It's a metaphor for absence, loneliness and disconnection, which Harding explores via eleven songs whose retro soul feel is enhanced by Steve Hackman's lavishly elegant string arrangements. [Oct 2025, p.131]

The overarching sentiment of the album - that development isn't linear, and healing is often cyclical. [Oct 2025, p.130]

The Beaches get their points across by grafting moody alt-rock textures - looking at you, The Smiths-esque Dirty Laundry and Cure-reminiscent Sorry For Your Loss - with explosive chorus hooks. [Oct 2025, p.130]

To the end, Saint Etienne have never faltered on their mission statement. Magic is here. Believe. [Sep 2025, p.103]

Los Angeles and Double Infinity evoke the stream of consciousness brilliance of R.E.M.'s E-Bow The Letter, while Happy With You finds blissed-out rapture in repetition, All Night All Day is the lusty country song of the year and No Fear achieved Zen enlightenment in dub. [Sep 2025, p.103]

Improbably, they've pulled off the rarest of feats: a middle-aged rock band who remain interesting and invigorated, going from strength to strength. [Sep 2025, p.101]

As with previous albums, the musicianship is impeccable, but Cooper's vocals often fell too polite, the guitars bloodless. [Sep 2025, p.105]

A little more variety in tone would allow the album's heavier tracks to hit harder, but if it's high-quality heavy rock you're after, Beth has delivered it consistently. [Sep 2025, p.103]

The Irish singer's third album smartly juxtaposes the traditional and the modern. [Sep 2025, p.103]

Give or take a couple diversions (Bad Call, Legalize Living) into stomping 70s glam, the Swedes deliver the usual hi-jinks with the remorselessness of an overwound clockwork toy. [Sep 2025, p.103]

A record which explodes Yorkston's typically understated, open-hearted songwriting with a fierce emotional interplay between the three voices at work here. [Sep 2025, p.105]

What’s most remarkable about Revival revisited is perhaps not the attention to detail of the arrangements, nor the determination to recapture every last fuzz, thrum, reverb and flourish heard on the first studio versions. Anyone listening to Fogerty’s testifying rasps on Have You Ever Seen The Rain? or Bad Moon Rising 50-plus years ago, might have expected him to have roared himself mute by now. But no, the power and presence of the voice haven’t weakened in the slightest. [Sep 2025, p.104]

The melodies may be a little more complex, but only rarely does Guitar sound as beguiling as 2023's Five Easy Hot Dogs. [Sep 2025, p.103]

An album of layered, witty and fully felt elisions. [Sep 2025, p.105]

These reinventions work best when Campbell's invention pushes Allison's gorgeous voice to the fore. [Sep 2025, p.103]

It sounds immaculately like now and yesterday all at once. [Aug 2025, p.103]

While the subject matter is never less than serious, Carving The Stone can be commended for its boldness in addressing it without losing sensitivity, conveyed through Balfe's skillful lyricism. [Sep 2025, p.103]

Her eighth and arguably most satisfying musical adventure to date. [Sep 2025, p.92]

On early takes of I'm Not In Love (slathered in squelch) and Found A Job (crowded with delay effects) you hear how judicious restraint and the fastidious dispositions of all involved would make the final songs, like the words Byrne brings to them, seem somehow both precise and spontaneous at the same time. [Sep 2025, p.95]

Much of it goes beyond kitsch. With a favourable wind and a Rushent, Horn or Moroder at hand, some of these guys (it mostly is guys) could have made it. [Sep 2025, p.98]

A worthy addition to the Kuti legacy. [Sep 2025, p.104]

Although a couple songs don't fully capture Neale's compositional skills, the closing track There From Here is a tremendous highlight. [Sep 2025, p.105]

Panic Shack are the antidote to sad-sack girl singers: they make being a young woman sound absolutely brilliant. [Sep 2025, p.105[

It's a gorgeous, reflective, surprising listen. [Sep 2025, p.105]

Perhaps surprising in its straightforwardness, although the sound of him warbling and MCing through swatches of distortions all over these more amenable tracks was always likely to be incomparable. [Sep 2025, p.105]

A sublime soundtrack for summer nights. [Sep 2025, p.104]

The title track is suitably dreamy and orchestrated and Ghost Of You has a hint of 70s John Cale in its enjoyably opulent chord sequences. There's still room for a little Welsh. [Sep 2025, p.103]

Yep, that good. It's obvious we're in the presence of greatness, and the rest of the album doesn't disappoint. [Sep 2025, p.103]

It all makes for a mouth-watering amalgam of rock, country and soul that gets richer with every listen. [Sep 2025, p.103]

An abundance of never previously heard material casts fresh light on these initial efforts, revealing ideas and arrangements in gestation as Drake experiments with tempo shifts and subtle melodic variations. .... This wonderful compendium is akin to eavesdropping on that magic being born. [Jul 2025, p.97]

The result is an often joyously multi-hued meeting of minds, mixing the duo’s initial no-nonsense nods to The Troggs/Stooges with glitter-band swagger, splashes of psychedelia and the subconscious eruptions of Haines’ ingenious lyrics. [Jul 2025, p.100]

