While some songs are slow-builds - though alt-ballad I get Lost is delicately untouched - the likes of God Of Everything Else and You Will Come Home take on an overwhelming intensity at a stroke. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Witty, wise and wonderful. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Bright, nimble and eager, Someday, Now is a shape-shifting treat. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Ruari Meehan's nuanced production provides for a far more immersive listen. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Although Key possesses some lovely moments - an intrigue-filled Fire, the gothic synth-pop of My Right A.R.M., a tender World Without End - many of these re-dos possess a curious lack of energy. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Vocalist Maria McKee's pure, twangy holler takes centre-stage on the early Lone Justice setlist staple Rattlesnake Mama and a Benmont Trench-led swing through MC5's Sister Anne. [Dec 2024, p.107]

Make It Fit is a worthy reunion record that extends Karate's legacy in all the right ways. [Dec 2024, p.107]

A perfect, if bittersweet, swansong. [Dec 2024, p.107]

The results exceed expectations. A feeling of spontaneity, bonhomie and effortless musicality informs every groove. [Dec 2024, p.107]

An album of fevered imagination and boundless musical daring. [Dec 2024, p.107]

Lyrics apart, the opening title track features lush orchestration and twinkling piano used to nice effect throughout. [Dec 2024, p.106]

The Canadian musician's addiction to discovering the new and unusual remains nothing less than compelling, although sometimes this results in truly great music (here that means Volume's dreamy house reinterpretation of MARRS' 1987 rave classic Pump Up The Volume, the albums standout) and other times the expansive sense of ambition doesn't achieve lift-off (such as Campfire's nebulous and hard to grasp electro-folk). [Dec 2024, p.106]

It's a beautiful album, finely written and exquisitely executed. [Dec 2024, p.106]

Oberst's lyrical palette bulges with literary references, Elon Musk critiques and confessional plaints, while spectral Chan Marshall duet All Threes hits a note of welcome restraint. [Dec 2024, p.106]

Although recorded with different producers in Mexico and Nashville, you can't hear the joins on Bridges' warm embraces. [Dec 2024, p.106]

An intimate, expansive take on Brit-folk influences, mapping unexpected detours before achieving a communal flush. [Dec 2024, p.106]

Amyl's best album yet is also their most varied, finding the messy dumb fun in a mad dangerous word. [Dec 2024, p.106]

It is sad and striking in beautiful waves. [Dec 2024, p.106]

Sun-dappled and introspective, O Avalanche is a delight. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Songs Of A Lost World is a straight-up, bona fide masterpiece. [Dec 2024, p.102]

In flickers of keenly inquisitive intelligence and lambent beauty, Patterns In Repeat puts any fears about parenthood and artistry softly yet surely to bed. [Nov 2024, p.98]

Ultimately, it's the live tracks fans are likely to return to most often, ranging from intimate solo simplicity to the ferocity of Crazy Horse in full gallop. [Nov 2024, p.95]

This is an album which doesn't reveal its secrets all at once, and instead invites you to spend time with it. [Nov 2024, p.101]

The fun again sometimes tips over into irritating self-indulgence. [Nov 2024, p.101]

This is soul-bearing at its most intriguing, the listener never quite sure of the root of the singer's malaise but nonetheless urging him to find his way to where he's going in one piece. [Nov 2024, p.101]

Bittersweet and heartfelt. [Nov 2024, p.101]

A magnificently moving elegy in musical form. [Nov 2024, p.101]

Amid choppy tales of panic attacks (En Forma) and break-ups (the Can't Stand Me Now-ish On My Own), Coffee's disarmingly breezy valentine to self-indulgence serves dreamy catharsis. [Nov 2024, p.100]