A great record that proves her writing remains as vital as ever.

At their best when the music fires along to match Chubb's lyrical catharsis, Sprints occasionally falter when the pace drops: even Chubb sounds anonymous among Literary Mind's more considered atmospherics, while Shadow Of A Doubt promises to build to a crescendo that never quite arrives. [Jan 2024, p.101]

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

While his fourth record is still a thing of beauty, it’s a fractal work that splinters off into bursts of grandiose noise and multi-layered, multi-instrumental wonder; you’d describe it as comfortably at the opposite end of the musical spectrum to early songs like Lookout, Lookout and No Tear.

Cacti might show Maries in survival mode, but revealing vulnerability has seen her songwriting soften and come into its own.

It’s an absorbing mix of spooky comedown synthtronics, night-time traffic ambience, electro glitches and animals scratching at the door, over which Hval sings, whispers, talks and pants her feelings and philosophies.

In the Shadow Kingdom, the smooth seduction of I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight comes out downright lusty, while the jinking melody of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue ebbs and flows here, seemingly dragged by swollen waves of sound. Some lyrics are subtly changed, others are turned on their head – the devotional To Be Alone With You transformed into something dangerous and desperate (“What happened to me darling, what was it you saw, did I kill somebody, did I escape the law?”).

Different Every Time joins the dots between those songs (the questing, experimental Moon In June and wise, heartbreaking Just As You Are) to stunning effect on Disc One, while a second CD collates some of the wildly sociable Wyatt’s best extra-curricular work.

It’s disjointed--clumsy, even--with only glimmers of consistency, but the hardcore will appreciate that this is the way the band works: nothing comes easy and rewards are hard-won. Those listening out for singalongs, heartbreak and any solidity are better directed to the best of.

Western Stars is Springsteen at his most novelistic, scratching out pocket portraits that owe as much to the printed word of John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver or even Jack Kerouac as they do a lineage that would boast weather-beaten troubadours like Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb, or his younger self.

It’s a lot to take in, and fresh corridors reveal themselves with each listen; it’s questionable whether they lead to any answers, and Fay would be the last person to claim they do, but it’s an intriguing exploration every step of the way.

There’s not a weak moment in these 11 songs.

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

With themes of adult responsibility and parenthood bearing heavily on his mind, it might sound solemn in places, but it’s a hugely rewarding listen, a baroque-folk companion to the gorgeous undulating mysteries of Rock Bottom.

While producer Tucker Martine provides inspired, inventive backdrops, Blau’s powers of interpretation make these familiar songs (To Love Somebody, No Regrets etc), very much his own; an unexpected marvel.

Despite the general autumnal mood, the easy-going charm of Oval is worlds away from Almond’s rumbling menace. It’s all compelling enough to keep drawing listeners back for the next 14 years. Magnificent.

Halo is the sound of a mischievous, philosophical soul in full swing. An idiosyncratic joy.

They took their sweet time, but that Breeders line-up is back, and has just nonchalantly knocked it out of the park.

Among the highlights, Taking Out The Trash's dissonant, Herbie Hancock-esque electronics are grounded by punk funk basslines; Stepping In/The Loop's repetitive, guitar-and-synthesizer rhythms prove giddily hypnotic while the shimmering Brood Board SHROOOM embraces celestial strains of ambient jazz. [Dec 2025, p.103]

This album is a spirited, catchy, poignant return, yet it’s also the most affecting record about grief since Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree.

The charm of Thanks For The Dance can be found in the tidemark between the lapping waves of Cohen’s poetic self-effacement and the shoreline of our appreciation for his lyrical accomplishments.

Singer and band are in perfect synch throughout, the benefits of a lengthy and approaching telepathic relationship obvious for all to hear.

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

Drunk and Sick Of Dreaming carry over Surrender's sophisticated playlist-friendly infectiousness, with Never Going Home's pared-back Nashville mood still as accomplished as it is catchy. [May 2024, p.105]

Crosby’s voice takes you flying back down the decades yet without ever longing for past glories.

Hen Ogledd make music on their fifth album which feels rooted in something more timeless than simple pop. [Feb 2026, p.101]

More rewarding re-evaluation than celebration for long-termers, it all provides a mightily attractive artefact for Stones diehards.

Another step forward from a rare talent. [May 2025, p.102]

The result is Case's finest yet: a record of fire, felling and finely detailed distinction. [Oct 2025, p.132]

For the most part, the Cash sessions are a fun listen you might not return to often, their voices too far apart to really work, despite the obvious kinship. Still, it’s fascinating hearing Dylan as the junior partner – Cash seems much more on the ball – and previously-unbootlegged treats like Bob running through Wanted Man and the Staples’ Amen.

Every track pulses with a live feel, but they’re all underpinned with the best elements of house, live jazz and even ambient music.

Despite the great weight of hype, Tame Impala have evolved into a satisfyingly altered form, both alien and humming.