The Manticore Tapes is a fascinating insight into the early days of the band. [Aug 2025, p.96]

Throughout, this is the sound of the Alice Cooper band playing with revitalised vigour and tangibly loving soul, riven with the unexpected “left turns” Alice credits to Dunaway and Smith. .... The Alice Cooper band and Ezrin have produced 2025’s most faith-restoring rock’n’roll set, that does their fallen comrade proud. [Aug 2025, p.100]

A compelling snapshot of the group in their infancy, but already on their way to being fully formed, it captures then in a joyous mood. [Aug 2025, p.94]

There's a lot to digest here. .... Tracks II is a formidable testament. [Aug 2025, p.97]

Barnes and a cast of collaborators rebuild tracks powerfully and atmospherically using free jazz, hip hop, drone, acid funk, breakbeat and ghetto house, Barnes using a mix of rapping, sprechgesang and soulful falsetto, to create a powerfully atmospheric album. [Aug 2025, p.103]

This uniquely personal set will resonate with the wide fanbase she's gathered. [Aug 2025, p.103]

It's strictly old-school, in a good way. .... Streisand still sings like a dream. [Aug 2025, p.102]

An album that shows humour and fortitude in the devastating loss of innocence. [Aug 2025, p.103]

While the album (understandably) feels fragile in spots - Furman's falsetto vocals in particular exude sensitivity - Goodbye Small head bolsters its serious subject matter with sturdy, gorgeous musical statements. [Aug 2025, p.103]

Focusing at times on loss and life's cruelty, the tone is often sombre though always dignified. [Aug 2025, p.103]

Never less than compelling, it confirms im as one of hip hop's most compelling stylists. [Aug 2025, p.105]

2t2 is divided between rhythmic and meditative material, and it is never less than enthralling. [Aug 2025, p.105]

With its strings, horns and woodwind corralled into transformative shapes by Brit orchestrator Chad Kelly, the result leaves behind its predecessor’s heads-down retro-rock for a more expansive, if introspective offering. [Aug 2025, p.104]

Moisturizer is a strong stab at something else: permanence. [Aug 2025, p.104]

A joyous release that's as eclectic as the vinyl selections in a first-rate junkshop, anchored by long serving ex-R.E.M. sideman McCaughey's exuberant yelp. [Aug 2025, p.105]

Musically, it is akin to a stack of chairs balanced precariously on a tightrope. [Aug 2025, p.105]

With diss track No Fruit as a droll closing note, the result is a seductively shape-shifting affair: sometimes affecting, sometimes witty, always captivating. [Aug 2025, p.105]

The result is where the primordial meets the cutting edge. [Jul 2025, p.105]

Swallow unfurls as an impressively sculpted soundtrack for dystopias real and imagined. [Jul 2025, p.105]

The result is her finest work yet. [Jul 2025, p.103]

The ballads are less effective at keeping Thomson's troubles on track, with six-minute closer Go All The Way lacking a hook to justify its dramatics. But it's easy to root for a band plainly so committed to aiming for grandeur. [Jul 2025, p.103]

Where they step into new territory is with Skin's restrained vocals and more electronic elements: whether you enjoy the ethereal synth of Shame and This Is Not Your Life will depend on your taste for stripped down beats and dark textures. [Jul 2025, p.105]

Eclectic in all the best ways. [Jul 2025, p.105]

Throughout, Shura blends acoustic guitar with melancholy synthesisers as beautifully as she blends her vocal harmonies, which, along with a sprinkling of woodwind and funk bass, come together in muted catharsis. [Jul 2025, p.105]

Gorgeous. [Jul 2025, p.104]

Everything is dispatched in pristine FM rock production that could use a little more light and shade. [Jul 2025, p.104]

With less musical improvisation - though the impenetrable lyrics are invariably off-hand - but boasting more cohesion, its sonic expansion makes for a fuller record. [Jul 2025, p.103]

[The] third album's title is a funfair metaphor for life - sometimes scary, sometimes cathartic. The record stands firm in between. [Jul 2025, p.103]

Big names bookend this collection, courtesy of Johnny Cash's stately narrative on Johnny 99 and Steve Earle's pleading State Trooper (both songs originating from Bruce's Nebraska album), but the remaining 18 tracks are a mixed bunch. [Jul 2025, p.99]

It's as widescreen as anything he's ever done. He's back. [Jun 2025, p.105]

The mid-tempo results and on-the-nose lyrics can wear thin over 15 tracks, but Haim's melodic ease provides fitful featherweight uplift. [Jul 2025, p.104]

Where Rubin as co-producer, threaded some cohesion through the playful instrumental idiosyncrasies of Yiung and his long-running cohorts, Talkin To The Trees is, like the idea of a "chrome heart" itself, an uneasy hybrid. [Jul 2025, p.104]

Stupendous stuff. [Jun 2025, p.104]

