The frequently heavy subject matter is brightened musically by flashes of pedal steel and taut strings--meaning things never get too oppressive. When it's over though, you're left feeling you've been touched by something deeply elemental. [Dec 2017, p.109]

She's created an album that discovers an uncanny balance all of its own. [Feb 2018, p.109]

It might be out of time, but it's worth tuning out modern life and falling in with its curious beat. [Jan 2011, p.140]

The Age Of The Understatement is a frustrating thing shot through with clear signs of its authors' gifts, but too beholden to its influences where it should be stidendt and distinctive. [May 2008, p.125]

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

This doesn't disappoint, adding emotional depth to his complex rhyming and heft to the productions. [Mar 2008, p.103]

It's a revelation from start to finish and up there with Oldham's best work. [Mar 2013, p.107]

His debut album isn't quite as off the wall [as his mixtape], but taps an irrepressible post-Kanye West mood. [Jun 2010, p.133]

The thrilling racket of their live show has been sanded down but not blunted. [Sep 2014, p.110]

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

Chrissie Hynde still answers to no one and it's a glorious sound. [Dec 2016, p.107]

There are a few missteps along the way--the attitudinal stomp of Wicked being one--but it is otherwise executed with authority. [Jan 2018, p.114]

A lush, soulful and joyous debut that should haunt us for years to come. [Mar 2014, p.114]

It's folk, yes, but with a wickedness instead of a waistcoat. [Feb 2013, p.113]

Hard work but worth the effort. [Oct 2005, p.117]

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

It's big and it's clever.

Group Sounds is as good as anything they've put their name to previously. [#180, p.110]

This is the sound of a superstar in the making. [Nov 2003, p.107]

Like his debut, From Every Sphere chokes on moments of indigestible excess. [Mar 2003, p.108]

The five Retina tracks are hauntingly intense....Iris is far warmer-sounding. [Sep 2010, p.123]

Undoubtedly ambitious, drawing on soul, jazz and squalling rock, the best moments keep the focus on Monche's own voice, with Shine's radical poetry reminiscent of veteran firebrands The Last Poets. [May 2011, p.112]

It's transporting enough to leave haunting echoes all its own. [Sep 2011, p.114]

With too much hip hop content to recycle cliches of its own making, it's exhilarating to discover someone out there is still willing to test the limits. [Jun 2009, p.132]

Not for the casual listener, but enormously rewarding if you hanker for some NY loft space in your croft house. [Feb 2014, p.115]

It proves gloriously uninhibited. [Sep 2014, p.117]

The presence of tamp Impala's Kevin Parker in the producer's chair ensures that the sonic differences with his own band's sun-dried sci-fidelia are Rizla thin. However, frontman Nick Allbrook's rapier-sharp lyrics ensure that they still have their own livewire personality. [Apr 2019, p.114]

Mostly the pace unfolds with the urgency of a melting icicle, couching expressions of fear, hope and love amid forlorn synth arcs and just enough fuzz to keep things frisky. [May 2018, p.105]