The rockier songs have a vague whiff of Faith No More’s deepest cuts, or even the lurching noir-rock of Tomahawk. ... On the poppier moments he flaunts his range more confidently than ever. There’s a lot to take in. ... Few bands remain so interesting for so long. The adventure continues.

Bouyed by Reid’s honeyed vocals and Sam Taylor’s chiming guitar, the likes of Richard and Come Home To You may be two of Preservation’s more traditional tunes but are of a simply breathtaking level for such a new talent.

The country accompaniments are elegant and often subtle, yet never dreary. [Jan 2025, p.102]

Suddenly is at its best when blending head, heart and feet to make another smart party album – among Caribou’s best yet.

While MVOTC doesn’t represent a seismic leap from their earlier material, the general feeling is of a much more considered collection, with greater emphasis on song craft.

Generous and unguarded, Twilight Override contains multitudes. [Oct 2025, p.133]

The band’s signature slow riffs and brutal, unison forces are all present, while it’s between these chord changes that the interplay of feedback, overtones, drones and whistles play, against and with, in and out of the bludgeoning drive of the enormous, portentous menhirs of minor melody.

A deft, balanced and measured record.

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

What continues to both disarm and comfort about Williams as she glides into her late 60s on the crest of an extraordinary career now entering its fourth decade, is how adept she remains at shifting mood, tone, emotion and musical palette at the drop of a plectrum

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]

Tracks such as Psychedelic Orgasm and It’s Dark Inside embody the claustrophobic and saturnine atmosphere on what is essentially an underground hip-hop record made by an inveterate envelope-pushing postmodernist.

Segall is all over the place across these 19 tracks which are too much to absorb in one sitting, if ever. Most of his carefree pastiches, bonhomie homages and sloppy costume-party shenanigans merely induce a craving for the long-awaited studio comeback of the mighty Ween.

Simpson’s gentle deliveries benefit from his wealth of experience and mature understanding of the work, making for a richness that imbues all the songs--never more so than on Come Down Jehovah.

It’s not all doom and gloom--though it is mostly chopped-and-twisted electro paranoia.

While his guitar-playing remains robust and his vocal range undiminished, it’s the characteristically immersed, impassioned songwriting that most vividly illustrates his ongoing vigour.

Hacke and Picciotto narrate with unwholesome relish.

Not only a remarkable return, but also a songwriting master-class that will hopefully see BC Camplight embark upon a second act worthy of his talents.

It doesn’t feel like completely new territory, but it certainly resonates.

It isn’t completely nonny-less, but it’s folk more in the tradition of Topic’s Voice Of The People series of pub-sourced field recordings than in the tradition of Orwell’s sandal-wearing, fruit-drinking nudists.

Richly garnished by fiddles, bottleneck and accordion, the rejuvenated Slim Chance may conjure echoes of Lane’s The Passing Show, but ultimately seem to be emerging with a rough-shod, rollicking sound of their own. On this form, they can be sure their old mate would be leaning at the bar, nodding approval.

Baird has created an album that moves flawlessly from ruby to flint to kaleidoscope without breaking.

On an initial spin, the listener likely won’t understand Juarez’s cult appeal or indeed Allen’s own obsession. However, as superbly documented by the excellent liner notes and art prints (reproducing the 1974 lithographs that accompanied the album’s initial 50-run release), repeated listens will quickly have Juarez clawing at the brain and the heart.

Bismillah and Karam add gentle layers of spiritual jazz and afrobeat to the mix. Best though are the tracks which plot a less quiet path; Indefinite Leave To Remain begins with intermittent, raindrop-like piano flourishes over recorded vocal snatches before guitar and drums build into a monsoon-like barrage.

Clean, sophisticated and with nary a bushy beard in sight, it turns raditional ballads into something that could be chart-friendly today, sitting them alongside a couple of self-penned numbers.

Become Zero is an affecting and profound work that inspires great empathy.

A Common Truth is mountainous and haunting, yet also exhibits a certain vulnerability.

Easy Machines allows Baird’s vocals to shine, a hushed album, possibly the more introspective.

Showcasing her delicate vocals over a smorgasbord of kosmic soundz, it’s a surprisingly coherent affair.

Ridiculous and ridiculously thrilling, Super Natural reasserts Jones’ mission with riotous fervour.

On the whole, I Romanticize is both a simple update of Evans’ versatile songwriting abilities, as well as a grand introduction to his music for newcomers.

Listen with dad for maximum uneasy, immersive and moving effect.

Divorced from the times, though, it’s always the torpedo-damning oddballs who really stand out in any self-respecting compilation and here C88 comes up trumps in digging out Scottish proto-shoegazers Prayers’ gritty Sister Goodbye and cranky Mancunians King Of The Slums’ (literally) bile-soaked The Pennine Spitter.