Simz takes on several different genres, handling punk, samba and soul. The atmosphere is dark at times, but emotional honesty is always the priority: whatever style Simz tackles, she delivers it with impressive commitment. [Jun 2025, p.103]

As ever, a feeling abides of Cocker looking around him at the stuff of life – parenthood, divorce, marriage, loss, religion, class – and turning it into relatable and (yep) grown-up pop music. [Jun 2025, p.100]

Get Sunk is a return to the energy of early National. The driving, New Order-indebted single Bonnet Of Pins is a case in point, all vivid and surreal wordplay delivered deadpan till pent-up frustrations burst through. [Jun 2025, p.103]

These 10 tracks will undoubtedly please longterm fans, even if there's little here that doesn't revisit already well-trodden ground. [Jun 2025, p.103]

MAD! is ‘just another’ adroit, bold, clever, distinctive, epigrammatic, fascinating, groundbreaking, highbrow, inventive, jocund, kaleidoscopic, lowbrow, maverick, nonconformist, observational, piquant, quizzical, ravishing, smart, tough, unconventional, versatile, witty, xenodochial, youthful, zeitgeisty Sparks album. [Jun 25, p.102]

Five albums in, These New Puritans are still finding new ways to startle and surprise. [Jun 2025, p.104]

While the lyrics are typically sharp, reflecting righteously on "Systemic Extortion", the parlous state of truth and more, the music unspools along almost cosily familiar tracks. [Jun 2025, p.105]

It's an album which rewards repeat visits, and whose creator sounds more vibrant than a man of his noble vintage has any right to do. [Jun 2025, p.104]

There's delicacy, not least on the softly breathless title track, but sometimes much more... Witch, with thumping drumbeat, turns things up a notch, and by the time we get to Rats we have full-blown rock. [Jun 2025, p.105]

It becomes quickly apparent that Weirdo is a more personal record - gut-punchingly so, at times - but for all the pain that inspired it, it feels like a celebration too. [Jun 2025, p.105]

Returning to their core of stupid fun. [Jun 2025, p.105]

The album presents a dynamic artistry, full of ideas and emotional power. [Jun 2025, p.105]

The abstract industrial textures complement tastefully and spookily rather than overwhelm in confrontational fashion. [Jun 2025, p.103]

The result is a record of ever-changing moods, navigated with lush detail, care and subtlety. [Jun 2025, p.103]

Iris Silver Mist gently wafts through the metal space of a listener. [Jun 2025, p.103]

Theis ruminative reminder that at their core they're equal parts inspired by Cohen and Bowie is a shrewd, often stirring step. [Jun 2025, p.103]

There's no slouches on this exquisite release. [Jun 2025, p.105]

These are new songs sung in a familiar voice. [May 2025, p.103]

Starts out as you might expect from an electronic album made by Yorke mid-pandemic: a sort of cold, edgy, distant electronica for a cold, edgy, distant world. .... But in-between, the album takes some unexpected turns. .... An album that resonates in uncertain times. [May 2025, p.104]

Everything works. .... Genius. [May 2025, p.105]

Despite the turbulent emotions of the lyrics, Teitelbaum keeps her sound tight and focused - giving the album enormous impact. [May 2025, p.103]

Theirs is a sometimes hazy, sometimes pristine blend of guitars and harmonies which respects the succour of story-telling and implies empowerment without heavy-handedness. [May 2025, p.105]

A suavely stirring reboot, thanks largely to a flair for cinematic style and melody. [Apr 2025, p.103]

While there are thematic similarities, There Is No Space For Us is sharper and more urgent than last year’s jazzy Stories From Time And Space. It has fewer songs. Half of these last around eight minutes, with multilayered instruments and effects galore, so nobody will feel shortchanged [May 2025, p.100]

The apple doesn't fall far, as they say, and a 62-year-old Femi is still raging against the system on Journey Through Life. [Apr 2025, p.102]

Don't let the bubblegum lightness obscure her visionary talent. [May 2025, p.105]

Deerhoof's revolutionary rumpus feels like a beacon of open-minded light for dark times. [may 2025, p.103]

A bit more variation to the glistening soundscapes would have been welcome, as each track sounds rather like the others, but the core sound is a sweet one. [May 2025, p.103]

Anxious shows she had a genuinely effervescent talent, [May 2025, p.105]

Is often highly demanding yet repays the listener's commitment, revealing some fascinating, imaginative ideas. [May 2025, p.105]

Death Hilarious rattles through dizzying space-thrash, slow-riffin' stoner rock and Motorhead gone cosmic glam, with extended passages that defy the tag of "post-metal" because they're far too FUN. [May 2025, p.105]

Production from The War On Drugs' Adam Granduciel an layered, liquid backing from his bandmates makes the record soar and swoon, delivering the cracked grandeur these songs for the "overwhelmed and overtired" demand. [May 2025, p.105]

Loose Talk is a tightly crafted exploration of live unmoored. [May 2025, p.104]

The Darkness are big. It's rock that got small. [May 2025, p.103]