They artfully balance soaring interference-cloaked anthems with dreamier My Bloody-style FX investigations. [Mar 2018, p.113]

This won't make them stars, but that's not the point: it's lovely and they should pursue further. [Mar 2018, p.113]

A ferociously Velvetsy turn from Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe on Istanbul IS Sleep only highlights how mind-blowing The Liminanas could be if they ventured further from the shadows. [Mar 2018, p.111]

Expanding your sound without losing your edge is a tough trick to pull off, but Hookworms manage it with inner space to spare. [Mar 2018, p.111]

Overall Open Here is joyful and reliably brilliant. [Mar 2018, p.108]

Eminem has never sounded more like a man out of time. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Where David sometimes fall short is on lyrical content. ... Such disposable fluff aside, David's triumphant return is otherwise still going strong here. [Mar 2018, p.107]

Overall Lionheart is an uneven listen, with some of the quieter songs blending a little too politely into the background. [Feb 2018, p.112]

The songs here are real beauties. [Jan 2018, p.110]

Impressive. ... The gravitational pull of easy-going '70s jazz-funk is felt throughout. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Listeners so far unhipped to the contemporary avant-classical may find themselves pleasantly intrigued. [Feb 2018, p.117]

Not so much a wholesale reinvention as an impressive readjustment. [Feb 2018, p.112]

Django Django have proved they can blur the boundaries: now they need definition. [Feb 2018, p.114]

Dream Wife draw on the politicised ire of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill while putting their own fun, frivolous spin on things. [Feb 2018, p.111]

This is their strong set of songs in years. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Hansard's elastic vocals hit all the right notes. Missing, however, is an earthiness that could take these polished songs to another level. [Feb 2018, p.111]

If her band's 28-minute-long debut album doesn't quite possess that same ferel delinquency [as the live shows], it still has teeth that bite. [Feb 2018, p.116]

Long-term aficionados will enjoy the sinuous throb of King Of Bones, while those thinking of rejoining the party, the expansive voodoo rattle of Haunt shows the band's mastery of (bad) mood has only matured with age. [Feb 2018, p.108]

The results are ferociously good. [Feb 2018, p.106]

Music that strives for knitted-brow intensity. [Jan 2018, p.110]

Throughout charming naivety rubs awkwardly against clumsy delivery. [Feb 2018, p.111]

Despite operating in the between-floors world of indie R&B, it connects both sonically and melodically and as such engages the listener rather than, as in the past, totally overwhelming them. [Feb 2018, p.116]

It's rarely an easy listen, but in among all the post-punk references lurks a soundtrack to 2018's looming global catastrophe that's urgent and compelling. [Feb 2018, p.113]

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

There's so much going on, why hold it back by singing from a half-hearted songsheet? [Feb 2018, p.111]

There's serious craftmanship here. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Curious fans of contemporary pop-house acts such as Disclosure might find the spartan style forbidding, but once Dunn hits his groove it's impossible not to feel the force. [Feb 2018, p.108]

Some of it is a bit too frenetic. But with Trouble On My Mind and All The Times You Prayed, The Staves' gorgeous harmonies shine out in a new setting. [Feb 2018, p.116]