Part of Death's triumph is its unadornment, which allows the songs to glimmer as rough diamonds.

The nascent stirrings of Japan’s independent music scene can be divined here; the first comp to offer a detailed overview of the country’s fertile early 70s folk and rock movement.

From The Trees is simple and unadorned, with generous ladling of his legendarily wayward backing vocals. Skeletal, appealing melodies support tales of inertia (“Torpor rolls upon me in a fog, settles like a sweat upon the skin”), lost love (Girl To The North Country’s “just like that, she’s gone”) and the wane into old age (“only yesterday you were pegging out your tent”).

What strikes you as the cast of thousands run through the Guthrie repertoire on these three discs is just how singable they were--Woody played fast and loose with his melodies, but his words still score and sear.

Four Stones is not quite as immediate as his previous collection, but McPhee’s work is remarkably underrated and all well worth hearing.

From the heartfelt rhumba of I Don’t Wanna Be Without You and the title track – the perfect showstopper for the Harlem Square Club crowd--to Blisters, a captivating shuffle, and How Long, a going back to church blues, every song’s a winner.

A thoughtful and subtle gem.

The King Crimson archive is a thing of genuine wonder: it feels as though there isn’t a single picosecond of their career that hasn’t been somehow preserved, and the meticulous largesse with which this archival cache is curated and packaged sets an intimidating benchmark.

The live In Concert/MTV Plugged may lack the obvious, rambunctious energy of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live/1975-85 and only (subdued) E Street favourites Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Thunder Road feature in the set, but the cheeky obscurity Red Headed Woman and an electric Atlantic City (from Nebraska) still capture Bruce’s magnetism as a performer. ... The remastered LPs sound pristine. ... It makes for a pretty boss bundle.

Like the skull ring and handcuffs on the sleeve, some things never change and, with its seductive bite and defiant energy, Talk Is Cheap is still a compelling centrifugal presence amid the bells and whistles. It remains the best Stones-related solo album.

Love Will Find A Way is very special: an ego-free celebration of the tune, the big-name guests all working with Bailey to realise his vision.

They may have been the unwilling faces of a barely-there movement, but De La Soul planted the seeds of something beautiful. Collections like this allow us to reap the rewards.

It’s hands down the band’s most powerful and compelling musical statement to date; a vivid snapshot of an important inflection point in their career trajectory.

A take on the Star-Spangled Banner provides a waymarker here, but its playful cadence offers little warning of the unholy commotion to come.

The result is a beguilingly inquisitive album, its meanings and methods nurtured into rich, sun-blushed blooms.

It's a sleek, hypnotically danceable collection of nicely-crafted tunes; a pan-Afro-pean pop record undercut with electronic ingenuity. [Apr 2024, p.102]

This both feels and swings. [May 2024, p.105]

It's mostly what could be called ballads, although with the mesmerising pop edge of something from the late 50s, all tinkling guitar and bobbling bass. [Jun 2024, p.101]

A few more typically sparse arrangement - as on What's Left To Lose, a standout that fades too early - might have leavened things. But long-time fans will not be disappointed. [Jun 2024, p.103]

The odd, bleeping internal monologue My Name Is Duglas (Don't Listen To What They Say) aside, it's classic Bandit country. [May 2024, p.102]

The second disc hosts material that deemed "mellower". All that means is it's slower in tempo than the earlier tracks and still heavy as fuu-ck. [Jul 24, p.105]

The intimate piano ballad Poor Symmetry, indie-pop of Sign Of A Past Life and the anthemic Wild Geese, Wild Love (think Cat Power fronting War On Drugs) emphasise her versatility. [Aug 2024, p.103]

The torch chanteuse of yore is still much in evidence, but with some pleasing detours into more varied terrain. [Aug 2024, p.105]

This is Amy's album, wild, sometimes snarling songs that, with a twinkle in the eye, namecheck everyone from Warren Beatty to Marianne Faithfull to Hannibal Lecter. .... Very enjoyable. [Sep 2024, p.133]

None of the dozen track outstay their welcome and it's nice to hear Lower putting smiles on faces again instead of pondering life's woes. [Oct 2024, p.103]

Reminiscent of Fela's work at its best. [Nov 2024, p.100]

The album's highlights range from toe-tapping big band swingers (Big John's Special) and serene Ballads (Tapestry For An Asteroid) to more Outre pieces like the epic Friendly Galaxy and the otherworldly Reflects Motion. [Jan 2025, p.92]

Moore's laconic vocal style serves every track well. [Jan 2025, p.104]

On Héritage, they go back to the source, and prove there’s plenty of life to be celebrated. [Jan 2025, p.105]

So full of moments of disarming beauty is Heard Noises that it’s often easy to miss the discomfiting observations within. .... Arguably his best album yet. [Jan 2025, p.102]

This is a dreamily delightful debut. [Mar 2025, p.105]

Upliftingly different. [Apr 2025, p.102]