There's something about these piledriver riffs that remains powerful yet lacking in punch. [Aug 2013, p.96]

A breezy, rangy collection of songs that give the impression of a man keen to make a move without over-analysing too much. [Aug 2013, p.102]

Their determination to get further and further out there is undimmed on this, their 26th(!) album. [May 2014, p.115]

An afterhours ambience attending his salty evocations of vintage soul, R&B and rock and roll. [Jul 2014, p.117]

A struggle to balance the killer riffs and aggression that the fans want with the melodicism that the band themselves seem far more interested in. [Dec 2014, p.116]

One of his best then, and a perfect entry point for anyone who might be intrigued. [Nov 2014, p.116]

It's best when he makes mood music for out-of-body states. [Oct 2015, p.114]

The whole thing is one long hazy delight. [Nov 2015, p.115]

Though some tracks' slightly antiseptic atmospheres mean reality-obliteration promised by the group's name fails to fully manifest. [Apr 2016, p.102]

And the Anonymous Nobody delivers. [Sep 2016, p.104]

A wealth of imaginative arrangements make for a genuinely unique debut album. [May 2017, p.103]

Edgar Jones offers up grit and depth often lacking in modern production. [Jun 2017, p.109]

Their most richly-coloured record to date. [Nov 2017, p.104]

Sometimes the results a re a bit too wilfully weird. ... When his songs are sturdier though, Blau is an intriguing figure. [Jan 2018, p.106]

Her references are classic, but she's never polite with them, twisting her heritage into a brilliantly volatile LP. [Feb 2017, p.112]

A record that embodies a whole world of vulnerability, confusion and unsteadiness without losing shape. [Mar 2018, p.102]

The shine wears off before the final, 14th, song. But it's fun until then. [May 2018, p.111]

It's hard to keep up, but it's an enjoyably bonkers journey. [Summer 2018, p.113]

They sometimes teeter on the edge of bovver-booted self-parody, but this still counts as a welcome evolution. [Sep 2018, p.117]

Their songwriting doesn't always soar like their Hall of Fame inspirations, but the intense, super-saturated atmosphere is every bit as evocative as that advertised on the neon-lit cover. [Aug 2019, p.116]

There's a grating tweeness that pushes the saccharine levels far into the red. [Jan 2020, p.113]

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

Traces of other bands can be heard everywhere, from the scuzzy math-rock of Doom (Battles) to the hard-riffing Exit-Only (Jon Spencer) but with vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki ensuring that they never sound quite like anyone else. [Dec 2014, p.108]

The austerity of the songs occasionally makes the listener feel as though they have stumbled upon some hand-scrawled diary entries. [Aug 2013, p.102]

A thrilling testament to Meredith's seemingly limitless capacity for reinvention. [Jan 2020, p.110]

An astonishing, envelope-pushing vision that mocks the idea of bluegrass being a revival genre. [Apr 2012, p.94]

A little too heavily indebted to fellow Aussies Nick Cave and The Triffids' late David McComb, even if that's not a bad place to be coming form. [Mar 2009, p.105]

Stylish yet raw and angry yet enchanted, Bauer creates a smouldering album with a kooky heart. [Aug 2014, p.86]