It's as an articulation of grief that this record speaks most powerfully. [Jan 2019, p.106]

You get the feeling even the band think the joke's wearing a bit thin. [Jan 2019, p.106]

It's a quietly bewitching LP, storied and subtle and sweet. [Dec 2018, p.107]

It can ramble, but their landscape is so compelling, the scenic route is no punishment. [Dec 2018, p.108]

No great leap forward, then, just a solidly impressive album. [Dec 2018, p.111]

Merrie Land works best when these sounds and visions come together in an impressionistic haze. [Dec 2018, p.109]

A pleasure, of course. [Dec 2018, p.104]

There are moments of glorious burning distortion on Solara and Marchin' On, but its real riches are much more subtle. [Dec 2018, p.115]

The studio out-takes are where the real action is: a strummy Julia sounds like it could have been on Rubber Soul, the Take 17 version of Helter Skelter is thrillingly raw and there's a spectral early take of While My Guitar... he Beatles were clearly having a ball here. [Dec 2018, p.117]

Bought To Rot is, then, something of a palette cleanser: both wider in scope and lighter in tone. [Dec 2018, p.108]

He can take his more laid-back approach too far, however, sounding as if he might be about to nod off during Web So Dense, Yet the moments of genuine loveliness more than compensate for the occasional bouts of narcolepsy. [Dec 2018, p.111]

Forever isn't a huge creative leap forward, but at its best--particularly on dancefloor-friendly laments such as Beautiful Wreck--there are moments that hint at brilliance. [Nov 2018, p.109]

Ling's unhinged bluestocking vocals lift strange images out of the volatile electronica. [Dec 2018, p.104]

Although comprised of offcuts, it amounts to a great fourth and final record. [Dec 2018, p.104]

By turns eerie and enthralling, it's the kind of experiment [John] Cage would surely applaud. [Dec 2018, p.111]

It's a stunningly assured, deeply romantic and already one of the year's best. [Dec 2018, p.113]

Much of what follows sounds like he's set his overdriven synths to autopilot with vocalists Keith Flint and Maxim Reality reduced to the odd irate interjection. [Dec 2018, p.113]

Television Themes is entertaining on every count. [Nov 2018, p.102]

Hers is a mode that doesn't stray far from the pop status quo, but Glynne should still be applauded for mastering such a feelgood formula. [Nov 2018, p.106]

The Gypsy Faerie Queen, co-written and performed with Cave, and the Lanegan-scored They Come At Night, addressing the attack on the Bataclan, are among the LP's finest moments, but it's Born To Live, a tribute to the late Anita Pallenberg, that proves its most stirring. [Dec 2018, p.107]

More often than not, the discordant swamp of cacophony Leonard has long brought to his work threatens to overwhelm the freeform joy of his compositions. [Dec 2018, p.111]

He's sounding like a contender again, something only Borrell himself would have ever betted on. [Dec 2018, p.113]

What it lacks in earworms--with even the catchiest refrains served with a side of introspection--it makes up for it in its intoxicating portrait of desire. [Dec 2018, p.107]

What could be desperate instead dazzles, thanks to a combination of shiny pop smarts, hands-aloft anthemics and, in the case of Freddie Mercury-alike singer Luke Spiller, the kind of unembarrassable charisma they rarely manufacture any more. [Dec 2018, p.114]

At its best you're reminded of Yorke's eminent skill: a fluency in dark, otherworldly romance that makes the alien sound familiar. [Dec 2018, p.106]

A deconstruction of heartbreak pulling out all the emotional cogs and catches with the precision of a watchmaker. [Dec 2018, p.110]

Saturn isn't afraid to show her playful side. [Dec 2018, p.105]

A curio, for sure, but worth saddling up for. [Dec 2018, p.114]