This sumptuous riddle of a record is a celebration of everything but normality. [Oct 2014, p.100]

Drizzles of acoustic guitar dilute any sense of experimentation, while the drab stadium indie of Vultures and Friend Of The Madness underlines the feeling that, underneath all the grand gestures, a very ordinary band is struggling to get out. [Sep 2014, p.113]

There's a real depth to an album that is brimming with inventive, clever hooks and individualism. [Oct 2014, p.114]

Variously heartrending and uplifting, Lateness OF Dancers is enriching stuff. [Oct 2014, p.110]

A happy return. [Oct 2014, p.103]

The dense plot might be confounding on first listen but the MC's high-speed interplay and Younge's cinematic arrangements, recorded entirely live and analogue, make for a breathlessly entertaining masterclass in classic hip-hop storytelling. [Oct 2014, p.121]

It's hard not to conclude that it's Rubin's strong tiller hand giving thee 13 songs new-found clarity, focus and energy that too often drifted away from the Stones in a cloud of patchouli when left alone. [Oct 2014, p.120]

Shaver's always been a tough guy making trouble on the edges of a Nashville that values slickness. [Oct 2014, p.119]

It's when Hutchison's sinister demeanor matches the darkness of the music that Owl John works best. [Oct 2014, p.116]

Mixing pleasingly unevolved Ramones-y bangarounds and more reflective punk-pop, the therapeutic lyrics teem with unidentified protagonists having or inflicting a hard time. [Oct 2014, p.115]

The aerated atmosphere might leave some feeling light-headed, but Thompson-Hannant's unfettered energy is infectious. [Oct 2014, p.115]

Go places they do, whether its Comin' On's sweetly dumb pop, the garage chug of Lose Myself In Sound or the dense yet loose Crazy Horse-style feedback and riffing of Crow and Dropper. [Oct 2014, p.112]

[Heaven's Ladder, performed by Beck is] so good, though, that it makes the rest of this complicated exercise seem like a waste of time. [Oct 2014, p.108]

On too much of The Physical World they sound like a pale imitation of themselves. [Oct 2014, p.108]

Adams is such a contrary character you daren't use the phrase "career comeback," but that's what this is. [Oct 2014, p.101]

Worth spending time with. [Jul 2014, p.110]

Though its concept may remain opaque, Carnival Of Souls compels. [Oct 2014, p.116]

A brilliant mix of pre-Wings-era oddball genius Macca-isms, the post-hippy blues of Tyrannosaurus Rex and some super-sticky '70s-scented gritty glitter-pop. [Oct 2014, p.110]

Ballet School update and enhance, rather than copy or clone their '80s forebears. [Oct 2014, p.103]

The elusive magic of their initial work seems further away than ever. [Oct 2014, p.108]

A beautifully moving, soul-stirring, bravely genre-blurring album. [Oct 2014, p.111]

Hardly groundbreaking, but there's heft, heart and humour here in spades. [Oct 2014, p.107]

The mood is largely one of milky wistfulness, but the clever textural detail means these songs are more than stylistic cloning. [Sep 2014, p.108]

His voice, permanently pitched just down from that half-shout Eminem reserves for songs about his mum. Without a fraction of that humour or rhythm, though, it sounds like a heckler at a council meeting. [Sep 2014, p.108]

It could all seem like an indulgence, an intimate late-night emotional overspill best kept at home, like crying in front of a mirror. It's testament to O's skills as both songwriter and performer that out in the open, Crush Songs still seems like an attractive prospect. [Oct 2014, p.102]

Goddess is a while world to get lost in and it looks like Banks is a star just waiting to happen. [Oct 2014, p.104]

Impassioned, thoughtful, chock-a-block with great tunes, this rich mix of vibrancy and gloom does what all great rock should--lift the spirits. [Oct 2014, p.107]

This is a very good album. The Kooks sound like a band rejuvenated. [Oct 2014, p.105]