There's nothing transformative enough to make this more than a placeholder and plenty that is kitsch. [Summer 2019, p.112]

This debut full-length channels abrasive energy akin to early SoundCloud rap. [Summer 2016, p.111]

You can take the boy out of the working man's club but yo can;t take the working man's club out of the boy. [Summer 2019, p.111]

The album is so cacophonous that it borders on the unpleasant. Yet there are redemptive moments. [Summer 2019, p.111]

An album overflowing with ambition and ideas. [Summer 2019, p.109]

Even when they do go a bit hippy-dippy, it's rarely at the expense of something you can hum along to. [Summer 2019, p.115]

A clever marriage of weighty words and sonic delight. [Summer 2019, p.115]

Help Us Stranger is Jack White and Brendan Benson's love letter to classic rock. [Summer 2019, p.114]

Rakei's gently wistful tone fits the general mood, though it's something of a relief when he shifts gears. [Summer 2019, p.115]

A classy return. [Summer 2019, p.108]

At times, it's too mellow. [Summer 2019, p.108]

These 20 songs unfold with mostly spartan acoustic guitar and voice arrangements, near-segueing from one to the other But the cumulative emotional impact is profound. [Summer 2019, p.117]

It's an excellent record that both hits immediately and gets better with repeated listens. [Summer 2019, p.112]

The production values here exceed most of the finished works: not so much blueprints as purpleprints. [Summer 2019, p.118]

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

Three Demons finds Guadalupe Plata fully charged and on devilishly good form. [Summer 2019, p.111]

Rogers remains her forcefully idiosyncratic self throughout, endlessly impressive in her ability to draw on electro-pop history yet not be beholden to its past. [Summer 201, p.115]

Theirs is a cerebral electronica, characterised by slippery time signatures, off-kilter drum patterns and baroque flourishes. Their 10th album, Polymer, distills all these traits. [Summer 2019, p.115]

It's the beeping, whirring creations that shine most, signalling that Hannon and his trademark wit and empathy are still there. [Summer 2019, p.108]

The results range from extraordinary to bemused but they are never dull. [Summer 2019, p.111]

If the delivery mechanism is different, the payload is pure Bruce. [Summer 2019, p.106]

This is Madonna on top of the world, looking down on creation, God complex at cruising attitude. [Summer 2019, p.110]

This is not a document to be eaten all at one, maybe, but it brilliantly records Dylan's skill for interpreting his own songs. [Summer 2019, p.118]

It takes a while for these hushed, subtle songs to change the mood of a room, but when they do, it's as striking as sun through the blinds. [Summer 2019, p.108]

A glorious reminder of Perry's unique musical gifts and unhinged imagination. [Jul 2019, p.115]

It makes for a meditative, transportive listening experience, exemplified best on the elegiac piano and swelling strings of opener Haar. [Jul 2019, p.109]

Marigold and Paradise Drive show they aren't short of thrills, but Levitation's title track, which despite its seven minutes and two parts, never achieves the promised lift-off, and encapsulates Flamingods's shortcomings. [Jul 2019, p.110]

It's a restrained record that doesn't suffocate its epic songs with epic instrumentation. [Jul 2019, p.114]