What gives the routine anew life is Knox's very modern talent for hiding barbed insults under lovely orchestration. [Feb 2019, p.112]

It works best when these elements are brought to the fore--the shadowy-voyage-into-the-unknown atmosphere of opener Rising or Rain's floating, dream-like synths--creating an eerie, retro-futurist soundworld to get lost in. [Feb 2019, p.112]

It's splendid listening, probably best appreciated horizontally. [Feb 2019, p.111]

Overall it's too stodgy to soar. [Feb 2019, p.108]

This 20-track spread, ending on caustic wig-out You're On Your Own, would make a worthy farewell. [Feb 2019, p.108]

Amor's debut is a collaborative exercise that plays to each memeber's individual strengths. [Jan 2019, p.106]

This is a soul-baring and lovely record. [Dec 2018, p.108]

Ora shines brightest on the album's calmer moments. [Jan 2019, p.113]

The hypnotic techno loop of Dicker's Dream provides forward momentum, though it's the more contemplative moments, from No Reflection's sparkle to Moon In Water's limpid ambience, which shine brightest. [Jan 2019, p.113]

Ultimately Sola's muse remains rooted in the nocturnal. [Jan 2019, p.113]

Best skip Stray Cat Blues though, a track so problematic it's a wonder Operation Yewtree haven't opened a file on it. [Jan 2019, p.117]

A Brief Inquiry... feel not just hugely entertaining and moving, but necessary. [Jan 2019, p.104]

Every one [of the songs on] here is a gem. [Jan 2019, p.107]

A minor work from a mighty band. [Jan 2019, p.110]

It's an album that shows the breadth of Harcourt's talent, certainly, but you can't help but miss the warm burr of his voice. [Jan 2019, p.109]

A bastion of control and quaking vulnerability that strikes a match against its sombre surrounds. [Jan 2019, p.113]

It's a journey that's wildly eclectic, hard to endure through every tangled turn, but impossible not to love. [Jan 2019, p.117]

It's not completely without merit--Brave New World has a certain swagger--nut this does stray bafflingly close to tribute band territory. [Jan 2019, p.114]

Hideously wrong, fantastically right. [Jan 2019, p.114]

It might not herald a return to the glory days but it does mean his recent creative slump has been definitively arrested. [Jan 2019, p.114]

High drama in every molecule. [Jan 2019, p.114]

Powerhouse is a string statement: galvanised, streamlined, charged emotionally until sparks fly. [Jan 2019, p.113]

A confident step on from 2015's Contradictions. [Jan 2019, p.113]

There's only 22 minutes of material here, including skits--but his edge has never been sharper. [Jan 2019, p.113]

Niggling familiarity is a recurring issue here. [Jan 2019, p.111]

It follows the million-dollar formula laid down on 2017's Evolve a little too closely. ... But as emotional Trojan Horses go, few do it better. [Jan 2019, p.110]

Every song here is an exquisitely constructed, shimmering pop gem, and jam-packed with Folick's unique perspective and clarion voice. A special thing. [Jan 2019, p.109]

Cantaloupe Island, for instance, hit the target, even if it's no match for the Herbie Hancock original. But with more cabaret material such as Me And My Shadow's louche duet with Sarah Silverman, you really wish you'd been there first time around. [Jan 2019, p.109]