She's at her most compelling when the rhythmic cross-currents come with a deep dark undertow. [Jul 2012, p.103]

It's a stunning, stealthy, faintly malevolent collection of songs that serve as a reminder of this songwriter's power and innovation. [Nov 2018, p.106]

The English Riviera is a major progression for Metronomy, idiosyncratic but also as instantly accessible as, say, Hot chip. It's a winning combination. [May 2011, p.114]

A glorious reinterpretation of some of his [Merle Haggard's] finest songs. [Jul 2017, p.104]

While it's a policy of extremes that occasionally leaves little room for light and shade, it makes for an occasionally thrilling debut--ambitious, noisy and, most importantly, packed full of tunes. [Nov 2009, p.103]

In the moving figure of The Bride, Khan has delivered her defining statement as an artist. [Aug 2016, p.109]

Given Mascis's croaking rasp this shouldn't work, but it does, because he's turned in his best collection of songs for a long time. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Seeds is not 1000 per cent their best work, but it's not far off. [Dec 2014, p.108]

Ape In Pink Marble shows that underneath the mannered eccentricities, Banhart's chief talent has always been to write endearing songs. [Nov 2016, p.103]

While never quite as fiendish as its title suggests, it's certainly sinister. [Sep 2006, p.112]

Dirty Projectors' David Longstreth deserves praise for the way he's reinterpreted "Damaged." [Dec 2007, p.116]

The vibe remians woebegone but with the combination of lush arrangements and gallows wit add layers of transcendence previously only hinted at. [Jun 2010, p.131]

What distinguishes Phantom Radio as a "band" project rather than a solo one is moot, but when the result is this good, who cares? [Nov 2014, p.114]

Pitched somewhere between James Blake and Erykah Badu, it's a subtly delightful album. [Mar 2015, p.109]

All in all, a brooding and brilliant record. [Oct 2017, p.103]

He's retained much of his fizz, but his new, relatively thoughtful, air means that the piano-led The Bruiser exudes a heap of rue and regret, while the autobiographical Mississippi Delta toasts a bright new future in a bright new place, something this album cements. [Oct 2018, p.116]

The results, while never quite suggesting imminent breakthrough, are sometimes elegiac. [Nov 2006, p.147]

It's like being hit over the head by a giant hammer in a neverending Itchy & Scrathy episode. [Jan 2009, p.113]

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]

Intimately compelling, from his first strum to last breath, Regan passes the acid test of songmanship; all 10 are perfect as they are. [Feb 2013, p.109]

At times it verges on beautiful classical pop. At others, it's like listening to a taxing piece of modernist musical theatre. [Aug 2013, p.105]

If Ben Knox Miller's vocals barely break the surface, underneath lies a record of hidden depths. [Apr 2018, p.112]

As an act of Catharsis, Storm Damage was clearly an important one for the singer, even if ultimately it yields mixed results. [Apr 2020, p.114]

McClure says he's regressed to the catchy rock essentials after years spent experimenting: smart move. [Jan 2017, p.104]

It's the songs not the approach which set her apart. [Aug 2003, p.116]

Fannypack might already be sick of the Beastie Boys comparisons, but it works on too may levels to be ignored. [Oct 2003, p.104]

More tightly structured than their last outing TNT, this has enough dizzy polyrhythms and craziness for the free jazzers but is chock full of tunes, good humour and a certain grooviness

Quirky, spunky and really quite beautiful, this is British pop at its finest.