This fine album is further evidence of the innovative artistry of contemporary folk-related performers. [May 2026, p.101]

Self-produced, the accompaniment is lush, woody, spatial, and rich in unexpected details. [Jun 2025, p. 101]

A savvy set oozing with all the assuredness and class one might suspect from a bunch of wisened sixty-somwting. [May 2026, p.102]

The texture of the more desolate songs, like Pegasi, the Americana-tinged Simon Says and the folky gospel of Songs Of Old is where the soul of the album seems to really reside, but when the two sides of Hoop’s talent come together, as on Unsaid, it has a magic all of its own.

It's a record built to last, from an artist both asserting his footing and opening himself wide, embracing the demands of changes big or small. [Dec 2024, p.106]

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

It’s an album blazing with a refulgent light that illuminates the darkness. Ultimately, it’s a cathartic celebration of life co-created by someone who’s survived a traumatic experience. More importantly, it shows how heartbreak, suffering and tragedy can be refashioned into transcendent art.

Live In Paris 2014 is a superb introduction for the uninitiated, as well as a welcome souvenir for the experienced. Warm, potent, invigorating and liberating--it’s difficult to imagine a better live band existing this side of the Sahara.

Dressed to impress. [Dec 2025, p.103]

Another career highpoint for Wagner and co.

Jammed out and demonstrating real chemistry, Time To Die is perhaps best appreciated as one piece of music and proves both atmospheric and immersive in the extreme. The band have lost none of their twisted genius in the four years since their last full-length.

Some will rhapsodise about the songs of angels, while others will feel that the most dangerous and angry superbug mutations are still found in the filthiest, most chaotic places.

It’s the longer pieces that really glisten, and they come in several forms. ... Moore’s band, it should be noted, sound increasingly powerful, growing ever groovier and more confident with each release. Their guitars may have unusual tunings, but the players are certainly in-tune with one another, mentally and musically speaking. In summary, cacophonies ahoy!

The musical palette has broadened, the lyrics sharpened. [Mar 2026, p.104]

At times it is bracing. .... But the piano ballads are often delightful. [Mar 2026, p.103]

Treated and more elaborately arranged vocals are the fore on Strawberry Hotel. [Dec 2024, p.109]

With style, charm and feeling, Lekman's lush valentines to love songs revel in all they survey. [Oct 2025, p.131]

Live At The Cellar door could have been a consolidation of the year’s achievements for Neil, instead it’s proof that he couldn’t stay still.

Arguably the darkest of the Merge albums thus far, Patch the Sky is a consuming album of blazing chords, heavenly melody and personal torment. No-one does intelligent, meaningful rock like Bob Mould.

It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but if you like your music to sound as if it could soundtrack a coming of age montage in a particularly gloomy John Hughes film, you found your gal.

Ultimately, Woods deserves the hype, though more consistency would deliver fully on her talent.

Melodically bewitching throughout, Nadler’s vocals are as nuanced and strong as Dunn’s production.

It’s a fabulous voyage that delights at every unexpected turn.

Their first live album captures Brownstein and her bandmates Corin Tucker, Janet Weiss and new touring member Katie Harkin ripping rapidly through a selection of their strongest material, the sabbatical years having drained none of their finesse or ferocity.

Home-recorded between 1989-90 at Jowe Head’s Stoke Newington flat, Beautiful Despair finds Head and TVPs mainstay Dan Treacy gamely working through a clutch of the latter’s prickly and pallid compositions.

This is very grown-up pop music; awash with the memorable hooks and lyrical dexterity we’d expect from Costello, with layer after layer of fascinating melodic conceits and themes.

There's promise here, but further Theroising might require firmer definition in practice. [Feb 2025, p.105]

The Navigator knows in which direction to head. Hurray indeed.