Aug. 2011, p. 119]

While Ocean's artistic ambition is impressive, it's his haunting candour that really casts a spell. [Sep 2012, p.106]

Packed with mesmerising detail yet powerful enough to dance to, the result is electronic music that radiates intelligence and emotion. [Dec 2019, p.109]

The lyrics aren't exactly sunny but the furiously cathartic Silver Age is his strongest work since Copper Blue. [Nov 2012, p.102]

They stand up to modern scrutiny. [Apr 2020, p.118]

Once cosmic scallies dazzled by pop's sepia-tinted past, Butterfly House is proof that The Coral;s psychedelic pop is now just as beautiful. [Aug 2010, p.118]

American Gangster sounds less like a last gasp than the possible start to a second act in Jay-Z's career. [Jan 2008, p.103]