It's all wonderfully executed. [Sep 2017, p.116]

In cinematic terms, not a bomb. But not a blockbuster, either. [Sep 2017, p.116]

It might just be Everything Everything's most human record to date. [Sep 2017, p.107]

There's beauty amid the sonic desolation. [Sep 2017, p.116]

This one's a colorful addition to Smith's rambling canon. [Sep 2017, p.109]

Personal but detached, fizzling but restrained, it's indie-pop with a brain and a soul. [Sep 2017, p.110]

There's neither a wasted note nor wasted word. [Sep 2017, p.110]

It's 10 tracks are produced by veteran Chicagoan No ID, who provides a consistently soulful feel for the rapper's reflection on family, fatherhood and fidelity. [Sep 2017, p.110]

A more than a welcome return, Painted Ruins is the album you suspect Grizzly Bear didn't think they'd ever make. [Sep 2017, p.111]

There are echoes of Bibio's pastoral folktronica woven throughout. [Sep 2017, p.110]

The band's simmering anger are leavened by a sophisticated musical backdrop utilising brass and keyboards. [Sep 2017, p.109]

The War On Drugs might never quite find what they're looking for but with a record as gloriously realised as A Deeper Understanding, it feels like they're getting closer every day. [Sep 2017, p.104]

These are deftly executed songs that regularly throw out unexpected curveballs within their Gorky's Zygotic Mynci-like bounce. [Sep 2017, p.109]

Sweet Sweet Silent is hardly the most strident listen, but it's not without grit. The choruses are understated but addictive and the fragile intricacies are beguiling. [Sep 2017, p.115]

[Randy Newman returns] to what he does best: write and sing songs that veer from wild sentimentality to ambiguity to deep cynicism. [Sep 2017, p.113]

This seems just to mean lots of beeps and bloops and using a theremin, rather than any structural inventiveness or lyrical avant-gardisms. Still, he's conjured a neat package of 10 perfectly listenable songs. [Sep 2017, p.106]

Their prog-packaged second LP, split between six duo tracks and nine augmented by stellar sax, trumpet, harp, tabla and drums maestri, will indeed unite you with the cosmos but you can't help moving to the groove too. [Sep 2017, p.106]

Stein sounds like she's coming of age on this album, addressing both her past and future, and mostly liking what she sees. [Aug 2017, p.112]

It's the cat-on-an-electric-hot-tin-roof cartoonery that makes Perrey such a joy. [Aug 2017, p.110]

As twinkly-toed as debuts come. [Aug 2017, p.109]

Eucalyptus is a carefully constructed illusion of random perceptions, an apparently scattered psyche coming together beautifully. [Aug 2017, p.102]

The poolside psychedelia of Space Static Lover is a sparkling highlight; how much of the rest appeals hinges on your tolerance for ruthless pop efficiency. [Aug 2017, p.103]

Everything Now offers an underwhelming kind of overload: too much, but still not quite enough. [Aug 2017, p.113]

This irresistibly funky makeover feels like the emergence of a major new talent. [Aug 2017, p.108]

A sweetly gloomy affair mostly for guitars and voice. [Aug 2017, p.105]

It sometimes sounds like it was prodded out on a tablet. At other times, the production and the plus-sized pop tunes are perfectly matched. It's an ongoing struggle between DIY and deluxe, with the latter just about winning. [Aug 2017, p.109]

As befits a title meaning "peaceful," Eirenic Life is background balm for modern life. [Aug 2017, p.109]

Steadman sounds totally at home. [Aug 2017, p.109]