His penchant for flyaway drama is anchored by his winning way with a soaring melody. [Feb 2018, p.115]

Of Nelson's many collaborative albums, To All The Girls is simply among his best. [Nov 2013, p.112]

His first album in seven years is vigorously diverse. [Nov 2012, p.90]

Frequently the music here sounds unhinged and stretched out to the limits of endurance, but it's exactly this lack of sanitisation that makes this such a thrilling listen. [Jan 2015, p.129]

More earthy than his contemporary Richard Thompson, Chapman shows younger pretenders a clean pair of heels with impeccable guitar-picking and tunes that veer from moist-eyed remembrance to defiance at times's relentless passage. [Mar 2019, p.112]

A pure pleasure. [July 2008, p.101]

The musical collage approach, is the starting point for a captivating album of pop electronica. [Mar 2013, p.101]

'Midnight's' gut-wrenching sight of an ex not leaving a party alone is a case in point, but any of one of these 10 tracks is equally illuustrative. [Mar 2009, p.93]

A career-spanning, alternative "best of." [Feb 2012, p.101]

Nostalchic is texturally dense, yes, but made of simply swoonsome stuff. [Apr 2013, p.104]

Wrong Crowd may still be driven by piano but it charts a new path for Odell. [#361, p.106]

Randell's lyrics reveal subversiveness too, telling of teenage insurrections and small-town upsets. Steve Hassett's backing, meanwhile, is characterised by enough strange impulses and pleasing deviations to whirr and rattle through the stillness. The band's third album is filled with such quirks and quiet rebellions. [Aug 2018, p.113]

Latin, their third album, turbo-charges post-punk, lolloping Karutrock and primitive electro.

The Nihilist is a mind-melting blend of traditional songwriting and endless, restless experimentation. [Jun 2014, p.110]

Chastising them for not reinventing the wheel seems churlish when they sound like they're having so much fun spinning the old one. [Apr 2013, p.111]

Grey Tickles, Black Pressure captures everything great about Grant's past and bundles it into his most riveting album yet. [Nov 2015, p.110]

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

Amid the shiny licks, the hallmarks of his previous work remain. [Dec 2015, p.111]

All told it's a captivating listen that's proudly individualistic, heart-warmingly intelligent and beautifully intonated. [Nov 2013, p.102]

He may not have stepped totally outside his discomfort zone, but Blake here reveals himself as an artist at the peak of his powers. [Mar 2019, p.113]

The West Londner's debut is startlingly intimate, full of soulful, jazzy echoes of a lonely city. [May 2019, p.116]

There is nothing new here but Teleman make it sound like their own. [May 2016, p.109]

A true master in career-best form. [Summer 2019, p.112]

It's great, with well-judged strings and horns giving full rein to some marvellously acute lyrics.... A glorious return. [Oct 2002, p.117]

For the most part, though, the excellence of what's here is less a matter of particular details than the way they combine to produce long stretches of real magic. [#361, p.104]

Kokoko! are far more ramshackle affair than Mbongwana's dub-drenched African Funk, with "instruments" all but salvaged from junkyards. The effect is deliriously infectious--Gruff, chanted vocals, wandering basslines and often woozy FX that can render the whole disorientating and dreamlike. [Aug 2019, p.112]

At times, he thinks as laterally as Pavement's Stephen Malkmus. [Feb 2004, p.102]

The relentless live percussion give Frost's music the structure that makes it more than noise. [Jun 2014, p.111]